The Ayenbite of Inwyt, written in the Dialect of the County of Kent, by Dan. Michel of Northgate, in the year 1340. Edited by the Rev. J. Stevenson

Printed for the Roxburghe Club, London, first edition, 1855. Small edition of 40 copies or so. Roxburghe maroon morocco spine and boards, title-page printed in red and black, additional engraved title-page, 27 cm,. [9], x-xii, [1], 2-211, [2], 214-215 pp. A scarce early Roxburghe Club book - Quaritch's 1880 catalogue states that 40 copies were printed, although that might be a slight underestimate as there were 39 members at the time according to the list in the book. The Preface explains that the work is an "adaptation, or perhaps rather a translation, from a French moral treatise which was composed in the year 1279, for the use of Philip the Second, King of France, by his confessor Frère Lorens, or, as he is styled in Latin, Laurentius Gallus, of the Order of the Friars Preachers. This French original occurs under a variety of designations. Its most correct title is ' Le Somme des vices et de vertues,'hut it Is sometimes styled ' Li libres roiaux de vices et de vcrtus ; 'some- times ' Le Miroir du mondo ; 'sometimes ' Le livre des Commandemens ; 'but more commonly ' La somme le roi.'.. The French work was exceedingly popular in France during the middle ages. A member's copy of the distinguished historian Henry Hallam (1777-1859), his name appearing in red and asterisked in the list of members. Covers rubbed and scuffed, worn at the head of the spine and with a little wear to extremities generally, mild foxing to prelims, otherwise a Good clean copy.