The Description of Leicestershire, Containing Matters of Antiquitye, Historye, Armorye, and Genealogy

Cantabrigiae [Cambridge] : John White, 1622 A fair to good copy of the scarce 1st edition with map, in contemporary full leather binding. The binding has wear to spine joints, the top and bottom of the spine and edges, but is of good quality leather and would repair well. Page edges red. Internally there is an armorial bookplate of the Kinnaird family to the front pastedown and a signature of James West, clearly an early owner, on the fep.James has made some notes about the elections to Parliament for the County of Leicester in 1775. The fep has a tear at the top. With decorative title page (small repair to side margin); dedication 2pp; To the Reader 6pp; double page map; text pp 1-332; Catalogue 6pp; finis; table added in ms 3pp. The shields have been carefully coloured in (including one on the title page)- possibly by or for an early owner as there has been occasional offsetting from the colouring over time. There is also some scholarly annotation and an additional coat of arms has been added in the margin of p134. The pagination is awry at a couple of points and has been corrected by hand from p196-210 and from p219 -332. The book was clearly well-used as a reference work. There is some light staining affecting the top third of pages - noticeable at the beginning but not particularly later in the book. Please enquire if you would like to see additional images.