Itinerarium Septentrionale; Or, A Journey Thro' Most of the Counties of Scotland, and Those in the North of England, Alexander Gordon, 1726
A smart copy of this wonderful 18th Century folio-sized text - an antiquarian account of the archaeology of Scotland and northern England; a volume renowned for its wonderful copperplate illustrations - the title "Itinerarium Septentrionale", translating as 'The Northern Journey'. A rather splendid volume.
Itinerarium Septentrionale; Or, A Journey Thro' Most of the Counties of Scotland, and Those in the North of England, In Two Parts;
Part I: Containing an Account of all the Monuments of Roman Antiquity, found and collected on that journey...;
Part II: An Account of the Danish Invasions on Scotland, and of the Monuments erected there...;
The Whole Illustrated with Sixty-six Copper Plates. By Alexander Gordon, A.M.
Printed for the Author; and sold by G. Strahan, at the Golden-Ball in Cornhill; J. Woodman, in Russell Street, Covent Garden; W. and J. Innys, in St. Paul's Church-Yard; and T. Woodward, at the Half-Moon, near Temple-Bar (all in London). 1726 First Edition.
A very good copy of this early 18th Century volume, bound in its original full contemporary calf, in a classic 18th Century binding style. Covers with incised tooled decorations, and spine with raised bands, tooled gilt decoration and morocco title label. With wear and bumping commensurate with age. At head and tail of spine, cover boards starting at outer hinge, and endpapers starting to crack at gutter, but all still soundly bound.
First pastedown with some previous owner's marks, and bookplate headed 'Levenside'. Levenside was the name of a Scottish country estate, owned by William Cochrane, the First Earl of Dundonald, in the 17th Century, and succeeded by his sons. A Palladian mansion house was built there between 1700 and 1708. The estate became later known as 'Strathleven'. Neat marginal owner's annotations to p.137 and p.152.
Some light spotting to endpapers, but text pages are lovely and clean throughout. Some of the fold-outs do have some paper tears (easily repairable). Final 2 blank endpapers with some creasing, and a small 7mm by 3mm hole to the final blank endpaper. Occasional minor mark to paper, but a lovely copy of a fascinating book.
2 sheets blank free endpapers + (1pp) Title + (2pp) Author's Dedication + (4pp) List of Subscribers + (10pp) Preface + 11-168pp Main Text (with pasted-on errata to p168) + 169-187pp Appendix + p188 Advertisement + (4pp) Index + 2 sheets blank free endpapers.
All plus 67 Plates (Parts I and II are preceded with unnumbered fold-outs, and the following plates are numbered 1-65, although ordering appears somewhat erratic, but correct in the way they relate to the text. Numbering mainly in arabic numbers, plus occasional Roman numerals). Includes 11 fold-out Plates. All collated and complete (actually one more Plate than the stated 66 on the title page).
Dimensions:
361mm high x 236mm wide x 34mm deep (approx. 14" high x 9 1/4" wide).
Weight approximately 1.63kg.