Heading:
Author: Johnson, Samuel, compiler
Title: A Selection from the Harleian Miscellany of Tracts, which Principally Regard the English History; of which Many are Referred to by Hume
Place Published: London
Publisher:C. & G. Kearsley
Date Published: 1793
Description:

vii, [1], 571, [1] pp. Extra-illustrated with the insertion of approximately 45 plates from various sources. (4to) 27.5x21.5 (11x8½"), old full green morocco, gilt borders, spine gilt, all edges gilt. Rebacked, with original spine leather laid down. First abridged edition.

About a decade before Samuel Johnson established his reputation with the 1755 publication of his Dictionary, he was employed by Thomas Osborne to help catalogue the library of Edward Harley, the second Earl of Oxford, creating the Harleian Miscellany, which collects many 17th & early 18th Century religious and political pamphlets found in the Harley library. Some fifty years later, this abridgement was published due to the "scarcity and high price" of the original.

Binding worn, hinges cracking; light foxing; very good.