Beschreibung:

Jonson (Ben) The Workes..., 3 vol., first collected edition, woodcut initials, marginal browning and occasional soiling throughout, vol 1. with engraved architectural title trimmed and laid down, lacking initial blank, 2S6 outer margin restored, worm hole at head from 3 A1 to end, becoming more pronounced but not affecting text, final f. creased, torn and laid down, occasional damp-staining to outer margin, vol.2 title browned with inner margin restored and skilfully mounted on stub, occasional ink notes in an early hand, light damp-staining to first 4 gatherings, short repaired tear to head of V4 - X3, Y4 with repaired tear running across top of text but without loss, marginal browning, modern antique-style panelled calf, new endpapers, [Pforzheimer 559 & 560; STC 14751 & 14754], folio, Will Stansby [and] RIchard Meighen, 1616-40. ⁂ The first edition of this notoriously bibliographically complex work, rare complete. Pforzheimer notes that "The bibliographic variations are bewildering and, although we have examined some twenty copies, all attempts to simplify them into categories have not materially reduced the confusion." Here vol.2 is bound in the order given on the title and vol.3 is bound in the following order: 1st section beginning with Christmas, his Masque, with The Under-Woods and Mortimer his Fall with separate title pages, followed by Horace, his Art of Poetrie, with The English Grammar and Timer: or, Discoveries with separate title pages, followed by The Magnetick Lady, with A Tale of Tub and The Sad Shepherd with separate title pages.