Essayes.
Cornwallis, Sir William
London, 1600
 
First edition of Part One. 8vo. 120 x 66 mm. Woodcut device on title, typographic headpieces. Bound in full olive morocco by Mounteney, tooled in gilt, all edges gilt, in a custom half morocco case.  A gorgeous copy of a very rare book – including this one, only 4 unique copies appear in sales records.  Fine.
 
Part Two was released in 1601 – Essayes was possibly originally intended as one book rather than two individual parts.
 
This copy also possesses distinguished provenances.  Ex-Philip Bliss, Registrar of the University of Oxford from 1824 to 1853, whose books were sold in 1858.  Ex-William A. White, noted turn of the century collector of early English books.  Finally, Ex-Knohls with their bookplate from the Fox Pointe Manor collection.  Two contemporary names, “Matt Perin his Booke” and “Edwd Gower, Taunton” on the title-page. 
 
“This volume of essays is of more importance in the history of the English essay than its intrinsic literary worth would seem to justify…it introduces the personal reminiscence and self-revelation which later became so characteristic of the essay.”(Scribner)
 
“Like Montaigne’s, the essays of Cornwallis have the improvisatory, digressive, and eclectic character of the letter of private journal; they are by turns self-referential, confiding, and speculative in manner.  His subjects include such standard essay topics as love, ambition, praise, youth, fame, vanity, and fortune.”(Tudor England: An Encyclopedia)
 
A special copy of a landmark book - the manner in which we communicate our experiences via writing would forever be changed.
 
ESTC S108699