[Signed] [First Edition] Fabliaux Or Tales, Abridged From French Manuscripts Of The Xiith And Xiiith Centuries. Selected And Translated Into English

Two volume set. Bound in full leather with gilt lettering with marble endpapers. Printed by W. Bulmer and Co. Shakespeare Press, 1796 first UK edition. Both volumes with Ex libris plate of Cholmeley Brandsby. An early inscription in ink 'With Mr.G Ellis Compliments' Signed by English poet and antiquarian George Ellis (1753-1815). Pagination: Volume One : Title page, Sonnet to G.E.; xxxviii, 280 pages; Volume Two, dated 1800, 340 pages. Illustrated with wood engravings vignettes by Bewick and others. The books have been tastefully restored with new leather covers, the design reminiscent of the Arts and crafts period. The spine however is the original which has been carefully relaid on top. Retaining the original marble end papers. Although they are obviously a set of two the bindings are very slightly different. Volume Two is slightly wider, 5mm, than volume one; one volume has gilt fore-edges, the other marble; the boards, one volume has one band, another has two.Volume One is remarkably clean with just the odd brown mark, volume two is a little more spotted-see photographs. [They have been separated at some point in their history. But I managed to find the missing volume due to their distinctive bindings from another book seller] A very good clean nice set inscribed by George Ellis who helped with the publication of the work-see below]. A very nice set but quite heavy Size 23.5 x 17 x 6 cm [9.25 x 7 x 2.5 inches The book is a collection of twenty five tales from medieval French troubadours 'consequently anterior to our English historical ballads and metrical romances, of which they are probably the originals'. The publication's history was beset by difficulty; the translation was executed, as noted to the title of the second volume, by Gregory Lewis Way (1756-1799). However, he died before the publication of the second volume. It was therefore seen through the press, with an extensive introduction, notes and an appendix, by English poet and antiquarian George Ellis (1753-1815), better known for his later - and more successful - Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances (London, 1805). The work is better known, however, for its woodcut illustrations; it contains some of the final work of John Bewick (1760-1795), who was commissioned for the complete work, but died after cutting just 'four sets of head and tailpieces for volume one' (Tattersfield). The cutting work was completed by Charlton Nesbit in London, and in the workshop of his brother, Thomas - with four sets of head and tailpieces executed by his apprentice Luke Clennell. Bulmer's efforts were rewarded critically, if not commercially (although the work did reach a second edition, in three octavo volumes, in 1815). The British Critic, for example, noted on publication of the first volume, that 'The volume is beautiful in its form, as well as pleasing in its contents. The typography belongs to the first class of Bulmerian work, and the vignette ornaments are aptly formed on subjects relative to the history of chivalry, and executed on wood by the Bewicks, the younger of whom unfortunately died while this work was preparing for the press'. The Cholmeleys of Brandsby, Whitby Yorkshire, are descendants of Sir Richard Cholmeley of Roxby (c.1516-1583).