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Introduction by Thomas Frognall Dibdin. 14 pp. Plus 90 wood engraved plates after Hans Holbien the Younger by John and Mary Byfield, interleaved with letterpress text. (8vo) 19.5x12 cm (7¾x4¾") original red silk, spine lettered in gilt. Custom full red morocco solander case, spine lettered in gilt. One of 12 large paper copies printed in India paper. First Edition.

Rare large-paper copy of the first edition. Limited to 12 copies of which three are known today, including this copy. Jackson states 12 large-paper copies on india paper; published at one guinea. The Rylands copy is in calf-backed red silk. The Old Testament text accompanying each engraving is in five languages. The advertisement in Volume II of the Pickering Aldine Poets 1830, includes the note, ‘Dr. Dibdin has given five specimens of the wood cuts in his Bibliographical Decameron, Vol. I. 174-180, where will be found a copious account of this work.’ Windle and Pippin A50a. Jackson 73. Provenance: The Robert S. Pirie copy, with his bookplate and a note at the front that he also owned a copy of this title printed on vellum which was lost in the mail along with Dibdin's own copy of his "Lincoln Nosegay" catalog. The latter item resurfaced some 28 years later but the vellum copy of the present title has never been found.