PBA Galleries

Together three volumes. [iii]. xxvi, 320, 136; [iii], 312, 48, 112, 11; [viii], 223, 168 pp. Engraved frontispiece portrait in each work. (4to) uniformly bound in full calf, backstrips lettered and decorated in gilt, covers gilt-ruled, dentelles gilt-stamped in Greek key pattern, all edges marbled. Third Edition of 'Life'; first edition of 'Illustrations.'

Seemingly these are large-paper copies; certainly the margins are very substantial. William Roscoe (1753-1831) was a prosperous Liverpool attorney who was a keen student of the classics and of Italian history and literature, and who developed for many years his project of writing an account of the Renaissance in Italy as centered on the life and achievements of the Medici family in general and Lorenzo in particular. The work was highly successful and passed through several editions and translations. In 1822 Roscoe published the supplementary Illustrations. In large part to document his assertions and to refute critics of his insistence on the primary role of the Medicis. Two volumes with the engraved bookplates are of Henry Drury,  a teacher at Harrow -- where he instructed and befriended Lord Byron -- and later rector at Fingert. He was a noted book-collector, a close friend of Thomas Frognall Dibdin, and one of the founding members of the Roxburghe Club.