The English Parnassus: Or, a Help to English Poesie. Containing a Collection of all the Rhythming Monosyllables, the choicest Epithets and Phrases. With some General Forms upon all Occasions, Subjects, and Themes, Alphabetically digested
London: Henry Brome, Thomas Bassett, and John Wright, 1677. Very Good. Item #14829
London: Henry Brome, Thomas Bassett, and John Wright, 1677. Second Edition. Small octavo; contemporary gilt-tooled calf, elaborately gilt-tooled spine in six compartments, all edges stained red, supplied endpapers; [32],639,[1]pp.; A8 a8 B-2S8 (collated complete); engraved frontispiece printed on leaf [A1]. Boards sympathetically reattached though hairline crack along joints remain, extremities a bit scuffed and rather darkened, 20th-century bookseller description and attractive ownership ex libris to front pastedown, else a Very Good, attractive copy overall.
First published in 1657, Joshua Poole's Parnassus provided the young poet (a student, based on the charming frontispiece) with a thesaurus-like dictionary of poetic terms. Struggling to describe a pomegranate? Poole suggests "Delicious, vermilion, blushing, juicy, many-kernell'd." Of special interest are the manuscript additions made in an early hand.
The work is preceded by a useful "Alphabet of monosylables [sic]" and a list of "Books principally made use of in the compiling of this Work," though referring to "Comedies and Tragedies, Many," is rather vague.
[ESTC R18752; WING P2815].
Price: $950.00