Britannia Antiqua Illustrata: or, the Antiquities of Ancient Britain, Derived from the Phoenicians: wherein the Original Trade of this Island is discovered ... by Aylett Sammes - 1676

London: Printed by Tho.Roycroft, for the Author, 1676 A fair copy of Aylett Sammes' attempt to trace British history back to the Phoenicians. In contemporary full calf binding with 24 in text engravings (not including vignettes on titles), but lacking the double page map of Europe. Sammes, circa 1636-79, provides a master class in taking a theory based on an aspect of language and fitting everything else into it. The book is notable for the engravings which provide memorable imagery with some, for example The Wicker Man, being much reproduced. The binding has raised bands and title label to spine and some blind stamped decoration to the boards. The spine has leather loss to the bottom section, and slightly to the top and there is splitting at the front joint and wear to the rear joint. The boards, bar some corner wear, are in very good condition. Internally, the front endpaper and any blanks are absent. Contents: rubricated title and prelims 10pp; text with in-text and full page engravings and decorative initial capitals 582 pp; index 5pp with blank verso to final leaf. Contents in fair to good condition overall. The title page has had reinforcement at the bottom with what looks like the selvedge edge of stamps (which have also been used to repair an edge tear at p212)! The ties for the map are still present at p16/17. The illustration at p 122 is oversize and p 121 has been reinforced at the edge and turned over to accommodate it. There are small edge tears with old repair at pp 159, 220, 525 and an unrepaired edge tear at p 31. There is a persistent stain the gutter and occasional light soot spotting in the gutter. P 117 is detaching from the base. There are some pagination errors but no loss of text : 216/7 reversed; 284-275-286; 362-364-364 - these have been corrected by hand. Small hole at p 397 affecting part of a word.