The Court Of Atalantis [sic]. by ANTHOLOGY - 1714

Containing A Four Years History of that Famous Island, Political and Gallant; Intermixt with Fables and Epistles In Verse and Prose. By several Hands. Printed and Sold by J. Roberts in Warwick-Lane, 1714.
Half-title not called for; Contents leaf at end; A4, B-I, K-U8, X4; pp.[2]+vi+310+[ii]; contempoary full sheep, spine with five raised bands, ruled gilt on sides, ruled and lettered gilt on spine. Recently rebacked with calf, and with new end-papers, the old free end-papers being preserved; early ownership inscription on upper margin of title page; a few marginal ink notes in text (v. below); two gatherings with extensive light foxing, and two leaves with insignificant marginal damp-stain; otherwise a very nice copy. The marginal notes on some five leaves identify the originals of characters in one of the stories. Not in Rothschild; or Esdaile; McBurney, 69; NCBEL, 2: 348 and 987; CBEL, II, p.877, giving the title erroneously as ‘The Court of Atlantis’, and p.191, where it is given correctly, and listing also editions of 1717, 1720, and 1732 under the revised title ‘Court Tales’. According to CBEL the volume was edited by John Oldmixon. According to the unsigned Dedication to Sir Richard Temple, one of the stories was written by Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset. Sackville died in 1706. The other stories remain anonymous, with the exception of ‘Æsculapius, Or the Hospital of Fools. By William Walsh, Esq;’ which is provided with its own half-title. They are sometimes attributed, however, to Jodocus Crull and Mary Manley. In this copy p.178 is numbered 26. Since it is the twenty-sixth (and final) page of ‘Æsculapius’ (inclusive of the half-title), this may perhaps suggest that story originally to have been set separately. This is not unlikely: two editions of another work edited by Oldmixon were published in 1714, both including ‘Æsculapius’ as an addendum. Walsh died in 1708. The ‘four years’ of the title is a reference to the time that had elapsed before the first publication of this volume since that of the four parts of Mary Manley’s ‘The New Atlantis’ in 1709-10. COPAC records only the British Library, National Library of Scotland, Trinity College Dublin, and Aberdeen copies in Great Britain; ESTC adds the Huntington, Yale, Folger, Library of Congress, Newberry, Illinois, Kansas, and Harvard copies elsewhere. All books listed by Robert Temple are first editions unless otherwise stated.