The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume I: 180 A.D. -- 395 A.D. by Edward Gibbon - 1977

New York: Modern Library, 1977. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. Very Good book, in good dust jacket. Dust jacket has a few spots, and a closed tear on the spine; now in new removable protective cover. Brown boards with gold print on the spine, torch bearer blindstamped in top right corner on front. This is Modern Library Giant binding style G8. Pages are unmarked, but have soiling on textblock edges. Modern Library hard cover, issued 1977 - 1982, ISBN: 9780394604015, 956 pages. 8vo (5.5"" x 8.25"") This is Volume 1 of 3, each volume originally sold separately. It contains Chapters 1 - 26, covering the years AD 180 - 395. Gibbon is one of those few writers who hold as high a place in the history of literature as in the roll of great historians. He is the clearest example that brilliance of style and accuracy of statement are perfectly compatible in an historian. The Decline and Fall can be divided roughly into three parts. The first third covers two hundred years and ends with the advent of the fifth century, A. D. The !ast two thirds are devoted to the thousand years that ended with the acquisition of the absolute dominion of Rome by the Popes in 1500. Gibbon's work, completed a hundred and fifty years ago, remains today the last and authoritative word on the subject.