JUNIUS Stat nominis umbra. (The Letters of Junius). by JUNIUS. ( Sir Philip Francis ):

London, printed by T. Bensley, for Vernor and Hood, 1796.. Collected edition 1796, 2 volumes, complete set, 8vo, approximately 240 x 145 mm, 9¼ x 5½ inches, engraved additional title pages to each volume with vignette and dated 1797, 16 engraved portrait plates depicting famous political figures, including Edmund Burke, John Wilkes, Judge Blackstone, Lord Mansfield, the Duke of Grafton and George III, pages: (1), xl, (4), 325; (1), 366, including notes at rear of each volume and index at end of Volume II, wide margins, bound in full contemporary straight grained red morocco, gilt ruled border to covers, spine with 5 double raised bands with gilt rules and bands, lettered gilt, all edges gilt, gilt inner dentelles (turn ins), marbled endpapers. Spines faded, head and tail of spines slightly rubbed, a touch of rubbing to corners, one or two minor marks to covers, 2 tiny indentations on upper cover of Volume II, engraved title pages and most plates lightly foxed in the margins, contents otherwise clean, bindings tight and firm. A very good set. Junius was the pseudonym of the author of letters published in a London newspaper, The Public Advertiser, from January 1769 to January 1772, attacking George III and some of his ministers, especially the Duke of Grafton, Sir William Draper and Lord Mansfield, for the harm he saw being inflicted on the constitution. He is thought by some to be Sir Philip Francis M. P. secretary to Lord Chatham. The first authorised collected edition was published in 1772 and was followed by numerous editions up to the 1850s. Lowndes, Bibliographer's Manual, Volume II, page 1240: "It is a work which must always preserve its high place among the classics of England; the author was a first-rate master of the art of rhetorical invective". MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE. FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.