Petrarch's View Of Human Life [ De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae] by Petrarch; Dobson, Mrs. [Matthew] [Susannah Dawson] - 1791

London: John Stockdale, 1791. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Good. Xiii [Including Half-Title], 15-359,+ 5 Pp Index At End. Original Speckled Calf, Possibly Tree Calf, With Surreal Central Portrait On Front And Back Covers, Elaborately Gilt Spine, Gilt Edges Of Boards, Black Morocco Title Label, Odd Gilt Heraldic Label At Top Of Spine (Head Held Aloft By Sword And Arm) , Apparently Lacking Front Endpaper As Book Begins With The Half Title. Binding Worn But Leather Recently Refreshed, Labels Intact And Gilt Bright, Fraying At Corners, Front Joint And Hinge Partly Cracked But Outer Leather Joints Recently Neatly Repaired, Traces Of Removal Of Large Bookplate On Front Pastedown, No Names Or Marks, Pages Clean With Just A Few Spots Of Foxing, Small Hand Colored Bookseller's Ticket Of Hunt Books/ 1928/ Southborough/ Kent England, 1 1/2" Tear At Spine Edge Of Half Title. Frances Burney Mentions That In 1780 Susannah Dobson (Circa 1742-1795) Was Ambitious To Get Into Mrs Thrale's Circle, But The Latter Was Not Keen: "Mrs Dobson... Persecutes Me Strangely As If With Violent & Undesired Friendship; Yet Mrs Lewis Says She Is Jealous." One Modern View Of What Thrale Wrote Is That It Implied Dobson Was A Lesbian. Burney Wrote Of Her, "Though Coarse, Low-Bred, Forward, Self-Sufficient, And Flaunting, She Seems To Have A Strong Masculine Understanding." Susannah's Husband, Dr. Matthew Dobson, Had Become Mrs Thrale's Physician. Samuel Johnson, However, Praised Her As "The Directress Of Rational Conversation". In 1775 Dobson Published In Two Volumes Her Life Of Petrarch, Collected From "Mémoires Pour La Vie De François Petrarch" (By Jacques-François De Sade). According To A Modern Account, In "Rendering Down The Abbé De Sade's Massive French Original, She Probes The Actions And Feelings Of Another Age." Among Her Contemporaries Who Praised It Were The Novelists Clara Reeve And Elizabeth Benger. It Was Reprinted In 1777, And Several Times Up To A Sixth Edition In 1805. She Claimed In 1780 That It Had Earned Her £400. Her Second Work Was A Translation Of Sainte-Palaye's Literary History Of The Troubadours, 1779. In 1784 She Translated The Same Author's Memoirs Of Ancient Chivalry, And In 1791 This Book, Petrarch's De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae, As "Petrarch's View Of Human Life.