Oliver Cromwell

Paris: Jean Boussod, Manzi, Joynat, & Co, 1899. FIRST EDITION. Title in red and black with printer’s device, full color frontispiece and 31 black and white plates, chapter headings with engraved portraits surrounded by red decorated headpieces, all tissue guards with red printed captions present. Half-morocco and cloth, spine with raised bands and title in gilt, upper fore-edge gilt; some minor browning and spotting on the fore-edge, otherwise a very good copy. First edition, No. 97 of 1475 printed on special paper. This deluxe volume is an extra illustrated edition of the biography of Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658). The text is accompanied by numerous and finely engraved portraits depicting Cromwell and his circles as well as facsimiles of manuscripts. Gardiner set out to write a balanced account the life and politics of perhaps one of the most controversial figures in English history. As leader of the parliamentarians during the English Civil War, Cromwell took control of the government following their victory. His claim as “Lord Protector” of the Commonwealth troubled many of his republican followers, and his declining health and premature death left the nation in a state of confusion and doubt. Gardiner ultimately provides a positive evaluation of Cromwell stating of his critics “Even those who refuse to waste a thought on his spiritual aims remember with gratitude his constancy of effort to make England great by land and sea; and it would be well for them to also be reminded of his no less constant efforts to make England worthy of greatness.” The illustrations alongside his well-researched text provides the most comprehensive work on Cromwell to date.

Gardiner (1829–1902) was an English historian. He specialized in the history of Puritanism and the English civil war. In addition to his biography of Cromwell, he wrote an extensive account of the seventeenth century beginning with the accession of King James I in 1603 and ending with the Restoration in 1660.