Tale of a Tub

London: Printed for John Nutt, 1704. Full Description:

[SWIFT, Jonathan]. A Tale of a Tub. Written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind. To which is added, An Account of a Battel between the Antient and Modern Books in St. James's Library. London: Printed for John Nutt, 1704.

First edition. With the rare (unknown?) variant of stars printed in the blank space on line 10 after "furor" on page 320. Octavo (7 1/4 x 4 9/16 inches; 186 x 116 mm). [xii], 322 pp. With the leaf of satirical advertisements bound at the beginning but bound without the terminal blank. "A full and true account of the battel" and "A discourse concerning the mechanical operation of the spirit" each have a separate dated title page but the pagination and register are continuous.

19th-century full speckled paneled calf, bound by Roger De Coverly & Sons. Boards stamped and ruled in gilt. Spine stamped in gilt. Tan morocco spine label, lettered in gilt. All edges gilt. Gilt dentelles. Marbled endpapers. Newer flyleaves. Some neat repairs to hinges and headcaps and along tops of front and back boards. Previous owner's old ink signature dated 1780 on upper margin of title-page. Some light pencil marginalia, and a few colored pencil marks in the text. Some minor dampstaining to outer upper corner of some leaves. Overall a very good, clean copy.

First edition of Swift's classic satires on corruption in religion and learning, as exemplified in the conduct of Peter (Roman Catholicism), Martin (Luther), and Jack (Calvin) in the Tale of the Tub, and the spirited fight over the highest peak of Parnassus between the ancients and moderns in the Battel of the Books. Both pieces were written at Moor Park about 1696-7, when Swift was acting as secretary to Sir William Temple, whose uncritical praise of the spurious Epistles of Phalaris had stirred up the controversy over ancient and modern learning.

Rothschild 1992. Teerink 217.

HBS 69078.

$6,500.