[EARLY AMERICAN IMPRINT ~ 1796]. Belisarius

Newburyport, Mass. / Boston: Printed by William Barrett (for Thomas & Andrews, Boston), 1796. First edition thus. Very good. 18mo. ix, [1], 11-108 [i.e. 11-208] pp. (errors in pagination: 156, 207-208 misnumbered 136, 107-108). Contemporary mottled American sheep, red spine label, flat spine with single fillets dividing compartments (old leather repair in the second; FOXING throughout as is true in most copies on account of the paper stock; outer edges of gatherings B, L and R with even staining; extremities of binding somewhat worn, bookplate removed, front binder's blank a bit brittle and loosening; 1 1/2 sheets of binder's blanks at end. NB: this half-sheet is original and does not represent an excision as can been seen from the old offsetting of the final page of text). Overall in very good condition. AN EARLY AMERICAN PRINTING OF A WORK OF FICTION; OUR COPY WAS OWNED BY A YOUNG WOMAN OR WOMAN BY AT LEAST 1803. THIS NEWBURYPORT EDITION OF THE NOVEL IS UNCOMMON.

At a time when women were denied the rights of citizenship, the text of Marmontel's "Belisarius" was of particular interest to some contemporary feminist authors and activists, some of whom utilized its plots to champion human rights, as is attested by the 1795 New York play written by Margaretta Faugeres entitled "Belisarius: A Tragedy."

The first blank leaf is inscribed "Eliza Gage 1803." This may have been Eliza Gage of Newburyport who was born in 1790 to Jonathan Gage and Susanna Jewett.

The present translation follows that of the bilingual text given in the Brussels 1792 edition, although no Translator's Preface appears therein. However, there is one in the present edition and it seems to have been written by an American. The final sentence reads: "What will still raise your surprise to a great height is, to find an author possessed of so strong a sense of liberty, born under the French government: he has been since sent to the Bastile as a reward for his most excellent performance."

A copy of this Newburyport edition was listed among the fiction books in the Caritat Circulating Library in 1804, for which see G.G. Raddin, An Early New York Library of Fiction (1940), p. 82.

Evans 30737. ESTC W4099.