ESSAYS ON THE NATURE AND PRINCIPLES OF TASTE

ALISON, Archibald. ESSAYS ON THE NATURE AND PRINCIPLES OF TASTE. Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute, 1790. Large 4to. Contemporary speckled quarter-calf. xiii, (iii), 415 pages. First edition. Archibald Alison's work is one of the first psychological discussions on the nature of beauty. Its main theory is that beauty is not a separate quality b a train of thoughts associated with emotions. Alison's argument cites Milton poetry, Handel's music, and the landscapes of Claude Lorraine. Popular in America, twenty-one copies are noted as being there before 1800. Neatly rebacked using the original spine as an overlay, this is an exceptionally tal and wide-margined copy with pages measuring 10 3/4 x 8 3/8 inches. Lacking t half-title.