Dekker, Thomas | Another copy of this account of crime and criminals

Dekker, Thomas

English villanies seven severall times prest to death by the printers … at the end is a canting dictionary, to teach their language: with canting songs … London: [Printed by M. Parsons and to be Sold by James Becket, 1638]

4to (178 x 140 mm). Woodcut of Bellman on verso of title; title supplied from the scarce 1632 edition printed by Augustine Matthewes for John Gismond, title-page defective and lacking one fourth of text (supplied in manuscript on recto and verso), Lacks D2–3, K3, M1, and quire O (which is supplied in manuscript). Polished calf, marbled endpapers; boards detached, spine perished.

Second edition, another copy.

REFERENCE:

ESTC S109529; Grolier, Wither to Prior, 252 (earlier edition); STC 6492

PROVENANCE:

Charles K. Sharpe, Scottish antiquary and artist, 1781?–1851 (signature on verso of front free endpaper)