Calendars of the Ancient Charters, And of the Welch and Scotish Rolls

1774. A Notable Collection of Early English Records Ayloffe, Sir Joseph [1709-1781]. Calendars of the Ancient Charters, And of the Welch and Scotish Rolls Now Remaining in the Tower of London: Also Calendars of All the Treaties of Peace Entered Into by the Kings of England with Those of Scotland; And of Sundry Letters and Public Instruments Relating to that Kingdom, Now in the Chapter-House at Westminster. Together With Catalogues of the Records Brought to Berwick from the Royal Treasury at Edinburgh: Of Such as were Transmitted to the Exchequer at Westminster, And of Those which were Removed to different Parts of Scotland by Order of King Edward I. The Proceedings Relating to the Carrying Back the Records of Scotland into that Kingdom; And the Transactions of the Parliament There from the 15th of May 1639, To the 8th of March 1650. To Which Are Added Memoranda Concerning the Affairs Of Ireland, Extracted From The Tower Records. With Four Copper Plates, Exhibiting all the Various Hands in which the Several Charters have been Written, From the Reign of King William the Conqueror to that of Queen Elizabeth. To the Whole is Prefixed an Introduction, Giving Some Account of the State of the Public Records from the Conquest to the Present Time. London: Printed for Benjamin White, 1774. [ii], lxx, [2], 462, [32] pp. Four copperplate facsimiles of documents (one bound before p. 1, three bound after p. 462), four woodcut facsimiles of seals on pp. 348 and 349. Complete. Quarto (10-3/4" x 8"). Contemporary diced calf, gilt rules to boards, raised bands and gilt fillets, ornaments and title to spine, blind tooling to board edges, edges of text block speckled. Light rubbing and a few minor scratches and stains to boards, front board separated but secured by cords, moderate rubbing to extremities, chipping to foot of spine, corners bumped and worn, brief early annotations (shelfmarks) to rear free endpaper. Light toning to interior, occasional light foxing, small hole to foot of leaf O4 (pp. 111-112) with loss to catchword on p. 111 and one word of text on p. 112. An appealing copy. $150. * Second edition, a reissue of the first edition (1772) with a cancel title page. Praised in Cooper's Account of the Most Important Public Records of Great Britain (1832), this notable collection has an interesting introduction on the history of the pub.