The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by GIBBON, Edward; MILMAN, Dean (pref., notes); Guizot, M. (notes); SMITH, William (ed.) - 1854, 1855

London: John Murray, 1854, 1855. Leatherbound. Good +. 8 vols. 22.5 cm. Leather bound boards with gold gilt design work on the spines. Printed by William Clowes and Sons. Marbled endpapers and edges. Bookplates for E. N. Clarenbach. Includes portraits and maps. Vol. I: xxxii, 415p. features frontispiece portrait of Gibbon and two foldout maps attached to the back flyleaf: "The Eastern Part of the Roman Empire" and "The Western Part of the Roman Empire" drawn and engraved by J & C Walker. Vol. II: x, 425p. frontispiece foldout map with a colour-coded account titled "The Migration of the Barbarians" as well as a synopsis of languages spoken in the various regions depicted prepared by Day & Haghe, Lith. to the Queen. 2 additional maps at rear by J &C Walker. Vol. III: viii, 433p. features frontispiece map "Western Asia Shewing the Marches of Julian and Heraclius." Vol. IV: viii, 410p. features frontispiece foldout map: "Europe about the end of the Vth century." with colour-coded geopolitical boundaries (Walker). Vol. V: viii, 415p. features frontispiece foldout map of "Italia." Additional map "The Eastern Empire Divided Into Themes" at rear (both by Walker). Vol. VI: viii, 428p. Frontispiece foldout "Map of the Mahometan Empire." Additional map "Europe and Part of Asia and Africa at the Time of Charlemagne at rear (both by Walker). Vol. VII: x, 412p. frontispiece foldout "Map of the Crusades" with colour-coded guide to seven crusades. Vol. VIII: ix, 434p. frontispiece foldout map of "Ancient Rome" with 110 identified locations and landmarks and an additional foldout map of the "Environs of Rome" at rear (both by Walker). Spines have been rebacked. Scuffing and wear to the boards and at edges of spines. Original spine work intact except on Vol. IV where part of the volume number is missing. Tear in flyleaf of Vol. V. Torn rear flyleaf in Vol. VII. Pages clean. Text clear and unmarked.



Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) was a historian and British MP. His History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was originally published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789. This eight volume critical reprint was published over two years (Vol. I-V, 1854; Vol. VI-VIII, 1855) and features critical introductions, elaborately detailed maps, indexes, and various prefaces and essays associated with the text by the mid-nineteenth century. Gibbon famously associates the fall of the Roman Empire with a decline or degeneration of cultural values. The loss of social virtue and the development of decadent practices after various barbarian invasions supposedly made the Romans effeminate and ineffective Imperial leaders. The book was to serve as a model for the growing British Empire, a political entity whose success or "progress" Gibbon and many other Enlightenment thinkers associated with a return to reason after centuries of Papal rule over Europe by the Catholic Church.