The History of England,: from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688. In Eight Volumes. A New Edition, Corrected. To which is added, a Complete Index. [and including The Life of David Hume, Esq. written by Himself]

HANDSOME TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN PRIZE BINDINGS FROM THE McKENZIE WORKSHOP
8 vols. tall 8vo. vol.1: [4 (half-title & title)], [4 (contents)], (5)-20 ('Life'), 490; vol.2: [4 (half-title & title)], [4 (contents)], 508; vol.3: [4 (half-title & title)], [4 (contents)], 455, [456 (blank)]; vol.4: [4 (half-title & title)], [4 (contents)], 472; vol.5: [4 (half-title & title)], [4 (contents)], 520; vol.6: [4 (half-title & title)], [4 (contents)], 576; vol.7: [4 (half-title & title)], [4 (contents)], 527, 528 (blank)]; vol.8: [4 (half-title & title)], [4 (contents)], 330, [238 (index)], engraved portrait of David Hume engraved by P. Halpin after the painting by Donaldson in vol. 1, handsome Trinity College Dublin prize binding of contemporary tree calf, sides with a gilt fillet border and with the oval arms of Trinity College Dublin boldly gilt blocked at the centre of both sides, smooth spines richly gilt tooled in panels and with a red morocco title labels gilt and olive green morocco numbering labels, numbering labels each with a small central circular red morocco onlay with the volume number in gilt, spot design marbled endpapers, spine of vol. 1 with trivial chaffing to foot and a small (silverfish) hole in top panel, a few insignificant patches of surface loss (silverfish damage) on sides, some minor local darkening of gilt on spines, a few corners bit bruised, else very good. A handsome set in an attractive Irish binding.
Front endpapers with the large engraved prize label of Trinity College Dublin with the imprint at the foot of "McKenzie, Printer & Stationer to the University" and the labels completed in manuscript in the spaces provided as a prize to Stephan Dickson in 1790 and signed for the College (in vol 1.) by J. Waller.
ESTC t167541 locating copies in Ireland in N.L.I., Franciscans, Dublin City, R.I.A. (last 2 lacking the plate); in Britain in B.L. (lacking plate), Liverpool Univ.; the Collège des Irlandais in Paris; plus 1 in N. America & 1 in New Zealand.

"Mr. Hume, in his History, is neither parliamentarian, nor royalist, nor Anglican, nor Presbyterian - he is simply judicial ... In the new historian we find a mind superior to his materials; he speaks of weakness, blunders, cruelties as a physician speaks of epidemic diseases" [Voltaire].
Hume's History in the 'New Edition corrected' was first published in London in quarto 1763-64, and in octavo in 1763. Dublin editions of the corrected edition were printed in Dublin for James Wilson in 1769 (the first to mention the index on its title page) and again in 1772 (with a list of subscribers), and again for the United Company of Booksellers in 1775-76, all in 8 octavo volumes. The last two of these and this 1780 edition for Williams all have different paginations which clearly shows that on each occasion the work was reprinted from a new setting of type.
The spine design incorporates 4 richly gilt decorated panels, each with a different large tool at its centre, being (from the top) an urn with pendants, a curved branch(?), a sunburst and an urn with foliage and flowers. The tools used used include McDonnell & Healy's tool nos. 53 and 28 (at panel centres), 64a and 64b at some panel corners, and rolls R2 and R16. The Trinity arms on the sides is in their form No.13. McKenzie had been apprenticed to the bookbinder turned bookseller William Gilbert and in 1782 married Sarah Hallhead, the widow of William Hallhead who held the contract for supplying bookbinding to T.C.D. and he thereafter succeeded to that contract.Vide: McDonnell & Healy Gold-Tooled Bookbindings commissioned by Trinity College Dublin in the Eighteenth Century, (1987).