1787 History & Letters of Abeillard & Heloisa (Abelard & Heloise) Berington 1stE
OF THE
LIVES OF
ABEILLARD AND HELOISA;
COMPRISING A PERIOD OF EIGHTY-FOUR YEARS,
FROM 1079 TO 1163.
WITH THEIR GENUINE LETTERS,
FROM THE COLLECTION OF AMBOISE.
BY THE
REV. JOSEPH BERINGTON
Birmingham. Printed by M. Swinney; for G.G.J. and J. Robinson, in Pater-Noster-Row, and R. Faulder, New Bond-Street, London, 1787. First edition.
Hardcover. Original full brown calf, ribbed spine with title label.
Quarto. xxxii, 498 pages.
The volume includes the main title page, and separate half-title and title pages for the Letters.
Armorial bookplate of William Wilkinson, engraved by Neele, on the front pastedown.
The text of the letters is in the original Latin and in English.
The First edition of Joseph Berington's history of Abelard and Heloise, which includes a translation of their famous letters, based on the original Latin edition of Francois d'Amboise.
The history and letters of Eloisa and Abelard acquired their popularity in the 18th century first through the translation by John Hughes first published in 1713 (the Latin text had been published in Paris in 1616), and as Berington remarks, Alexander Pope seems to have been indebted to Hughes for his poem, Eloisa to Abelard, which was first published in Pope's Works of 1717. Part of Berington's book consists of a short critique of Pope's poem, which lavishly praises Pope's poetic skills, but Berington was clearly unhappy with the powerfully understated eroticism of the poem: "Never, I believe, was there a more dangerous production. It presents poison to the hand of inexperienced youth, and the cup which holds it is all of burnished gold. It would have been well, I believe, for the common interests of virtue and innocence, had this seductive poem never seen the light."
CONDITION:
Covers are rubbed and scratched, heavy wear at corners and spine ends, leather is split at spine joints but boards are securely attached, the coloring of the letters on the spine is faded.
The Contents are well bound, complete and intact. The endpapers and pastedowns have discolored margins; the Title Page has faint stains and a few small foxing spots. Several text leaves at the end have a small creased corner and the final two text leaves have very faint stains at the fore margins. The text is otherwise clean with infrequent small foxing spots.)
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