511C Parker, Samuel. (1681-1730), and George Ridpath. (d. 1726) [editors]. The History of the Works of the Learned: or, an Impartial Account of Books Lately Printed in All Parts of Europe. With a Particular Relation of the State of Learning in Each Country. For the month of January, 1699 [through December, 1699]. Vol. I.

London: H. Rhodes, at the Star near Fleet-Bridge; J. Harris, at the Harrow in Little-Britain; T. Bennet, at the Half-moon in St. Paul’s Church-Yard; A Bell, at the Cross-Keys in Cornhill; D. Midwinter, and T. Leigh, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul’s Church-yard, 1699

$2,200

Quarto, 8 x 6 in. First edition. [ ]4, B-Z4, Aa4, Bb2, Cc-Zz4, Aaa-Ddd4, Ee4, Fff-Zzz4, Aaaa-Xxxx4, Y4, Zzzz4, Aaaaa-Eeeee4. This copy is bound in full modern calfskin. Internally, the copy is in good condition. Although a few sections are affected by occasional browning and spotting, the text is never obscured.
Essentially a New York Times Book Review for the late seventeenth century, The History of the Works of the Learned gives biographical details for each author and brief overviews and synopses for each reviewed book. This volume serves as an excellent guide to the intellectual currents of the time throughout all of Europe. Books covered in this work range from an account of the state of the Jews that live on the Coasts of Malabar to a new edition of Aesop’s fables, from an ecclesiastical history of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries of Christianity to a treatise about reducing the practice of physics to an ancient method of observation, from a history of painting, sculpture, architecture and engraving to a traveler’s guide to the roads of England.

Nelson and Seccombe 191; NCBEL II:1293