Sixth edition. Three volumes in one, small quarto (183x136mm). Bound in contemporary calf with raised bands to the spine and double ruled blind border to the covers. Wood engraved frontispiece to each part, depicting "King Arthur and his Valiant Knights of the Round Table". Text printed in black letter type with Roman type for page and chapter headings, prelims and proper nouns. Some time neatly rebacked retaining the original spine, minor repairs to the corners and a scratch to the rear cover. Frontispiece to first part creased and approx 4mm for foreedge neatly remargined. Contemporary ownership inscriptions to first title page. Periodic browning to text and marginal worming, particularly to section K of the first part, but not affecting text. Occasional ink marks or annotations. Inserted leaf of Arthurian rhyme in contemporary before G3 (first part); minor marginal loss to A4 (second part); small burn-hole to J2 (third part). Final four leaf section possibly supplied from another copy with repairs to the final leaf. Withall, a very good and well preserved example of a book which is seldom encountered in a contemporary binding.

Sir Thomas Malory's retelling of the Arthurian legends was compiled from his translation of thirteenth century French texts which he combined with a number of Middle English sources. The disparate nature of the sources and the way they were interwoven was such, that whilst the tales were not of Malory's invention, the resulting text was essentially an original work and has served as the principal vessel of Arthurian legend since its original publication by William Caxton in 1485. The colloquial title of "Le Morte D'Arthur" derives from Caxton's mistaking the title of the final section for that of the whole work. The work proved popular and was soon reprinted by Caxton's successor, Wynkyn de Worde in 1498 and 1529 and then by William Copland (1557) and Thomas East (1585) before this edition of 1634 which serves as the last of the sequence before the English Civil War. No further edition of the work was published until 1816. The first five editions exist mainly in institutional holdings. Only one complete copy of the fifth edition has been seen at auction in the last forty years (in 1990), making this sixth edition the earliest practically obtainable edition and itself rare in good order in a contemporary state.

Stock ID: 36187