Desiderata curiosa: or, a collection of divers scarce and curious pieces relating chiefly to matters of English history; Consisting of Choice Tracts, Memoirs, Letters, Wills, Epitaphs, &c. Transcribed, Many of them, from the Originals Themselves, and the Rest from Divers Antient Ms. Copies, or the Ms. Collections of Sundry Famous Antiquaries and other Eminent Persons, both of the Last and Present Age: the whole, as Near as Possible, digested into an Order of Time, and Illustrated with Ample Notes, Contents, Additional Discourses, and a Complete Index

London: printed for Thomas Evans in the Strand, 1779. First Edition thus. Paper-Covered Boards. Fine. Large Paper Copy ("A new Edition, greatly corrected, with some Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. Peck") of this "curious collection of original papers, relating chiefly to English history." (Lowndes) Two volumes bound as one, each with separate title page but continuously paginated. 4to (307 x 235mm): xvii,[7],238,[10]; vi,[10],[239]-581,[9]pp, with engraved portrait frontispiece of the author and nine copper-engraved plates. Pages. 420 and 426 misnumbered 400 and 406, respectively. Recent period-style blue-grey paper-covered boards by Fitterer, beige paper spine with paper title label printed in black, end-papers renewed. Several leaves heavily dust-speckled, several others lightly so, else a finely bound wide-margined copy, fresh, bright, and clean throughout with tissue guards protecting all plates. Lowndes IV: 1812. Lewine, p. 406 ("of about the same value" as the first edition of 1732-35). Peck was elected a member of the Society of Antiquaries on 9 March 1732, the same year he published the first section of his illustrated Desiderata curiosa, the work for which he became best known. A second volume appeared in 1735. The eighteenth-century antiquary William Cole was not impressed: "Had he lived longer we might have had many more curious pieces of antiquity, which he seems to have been in possession of; but the chief and great failing of this gentleman seemed to be an eager desire to publish as little in one volume as he could, in order to eke out his collection. His ‘Desiderata Curiosa' is full of curious things, but he has so disjointed, mangled, and new-sentenced all of them, and what with detached books, chapters, and heads of the chapters, that, in endeavouring to be more than ordinarily clear, he has become at many times quite the reverse." (ODNB) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).