Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries

London: John Murray, 1855. Cloth. Good. 7.5" by 5". None. A uniformly bound set of Henry Hallam's survey of European literature. Hallam (9 July 1777 – 21 January 1859) was an English historian and the father of the prematurely deceased Arthur Henry Hallam, about whom Tennyson's 'In Memoriam' was written. In the first chapter of the 'Introduction' Hallam sketches the state of literature in Europe down to the end of the 14th century: the extinction of ancient learning which followed the fall of the Roman empire and the rise of Christianity; the preservation of the Latin language in the services of the church; and the revival of letters after the 7th century. For the first century and a half of his period he is mainly occupied with a review of classical learning, taking short decennial periods and noticing works which they produced. For the period 1520–1550 there are separate chapters on ancient literature, theology, science, speculative philosophy and jurisprudence, the literature of taste and other miscellaneous literature; and the subdivisions of subjects is carried further in later periods. Thus poetry, the drama and polite literature form the subjects of separate chapters. An author may be mentioned in many chapters: Shakespeare, Grotius, Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes appear in half a dozen different places. Fifth edition. Bound by Edmonds and Remnants of London. Complete in four volumes. In full cloth bindings. Externally, some shelfwear and slight discolouration to extremities. Some small marks to boards. Hinges of volumes III and IV strained. Internally, firmly bound. Good, clean copies with just some scattered light spotting throughout, most prominently to first and last few pages. Good