INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERATURE OF EUROPE, In the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries.

London: John Murray, 1837. 4 volumes. First Edition. 8vo, handsomely bound in full contemporary polished tan calf, the covers with double gilt fillet rules at the borders enclosing an inner triple ruled border in blind, the spines with raised bands gilt ruled, the compartments fully gilt incorporating elaborately decorated panels in gilt, two compartments with green-brown lettering labels gilt, all edges marbled to match marlbled endleaves. A very handsome set, very well preserved and in fine condition with little evidence of age or use. FIRST EDITION. Henry Hallam FRS FRSE FSA FRAS (9 July 1777 – 21 January 1859) was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and practised as a barrister on the Oxford circuit for some years before turning to history. He was a fellow of the Royal Society, and a trustee of the British Museum and in 1830 received the gold medal for history that was founded by George IV.
His important work on literature continues a topic broached in the earlier View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages. In the first chapter 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 this 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: William Shakespeare, Hugo Grotius, Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes appear in half a dozen different places.
The plan excluded biographical history. It is an account of the books which would make a complete library of the period, arranged according to date of publication and subject.