The History of the World In Five Books. by Raleigh, Sir Walter - 1677

London: Robert White, 1677. Early printing of this classic work. Folio, bound in full calf, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, morocco spine label, additional engraved title (dated 1676), engraved frontispiece and 8 double-page maps and plans. In very good condition. The success of Raleigh’s History can perhaps be explained by the very fact that it is not a work of history in the academic sense but a political tract of immediate applicability. Its author embodied all the glories of the reign of Elizabeth I, which at the time of publication had already begun to be transfigured into a golden age Raleigh can be taken as the epitome of the Elizabethan idea of courtier and politician, sailor and explorer, writer and poet He was among the first Englishmen to envisage clearly that the Americas should be the principal goal of English overseas expansion The reversal of Elizabeth’s policy by James I encompassed Raleigh’s ruin He finally fell a victim to James’s pro-Spanish inclinations, and the last Elizabethan died by the executioner’s axe" (PMM 117).