Marmontel

Marmontel — marelibri

EARLY AMERICAN IMPRINT ~ 1796. Belisarius

1796réf. 4460Newburyport Mass. / Boston: Printed by William Barrett for Thomas & Andrews Boston 1796. First edition thus. Very good. 18mo. ix 1 11-108 i.e. 11-208 pp. errors in pagination: 156 207-208 misnumbered 136 107-108. Contemporary mottled American sheep red spine label flat spine with single fillets dividing compartments old leather repair in the second; FOXING throughout as is true in most copies on account of the paper stock; outer edges of gatherings B L and R with even staining; extremities of binding somewhat worn bookplate removed front binder's blank a bit brittle and loosening; 1 1/2 sheets of binder's blanks at end. NB: this half-sheet is original and does not represent an excision as can been seen from the old offsetting of the final page of text. Overall in very good condition. AN EARLY AMERICAN PRINTING OF A WORK OF PATRIOTIC FICTION; OUR COPY WAS OWNED BY A YOUNG WOMAN OR WOMAN BY AT LEAST 1803. THIS NEWBURYPORT EDITION OF THE NOVEL IS UNCOMMON: SINCE 1908 ONLY TWO OTHER COPIES HAVE APPEARED ON THE MARKET. At a time when women were denied the rights of citizenship the text of Marmontel's "Belisarius" was of particular interest to some contemporary feminist authors and activists some of whom utilized its plots to champion human rights as is attested by the 1795 New York play written by Margaretta Faugeres entitled "Belisarius: A Tragedy." The first blank leaf is inscribed "Eliza Gage 1803." This may have been Eliza Gage of Newburyport who was born in 1790 to Jonathan Gage and Susanna Jewett. The present translation follows that of the bilingual text given in the Brussels 1792 edition although no Translator's Preface appears therein. However there is one in the present edition and it seems to have been written by an American. The final sentence reads: "What will still raise your surprise to a great height is to find an author possessed of so strong a sense of liberty born under the French government: he has been since sent to the Bastile as a reward for his most excellent performance." A copy of this Newburyport edition was listed among the fiction books in the Caritat Circulating Library in 1804 for which see G.G. Raddin An Early New York Library of Fiction 1940 p. 82. Evans 30737. ESTC W4099. Printed by William Barrett (for Thomas & Andrews, Boston) unknown books