£900
FIRST EDITION, 8vo, pp. [ii], xii, [i], 382 + folding map frontispiece. Contemporary calf, spine divided by raised bands, red morocco label, edges sprinkled red. A little scattered spotting and soiling, flyleaf nearly detached. Rubbed and marked, ring-mark to front board, spine creased, head of spine worn. Ownership inscription of William Moys to flyleaf.
The first edition of Boswell's first proper book, an account of his journey to Corsica and a biography of Corsican president Pascal Paoli. In this copy leaves E2 and Z3 are cancellentia. Neither Gaskell nor ESTC nor Pottle assign any precedence to the various textual variations found across printings, with Pottle suggesting that the cancel leaves were printed in duplicate, four copies of each across an octavo sheet, resulting in slight differences, alongside other misprints across the edition 'no doubt corrected in the press' (p. 52). Rothschild records a few variations not mentioned by other bibliographers: the map in this copy is in his second state, with the imprint to the bottom margin, and on page 51 the words 'John Home' correctly follow the second quotation, Rothschild's second state again. Rothschild also differentiates the varying states of the cancel leaves, with our E2 in his state (ii), though no information is given on how to distinguish the three states of Z3.
