£150
4to, pp. [4], xvi, [8], 363, [1], 110. Engraved illustrations on title-page and within text. Later vellum, spine divided by gilt rules, red morocco label. Some minor spotting. Vellum mottled and sometime glazed, front joint just cracking slightly. Modern bookplate of W.B. Coleman to front pastedown, small earlier inscription to final leaf (W. Brakes?).
The first quarto edition - and the only quarto edition recorded by ESTC - of this best-selling moral-historical novel. There was also a two-volume octavo edition, also the 'Fourth', in the same year, but this more luxurious printing was clearly intended to attract a different market, which the subscribers' list suggests it did. The Travels of Cyrus were written by the Chevalier Ramsay (1686-1743), born in Ayr but long resident in France, under the influence of Fénelon and his Télémaque. It was first published (in French) in 1727; the English translation is by Nathaniel Hooke.
