HOLINSHED, William (d. c.1580). Chronicles. London: for John Harison, George Bishop, Rafe Newberie, Henrie Denham, and Thomas Woodcocke, 1587. 3 vols in 2, 2° (365 x 233mm), titles within wood-engraved borders. (Title to vol. III torn at margin, occasional mostly marginal dampstain, occasional light soiling, without the final blanks.) 18th-century mottled calf, spine richly gilt in compartments with floral tools, green morocco labels (spine caps chipped, some joints starting, extremities rubbed, front blank in first vol. torn with loss). Provenance: an early reader (a few pen trials and occasional marginalia) -- Anthony, Earle of Kent (bookplate, dated 1702) -- Thomas Philip, Earl de Grey (bookplate).

HOLINSHED, William (d. c.1580). Chronicles. London: for John Harison, George Bishop, Rafe Newberie, Henrie Denham, and Thomas Woodcocke, 1587. 3 vols in 2, 2° (365 x 233mm), titles within wood-engraved borders. (Title to vol. III torn at margin, occasional mostly marginal dampstain, occasional light soiling, without the final blanks.) 18th-century mottled calf, spine richly gilt in compartments with floral tools, green morocco labels (spine caps chipped, some joints starting, extremities rubbed, front blank in first vol. torn with loss). Provenance: an early reader (a few pen trials and occasional marginalia) -- Anthony, Earle of Kent (bookplate, dated 1702) -- Thomas Philip, Earl de Grey (bookplate).

Second edition. Holinshed's Chronicles enjoyed great popularity and became a quarry for many Elizabethan dramatists. Shakespeare, for example, found material for Macbeth, King Lear, Cymbeline and many of his historical plays in this edition. STC 13569. (3)