(History) Gibbon, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, New York and London. Harper & Brothers, 1898-1900. 12mo (5 by 7.375 inches), green cloth with stamped gilt decorated spine, and stamped designs on front and back cover.

Later edition annotated by the Reverend H. H. Milman, 6 volumes, very good+ condition. Gilt is very good in all volumes, with some discoloration to the first pages on the first two volumes, last four seem untouched. No evidence of foxing or discoloration to any of the text.

Date Acquired: 6/7/2014

One of my favorite books is Ex Libris, by Anne Fadiman, if you are not familiar with this book, read it, love it, and read it again. The reason I start with this book, is that there is an essay which she writes in Ex Libris, where the subject is being in the location of the book, and The History of the Fall and Decline of the Roman Empire, was referenced, in that essay and many others. Since reading that book (Ex Libris) in 11th grade, I’ve always had an urge to read the History… and as soon as I found a volume set hidden in the back of a bookstore I got it.

The bookstore in question is Midway Books, in St. Paul Minnesota, close to where I live, if there are any readers who live in the Twin Cities, who don’t know of this bookstore, go there. You’ll enjoy it greatly. The first thing that struck me from the books was their condition, these books were relatively old for cloth books, and the last four volumes didn’t even look like they’ve ever been opened. I saw the price (which was really good), and nabbed them up, before anyone else could.

The first volume is a bit rough in the first couple of pages, someone kept a newspaper article from the 1983 on the history of Vesuvius erupting, how fitting, and it has discolored the first page, while the next 3 seemed to have been partly glued together. Not great, but that is the only thing wrong with these books.

As I mentioned earlier, the gilt decoration is in wonderful shape, as well as the stamped decoration on the front, depicting Roman weapons and armor. There is some unknown white substance on the cover of the first two books, but I can’t tell what it is, it appears to be some kind of salty liquid that never got cleaned off, and is now stuck on. I don’t mind much.

These are the first books on this website that I’ve talked about, that I have either read, or are in the process of reading. It has taken me around 3 months to get through the first 2 volumes, I’m working on the 3rd, but it’s slow going. There is a reason I haven’t posted anything recently, and I do apologize, and that is because I am very busy with school. It takes away my time, and it stops me from reading what I want to! If I read 70 pages a week, that’s a successful week.

I’m glad to have picked these up, and will continue to enjoy reading them, learning tremendous amounts about the Roman Empire, or when I’m done, just looking at them. These are wonderful books, and I am thrilled to have them in my collection and in my library.