Britannicarum gentium historiæ antiquæ scriptores tres

8vo. pp. [10], 198, [17]. Mottled calf. Tooled boards with single filet, gilded spine on 5 bars, brown panel, marbled pastedowns, sprayed edges. Plate and label of Edward Gibbon. Manuscript purchase note signed C.E. Stevens. Full-page engraving facing title, with caption "Scriptores historiae" and signature "C.B. inv. & Sc. 1758." Engraved vignette on title page. Head-and tailpieces, engraved initial. Thick paper copy.

First edition of the ‘Richard of Cirencester’ hoax, with the booklabel and first bookplate of Edward Gibbon (G. Keynes, The library of Edward Gibbon. A catalogue of his books. London, 1940, p. 69), who was perhaps Bertram’s most illustrious victim: see E. Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. London, 1781, III, p. 275n. The present work features the first appearance of Charles Bertram’s long-lived hoax, the Latin itinerary of the 14th-century monk ‘Richard of Cirencester,’ with what his correspondent and publicist Stukeley called ‘the completest account of the Roman state of Brittain, and of the most antient inhabitants thereof.’ The ‘Britannicarum gentium historiae antiquae scriptores tres’ includes the genuine narratives of ps-Nennius and Bede, and the sketch of a later to be celebrated map, showing all the Roman roads and stations, many of them imaginary. Cf. J.A. Farrer, Literary forgeries. London & New York, 1907, pp. 26-38.

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