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WILLIAM HAYLEYAN ESSAY ON HISTORYLondon: J. Dodsley, 1780First EditionAddressed to Edward GibbonOriginal Eighteenth-Century BoardsEntirely Uncut with Deckle EdgesHalf-Title and Final Errata Present
A particularly appealing and unusually unsophisticated copy of William Hayley’s An Essay on History; in Three Epistles to Edward Gibbon, Esq. With Notes, published in London by J. Dodsley in 1780.
First edition, preserved in its original paper-covered boards and entirely uncut, with broad margins and irregular deckle edges throughout.
The survival of the book in this state is especially desirable. Rather than having been trimmed and rebound in leather, as many eighteenth-century books were, this copy retains the physical form in which it left the binder or bookseller nearly 250 years ago.
The original spine paper has largely perished, exposing the sewing structure, but the text block remains intact. The volume is protected in a later brown cloth chemise with a gilt-lettered spine.
ADDRESSED DIRECTLY TO EDWARD GIBBON
The work takes the form of three verse epistles addressed to Edward Gibbon, whose History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire had begun appearing only four years earlier.
The title page explicitly reads:
AN ESSAY ON HISTORY;
IN THREE EPISTLES
TO EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ.
WITH NOTES.
Hayley uses Gibbon as the central figure in a wide-ranging meditation on the writing of history: its literary qualities, moral responsibilities, great practitioners, and relationship to religion and philosophy.
The book therefore has interest well beyond Hayley collectors. It belongs directly to the early contemporary reception of Gibbon and to the intellectual culture surrounding one of the defining historical works of the Enlightenment.
Hayley admired Gibbon’s literary and historical achievement, while also engaging with the religious skepticism for which Decline and Fall had already become controversial.
The association between the two men was genuine rather than merely rhetorical. A contemporary bookseller’s record of another first-edition copy quotes an October 1781 letter in which Gibbon addressed Hayley warmly and recalled the pleasures of his company at Eartham.
THE FIRST EDITION
London: Printed for J. Dodsley in Pall-Mall, 1780.
First edition.
Quarto.
The 1780 edition is bibliographically distinct from the second edition issued by Dodsley in 1781. Google Books records surviving examples of both the original 1780 printing and the enlarged 1781 second edition.
This copy includes:
- Half-title
- Title page
- Complete text
- Notes
- Final errata
- Broad untrimmed margins
- Original deckle edges
AN UNSOPHISTICATED COPY IN ORIGINAL BOARDS
The principal physical distinction of this copy is its preservation in original eighteenth-century grey paper-covered boards.
The boards are plain and utilitarian, exactly the sort of temporary or semi-permanent binding in which many books of the period were originally sold.
Such bindings were often discarded when owners later had books rebound in calf or morocco. Consequently, an eighteenth-century literary quarto surviving uncut in original boards preserves important evidence of the book’s original manufacture and sale.
The edges remain wholly untrimmed, retaining their natural irregular contours and deckle.
The generous margins make the physical scale of the original sheets especially evident.
This is therefore a copy with considerable bibliographical and material-history appeal, despite — and in some respects because of — the worn condition of the original binding.
WILLIAM HAYLEY
William Hayley (1745–1820) was one of the prominent English literary figures of the late eighteenth century.
Although his reputation later declined, during his lifetime he enjoyed considerable standing as a poet, essayist, biographer, and patron.
His literary and artistic circle eventually included:
William Cowper
George Romney
John Flaxman
William Blake
An Essay on History belongs to the earlier phase of Hayley’s career, when his verse essays and epistles were establishing his reputation.
A contemporary bookseller record for another copy preserves the striking comment that, after reading the poem years later, William Cowper told Hayley that he had begun the work and already felt he was reading “for my humiliation.”
MATERIAL STATE
This copy has not been cosmetically restored into a later fine binding.
Instead, it retains:
- Original grey paper-covered boards
- Original sewing structure
- Original uncut text block
- Broad margins
- Deckle edges
- Early handwritten title on the board
The later brown cloth chemise protects the fragile original binding without altering it.
For collectors who value original state, untouched edges, and evidence of eighteenth-century book production, this is substantially more interesting than a conventionally rebound copy.
CONDITION
Good to Very Good for an entirely uncut copy preserved in original eighteenth-century boards.
The original grey paper-covered boards are rubbed, soiled, worn, and chipped at the edges.
The original spine covering has largely perished, leaving the sewing structure exposed.
There is wear and loss at the board edges and extremities, as clearly visible in the photographs.
Despite the fragile appearance of the binding, the text block remains intact and sound.
The book is entirely uncut, preserving exceptionally broad margins and irregular deckle edges throughout.
Internally there is:
- Scattered foxing
- Occasional staining and age toning
- Minor handling marks
- Some marginal chipping toward the final leaves
The marginal chipping does not affect the printed text.
The half-title is present.
The final errata is present.
An early manuscript title appears on the front board:
“Hayley’s Essay on History.”
The volume is housed in a later brown cloth protective chemise with gilt spine lettering.
Please examine all photographs carefully, as they form an important part of the condition description.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
Author: William Hayley
Title: An Essay on History; in Three Epistles to Edward Gibbon, Esq. With Notes
Place: London
Publisher: J. Dodsley
Date: 1780
Edition: First edition
Format: Quarto
Pagination: [4], 159, [1] pp.
Binding: Original grey paper-covered boards
Edges: Entirely uncut / deckle-edged
Half-title: Present
Errata: Present
Protective case: Later brown cloth chemise
Reference: ESTC T1747
Language: English
COLLECTOR INTEREST
A particularly evocative first-edition copy combining:
- Edward Gibbon association
- Early reception of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
- Enlightenment historiography
- Eighteenth-century English poetry
- William Hayley
- J. Dodsley
- Original boards
- Entirely uncut sheets
- Deckle edges
- Unsophisticated eighteenth-century book condition
A compelling survival of an important contemporary response to Gibbon, preserved not in a later collector’s binding but in its original boards, with the sheets still entirely uncut nearly two and a half centuries after publication.
