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This is an early nineteenth century edition of a history of the American Revolution, bound in original contemporary calf. Richard Snowden (1753-1825) was a New Jersey schoolmaster and originally published this history in 1802, intended for use in schools.This 1823 edition was published "by Matthias Bartgis at Pleasant Dale Paper Mill" in "Frederick County, MD." The publisher s effusive, two-page prefatory "TO THE PUBLIC" dated "August 4th, 1823" states that his publication of the work is "Something calculated to keep alive the spirit of 75 and 76, which actuated the defenders of our country in that critical period which "tried men s souls."" The style is commended as "something so singular and original, and at the same time so very different from the common form of writing that it cannot fail to please. It is one of the most useful Books which preceptors could recommend to their pupils…" A preceding note from "Philip Moore, Clerk of the District of Maryland", attests to the publication "in the forty-seventh year of the Independence of the United States of America".The volume, measuring 6.75 x 4.25 inches, is 264 pages in length with a woodcut frontispiece portrait of George Washington and bound in contemporary mottled calf with horizontal gilt spine rules and a black, gilt-printed spine label. The contents feature red-speckled edges. The original calf binding is superficially scuffed and scarred and slightly splayed, but with the boards firmly attached. The contents are bright and clearly legible, despite intermittent spotting and offsetting from the pastedown glue to the preliminary and terminal leaves. The book is compelling as both an early history of the American Revolution and a physical artifact of American printing and binding from the first half century of the republic.The publisher, Matthias Bartgis (1756-1825) was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to German immigrants, learned the art of printing from William Bradford in Philadelphia, and briefly served in the Revolutionary War. Bartgis established himself as a printer in Frederick Maryland by 1778, where he became the first printer to establish himself in the Shenandoah Valley. Bartgis established newspapers in both English and German, eventually establishing a number of weekly papers, as far afield as Pennsylvania and Virginia. In 1787, Bartgis printed the Constitution of the United States for the Maryland State Assembly. This history of the American Revolution was published by his press just a few years before his death. (Maryland State Archives)Reference: Sabin 85595.
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