The Letters of Junius. Stat Nominis Umbra. With notes and illustrations, historical, political, biographical, and critical; By Robert Heron. [John Joseph Henry's copy, Revolutionary War veteran]

The Letters of Junius. Stat Nominis Umbra. With notes and illustrations, historical, political, biographical, and critical; By Robert Heron. In two volumes Philadelphia. Published by Samuel F. Bradford. 1804. Both volumes hardcover. Bound in handsome three quarter leather, with marbled paper over boards and marbled endpapers. This edition has untrimmed edges, which are uneven and a bit ragged (as issued), but margins are wide and these untrimmed copies are much more scarce than the neat, square ones. The binding is from the nineteenth century; it is not the original binding. But it is beautifully done, and provides boards large enough to protect and contain those untrimmed pages. Raised cords on tooled brown leather. Spine label in black leather with gold lettering. Bookplate on the inside front covers of both volumes, neatly mounted on top of the marbled paper, “John Joseph Henry’s Property.” Henry was a Revolutionary War soldier, veteran of Benedict Arnold’s 1776 attack on Quebec, and eventually a judge in Pennsylvania’s second district. He wrote a book on his campaign with Arnold, some years after the war. There is a letter dated 1908 tucked inside the front cover on Historical Society of Pennsylvania letterhead. It reads, “Dear Weaver, I am sending you a slight remembrance of good will and regard. I have selected it from my library because it belong’d to me and also to Judge John Joseph Henry and contains his rare bookplate… Sincerely yours, John W. Jordan.” Jordan was the librarian of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The books themselves are the writings of Junius, a British pamphleteer of the decade immediately preceding the American Revolution. The letters and essays were first published in British periodical and while they are not specifically focused on the US Colonies, they do mention them in passing. They were first published in the US in the 1790’s. This edition, printed in Philadelphia in 1804, is from the great Bradford press. The Bradford family held a monopoly on printing in Philadelphia for the first half of the 1700’s until Keimer and then Benjamin Franklin opened their presses. Though Franklin stole a healthy percentage of the Bradford business, Bradford remained profitable, and expanded again after Franklin retired and David Hall took over the press. …