About this Item
Title: The Roman History from the Building of Rome to the Ruin of the Commonweath
Author: Nathaniel Hooke - Nathaniel Hooke was an English historian.
Condition / Notes: Antique set is bound in full leather with raised bands and gilt stamped spine labels and compartments with stamped gilt ornamentation. Rear board of first volume is detached. Spine edges display cracking. Covers show light soiling, scuffing and rubbing. Minor loss of material can be seen at ends of spine and outside corners of boards. Hinges are cracked. Endpapers and blank pages at front and rear of volumes have darkened edges. Pages may show a small amount of light foxing, but are otherwise clean and bright. This work has 14 engraved plates (including the four frontispieces) and 17 well-preserved fold-out maps.
Publisher: Printed by James Bettenham and Sold by A. Bettesworith and C. Hitch and G. Hawkins / Printed by James Bettenham and Sold by C. Hitch and G. Hawkins / Printed by James Bettenham for J. and R. Tonson, G Hawkins and T. Longman / Printed for G. Hawkins and 6 others
City: London
Year: 1738/1745/1764/1771
Binding Style: Hardcover
Number of Volumes: 4 Complete: Yes
Width: 8.25" Height: 10"
He was the eldest son of John Hooke, serjeant-at-law, and nephew of Nathaniel Hooke the Jacobite politician. He is thought by John Kirk to have studied with Alexander Pope at Twyford School, and to have formed a lifelong friendship there.
It was Hooke who brought a Catholic priest to take Pope's confession on his deathbed. Hooke was also friendly with Martha Blount, who left a legacy to Miss Elizabeth Hooke. Hooke died at Cookham, Berkshire, on 19 July 1763, and was buried in Hedsor churchyard, where a tablet with a Latin inscription to his memory was put up at the expense of his friend Frederick Irby, 2nd Baron Boston, in 1801.
William Warburton described Hooke as "a mystic and quietist, and a warm disciple of Fenelon." Pope suggested that Hooke and Conyers Middleton were the only two contemporary prose-writers whose works were worth consulting by an English lexicographer.
Hooke's "Roman History, from the Building of Rome to the Ruin of the Commonwealth" (4 vols., London, 1738-1771, 4to), suggested itself to him while he was preparing an index to the English translation of Francois Catrou and Pierre Julien Rouille's "Roman History." The first volume was dedicated to Pope, and introduced by "Remarks on the History of the Seven Roman Kings, occasioned by Sir Isaac Newton's Objections to the supposed 244 years of the Royal State of Rome." The second volume is dedicated to the Earl of Marchmont, and to it are annexed the Capitoline marbles, or consular calendars, discovered at Rome during the pontificate of Pope Paul III in 1545. The third volume was printed under Hooke's inspection, but was not published until 1764, after his death. The fourth volume was published in 1771, edited by Gilbert Stuart. The whole work was frequently reprinted; the latest edition, in 6 vols. appeared in 1830. (Information courtesy of Wikipedia).
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