Select Poems Divine and Humane

The Nonesuch Press, Bloomsbury, 1928. Small 8vo, pp. [vi], 51, [vi]. One of 1250 copies, this being 1025. All edges untrimmed, an unopened copy. Limp vellum parchment with pigskin thongs, small gilt-stamped decoration to front cover, gilt-stamped 'Beedome' to spine. Some rubbing to parchment. Front hinge cracked and unattached, binding starting. The verse of Thomas Beedome (d. 1641) includes love poems, elegies for such figures as his friend John Donne and Gustav Adolphus of Sweden, and religious works. Somewhat in the manner of Donne, they were published in 1641 after his death, and a pirated edition came out in 1657. Thereafter they languished until Meynell took an interest in them and edited them for this printing. The Nonesuch Press was founded in 1923 by typographer and book designer Francis Meynell (1891-1975) with the help of his friend David Garnett and his future wife, Vera Mendel. Meynell designed his books on a small Albion hand press, but had them printed commercially in order to keep the price of well-designed books made of quality materials within the means of readers and collectors who could not afford most private press editions.…