Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers Rare Books & Collectors' Sale December 9th & 10th, 2020

204 IMPERFECTIONS NOT STATED info@fonsiemealy.ie fm Harward (Michael) Philomath. A New Almanack for the Year of Our Lord, 1666, 12mo Dublin (Printed by John Crook) 1666. First & Sole Edn. red & bl. title, within wd.-cut decorated border. Interleaved copy, with approx. 40pp. of cont. m/ ss notes. In later full calf, upr. cover with “J. Swift” blocked in gilt, and date 1666 in gilt on spine. As an Association Copy, w.a.f. (1) A unique piece of 17th Century Dublin Printing, with an amazing history of an association to Jonathan Swift. In the 1680s and 1690s, the owner of this small Dublin-printed almanac of 1666 transcribed into it the texts of nearly twenty poems of the period, several with Dublin connections. Thus the earliest known miscellany of Dublin poems is found inside a unique survival of early Dublin printing. Very few early Irish almanacs survive; they were small, light books, heavily used by their purchasers since they contained not only astrological data and prognostications but also speci fi c local information on tides, fairs, eclipses and festivals. No seventeenth- century Irish-printed almanac has been o ff ered for sale in living memory and only one other almanac from this period is known to exist. This copy is of double interest since it contains, in manuscript, late seventeenth-century poems of Dublin origin. Some of these poems are unknown and unedited. For many years, it was asserted that the poems were in the hand of Swift, but it is now clear that this is not the case and, though the spine bears the words ‘1666. J.SWIFT’, none of the poems are by him. However, they are of considerable interest and shed new light on Dublin life at a time when Swift was living in the city. The book is of extreme historical and cultural signi fi cance . We are most graeful to Prof. Andrew Carpetner, M.A.Ph.I., MRIA, FEA, Emeritus Professor of English UCD for his help in cataloguing this lot, and for his Preliminary Analysis of the above volume, which is available on request. The above Volume is in fragile condition and it will not be available for general viewing. € 6000 - 9000 1135 Of the Utmost Rarity with Swift Association