Heading:
Author: Grafton, Richard
Title: [A chronicle at large, and meere history of the affayres of Englande, and kinges of the same, deduced from the creation of the worlde, vnto the first habitation of thys islande: and so by contynuance vnto the first yere of the reigne of our most deere and souereigne lady Queene Elizabeth...]
Place Published: [London]
Publisher:
Date Published: 1568
Description:

[7 (lacking 3 leaves, including title leaf + 1 leaf of dedication)], [1 blank] 3-192 (lacking pp. 1-2 and pp. 41-44), [8], [2], 1369, [1 blank], [31 table of kings] pp. Illustrated with engraved title page to second volume (two volumes here being bound as one) and historiated initials. (Folio) 28x18.5 cm (11x7¼"), later full morocco ruled in blind, title in gilt on spine, marbled endpapers, all edges stained red.

Richard Grafton printed his first edition of the Chronicles in 1548, written partly by Edward Halle and partly by himself. This edition was printed as a rival to Stowe's Chronicles, first published in 1565. Grafton was caught up in the great tides of Reformation England; he was imprisoned for a short time in 1540 for printing an edition of the Great Bible, but then came to be the Royal Printer under Edward VI. However, he was again in dire straights upon the ascension of Queen Mary, as he happened to have been the printer of the declaration of the ill-fated Lady Jane Grey, the nine-day queen.

Covers rubbed, spine lightly sunned; bookseller's notes on front pastedown and front matter, extensive marginal paper repair in preliminary leaves with some loss to text, fairly regular notes in a very early hand (one dated 1643), occasional soiling, good.