Titles within woodcut borders; initials, head and tail pieces; black letter; double columns.
This copy differs slightly from those described by Hazlitt (Coll. and notes 1867-76) by Lowndes, and by Sidney Lee (Dict. nat. biog.)
Compiled by Holinshed, William Harrison and Richard Stanyhurst. The present edition (1587) is edited by John Hooker, who continued the work to 1586, with the assistance of Francis Thynne on the Scottish continuations, with Thynne, Abraham Fleming and John Stow on the other portions of the book.
Includes (in v. 2) "The Irish historie ... by Giraldus Cambrensis ... translated into English by Iohn Hooker" and "The description of Scotland written ... by Hector Boetius in Latine ... and now finallie into English by R.H. [i.e. W.H.]" originally appearing in the edition of 1577.
In this edition (1587) the freedom with which contemporary events were treated led the Privy council to order extensive excisions immediately after publication. In the "Historie of Scotland" (vol. 2) omissions were made between p. 421-424, 433-436, 443-450; in the Historie of England" (vol. 3) p. 1328-1331 and all between p. 1419 and 1538 were cancelled. In the excised copies of v. 3 new passages were introduced to supply the omissions on p. 1328-1331, and the space between p. 1419 and 1538 was filled by four new leaves paged respectively 1419 and 1420, 1421 and 1490, 1491 and 1536, 1537 and 1538.
Original unexpurgated copies are extremely rare; the copy in the Library of Congress has the excisions and substitutions before mentioned.
