A tale of a tub. Written for the universal improvement of mankind. To which is added, an account of a battel between the antient and modern books in St. James's library

All titles
  • A tale of a tub. Written for the universal improvement of mankind. To which is added, an account of a battel between the antient and modern books in St. James's library
  • Full and true account of the battel fought last Friday, between the antient and the modern books in St. James's library.
People / Organizations
Imprint
London : printed for John Nutt [by Benjamin Motte], near Stationers-Hall, MDCCV. [1705] The fourth edition corrected.; ..
Added name
Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745. Battle of the books.; Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745. Discourse concerning the mechanical operation of the spirit.; Motte, Benjamin, -1710, printer.; Nutt, John, bookseller.
Publication year
1705
ESTC No.
T135307
Grub Street ID
183746
Description
[12], 322 p. ; 8°.
Note
Anonymous. By Jonathan Swift

Printed by Benjamin Motte. "The fourth edition (1705) reimposes type shared with the third edition on at least 61 pages: B4v, B8v, E1v, E2v-E3, E7v, H1, H2-H3, H4v-H7, H8-H8v, K1-K2, K3v-4, K5v-K8v, N1, N2-O1, O2-O3, O4v-O5, O7-O8v, X1, X2v, X3v-X4, X5, X6. . . . The fourth edition introduces at least 29 alterations, five substantive, in shared text-settings, such as 'Complement' for 'Compliment' at H2/99.24 and 'some' for the erroneous 'same' at N5v/186.18." Nineteen of those 29 variants, "most of which are corrections, occur in 46 page-settings that the fourth edition shares with both the second and third editions." --p.96-97, May, James E. "Re-Impressed Type in the First Four Octavo Editions of A Tale of a Tub, 1704-1705." In "The First Wit of the Age : essays on Swift and his contemporaries in honour of Hermann J. Real", edited by Kirsten Juhas, Patrick M"uller, and Mascha Hansen, 85-108. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013

'A full and true account of the battel' and 'A discourse concerning the mechanical operation of the spirit' each have a separate dated title page; the pagination and register are continuous

With an initial advertisement leaf.