£250
8vo, pp. [xiv], 154, [6] + frontispiece. Contemporary Cambridge-style panelled calf. Toned, some spotting and small stains. Rebacked, new red morocco label, old leather somewhat scratched and pitted, corners worn. Modern bookplate to front pastedown, earlier ownership inscription of Edward Knowles to flyleaf.
The second Boyle edition of the letters attributed to Phalaris (first 1695). Charles Boyle (1676-1731), 4th Earl of Orrery, then a young scholar at Christ Church, thought Richard Bentley had blocked his access to manuscripts in the king's library and so made a snide reference to him in his preface; it was Bentley's reply in the subsequent war of words (which inspired Swift in his 'Battle of the Books') that definitively established his reputation as a scholar, as well as the spurious nature of the letters. Boyle was one of the few unconvinced by Bentley, and this edition is an almost exact reprint of the first, including the prefatory insult that started everything off.
