Pepys, Samuel; Braybrooke, Lord Richard, Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, ESQ. F.R.S. Secretary to the Admiralty in the reigns of Charles II. and James II: Comprising his Diary from 1659 to 1669, deciphered by the Rev. John Smith, A.B of St. John’s College, Cambridge, from the original short hand Ms. in the Pepysian Library, And a selection from his Private Correspondence., Henry Colburn, 1825

4to in two volumes: xlii, 498, [2], xlix; [4], 348, vii, [1], 311. Illustrated with 13 full page plates (2 pedigrees, Facsimile of Pepys handwriting, 7 portraits, 1 map, and 2 views) Aside from some minor foxing, mostly to the preliminaries and the plates (which also show offsetting to the opposite leaves), this is a very bright, clean, tight set. Finely bound in contemporary full brown calf, rebacked with a more modern spine. Original boards’ edges are a little worn and the leather has suffered some chipping. Decorative gilt borders. Original marbled endpapers, as well as marbled fore-edges. Deciphered from its original shorthand by Rev. John Smith between the years 1819 – 1822, Pepys’ diary recounts first-hand accounts of a number of events during the English Restoration, including the Great Fire of London, the Second Dutch War and the Great Plague of London. Inarguably one of the most important works ever written on the history of London.