1909 – THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT AUGUSTINE, BISHOP OF HIPPO. 
 
Large, Antiquarian ILLUSTRATED Hardback Book. As translated out of the original Latin by Edward Bouverie Pusey and edited by Temple Scott. With an introduction by Alice Maynell and contains the first book up until the tenth book (see photographs of the contents). 
 
With 11 delightful pastedown COLOUR PLATES, including the frontispiece, and there is a pastedown colour title page, illustrated by Maxwell Armfield. All the plates have protective sheets, with a title for the illustration. They are all present and accounted for. There is also a green ribbon inside (loose), marble pastedowns and endpapers, and top-edge gilt pages. 
 
Published by Chatto and Windus, London, in 1909. Printed in Great Britain by T. and A, Constable, Printers to His Majesty at the Edinburgh University Press. 
 
There is no dust jacket. 
 
This is a very good copy of this book and a RARE edition. It is the ‘first published edition by Chatto & Windus”. 
 
The Confessions of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, is a seminal work of Western literature and Christian theology. It was written by Augustine around 400 AD and is considered one of the earliest examples of an autobiographical work. Please read the details of its condition below. 
 
This is a tightly bound copy of this book, in an overall very neat state for a book which is 116 years old. 
 
The handsome cover is made of IVORY PAPER COVERED BOARDS, simulating Vellum. There are gilt decorations, borders, and lettering on both the front and the spine. The cover is intact, robust, and in a good condition for their age. The boards are lightly rubbed, with very light foxing. Please see the photographs provided for further reference.  
 
Inside, the pages are lightly tanned. There is foxing to the pastedowns and endpapers, and light foxing on some of the preliminary pages. The pages are otherwise in an overall neat and clean state and uncreased. There is just the very occasional very small mark. The edges of the pages are uneven and roughly cut, but this is highly likely due to the construction of this book and is all part of its beautiful history. The page leaves were probably uncut and then severed with a pen knife. This has left the occasional very small rip to the page edges, which is minimal and does not affect the text or the illustrations. Besides this, there are just small rips in between the pastedowns and free endpapers, and a very small hole in the protective sheet for plate facing page 314. There are no pen or pencil marks inside this book. The pages are tightly bound and there are no loose pages. There are no missing pages and so all 326 pages are present. 
 
Please study the photos carefully as to the condition of this book, as they do form part of the description. 
 
This measures approximately 23.9 cm by 16.8 cm and 4 cm wide. It weighs approximately 828 grams. 
 
Thank you so much for looking.