DONNE, John (1572–1631). Poems. London: M[iles] F[lesher] for John Marriot, 1633. [Bound with:] Juvenilia. London: Printed by E.P. for Henry Seyle, 1633.

The first edition of both works. The passionate wit of John Donne has made him beloved since his own time. His innovative poetry explores themes of intimacy, grief, science, and religion, striking a chord with each successive generation. Most of Donne's work circulated only in manuscript during his lifetime, and here is lovingly collected from those copies two years after his death. This copy of the Poems with the first state of leaf Nn1, with 35 lines of text.

Juvenilia contains 11 of Donne's paradoxes and 10 of his problems, brief essays, "nothings," as Donne termed them, which "carry with them a confession of their lightness." They were composed, wrote the author in a letter to Henry Wotton, "rather to deceave tyme then her daughter truth." The collection, expanded in later editions, is usually bound with the Poems of the same year, as it is here. Grolier Donne 26 and 81; Keynes 43 and 78; Pforzheimer 296; STC 7043 and 7045.

Quarto (192 x 130mm). Woodcut printer's device on title of Juvenilia. (Some pale dampstaining to title and preliminaries in Poems; both vols lacking A1 blanks). Contemporary calf (rebacked, with original spine laid down). Provenance: remnants of red leather bookplate to front pastedown.