[ROBERTSON, WILLIAM (1721-1793)]. An Historical Disquisition Concerning the Knowledge Which the Ancients had of India; and the Progress of Trade With that Country Prior to the Discovery of the Passage to it by the Cape of Good Hope. With an Appendix, Containing Observations on the Civil Policy-The Laws and Judicial Proceedings-The Arts-The Sciences-And Religious Institutions, of the Indians. London: printed for A. Strahan and T. Cadell; and E. Balfour at Edinburgh: and sold by T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, (successors to Mr. Cadell,) in the Strand, 1794.
The second edition; with the author’s last corrections and additions. Leather-bound. Hardcover. Octavo [8⁰] (225 x 135 x 35 mm.). Pp. vi, [2], 441, [23], plates: maps. English text. Stunning contemporary tree calf, smooth spine gilt, boards with gilt ruled frame, speckled page edges, marbled endpapers. Two large folding maps at front. Rear appendix, notes and index. Condition: VERY GOOD. Collated complete. Binding tight and secure, the covers beautifully preserved. Interior showing very light browning in places, maps complete.
Notes: Born in the manse of Borthwick in Midlothian in 1721, William Robertson was an ordained minister of Lady Yester's church in Edinburgh. Horace Walpole, commenting on Robertson's earlier work, praised his style as 'uncommonly good'. He became principal of Edinburgh University in 1762 and, two years later, the King's historiographer. A noted Scottish historian of his time, Robertson's later work on Charles V was highly praised by Voltaire and Gibbon. This book on India was his last major project before his death in 1793.
"The Disquisition falls into two main parts: the first two-thirds is a narrative of the commercial contacts India had with the outside world from ancient times to the sixteenth century; the remainder is a long appendix describing Indian culture. The narrative portion documents, gathers, and summarizes familiar but scattered material; the appendix is broadly descriptive and more innovative, following the pattern developed in the descriptive chapters of the History of America Robertson has been chiefly remembered as a historian. His four published historical works brought him considerable fame and wealth, and they helped establish historical writing as one of the foremost literary genres of Enlightenment Scotland Although in recent years both Hume and Gibbon have often been considered greater historians in terms of intellectual insight and historical comprehension, Robertson's contemporaries generally had no hesitation about making him their equal, if not superior." (ODNB).
