[WALTON, IZAAK]. The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation. Being a Discourse of Rivers, Fish-ponds, Fish, & Fishing. To Which is Added, the Laws of Angling; with a New Table of the Particulars in this Book. London: Printed for R. Marriot, and are to be sold by Charles Harper at his Shop London, the next door to the Crown near Sergeants-Inn in Chanery-lane, 1668.
FOURTH EDITION, much corrected and enlarged. Leather-bound; hardcover; small octavo (15 x 9 x 1.5 cm); pp. xvi, 1-255, [1], [16]. English text, with engraved cartouche on the title-page, ten engravings of fish in text and two pages of type-set music being the "Angles Song" with page of music purposely bound in upside-down in all copies as intended, so two people could read the music simultaneously. Handsomely bound in English early nineteenth century dark green morocco, gilt lettered spine, gilt fillet turn-ins, red endpapers, speckled page edges. Provenance: From the libraries of Charles Hurt, Junr., and Robert Hoe, with bookplates; also with a manuscript note by the former on the rear end-leaf, regarding the purchase of the book from Thomas Thorpe in 1843. Condition: VERY GOOD. Binding tight and secure with slight rubbing to extremities. Title-leaf slightly discoloured around the edges and with two trifling marginal defects, two or three wormholes throughout, some foxing. Scarce.
Notes: An excellent copy of this classic; a celebration of the art and spirit of fishing in prose and verse. Originally published in 1653, a total of five editions were published during the author's life time, the first four of which were published anonymously. In addition to being the most famous book on fishing, its advocation for methods of sustainable wildlife management makes it "one of the most important, formative environmental texts in the English language" (Swann, p. x).
