Meres, Francis (1565-1647)
Palladis Tamia. Wit's Treasury, Being the Second Part of Wits Commonwealth. London: printed by P. Short, for Cuthbert Burbie, and are to be solde at his shop at the Royall Exchange, 1598.
Octavo, B2-8, C-Z8, Aa-Tt8, Vv1-7 (lacking signature A, leaves B1, B8, and final leaf Vv8; signature M, and leaves Bb1 & Bb8 supplied from another copy); bound in full contemporary limp parchment with contemporary ink title to spine, fly leaves with inscriptions, back endleaves with printer's waste sheets with "Faultes escaped," spine reflexed, some signatures starting to spring, remains of alum tawed tie at fore-edge, a survival, housed in a modern custom box, 5 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.
"This volume is one of the most important of the books containing contemporary references to Shakespeare. It has the first mention of the Sonnets, as well as the first list of his plays which last is of great importance as providing external evidence of use in determining the dates of plays which were not yet in print. It is perhaps on account of its Shakespearean interest that it is often forgotten that this book has other claims to importance, for, besides providing a fund of information regarding Elizabethan taste and knowledge of art and natural history, it alludes to several works which are not now known to have been printed in English at the time." (Pforzheimer)
STC 17834; Arber III 125; Huntington 288; Clark Cat. VII 75; Grolier Langland to Wither 148; Hazlitt I 289; Pforzheimer 689; ESTC S110013; http://estc.bl.uk/S110013.
