Beschreibung:

Newgate Calendar. The Newgate Calendar; or Malefactors Bloody Register. Containing Genuine and Circumstantial Narratives of the Lives and Transactions, Various Exploits and Dying Speeches of the Most Notorious Criminals of Both Sexes, who suffered Death, and other Punishments, in Great Britain and Ireland, from the Year 1700, to the Present Time; for High Treason, Petty Treason, Murder, Sodomy, Piracy, Felony, Highway Robberies, Forgery, Rapes, Bigamy, Burglaries, Riots, etc., 5 volumes, 1st edition, London: for J. Cooke, [1773], 442; [2] 398; [2] 396; [2] 1-80 73-80 89-376 393-4 (text continuous); [2] 5-381 [11] pp., 50 engraved plates (complete as list), stab-holes visible in gutter of text, contemporary bookplates (earl's coronet with monogram 'G') to each volume, contemporary calf, twin morocco labels, a few areas of loss to spines and joints, volume 1 joint partially cracked, 8vo in half-sheets (20.4 x 12 cm) (Qty: 5) ESTC T188775; Lowndes (1864) II p. 1666. Rare first edition of the sensational compendium of instructive tales of crime and punishment now identified as a progenitor of the crime fiction genre and an important source for the social history of Georgian Britain. It was originally issued in 50 parts. ESTC traces six sets world-wide.