Digby, Everard (circa 1551-1605) trans. William Percey

Digby, Everard (circa 1551-1605) trans. William Percey (pseudonym?)

The Compleat Swimmer or the Art of Swimming. London: Printed by J[ames] C[ottrel] for Henry Fletcher, 1658.First and only edition, octavo, illustrated with engraved frontispiece; bound in full 19th century calf, rubbed and worn with one area of worming loss to covering material, front board; frontis cropped with loss along fore-edge, title cropped along top (top rule trimmed away), large closed tear to B1 tacked at blank margin, bottom corner of blank margin of B4 torn away without loss of text, a few other minor tears; contents clean; 5 1/2 x 3 3/4 in.Wing P-1454; Ralph Thomas, Swimming, page 179; ESTC R20550; rare at auction with five results over 100 years: the same copy was sold twice in 2004 and 2017; the present copy was likely the one sold at Parke Bernet in December, 1952; the only other two auction results in the record date from 1916 and 1935; ESTC locates three U.K. and five U.S. copies.