A SCARCE 1776 MAGAZINE PRINTING OF THE DECLARATION

1776. Item #94

A SCARCE 1776 MAGAZINE PRINTING OF THE DECLARATION—WITH A FOLDING MAP OF PHILADELPHIA DURING THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION

The Scots Magazine. Edinburgh, January–December 1776.

12 monthly issues with Appendix, bound in one volume. 8vo. Contemporary half calf over boards; spine gilt-lettered “Scots Magazine 1776.”
Lacking the general title page. Folding engraved map present: “A Map of the Country round Philadelphia… including Part of New Jersey, New York, Staten Island & Long Island.” Binding worn with rubbing and scuffing to calf; upper joint weak and beginning to loosen at head; internally generally clean with expected toning and occasional wear.

A highly desirable Revolutionary-era volume containing one of the earliest British printings of the Declaration of Independence, appearing in the August 1776 issue. The text—issued within weeks of the American announcement—offers a near-contemporary transatlantic transmission of the founding document, preserving how the Declaration first entered European print culture.
The present volume is especially rich in American material, including extended coverage of the developing conflict and a complete printing of Common Sense across the June through September issues. Such runs served as a primary vehicle through which British readers encountered colonial arguments for independence in real time.
The folding map of the Philadelphia region is of particular importance, depicting the geographic theater at the moment the city stood at the political center of rebellion. Survival of this map is uncommon, and its presence here materially enhances the volume’s significance.
Though lacking the general title, the survival of the August Declaration printing together with the map and the full run of issues renders this a compelling and increasingly scarce artifact of Revolutionary print history—an early European witness to the birth of the United States.

Price: $1,750.00