Cases of Divorce for Several Causes; Viz I Memoirs of the Life of.. - 1715

1715. London: E. Curll, 1715. 1st ed.. London: E. Curll, 1715. 1st ed. Issued by a Notable Grub-Street Publisher [Divorce]. [Great Britain]. Cases of Divorce for Several Causes; Viz. I. Memoirs of the Life of Robert Feilding, Esq; Containing an Account of His Amours; A Collection of His Love-Letters; Characters of His Mistresses; And a True Copy of his Last Will and Testament. [...] V. Depositions Taken in the Lady Howard's Case: Also the Judgment of the Most Eminent Divines, &c. Concerning the Dissolution of Marriage. London: Printed for E. Curll, 1715. [viii], xlvii, [1], 48, 40, [2], 41-60, [2], 34 pp. Copperplate portrait frontispiece (of Robert Fielding). With a 7-pp. catalogue of Curll's publications. [Bound after] Abbott, George [1562-1633]. The Case of Impotency, As Debated in England, In that Remarkable Tryal, 1613. Between Robert Earl of Essex, And the Lady Frances Howard, Who, After Eight Years Marriage, Commenc'd a Suit Against Him for Impotency. Containing I. The Whole Proceedings and Debates on Both Sides. [...] IV. A Detection of Some Politicks in the Court of King James the First. London: Printed for E. Curll, 1719. [viii], 192 pp. Copperplate portrait frontispiece (of Robert and Lady Frances Howard). First volume of a two-volume work. 12mo. (6-1/2" x 3-1/4"). Contemporary calf, rebacked, raised bands and blind ornaments to spine, hinges mended. Light rubbing and a few minor nicks to boards, moderate rubbing to board edges with wear to corners, hinges starting. Moderate toning to interior, faint spotting to a few leaves, recent newspaper clipping (titled "A Naked Bed") affixed to center of rear pastedown. $1,500. * Divorce: first edition; Impotency: third edition. A notorious Grub-Street publisher, Curll specialized in salacious and otherwise offensive material. He is remembered today as the nemesis of Alexander Pope. Case of Divorce, an anonymous work, offers salacious accounts of five notable seventeenth and eighteenth-century divorces proceedings involving members of the aristocracy for such causes as adultery, impotence and bigamy. The final section is a collection of documents on the "dissolution of marriage," many of them concerning impotence. Bound to our copy is the first volume of The Case for Impotency, which contains the case of Robert, Earl of Essex, and Lady Frances Howard. English Short-Title Catalogue T.