Memoirs of Agrippina.
Hamilton, Elizabeth. Memoirs of the Life of Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus. In three volumes. London: G. and J. Robinson, 1804.
3 vols.; lacks half-titles; final gatherings of volumes two and three foxed; marbled endpapers; armorial bookplates to front pastedowns; contemporary green mottled calf; gilt-ruled flat spines, black morocco labels, marbled edges. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
First edition of Hamilton’s most ambitious work. In her previous work, Letters on the Elementary Principles of Education (1801), she attempted “to use philosophical theories of the development of the mind to deduce effective educational techniques” for women (www.litencyc.com). In her own words, “the object” of that work was “to point out the advantages which are to be derived from paying some attention to the nature of the human mind in the education of youth” (preface, Memoirs…). The “aim” of this work, however, was “to give such an illustration of the principles that were then unfolded, as may render them more extensively useful,” which she further explains in her detailed preface which spans nearly three dozen pages. This she achieves by applying to her subject matter “the techniques of fiction (although never straying from the facts – it is a work of history, not an historical novel) to interest young women readers in questions of ethics and morality raised by classical history” (http://www.litencyc.com/).
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