Co-founder of The Spectator. Joseph Addison (1672-1719) was an English essayist and poet. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long standing friend, Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine. Before the paper closed on 6 December 1712, it had gone through 555 issues, had regularly sold up to 4000 copies (indeed even larger figures for a few numbers), and had transformed periodical writing in English (ODNB).

The Catholic Church placed Addison's works on their list of banned books, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1729, where they remained up until the Index was abolished in 1966 by Pope Paul VI.

Large paper copy, 4 volumes; 4to (30 x 24 cm); engraved portrait frontispiece, engraved vignettes and initials; contemporary English red morocco, covers with wide, gilt borders of dotted lines, rolls, and foliate designs interspersed with crowns, spines extra gilt in six compartments, gilt outer edges, edges and dentelles, neat repairs to extremities. A very handsome set.