John Evelyn's Diary

Kept from the 1640s into the first years of the eighteenth century and first printed in 1818, this diary records the public and private life of a royalist gentleman. Evelyn notes the Civil Wars and exile, the Restoration court, the Royal Society, gardens and building, the plague of 1665, and the Fire of London. He travels in France and Italy, buries children, and comments on sermons, books, and office. The entries are dated observations rather than a shaped autobiography. The work is a primary chronicle of seventeenth-century English affairs as seen by a pious, learned, and well-connected observer.

Full blue buckram binding with a design in gold, possible variant in full dark blue smooth cloth. Endleaves with a repeat pattern in grey. Grey slipcase.