History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic. New and Revised Edition, with the Author's latest Corrections and Additions. Edited by John Foster Kirk. THOMAS FALCON'S COPY WITH HIS FINE GAELIC BOOKPLATE

8vo., with a double-page facsimile, 2 full-page maps, and a full-page pedigree in the text, some light and occasional foxing to preliminaries, half-title and title [only], fore-edges very lightly spotted; attractively bound in late nineteenth century half calf, marbled boards ruled in blind, gilt top, very neatly rebacked in calf to style, marbled endpapers heightened with gilt, a very good, bright, clean copy. This copy was formerly in the library of Thomas Falcon RBA. It bears his dated signature on front free endpaper and his fine printed Gaelic bookplate on front paste-down. The bookplate displays his initials, the date 1898, his place of residence at Studland and the Gaelic motto 'Is fhearr caitheamh na meirgeadh', usually translated as 'Better to wear than to rust'. Thomas Adolphus Falcon (1872-1944) was an eminent landscape painter and silversmith of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Born at Pudsey in Yorkshire, he was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Trinity College Cambridge. He was elected Member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1902 and exhibited over 130 works with them. He was also an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, the Royal Cambrian Academy, the Royal Society of Artists at Birmingham, Walker Art Gallery Liverpool, Manchester City Art Gallery, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. His published works include Dartmoor Illustrated (1900) and Pictorial Dartmoor (1902); he also provided the photographs for the 1902 edition of Crossing's 'Ancient Stone Crosses of Dartmoor'. A long-term resident of the West Country, he lived first at Braunton in Devon and later at Studland on Dorset's Isle of Purbeck (viz. bookplate). His son Norman became a noted geologist.