# Is "Tancred; or, The New Crusade" by Benjamin Disraeli a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Tancred; or, The New Crusade by Benjamin Disraeli (Henry Colburn, 1847) is identified by: First edition (Sadleir 728a; Wolff 1842), three volumes 12mo, pp.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition (Sadleir 728a
- Wolff 1842), three volumes 12mo, pp. [2],338; [2],340; [2],298,[12] (the final leaves being Colburn advertisements), published by Henry Colburn in 1847
- Original binding is boards (recorded as grayish yellowish-brown, elsewhere as plain paper-covered) with a printed paper spine label
- Sadleir also records a half-cloth binding variant
- Sadleir notes the first edition was evidently issued without half-titles, and that, unusually, only the title page of volume I carries a date, a genuine and checkable point against which a set can be compared
- Tancred concluded Disraeli's 'Young England' trilogy that began with Coningsby and Sybil
- Publisher imprint reads Henry Colburn

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Benjamin Disraeli |
| Publisher | Henry Colburn |
| Year | 1847 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition (Sadleir 728a |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition (Sadleir 728a; Wolff 1842), three volumes 12mo, pp. [2],338; [2],340; [2],298,[12] (the final leaves being Colburn advertisements), published by Henry Colburn in 1847. Original binding is boards (recorded as grayish yellowish-brown, elsewhere as plain paper-covered) with a printed paper spine label; Sadleir also records a half-cloth binding variant. Sadleir notes the first edition was evidently issued without half-titles, and that, unusually, only the title page of volume I carries a date, a genuine and checkable point against which a set can be compared. Tancred concluded Disraeli's 'Young England' trilogy that began with Coningsby and Sybil.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later single-volume reprints, such as David Bryce's 1853 'New Edition' (342 pp.) and Longmans' undated Modern Novelist's Library reprint of the 1880s, collapse the text into one volume, readily distinguished from the three-volume first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Tancred; or, The New Crusade* by Benjamin Disraeli a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/tancred-or-the-new-crusade
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.