Is My The Italian; or, The Confessional of the Black Penitents a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Hand-press-era book: there is no edition statement, printing code or number line anywhere, so identification rests wholly on the imprint, the date and the collation
• The true first's title page gives the title and 'A Romance
• By Ann Radcliffe' with 'In three volumes,' the imprint 'Printed for T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies (Successors to Mr
• Cadell), in the Strand,' and the date 1797
• Radcliffe is named on the title page
• It must be complete in THREE volumes — the contemporaneous Dublin printing is set in TWO, which is the fastest discriminator

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Read the number line — the lowest number is the printing. A line including 1 is a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2). Paste it into the decoder.
3. Verify this is the American true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
4. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
5. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

London, T. Cadell Jun. & W. Davies, 1797, in three volumes, is the true first and the only edition of collecting consequence; the census claim is confirmed. The census's flagged trap is also confirmed and now has a concrete discriminator: the 1797 Dublin edition was printed for P. Wogan, T. Stewart, P. Byrne, J. Exshaw, W. Porter and six other Dublin booksellers, and is set in TWO volumes rather than three — an Irish reprint issued under the era's lack of cross-channel copyright, not a state of the London first. No 1797 American edition was traced. There is no original-language question; Radcliffe wrote in English.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

Pre-dates book clubs entirely. The reprint hazards are the 1797 Dublin two-volume printing and the many nineteenth-century collected-Radcliffe and 'Novelist's Library' resettings, plus modern scholarly reprints (Oxford World's Classics, Penguin, Valancourt) that reproduce the 1797 text but are 'first thus' at best. Any copy dated after 1797, or collating as fewer than three volumes, is not the London first.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Italian; or, The Confessional of the Black Penitents a first edition?

A first edition of The Italian; or, The Confessional of the Black Penitents by Ann Radcliffe (T. Cadell Jun. & W. Davies, London) is identified by: Hand-press-era book: there is no edition statement, printing code or number line anywhere, so identification rests wholly on the imprint, the date and the collation.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A number line whose lowest number is 1 marks a first printing (Random House ends at 2). London, T.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

Pre-dates book clubs entirely. The reprint hazards are the 1797 Dublin two-volume printing and the many nineteenth-century collected-Radcliffe and 'Novelist's Library' resettings, plus modern scholarly reprints (Oxford World's Classics, Penguin, Valancourt) that reproduce the 1797 text but are 'first thus' at best. Any copy dated after 1797, or collating as fewer than three volumes, is not the London first.

I have a first edition of The Italian; or, The Confessional of the Black Penitents — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.