(Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1871).

A PLEASING AND HANDSOME SET OF WILLIAM PRESCOTT'S HIGHLY IMPORTANT HISTORICAL WORKS. The titles include; HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO, History of the Conquest of Peru; History of Ferdinand and Isabella; History of the Reign of Philip the Second, History of the Reign of Charles the Fifth.
William Prescott was known as one of the United States foremost historians. At the time that Prescott undertook this project, no English speaking historians had explored Spanish history using Spanish sources. With the increasing liberalization of the government at the time of his writing, he was able to take full advantage of primary sources that had been previously inaccessible to scholars. Additionally, he drew upon literary, political and traditional historical sources to give a more complex--and ultimately more complete--interpretation of the history at the time.
Prescott set out to print the history of the Spanish conquest of the Incas in Peru. The Incas had established a refined social polity, and had made considerable progress in the arts of civilization. Their contact with the devastatingly powerful empire of Spain is one of the most epic confrontations in the annals of human history. Prescott s rendering of the story has always been considered one of the great historical works on the Spanish in America.
Despite the fact that Prescott was blinded in one eye in his childhood, he was determined early on to embark upon a literary career. He went to Europe for two years at the age of nineteen to get the background for historical writing, and wrote a few miscellaneous essays on Spanish history. His first real success was his HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA THE CATHOLIC, and this success encouraged him to begin research in 1839 on THE HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO. It was published four years later, and in four months it had sold 5,000 copies. It was followed by 25 more editions by 1856, becoming one of the masterpieces of historical narration. THE HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF PERU is its partner set and is considered along with  MEXICO to be one of the great works in American historiography.
Prescott s work on Ferdinand and Isabella begins with an excellent summary of Spanish history during the Middle Ages and an account of the political condition of Spain in the fifteenth century. It also contains information on the establishment of the modern Inquisition and the condition of Spanish Arabs prior to the War of Granada. As a description of the critical period of Spanish history when Spain was consolidated into one nation from a number of petty kingdoms, this work remains unrivaled.
Part of Prescott s appeal was in his writing style which recounted history in grand terms:  This work, in an almost neglected field, has come to be considered his greatest triumph, not only because of his historical accuracy, but because of its epic sweep, which, following in the vein of Scott, arranged itself around the two heroic figures of Cortes and Montezuma to create a dramatic tragedy. This is a highly readable and important historical work.
. Item #32178

12 volumes. Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece to each volume and facsimiles of handwriting. 8vo, publisher's original green cloth lettered and decorated with royal seals and lettering in gilt on the spine panels, covers blocked in blind, top edges gilt. A very good and handsome set with light wear to the tips and crowns, the text-blocks and illustrations all in good order, the hinges tight and strong, the green cloth and giltwork all quite well preserved.