GIBBON, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Dublin: for William Hallhead and Luke White and W.H. Whitestone et al., 1776-1788. 13 vols. 3 folding engraved maps by Thomas Kitchin Senior. (Browning, occasional spotting.) [Bound with in volume 13:] Edward GIBBON. Essai sur L'Étude de la Littèrature. Dublin: Hallhead, 1777. (Occasional browning, one or two contemporary ink annotations, a few corner creases, occasional spotting, marginal damp-stain to initial blanks of volume 2.) 8vo (218 x 117mm.) Contemporary calf, red morocco lettering pieces to the spines (volumes 4 and 5 with some loss to the lettering pieces, rubbing to extremities, binding split in volume 13). Note: volume 1 and 2 are dated 1776, the year of the first London printing. Volumes 3,4,5 and 6 are dated 1781, volumes 7,8,9,10,11, and 12 are dated 1788. Volume 13 which is the 'Vindication of Some Passages…' volume is dated 1779. J.E. Norton's bibliography states that when the Dublin edition came out David Hume advised Gibbon to put the footnotes at the end of the page rather than the end of the volumes and Gibbon decided to take this advice with the next printing of the London edition. Provenance: J.M. Mason (ink name to title pages) (13).