First thus. 264pp. Red cloth-covered boards with gilt lettering on spine. 8vo. Cloth gently rubbed and rounded at corners and spine ends, perhaps a tad faded, small nick in cloth towards lower edge on front panel. Internally neat, clean, bright and tight.
Sir John Harington, an Elizabethan nobleman, here discusses the history of privies and dealing with human waste and sets out the challenges facing Elizabethan society in terms of drainage and public health, in the context of the spiritual belief that cleanliness is next to godliness. His report, first published in 1596 under the title A New Discourse of a Stale Subject, Called the Metamorphosis of Ajax, concludes with a two line verse extolling citizens to clean their household latrines: it is a complex work with twin concerns for socio-political improvement and sanitary improvements.
