8vo. [2],v, [1], 220pp, [36]. With the half-title and a terminal index. Contemporary gilt-tooled calf, lettering-piece missing. Rubbed and marked, with small chips to head and foot of spine. Inked ownership inscription of Jo. Arnott to FFEP, additional inked inscription of 'January 1745 Robert Ffoord(?) 3 Shil. sterling pd.' to title. Endpapers browned, very occasional scattered spotting throughout.

The first English translation of The Secret History of Persia, originally published the same year in France as Mémoires secrets pour servir l'histoire de Perse. The author remains unknown, with the satire variously attributed either to Antoine Pecquet (1700-1762), career diplomat to Louis XVI, or an unidentifiable 'Madame de Vieux-Maisons', described by the inspector of the Hémery bookstore as 'one of the meanest women of her time'.

Despite the title, the work is concerned entirely with the French court, transposing the death of Louis XIV and the first years of the reign of Louis XV into an Oriental setting. The introduction maintains the facade of a Persian connection, with the printer describing the author as a traveller to 'Ispahan' [i.e. Isfahan] and the translator of 'Several manuscripts of secret history written in the Persian Tongue' given to him there by by the Secretary of State. The terminal index serves as a key to those people and events mentioned within.