An engraving depicting an interior study or library scene. In the foreground, an armillary sphere sits on a stand, surrounded by several open and closed books. One book clearly shows the partially legible Latin phrase "VIVERE NOSTRUM" original: "Our life". In the background, there's a large arched window with a grid pattern, and what appears to be a bust on a pedestal, and shelves. Architectural elements, possibly pillars or wall decorations, frame the scene. Faint handwritten annotations are overlaid on the left side of the image.
Wales in?
Yn in?
Modu?
disposer?
youd?

LIFE of PLINY,

CHARLES, Lord BOYLE.

My DEAR CHARLES,

My leisure can never be better employed than toward your improvement; nor is it more my duty than my inclination to point out to you every ancient and modern example of untainted virtue and inviolated goodness. The author who is now placed before you in our own language is a most singular instance of that primitive simplicity, that integrity of manners, and that sweetness of disposition which must render a man amiable to his contemporaries, and honored and admired by all posterity.