Printed under the pseudonym 'Robert Burton', this book was one of the many texts printed and sold by Nathaniel Crouch in the late-seventeenth century. Little is known of Crouch's life but it appears that he was a shrewd businessman, stocking a huge variety of books on various historical subjects which ranged from recent history and biographies to sensationalist literature on witchcraft and supernatural phenomena. Though this type of book was denounced by authors such as Alexander Pope for their populist nature and their use of many different sources, they were reprinted many times throughout the eighteenth century.

All of the pocket-sized duodecimo (meaning that a sheet of paper was folded to produce 12 pages) editions of Crouch's works in the Royal Library are bound in a similar style: brown calf with scallop details at the corners, forming a lozenge shape in which is stamped an image that resembles a Greek-style comic mask. This is an unusual binding, which appears to have been done some time in the late-eighteenth century, almost certainly before the books arrived in the Royal Library. They were part of the founding collection of the present Royal Library and are listed in the inventory of William IV, produced in 1837.