Trouble of mind and the disease of melancholly

252J. Timothy Rogers (1658-1728)

A discourse concerning trouble of mind and the disease of melancholly : in three parts : written for the use of such as are, or have been exercised by the same.

London : Printed for Thomas Parkhurst, and Thomas Cockerill at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside, and at the Three Legs in the Poultrey 1691. $2, 800

Octavo inches. A8 (a)-(d)8 (e)4, B-2E8 ( leaf S7 pages 269/270 torn in the out margin affecting one word in each line) first Edition , bound in original calf boards neatly rebacked.

“Rogers was educated at Glasgow University, where he matriculated in 1673, and then studied under Edward Veal at Wapping.Rogers began his career in the dissenting ministry as evening lecturer at Crosby Square, Bishopsgate. Some time after 1682 he was struck down by a form of hypochondria, from which he recovered in 1690, and then became assistant to John Shower. Shower was then minister of the Presbyterian congregation in Jewin Street, and moved in 1701 to the Old Jewry Meeting-house. Rogers’s hypochondria returned, and in 1707 he left the ministry .(DNB)

Rogers cautions not to blame the devil for this depression:

“Do not attribute the effects of mere Disease, to the Devil”, He describes how the mind can make the body sick: “If a Man, saith he, that is troubled in Conscience, come to a Minister, it may be, he will look all to the Soul, and nothing to the Body; if he come to a Physician, he considereth the Body, and neglecteth the Soul: for my part, I would never have the Physician’s Counsel despised, nor the Labour of the Minister neglected; because the Soul and Body dwelling together, it is convenient, that as the Soul should be cured, by the Word, by Prayer, by Fasting, or by Comforting; so the Body must be brought into some temperature, by Physick, and Diet, by harmless Diversions, and such like ways.”

“Rogers’s detailed instructions on how to care for patients suffering from `trouble of mind’, especially from `melancholly’ of the religious kind, are particularly valuable because they were written from personal experience; as the extract shows much of his advice can still be usefully applied by the psychiatrist and the psychiatric nurse today. It appears from his biography prefixed to the third edition of his book (London 1808; a second edition appeared in 1706) that he came from a family in which several near relatives were similarly affected ‘so that his case might properly be called natural or hereditary’. In his late twenties he had his first breakdown, ‘a deep and settled melancholy’ lasting two years. On his recovery he wrote this book as an offering ‘for his wonderful restoration’, to discharge ‘the Duty of those Persons whom God hath delivered from Melancholy, and from the anguish of their Consciences’ and to show `What is to be thought of those that are distracted with Trouble for their sins’. However he continued ever after subject to ‘a very unhappy dejection of mind . . . a prey to gloomy fears and apprehensions’, so that he was forced to retire into the country where he continued to manifest ‘though in a more contracted sphere, the same zeal for the honour of God, and for the salvation of the souls of men’.” (300 years of Psychiatry, Richard Hunter, 1963, p248)

Archibald Alexander (17721851), the first professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, was a perceptive student of human behavior. His insights on counseling, especially on dealing with depression, are remarkably valid for today. In his Thoughts on Religious Experience (1844), Alexander wrote concerning the causes of depression:

“ When religious melancholy becomes a fixed disease, it may be reckoned among the heaviest calamities to which our suffering nature is subject. It resists all argument and rejects every topic of consolation, from whatever source it may proceed. It feeds upon distress and despair and is displeased even with the suggestion or offer of relief. The mind thus affected seizes on those ideas and truths which are most awful and terrifying. Any doctrine which excludes all hope is congenial to the melancholy spirit; it seizes on such things with an unnatural avidity and will not let them go. [Alexander 1978, 35] Alexander tells of Timothy Rogers, a London minister who lived from 1658 to 1728. Rogers was a godly, pious, and able pastor. Yet he was overtaken by a severe depression which today would probably be diagnosed as involutional depression. Rogers’s depression was so acute that he “gave up all hope of the mercy of God, and believed himself to be a vessel of wrath, designed for destruction, for the praise of the glorious justice of the Almighty”(Alexander 1978, 35).

Alexander describes Rogers’s condition in terms that tell us the man was clinically depressed, perhaps even psychotically depressed at times. It is clear that Alexander accepts Rogers’s depressed feelings as genuine and recognizes them as the cause of the spiritual problem which clouded his perceptions. Yet Alexander does not conclude that Rogers was damned, nor does he charge him with spiritual backsliding or lack of faith. Rather he sees a severe depression that needed to be understood. Rogers’s depression eventually ran its course, as do most involutional depressions. Many Christians cared for him and prayed on his behalf. After his depression lifted, Rogers became interested in ministering to others who experienced depression. As part of this effort he wrote treatises entitled Recovery from Sickness and Consolation for the Afflicted . Alexander was so impressed with the preface in Rogers’s Discourse on Trouble of Mind and the Disease of Melancholy that he put its contents verbatim into his own Thoughts on Relgious Experience . Those thoughts of Rogers on depression are of such high caliber that I have reproduced them in the appendix. They are the best material I have found on counseling depressed Christians. (© 1984 by William T. Kirwan)

Wing; R1848; Hunter p248

Copies – N.America

Harvard University Houghton Library

Newberry

U.S. National Library of Medicine

Union Theological Seminary

William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

University of Texas at Austin

Yale University, Medical School

October 29, 2018 0

Characters of Distinction between true and pretending Prophets are laid down. 1665

Todays book is as much fun to read as Brown’s Pseudoxia Epidemica , Like Brown Spencer is battling against superstition, with reason and natural history as his weapon and defense.

940G John Spencer, Dean of Ely 1630-1693

A Discourse concerning Prodigies: Wherein The Vanity of Presages by them is reprehended, and their true and proper Ends asserted and vindicated.

[bound with]

A Discourse Concerning Vulgar Prophecies. Wherein The Vanity of receiving them as the certain Indications of any future Event is discovered; And some Characters of Distinction between true and pretending Prophets are laid down.

London: Printed by J. Field for Will. Graves over against Great S. Maries Church in Cambridge, 1665; London: Printed by J. Field for Timothy Garthwait at the Kings head in S. Pauls Church-yard, 1665

$1,150

Octavo 6 ½ X 4 ½ . A8, a8, B-Z8, Aa-Cc8, Dd4; A-I8, K4. Second edition of the first book, first edition of the second book. Bound in contemporary calf.

The remarkable nature of Spencer’s achievement is enhanced when it is remembered that oriental studies were then in their infancy and that he was compelled to derive nearly all his data from classical writers of Greece and Rome, from the Christian fathers, the works of Josephus, or from the Bible itself. Spencer professed that his object was ‘to clear Deity from arbitrary and fantastic humor, “A greatly extended editon of Spencer’s refutation of omens and apparitions and the first to include his new publication, a “Discourse Concerning Vulgar Prophecies.” The book examines a copious assemblage of superstitions and auguries, such as comets, eclipses, the turning of ponds to blood and the moving of mountains, tracing the history of the Old Testament and classical mythology and commending the study of Natural Philosophy. Spencer examines superstitious beliefs surrounding comets and eclipses, as well as the beliefs held by some on the turning of ponds to blood and the moving of mountains and many more interpretations of bizarre natural phenomena.

“I Shall descend now to a close and distinct discourse concerning the (forementioned) Prodigies Signal; and amongst them, first con∣cerning those which more immediately resolve into causes Natural.”

Spencer disapproved of the interpreting natural phenomena as superstitious prognostication and rather tricot to come up with, what we would call, a scientific explanation.

” in which the vanity of receiving them as the certain indications of any future event is discovered, and some characters of distinction between true and pretended prophets are laid down.”

This attempt to bring the public to reason and sobriety was not less timely than the the first book, published in response to the “Annus Mirabilis,” Some enthusiasts brought to notice a number of pretended prodigies, as portending future changes in the state, Spencer conceiving it to be of dangerous consequence thus to unsettle the minds of the people,,

And it might Be usefully renewed in current instances and at THIS much later period .

Spencer writes :”That Nature in its production of the several kinds of crea∣tures, should (as if they were all stampt with one common seal) give them forth in such equal and similar figures and proportions, is a more just object of wonder, then to see the natural Archeus sometimes to play the bungler, and to leave its work (in some parts thereof) rude and mishapen. That the Earth should generally be delivered of the many vapours and winds within its bowels, without the pangs and throws of an earthquake; and that all the host of Heaven should marchJoel 2. 7, 8.every one on his way, and not break their ranks, neither thrust one another, but walk every one on his path (to borrow the language of the Prophet)Excedit profectò omnia miracula, ul∣lum diem fu isse in quo non cuncta confla∣grarent. Plin. Hist. Nat. l. 2. c. 107. are prodigies beyond an Earthquake, New star, or monster sometime discovered to the world, and therefore more justly chosen to be the constant instances of the divine Wisdom and Power; and to see some strange fires breaking forth (sometimes) from the caverns of the earth, is so much beneath wonder, that Pliny tells us, it exceeds all wonder, that there should be any day wherein all the things in the world (so pregnant with fiery principles) do not break forth into one mighty flame, and lay the world in ashes.Now then what sober Reason can warrant us to conclude any necessary and natural occurrences the prophetick signs of Events”

“John Spencer, master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and author of ‘De Legibus Hebraeorum,’ was a native of Bocton, near Bleane, Kent, where he was baptized on 31 October 1630. He was educated at the King’s School, Canterbury, became king’s scholar there, and was admitted to a scholarship of Archbishop Parker’s foundation in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, on 25 March 1645. He graduated B.A. in 1648, M.A. in 1652, B.D. in 1659, and D.D. in 1665. After taking holy orders he became a university preacher, served the cures first of Saint Giles and then of Saint Benedict, Cambridge, and on 23 July 1667 was instituted to the rectory of Landbeach, Cambridgeshire, which he resigned in 1683 in favor of his nephew and curate, William Spencer. On 3 August 1667 he was unanimously elected master of Corpus Christi College, and he governed that society for twenty-six years. He contributed verses to the Cambridge university Collection on the death of Henrietta Maria, queen dowager, in 1669. He was appointed a prebendary to the first stall at Ely in February 1671/2, and served the office of vice-chancellor of the university in the academic year 1673, during which he delivered a speech addressed to the Duke of Monmouth on his installation as chancellor of the university. He was admitted on the presentation of the king, to the archdeaconry of Sudbury in the church of Norwich on 5 September 1677; and was instituted to the deanery of Ely on 9 September 1677. He died on 27 May 1693, and was buried in the college chapel, where a monument with a Latin inscription was erected to his memory. He married Hannah, daughter of Isaac Puller, and sister of Timothy Puller. She died leaving one daughter (Elizabeth) and one son (John).
“Spencer was an erudite theologian and Hebraist, and to him belongs the honor of being the first to trace the connection between the rites of the Hebrew religion and those practiced by kindred Semitic races. In 1669 he published a ‘Dissertatio de Urim & Thummin,’ in which he referred those mystic emblems to an Egyptian origin. […] In 1685 appeared Spencer’s chief publication, his ‘De Legibus Hebraeorum ritualibus et earum rationibus libri tres.’ In this work, which included the earlier treatise on Urim and Thummin, Spencer deserted the time honored paths traced by commentators, and ‘may justly be said to have laid the foundations of the science of comparative religion. In its special subject, in spite of certain aspects, it still remains by far the most important book on the religious antiquities of the Hebrews.’ (Robertson Smith, Religions of the Semites, 1894) .’” (DNB)

Wing S-4948; CH, CLC, CN, IU, PL, WF, Y; Wing S-4949; CH, CLC, IU, MIU, NU, TO, TU, WF, Y.

CHAP. II. Concerning Prodigies, Signal, Natural.I Shall descend now to a close and distinct discourse concerning the (forementioned) Prodigies Signal; and amongst them, first con∣cerning those which more immediately resolve into causes Natural. Concerning all which, I offer this general Thesis to proof. Prodigies Natural are not intended, nor to be expounded the Prognosticks of judge∣ments, suddenly to ensue upon whole Nations or particular persons. It is (especially) ignorance of their causes and ends which hath prefer∣redIsa. 44. 15. some of these Natural Prodigies to so great a veneration and re∣gard in many mens minds. As Ethnicism of old made the gods it worshipt, so ignorance oft makes the Furies it dreads.This Thesis I shall endeavour to perswade,1. By some general Reasons and Arguments.2. By a particular Induction and Survey of such as seem most plau∣sibly pretended the silent Monitours of some approaching venge∣ance.First, By some general Reasons.SECT. I. Reasons to prove Prodigies Natural no Signs of a future judgement.The first Argument taken from their doubtfull and uncertain indication; That proved from the confessions of their ablest Expositours; From their different Expositions in all times. The Interpreters of them banisht the Iewish Common-wealth of old, upon this account, Philo. Thuanus. The Argument further urged from Tully. God’s Signs express; The use∣lesness of those which are not.2. From a consideration of the times wherein most attended to. The rea∣son why a regard is to be had to the times and seasons; When Laws or U∣sages first obtained, noted from K. James. The times noted especially for gross ignorance in matters of Religion and Philosophy. Some Obser∣vations upon the remaining Registers of such accidents yet extant: The times remarked also for the publick fears and distractions happening in them. Livy. Seneca.3. From the natural and necessary Causes of these things. More of Na∣ture observable in a Prodigy, then common Occurrences.4. From the Nature and temper of the Oeconomy we are now under.THe Argument which I shall first offer to reprehend the commonArg. 1. vanity of receiving them as a kinde of indications in bodies Po∣litick, is this: Their (pretended) indications are so hugely perplext, doubt∣full and uncertain, that it cannot be concluded what judgement they portend, or when to ensue, or whether private persons or whole Nations be alam’d by them.If God do write Fata hominum in these mystick characters, there is none on earth found able to reade the writing, and (with any certainty) to make known the interpretation thereof. Most of their Expositours (like those upon Aristotle) are rather Vates quàm Interpretes. Concerning that prodigious Comet which shone in our Hemisphere, Ann. 1618▪ one that pretended himself as much Coelo à Conciliis as other men, yet thus freely delivers himself, Deum immortalem! quantò ille plurs de sese fermè Opiniones quàm crines sparsit. To a like purpose Tycho Brahe (discoursing de Nova stella Cygni, Ann. 1600.)

October 23, 2018 0

The Primitive Origin of Mankind EVOLUTION in 1677!

825G Matthew Hale

The Primitive Origin of Mankind considered and examined according to the light of nature.

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London: William Godbid for William Shrowsbery, 1677 $ 2,800

Folio 12 1/2 X 7 3/4 inches a-4,b2,B-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Bbb4,Ccc2. First edition.

This copy is bound in full later calf. This copy has the book plate of Desmond Morris author of the book The naked ape and numerous TV shows sociobiology and Evolution.

“The problem of human origins, of how and when the first humans appeared in the world, has been addressed in a variety of ways in western thought. In the 17th century the predominant explanation for the origin of the world and the beings that inhabit it, especially human beings, was based on the biblical account of creation. It was almost universally accepted that humans had been created by a supernatural agent using supernatural means. But alternative explanations for the production of the first humans did exist, according to which the first humans were produced by nature through some form of spontaneous generation” (Matthew R. Goodrum).

The word evolution (from the Latin evolution, meaning “to unroll like a scroll”) appeared in English in the 17th century, referring to an orderly sequence of events, particularly one in which the outcome was somehow contained within it from the start. Notably, in 1677 Sir Matthew Hale, attacking the atheistic atomism of Democritus and Epicurus, used the term evolution to describe his opponent’s ideas that vibrations and collisions of atoms in the void — without divine intervention — had formed “Primordial Seeds” (semina) which were the “immediate, primitive, productive Principles of Men, Animals, Birds and Fishes.”[ Goodrum] For Hale, this mechanism was “absurd”, because “it must have potentially at least the whole Systeme of Humane Nature, or at least that Ideal Principle or Configuration thereof, in the evolution whereof the complement and formation of the Humane Nature must consist … and all this drawn from a fortuitous coalition of senseless and dead Atoms.”[ Goodrum]

DSC_0037 (3) While Hale (ironically) first used the term evolution in arguing against the exact mechanistic view the word would come to symbolize, he also demonstrates that at least some evolutionist theories explored between 1650 and 1800 postulated that the universe, including life on earth, had developed mechanically, entirely without divine guidance. Around this time, the mechanical philosophy of Descartes, reinforced by the physics of Galileo and Newton, began to encourage the machine-like view of the universe which would come to characterise the scientific revolution.[Bowler ] However, most contemporary theories of evolution, including those developed by the German idealist philosophers Schelling and Hegel (and mocked by Schopenhauer), held that evolution was a fundamentally spiritual process, with the entire course of natural and human evolution being “a self-disclosing revelation of the Absolute”.[Schelling]

In response to Isaac de la Peyrere‘s theory of polygenesis, Hale advanced his own theory that the earth was not eternal, but rather had a spontaneous “beginning,” and went on to defend “the Mosaic account of the single origin of all peoples” (Norman). He further believed “that in animals, especially insects, various natural calamities reduce the numbers to low levels intermittently, so maintaining the balance of nature” (Garrison & Morton). Hale anticipated Malthus in studying the growth of a population from a single family, and “seems to have been the first to use the expression ‘geometrical proportion” in respect to population (Hutchinson). Primitive Origination was written as the first part of a larger manuscript entitled Concerning Religion, the whole of which “was submitted to Bishop Wilkins, who showed it to Tillotson. Both advised condensation, for which Hale never found leisure” (DNB). This first part, called “Concerning the Secondary Origination of Mankind,” was published after his death as The Primitive Origination of Mankind. A lawyer by trade, Hale distinguished himself after the fire of London in 1666 by deciding many cases of owner and tennant dispute, and helped facilitate the rebuilding of the city. He also publically demonstrated his belief in witches when as a judge he condemned more than one suspected witch to death. Wing H-258 ;Norman 965 ;Garrison & Morton 215; Lowndes, 973.

Goodrum, Matthew R. (April 2002). “Atomism, Atheism, and the Spontaneous Generation of Human Beings: The Debate over a Natural Origin of the First Humans in Seventeenth-Century Britain”. Journal of the History of Ideas 63 (2): 207–224

Bowler, Peter J. (2003). Evolution:The History of an Idea. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23693-9.

Schelling, System of Transcendental Idealism, 1800

Brian Regal Human Evolution: A Guide to the Debates, 2004

October 22, 2018 0

1512 Dante Alighieri 99 wood-cuts !

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

Opere del Divino Poeta Danthe con svoi Comenti : Recorrecti et con ogne diligentia novamente in littera cvrsiva impresse. In bibliotheca S. Bernardini. [With the commentary of Cristoforo Landino.

[Venetia] In bibliotheca. S. Bernardini, [1512] {[Impressa in Venetia per Miser Bernardino Stagnino da Trino de Monferra]} Sold

Quarto: 8×5 1/2 inches ; [12], 441 leaves. Collation: AA12 (AA1 In very good facsimile of the title) , a-z8, [et]8, aa-zz8, 2[et]8, [con]8, [rum]8, A-E8

FIRST STAGNINO EDITION

There are a few contemporary annotations by several hands throughout. Endpapers renewed.

This copy is bound in a strange but interesting binding of modern manufacture.It is Bound in brown full leather with an inlayed white material carved image of ‘Danthe’ beset by the lion, leopard and wolf!

The book is illustrated with a full-paged woodcut of Dante with three scenes (1. wandering in the “selva oscura”, 2. beset by the lion, leopard and wolf, and 3. led by Vergil.) The poems are illustrated with 98 smaller woodcuts. In addition to the woodcuts that illustrate the text, there is a vignette of Adam & Eve, God, and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden that appears on the title page and again in the woodcut border on the first leaf of the Inferno. A woodcut of St. Bernardino of Siena also appears on the title. There are woodcut initials throughout. Title page printed in red and black. Some of the woodcuts are signed C or with a small column with or without initials PF or CC.

The woodcuts “differ from those used in earlier editions yet show unmistakable traces of those of 1491.”(Fiske Catalogue, p. 7). The text surrounded with commentary./ Italic type (Proctor 12359); 51 lines of commentary partially surrounding text.

This edition has the commentary of Cristoforo Landino (1424-98) His Dante commentary was presented to the city with great fanfare in a public ceremony in 1481, and with corrections to both the Landino commentary and the text of the Commedia by Pietro da Figino (Pietro Mazzanti da Figline). In addition to the Commedia, this edition includes Dante’s Italian verse paraphrases of the Pater Noster, Ave Maria and the Creed.

“Dante’s theme, the greatest yet attempted in poetry, was to explain and justify the Christian cosmos through the allegory of a pilgrimage. To him comes Virgil, the symbol of philosophy, to guide him through the two lower realms of the next world, which are divided according to the classifications of the ‘Ethics’ of Aristotle. Hell is seen as an inverted cone with its point where lies Lucifer fixed in ice at the centre of the world, and the pilgrimage from it is a climb to the foot of and then up the Purgatorial Mountain. Along the way Dante passes Popes, Kings and Emperors, poets, warriors and citizens of Florence, expiating the sins of their life on earth. On the summit is the Earthly Paradise where Beatrice meets them and Virgil departs. Dante is now led through the various spheres of heaven, and the poem ends with a vision of the Deity. The audacity of his theme, the success of its treatment, the beauty and majesty of his verse, have ensured that his poem never lost its reputation. The picture of divine justice is entirely unclouded by Dante’s own political prejudices, and his language never falls short of what he describes.” PMM

“Edizione rara e molto stimata… fu intitolata ‘Opere’ probabilmente perché contenente il Credo, il Pater Nostro, e l’Ave Maria parafrasati in versi Italiani da Dante.”(Colomb De Batines, I, pp. 78-9)

Adams D 90; Mambelli, Annali delle Edizioni Dantesche, no. 27; Colomb De Batines, Indice generale della Bibliografia dantesca I, 78; Sander, Le livre à figures italien, depuis 1467 jusqu’a 1530, 2325; Essling, Les livres à figures Vénitiens de la fin du xve siècle et du commencement du xvie, 529.

Fisk:Opere del divino poeta Danthe con svoi conienti : recorrecti et con ogne diligentia novamente in littera cvrsiva impresse.Atend: Fine del comento di Christoforo Landino Fiorètino sopra la Comedia di Danthe poeta excellentissimo reuista & emédata ditigetenmente p el rcuerédo maestro Pietro da Figino … & ha posto molte cose in din ersi luoghi che ha truouato mancare si in lo texto eòe nella giosa etià nouiter per altri excellenti huoT. Impressa in Venetia per Miser Bernardino stagnino da Trino de monferra. Del. M.CCCCC.XII. Adi. xxiiii. Nouembrio. 8°. ff. (12) + 441. Wdcts. 1012 B 6

At the end are the Credo, Pater nostro, and Ave Maria of Dante. The woodeuts are a full-page cut at the beginnìng of the Inferno, mie at the bottoni of the first page of the Inferno, in which depicts the figures Octaviano and Sibiìia, small ones at the head of each canto (differing from the cuts in the earlier editions, yet showing unmistakable traces of those of 1491), with a vignette of St. Bernard and a woodcut of Adam and Ève on the tùie-page. These illustrations are reprinted in the edition of 1520, except that there the wr.odcut of Adam and Ève is repeated on the first pair of the Inferno, and the vignette on the title-page is smaller and reversed.

Bandini, Angelo Maria. Specimen literaturae Florentinae saeculi XV in quo dum Christophori Landini gesta enarrantur virorum ea aetate doctissimorum in literariam remp. 2 vols. Florence: Rigaccius, 1747–1751.

“Edizione rara e molto stimata.” — Colonib de Batines, i.78.

Harvard University Bulletin, Volume 4, Justin Winsor : Harvard University. Library. 1887

Please don’t look : Iconografia Dantesca: The Pictorial Representation to Dante’s Divine Comedy By Ludwig Volkmann, Charles Sarolea 1899.

October 21, 2018 0

The 1611 King James “The Great He Bible.”

Fewer than 200 original printings of the 1611 are known to exist (and out of that number, fewer than 50 are complete “He” variants.

FIRST EDITION OF THE AUTHORIZED VERSION

Arguably the most important book ever published in English.

KNOWN AS THE GREAT “HE” BIBLE, with the reading in Ruth III:15:

“he [referring to Boaz] measured sixe measures of barley and laide it on her; and he went into the citie.”

The second pronoun “he” actually refers to Ruth, so it should read “and she went into the citie.” Because of this error, this first edition is often referred to as “The Great He Bible.” (after the Hebrew text), rather than “and she went” (after the Latin Vulgate) in the second edition. Also with all other first edition readings.

210J KJV

The Holy Bible, : conteyning the Old Testament, and the New: newly translated out of the originall tongues: & with the former translations diligently compared and reuised, by His Maiesties speciall com[m]andement. Appointed to be read in churches.

Imprinted at London : By Robert Barker, printer to the Kings most Excellent Maiestie. 1611 $220,000

Large Folio, 15 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches : 732 leaves A⁶ B² C⁶ D⁴ A-5C⁶; A-2A^{6}. complete}

see below:

^{descriptive positioning and condition of the signatures.}

A-C⁶ D²; (O.T. and Apocrypha) A-Ccccc⁶; (N.T.) A-Aa⁶unpaginated or foliated. The General title mounted and with c. 18 small holes, mostly from old attempts to ink out a prior ownership inscription; the next several leaves have rust-like marks resulting from the damage to the title just mentioned; A2 has a closed tear; the double page map is a facsimile; the blank outer corner is torn from B1 (Mt 10) & there is a closed tear to B2; a strip is torn from the blank outer margin of X6 (Hebrews 12/3); a small piece is torn from the top of Aa5, removing most of a word of text and a word of the headline, recto & verso; Aa6 (the final leaf) was missing and is replaced in facsimile; the final leaves of the NT are increasingly worn and lack the crisp, clean nature of the bulk of the text. Generally the text is crisp and clean, BUT at both front and rear the top margin is shaved, especially in Exodus & Numbers & to the beginning of Deuteronomy (and again at the end of the NT) touching the rule and occasionally the top of the headlines (elsewhere the top margins are small); there is a dampstain at the top from mid-I Kings, retreating to the inner corner in the Prophets, but persisting there to the Gospels: there is a bit more general staining at the end of the NT; the bottom outer corner is a bit creased and dog-eared pretty much throughout, evidencing the use such a Bible received in its early days as a lectern Bible; the outer edge of the leaves is slightly abraded at a few points.

Binding: This copy is bound in full modern calf in an appropriate style, as you can see in the following Images

Called “the only literary masterpiece ever to have been produced by a committee,” the King James Bible was the work of nearly 50 translators, organized in 6 groups. G.M. “The editors who passed the book through the press were Miles Smith … and Thomas Bilson …”, see Herbert.

Trevelyan stated “for every Englishman who had read Sidney or Spenser, or had seen Shakespeare acted at the Globe, there were hundreds who had read or heard the Bible with close attention as the words of God. The effect of the continual domestic study of the book upon the national character, imagination and intelligence for nearly three centuries to come, was greater than that of any literary movement in our annals, or any religious movement since the coming of St. Augustine.” Thomas Babington Macaulay described it as “a book, which if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power.”

To prove that point I have made a list of just a few of the phrases which seem inseparable from English.

Bite the Dust from Psalms 72:9, “They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.” (KJV)

The Blind Leading the Blind Matthew 15:13-14, “Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”

Broken Heart from Psalms 34:18, ” The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” (KJV).

Can a Leopard Change his spots?from Jeremiah 13:23 (KJV), “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.”

Cast the First Stone from John 8:7, “And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”.

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry from Ecclesiastes 8:15, “because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.”

Eye for Eye, Tooth for tooth from Matthew 5:38, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.”

Fall From Grace from Galatians 5:4, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”

Fly in the Ointment from Ecclesiastes 10:1 (KJV), “”Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.””

For Everything there is a Season from Ecclesiastes 3. Ecclesiastes 3 is also the motivation for the song “Turn! Turn! Turn!” by the Byrds.

Forbidden Fruit from Genesis 3:3 when Adam and Eve were commanded not to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. “But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”

Go the extra mile from Matthew 5:41 that says, “And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain” (KJV).

Good Samaritan from Luke 10:30-37, the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword from Matthew 26:52, “Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”

How the Mighty have Fallen from 1 Samuel 1:19, “The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen!”

Let there Be Light from Genesis 1’s creation account.

Nothing but skin and bones from Job 19:19-20, “All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me. I am nothing but skin and bones.”

The Powers that Be from Romans 13:11 (KJV), “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”

Pride comes before a fall from Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” (KJV).

Put words in one’s mouth from 2 Samuel 14:3, “And come to the king, and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth.”

Rise and shine is from Isaiah 60:1, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.”

The Root of the Matter from Job 19:28 (KJV), “But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the Root of the matter is found in me?”

Scapegoat from the Old Testament Law (Leviticus 16:9-10 specifically) where a goat is chosen by lot to be sent into the desert to make atonement for sin.

See eye to eye from Isaiah 52:8 (KJV), “Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.”

Sign of the times from Matthew 16:3 (KJV), “And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?”

Strait and Narrow from Matthew 7:14, “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Twinkling of an Eye from 1 Corinthians 15:52, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

There’s nothing new under the sun from the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 1:9 (KJV) says, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”

Wash your hands of the matter from Matthew 27:24 (KJV), “When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.”

Weighed in the balance from Job 31:6, “Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know mine integrity.”

Wit’s End from Psalm 107:27 (KJV), “They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.” And the Psalm does not refer to the Whit’s End with the Imagination Station.

Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing from Matthew 7:15 (KJV), “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”

Carl H. Pforzheimer Library,; 61; English Short Title Catalogue,; S122347; Pollard, A.W. Short-title catalogue of books printed in England, Scotland, & Ireland and of English books printed abroad, 1475-1640 (2nd ed.),; 2216; Herbert, A.S. Historical catalogue of printed editions of the English Bible, 1525-1961,; 309 Printing and the Mind of Man 114. ;Rumball-Petre, Rare Bibles, 122;

Two Formats of KJV’s

October 21, 2018 0

Scholastic Philosophy

read this one first

Law, Politics, and Philosophy

Introduction

Putting aside its religious and salvific significance to the faithful, and to those who once lived and died for it, Christianity has played a very important role for the longevity of human knowledge and culture. During the period called the Dark Ages, following the collapse of the once glorious Greco-Roman civilization, the entire western civilization entered a state of economic turmoil and social anarchy. As implied by the term “Dark Ages,” there was both a bankruptcy in human knowledge and culture. The brutish barbarians sacked into ruins the proud Roman states and colonies, including their important cultural sites, and destroyed almost all the works of the great Greek and Roman thinkers, as they were lost and burned into ashes. The ignoble vandals ravishingly placed human civilization at the verge of destruction.

A sudden spark of light was initiated by the Christian Carolingian Period. This period, spearheaded by Charlemagne…

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October 20, 2018 0

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES OF SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY

Worth a read! a nice introduction

Law, Politics, and Philosophy

I. Introduction

Most people look at Christianity only as an instrument for spiritual salvation. But little do they know, Christianity has been an instrument for the longevity of human knowledge and culture. In the period called the Dark Ages, following the collapse of the once glorious Greco-Roman civilization, the entire western civilization entered a state of anarchy. As implied by the term “Dark Ages,” there was both a bankruptcy in human knowledge and human spirituality. The brutish barbarians sacked into ruins the proud Roman states and colonies, including their important cultural sites. As a result almost all the works of the great Greek and Roman thinkers were lost and burned into ashes. The ignoble vandals ravishingly put human civilization at the verge of annihilation.

A sudden spark of light was initiated by the Christian Carolingian Period. This period, spearheaded by Charlemagne, aimed at reviving education and religion. The so-called Medieval…

View original post 2,713 more words