- 690J Alexander, Sir William, Earl of Stirling 1567-1640
Recreations VVith The Mvses. By William Earle of Sterline. [including] Dooms-Day, Or, The Great Day of Ivdgement. By William, Earle of Sterline.
London: Printed by Tho. Harper, 1637. $1,500
Folio 277 x 177 mm Signatures: A⁶ (A1 blank) B-X⁶ Y⁸, [π]² Aa-Dd⁶ Ee⁸ (Ee8blank). (The first and last blanks may be the originals, it is unclear.) This copy lacks the portrait frontispiece, which was probably never included, see below. Greg is doubtful that it was printed to accompany the book. Bound c.19th century sprinkled calf boards, modern rebacking with new morocco spine label lettered in gilt and raised bands. Later (1795) engraved facsimile portrait frontispiece. A tidy copy. First Edition.
Collected verse of a leading Scottish statesman, courtier, scholar, and poet. Appearing here for the first time is a considerable fragment of a sacred epic called “Jonathan.” The poems of the Earl of Stirling were praised by such contemporaries as Drayton, and were read with care by Milton.
“Although nearly every title included in this collection had been previously published, they are here completely revised, and in some cases practically newly written. Students of philology have found the successive editions of Alexander’s works very useful for this reason that they progressively exhibit a text in which provincialisms and vulgarisms were conscientiously weeded. This edition presents the final revision of all this poet’s work which he wished to survive, as well as the first printing of his ‘Jonathan.’” (Pforzheimer)
“The courtly Scottish poet, Sir William Alexander, afterwards earl of Stirling, […] deferred the publication of his sonneteering experiment— ‘the first fancies of his youth’ —till 1604. Then he issued, under the title ‘Aurora,’ one hundred and six sonnets, interspersed, on the Italian and French pattern, with a few songs and elegies. Alexander is not a poet of deep feeling. But he has gifts of style which raise him above the Elizabethan hacks. Another Scottish poet, whose muse developed in the next generation, William Drummond of Hawthornden, began his literary career as a sonneteer on the Elizabethan pattern just before queen Elizabeth died. [Drummond contributed a short commendatory poem to the ‘Dooms-day.’]” (The Cambridge History of English Literature then goes on to class Alexander and Drummond with Fulke Greville. Quoted from volume iii, page 304.)
“William Alexander was born in the village of Menstrie in Clackmannanshire. The family home of Menstrie Castle had been built in about 1560, possibly on the site of an earlier castle owned by the family. As a very junior member of the aristocracy, the young Alexander was appointed tutor to the Earl of Argyll and spent time touring with him abroad. He subsequently became a gentleman usher to Prince Charles, the son of James VI.
When the royal court moved to London in 1603 on James’ accession to the English crown as James I, William Alexander moved with it, becoming Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and Master of the Household.
Increasingly known for his poetry and his rhymed tragedies, Alexander assisted the King in the preparation of “The Psalms of King David, translated by King James”, and was later appointed by the King to be their sole printer. In 1614 he was knighted. In 1621 James VI/I granted Alexander vast tracts of land in North America. He christened his new lands “Nova Scotia” and set to work colonising them with Scots to whom he sold hereditary baronetcies (on behalf of the King) at £150 each, with considerable success.” Copyright Undiscovered Scotland © 2000-2023
In 1626, James appointed Sir William to the post of Secretary for Scotland, with the power to govern north of the border on the King’s behalf. In 1628 Sir William was granted the lands and barony of Menstrie. In 1630 Sir William became Viscount of Stirling and Lord Alexander of Tullibody, and in 1633 he was further promoted through the ranks of the aristocracy to become the 1st Earl of Stirling. This may have been a consolation prize awarded to him by James VI/I, because in 1632 much of Nova Scotia had been lost to the French. In the process much of Sir William’s fortune was lost and he spent the remainder of his life in reduced circumstances, despite continuing to hold various government appointments. Not so reduced, however, that he couldn’t afford to relocated his home to the newly renovated and very grand Argyll’s Lodging in Stirling.
Sir William continue to write throughout his life. He specialised in “closet dramas” not intended to be performed publicly, and is remembered particularly for a series of classical tragedies entitled “Croesus”, “Darius”, “The Alexandrean”, and “Julius Caesar”. A number of editions of his collected plays were published between 1604 and 1637.
STC 347; Pforzheimer #5;. ESTC S106640STC (2nd ed.), 347; Greg, III, p. 1010-1; Arber iv, 371; Huntington C.L., #4; Huth catalogue iv, 1401; Greg, English Printed Drama,III,1010-1011. Hoe catalogue, lot number 3.”,”11/17/97″,”According to Pforzheimer the portrait frontispiece, “by Marshall, of William Alexander, is not frequently met with, we can only trace six other examples, and [it] was apparently not prepared when the book first came from the press for it does not occur in large paper dedication copies.”
2) 767J Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Sylva Sylvarum or A Naturall Historie in ten centuries written by the Right Honourable FRANCIS LO Verulam ViscountSt. ALBAN – published after the Autors death by WILLIAM RAWLEY Doctor in Divinitie, one of his Majesties Chaplaines. Hereunto is now added an Alphabeticall Table of the principall things contained in the whole work.
London: Printed by John Haviland for William Lee and are to be sold by Iohn Williams., 1635
Price $ 2,500
Folio 26.5 x 18cm. Signatures: A-Z6, Aa-Bb6, Cc4, a-g4.. This copy is bound in early quarter calf expertly rebacked . Book plate of Abel Smith Woodhall Park Binding tight and firm. A good clean copy of an early edition. The engraved title page and portrait of Bacon dated to 1631 and 1631 respectively are both present in this volume.
“The new method [Bacon’s big plan, the Instauratio Magna] is valueless, because inapplicable, unless it be supplied with materials duly collected and presented—in fact, unless there be formed a competent natural history of the Phenomena Universi. A short introductory sketch of the requisites of such a natural history, which, according to Bacon, is essential, necessary, the basis totius negotii, is given in the tract Parasceve, appended to the Novum Organum. The principal works intended to form portions of the history, and either published by himself or left in manuscript, are historia Ventorum, Historia Vitae et Mortis, Historia Densi et Rari, and the extensive collection of facts and observations entitled Sylva Sylvarum […] “Nature thus presented itself to Bacon’s mind as a huge congeries of phenomena, the manifestations of some simple and primitive qualities, which were hid from us by the complexity of the things themselves. The world was a vast labyrinth, amid the windings of which we require some clue or thread whereby we may track our way to knowledge and thence to power. This thread, the filum labyrinthi, is the new method of induction. But, as has been frequently pointed out, the new method could not be applied until facts had been observed and collected.
This is an indispensable preliminary. ‘Man, the servant and interpreter of nature, can do and understand so much, and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of nature; beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything.’ The proposition that our knowledge of nature necessarily begins with observation and experience, is common to Bacon and many contemporary reformers of science, but he laid peculiar stress upon it, and gave it a new meaning. What he really meant by observation was a competent natural history or collection of facts. ‘The firm foundation of a purer natural philosophy are laid in natural history.’ ‘First of all we must prepare a natural and experimental history, sufficient and good; and this is the foundation of all.” (EB) This book is ‘the foundation of all,’ consisting of all of Bacon’s empirical experiments along with his utopian fable, The New Atlantis.
GIBSON 174.; Portrait of Bacon (listed 1) and Engrave title dated 1631; STC 1172.
3) 689J Bacon, Francis 1561-1626
Resvscitatio Or, bringing into Pvblick Light Several Pieces Of The Works Civil, Historical, Philosophical, and Theological, Hitherto Sleeping Of the Right Honourable Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam, Viscount Saint Alban. In Two Parts. The Third Edition, According to the best Corrected Copies, Together With his Lordships Life. By William Rawley, Doctor in Divinity, His Lordships First and Last Chaplain. And lately his Majesties Chaplain in Ordinary.
[bound with]
The Second Part of the Resuscitatio Or A Collection Of several pieces of the Works Of the Right Honourable Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, and Viscount of St. Albans. Some of them formerly Printed in smaller Volumes, and being almsot lost, are now Collected and put into Folio, with some of his other pieces, which never yet was published. Collected By William Rawley Doctor of Divinitye, his Lordships first and last Chaplain, and lately Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty.
(both titles) London: Printed by S.G.[i.e. Sarah Griffin] and B.G. [i.e. Bennet Griffin] for William Lee, and are to be sold at his Shop, at the sign of the Turks head in Fleetstreet over against Fetter Lane, 1671 $1,500
Folio x. cm. Signatures: [unsigned]² B2 [π1 A2 [π]1, A-B⁴ C²; ²B-Z4 Aa-Kk⁴ Ll⁴(-Ll4); ³A-N⁴; X⁴ [B]1, ⁴A-D⁴; ⁵A-B⁴ C⁴(-C3,4) D-H² I1 K-M⁴ N1; ⁶A-C⁴ D² F-N² O1; ⁷a⁴ b1 A-L⁴ M² N⁴; ⁸A-G² H1. Frontis. plate unsigned port of Bacon at age 66. Plate bound at the end of ’The life of the Right Honourable Francis Bacon’ signed: W. Hollar fecit 1670.
This is the first edition to include both parts.
Includes: ’A preparatory to the history natural & experimental. … By a well-wisher to his Lordships writings’ with a separate title page (⁴A1r) bearing the imprint: London, printed by Sarah Griffing and Ben. Griffing, for William Lee at the Turks-head in Fleet-street, over against Fetter-Lane, 1670 and with separate pagination (Wing B317).
Includes: ’Certain miscellany works of the Right Honourable, Francis Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban’ (Wing B275) with a separate title page bearing the imprint: London, printed by T.J. for H.R. and are to be sold by Wil. Lee, At the Turks-Head in Fleet-street. M. DC. LXX. [1670]’ and with separate pagination and register.
Includes: ’The natural and experimental history of winds, &c’ (Wing B306) with a separate title page bearing the imprint: London, printed for Anne Moseley, and Tho. Bassett at the George on Fleet-street, 1671 and with separate pagination and register. Includes: ’A brief discourse touching the office of Lord Chancellor of England. Written by the learned John Selden …’ (Wing S2420) with a separate title page bearing the imprint: London, printed for William Lee at the Turks head in Fleetstreet, over against Fetter-lane end, 1671 and with separate pagination and register.
The edition of ’A brief discourse touching the office of Lord Chancellor of England’ varies from copy to copy, containing the 1671 ed. (Wing S2420) or the 1672 ed. (Wing S2421). ’The life of the Right Honorable Francis Bacon … By William Rawley D.D.’, ’A collection of apophthegms new and old’, ’Several letters written by this honourable author, to Queen Elizabeth, King James, and divers lords, and others’, ’The apology of St. Francis Bacon Kt.’ (Wing B268), ’The translation of certain Psalms, into English verse’ and ’A charge given by the most eminent an learned St. Francis Bacon, Kt.’ each have separate dated title pages, with various imprints and dates and some have separate pagination and registers; for complete bibliographical information, see Gibson, R.W. Francis Bacon a bibliography of his works and od Baconia to the year 1750, no. 229.
Wing (CD-ROM, 1996),; B321& B317; Gibson, R.W. Francis Bacon,; 229; ESTC (RLIN),; R037049
4) 530J. Thomas Beard, -1632.
The theatre of Gods judgements: wherein is represented the admirable justice of God against all notorious sinners, great and small, specially [sic] against the most eminent persons in the world, whose exorbitant power had broke through the barres of divine and humane law. Collected out of sacred, ecclesiasticall, and pagan histories by two most reverend doctors in divinity, Thomas Beard of Huntington, and Tho. Taylor, the famous late preacher of Mary Aldermanbury in London. The incomparable use of this book for ministers and others is largely expressed in the preface.
London: printed by S.I. [i.e. Susan Islip] & M.H. [i.e. Mary Hearne] and are to be sold by Richard Whitaker at the signe of the Kings Armes in St Pauls Churchyard,* MDCXLVIII. [1648]. $5,000
Folio 25 ½ x 20 cm. Signatures (4) 1-444 Second Part: (2) 1-111 (1) This is A reissue of the same year (Wing B1565B; ESTC R226560) which has an imprint reading in part: Printed by Susan Islip, and are to be sold by Mary Heron. A variant Includes a reissue of Wing T570 (ESTC R23737), with the original title page: The second part of the theatre of Gods iudgments. … by … Dr Thomas Taylor, … London printed by Richard Herne. An. Dom. 1642. There is very imperfect internet copy from the defectivein: Bodleian Library./.”/ Imperfect: p. 39-40, 107-108 of 2nd pt., all after p. 110 of 2nd pt. lacking. “Best copy available for photographing. “ ?
This copy has a wonderful pedigree, Graham Pollard, Arthuri B Evans and Sebastian Evans, with ownership inscriptions to front free end paper, along with penciled notations. This copy is bound in full contemporary calf recently rebacked.
Beard, as most biographical notes begin “is best known as Chromwell’s teacher, as an ardent Puritan, that makes sense to a degree, yet I will argue that it is this book, The theater of Gods Judgment has as much influence, and is due more respect. This book is a Puritan Hammer, exhibiting all the forms of ‘Fire and brimstone” which the Puritan God imposed upon those who digressed from the righteous way. Perhaps the narrative of Kit Marlowe’s death, which has now been extrapolated and adjectivally escalated to mythic proportions of social commentary is now the most discussed aspect of this book. Yet Beard’s attack on the theater is not as specific as it might have been, he seems most concerned with Tertullian?. Aside from this ‘though Beard does bring up quite amany examples of the social forces at play in the theater.
Translated in large part from a French original, The Theatre of God’s Judgments, with its many instances of God’s spectacular (and often grimly appropriate) punishment of sinners, was his most successful and frequently reprinted work.
Wing B1565B; ESTC R226560
Copies in N.America
NYPL & SMU only!
5) Borlase , Edmund (complier)
The history of the execrable Irish rebellion trac’d from many preceding acts, to the grand eruption the 23. of October, 1641. and thence pursued to the act of settlement.
London, England: Henry Brome, Robert Clavel, and Richard Chiswell in St.Paul’s Church-Yard., 1680. Price $2,700
Folio. 35 x 25 cm. Signatures: A⁴ b-d⁴ x1, B-2T⁴, (A*)-(T*)⁴ with one folding chart. This is a large copy in contemporary full speckled calf, with the later signet society arms in gilt center of front and rear boards. Spine label. Marbled edges. Later marbled endpapers as is typical of a lot of the Society of the Signet books. There is a bookplate of Edw’d Place.
Very wide margins and side notes. In this chronology, these dates being noted in the margins across from where events of that year are first recounted.
Of particular (if horrific) note is a 17 pp. section entitled: “A Collection of Murthers in Several Counties of Ireland committed since the 23d of October, 1641. abstracted out of certain Examinations taken by Virtue of Commissions under the Great Seal of Ireland,which said Particulars are singled (amongst infinite others of that kind) pointing to the Circumstances, and the. Names of the Persons (or some of them) murthering or murthered: The fuller Evidence of which may be found (according to the Quotations) in the Archives of Dublin,now in Possession of the Clerk of the Council.”
There then follows a county-by-county graphic recounting of numbers maimed or killed (some might rightly or wrongly call this propaganda), the manner in which these assaults occurred, down to the last gruesome details, to wit: Drownings; bellies ripped open,and babies pulled out and brain-dashed; Women hanged up by the hair of their heads all night,;” A distracted gentleman run through with a pike, he laughing the while”; stripped naked and murdered in the church, someone being quartered alive,his quafters then thrown into the face of his father; Brains knock’d out with a Hatchet; “A Scotchman, an Englishman, &c a Welchman imprisoned in the Stocks at Newcastle, where they lay without breeches upon raw Hides, that their joints rotted, insomuch that when two of them were afterwards hang’d, one of their feet fell off by the Anckle”; “Mrs. Jane Addis of Kilcoursie (after her going to Mass) murthere’d in her house in Fox Countrey Com. Regu, having a child not a quarter old; the Murtherers putting the dead
woman’s Breast into the child’s mouth, bade it such English bastard, and so left it”; people being buried alive, etc. etc. No seeming end to this evidence that human beings are worse beasts than beasts, by far. Or at very least and kindest, to propaganda, at any rate.
6). 556J Browne Thomas 1605-1682
The Works Of the Learned Sr Thomas Brown, Kt. Doctor of Physick, late of Norwich. Containing I. Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors. II. Religio Medici: With Annotations and Observations upon it. III. Hydriotaphia; or, Urn-Burial: Together with The Garden of Cyrus. IV. Certain Miscellany Tracts. with Alphabetical Tables.
London: Tho. Basset, Ric. Chiswell, Tho. Sawbridge, Charles Mearn, and Charles Brome, 1686 $2200
Folio 33 x 19 cm. Signatures: A6, (a)4, B-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Iii4, Kkk6, Lll-Qqq4, Rrr6, Sss-Zzz4, Aaaa-Dddd4, Eeee2. This copy has the rare portrait of Browne by R. White; the engraving of the urns is bound before the Hydriotaphia, and the engraving of the quinqunx is bound opposite the title for the Garden of Cyrus. This copy is in good condition. It is bound in early calf which has been rebacked..
“[Thomas Browne’s] affluence and established residence (the transport of a collection containing many folio volumes is not lightly to be undertaken) enabled him to build up in ten years or so the substantial scholarly library which provided the materials for his longest work, Pseudodoxia Epidemica. First published in 1646, it was revised and expanded in successive editions up to the sixth in 1672. In it Browne took up a suggestion by Bacon in his Advancement of Learning that there should be compiled a list of erroneous beliefs held at that time in the fields of the natural sciences and general knowledge. Browne went further, and, by combining in his disquisition on each topic the testimonies of authority, reason, and experiment, endeavored to dispose once for all of some hundreds of fallacies. The work, executed with wide learning, wit, and characteristic style, immediately established his reputation as a savant, remaining popular at home and abroad for at least a century.” (Robbins)
“Browne is more scientific than Bacon when he discusses some notions already touched in Sylva Sylvarum: for instance, that coral is soft under water and hardens in the air; that a salamander can live in and extinguish fire (if ancient tradition is true, says Bacon, the creature has a very close skin and some very cold ‘virtue’); that the chameleon lives on air (Bacon makes air its ‘principall Sustenance’ but admits flies as well). In the examination of these and other arresting items in his encyclopedia, Browne appeals to critical authority, reason, and experience; of these criteria only the last is strictly Baconian. But Browne was in fact a tireless observer and experimenter. And when a whale was thrown upon the coast of Norfolk he verified his notion of spermaceti; in later years he was able, through his son, to test the belief that ‘the Ostridge digesteth Iron’—after swallowing a nugget the bird died ‘of a soden.’ But in the settling of a more commonplace problem, the reputed inequality of the badger’s legs, the mere report of the senses appears, happily for readers, to count less than abstract and almost metaphysical logic. Many exotic and ‘occult’ traditions were less readily verifiable by experience, and in this un-Baconian realm Browne of necessity relied upon reason and the weighing of authorities. ” (Bush)
Browne’s works are as delightful and as varied as the man himself. “A man of enormous learning and prodigious memory, Browne was also whimsical, eccentric, and superstitious—a paradoxical mixture of medieval lore, Baconian science, and great intellectual curiosity. […] Browne’s religious position in Religio Medici and his other works is that of a cultivated, tolerant Roman stoic thoroughly knowledgeable of Bacon’s foolish idols but emotionally aligned to the ceremonial and ritualistic Anglican religion of John Donne, George Herbert, and Lancelot Andrewes. His Religio Medici covers much the same ground as Richard Hooker’s Of The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, but does so with the brilliant speculations of Montaigne, coupled with his own characteristic tone of ‘love and wonder.’ For Browne there is no tension between faith and reason, and doubt is not agony but occasion for paradoxical joy.” (Ruoff, Elizabethan and Stuart)
In the present work, the following subjects are treated: “I. Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors. II. Religio Medici: With Annotations and Observations upon it. III. Hydriotaphia; or, Urn-Burial: Together with The Garden of Cyrus. IV. and the Certain Miscellany Tracts,” which further contains “I. Observations upon several Plants mentioned in Scripture; II. Of Garlands, and Coronary or Garland-plants; III. Of the Fishes eaten by our Saviour with his Disciples after the Resurrection from the dead; IV. An Answer to certain Queries relating to Fishes, Birds, Insects; V. Of Hawks and Falconry, ancient and modern; VI. Of Cymbals, &c.; VII. Of Ropalic or Gradual Verses, &c.; VIII. Of Languages, and particularly of the Saxon-Tongue; IX. Of Artificial Hills, Mounts or Boroughs in many parts of England: what they are, and to what end raised, and by what Nations; X. Of Troas, what place is meant by that Name. Also of the situations of Sodom, Gomorrah, Zeboim, in the Dead Sea; XI. Of the Answers of the Oracle of Apollo at Delphos to Croesus King of Lydia; XII. A Prophecy concerning the future state of several Nations; in a Letter written upon occasion of an old Prophecy sent to the Author from a Friend, with a request that he would consider it; XIII. Musaeum Clausum, or Bibliotheca Abscondita: containing some remarkable Books, Antiquities, Pictures and Rarities of several kinds, scarce or never seen by any man now living.”
“Hydriotaphia is the leisurely excursion of a scholarly mind into the burial customs of past nations, and The Garden of Cyrus a pursuit of a number and form through art, nature, and philosophy. […] Hydriotaphia has been considered by George Williamson as a dissertation on human identity and the quest for its immortal retention. Its sections develop from the initial ease of identifying the purpose of the relics discussed, through a consideration of their failure to achieve this purpose—in that it is difficult to date such relics, let alone put a name to them—to the orthodox Christian consolation of expected resurrection, and the vanity by contrast of all earthly monuments. […] Likewise, The Garden of Cyrus is no horticultural handbook: rather, its pentatonic groves and thickets are a musical score transposed into verbal imagery, a reading of ‘that universal and public manuscript’ of the great Platonic Idea, of ‘that harmony which intellectually sounds in the ears of God.’” (Robbins)
Wing B-5150.
- 760J. Cooper, Thomas. (1517-1594)
Thesaurus Lingvae Romanae & Britannicae, tam accurate congestus, ut nihil pene ineo desyderari possit, quod vel Latine complectatur amplissimus Stephani Thesaurus, vel Anglice, toties aucta Eliotae Bibliotheca: opera & industria Thomae Cooperi Magdalenesis. Quid fructus ex hoc Thesauro studiosi possint excerpere, & quam rationem secutus author sit in Vocabulorum interpretatione & dispositione, post epistolam demonstratur. Accessit Dictionarium Historicum & poeticum propria vocabula Virorum, Mulierum, Sectarum, Populorum, Orbium, Montium, & caeterorum locorum complectens, & in his iucundissimas & omnium cognitione dignissimas historiae.
London: [publisher not identified] [J. Charlewood?],, 1584
Price $3,800
Folio, 12x 8 inches. Signatures: ¶⁶ A-Y⁶ 2A-2Y⁶ 3A-3Y⁶ 4A-4Y⁶ 5A-5Y⁶ 6A-6V⁶ 7A-7M⁶. Third edition. This editionwas preceded by editions in 1565 and 1573 (Dictionarium Historicum begins on 7D2). L3 is mis-signed as K3 and O2is mis-signed as O3. There are two small paper repairs on Si and 2S4. 19th-century ¾calf over cloth, with gold lettering to spine.
Cooper, in addition to his controversial and historical works, (he completed Lanquet’s Chronicle and became embroiled in two of the greatest controversies of ecclesiastical polity of the sixteenth century in England: The Jewel/Harding exchanges and the “Martin Marprelate” controversy) his expanded and corrected edition of Eliot’s dictionary appeared in 1552 and 1559. He then went to work on what the DNB calls “his greatest literary work” the present “Thesaurus Lingvae Romanae & Britannicæ” According to the DNB this work “delighted Queen Elizabeth so much that she expressed her determination to promote the author as far as lay in her power.” Originally published in 1565, Thomas Cooper’s famous Latin English dictionary was of the greatest importance in shaping Elizabethan education. It owes its name in part to Estienne’s “Thesaurus linguae Latinae” of 1532 and is indebted as well to Sir Thomas Elyot’s dictionary of 1532 (Cooper later edited the “Bibliotheca Eliotæ”), as well as to the literary humanist tradition of Northern Europe, notably Erasmus and Bude. Latin terms and English definitions printed in roman and gothic type, respectively.
The Thesaurus was a standard reference during the formative years of Edmund Spencer, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson; and for scholars today it remains one of the most important books for the study of the English idiom of the Elizabethan period. “M Cooper was made dean of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1567, dean of Gloucester in 1569, bishop of Lincoln in 1571, and bishop of Winchester in 1584. Alden notes that the dictionary includes a definition and discussion of Guiacum, (The genus name originated in Taíno, the language spoken by the native Taínos of the Bahamas; it was adopted into English in 1533, the first word in that language of American origin.) and in the Dictionarium historicum, a description of America as discovered by Vespucci.
STC 5688; Vancil, p. 59; Zaunmuller, col. 120; Starnes, Renaissance Dictionaries, chapt. VIII. Green. I.Humanism and Protestantism in early modern English education] Entry “guaiacum” in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, retrieved 2013-04-30.
8) 696J William Davenant 1606-1668
The Works of Sir William Davenant Kt, Consisting of those which were formerly Printed, and those which he design’d for the Press: Now Published out of the Authors Originall Copies.
London: Henry Herringman, 1673 $2,500
Folio12 ¾ x 7½ inches . π1 2π2 A-3D4 3E2; Aa-Ppp4, Aaaa-Oooo4
First Edition An unusually fine, fresh, wide-margined copy, with a fine impression of the portrait. Bound in full contemporary calf with nicely gilt spine.
The First Collected Edition, with prefatory material by Hobbes, ‘The answer of Mr. Hobbes to Sr. William D’Avenant’s preface before Gondibert’, and poems by Waller and Cowley. Several of the plays originally published in blank verse are here printed for the first time, converted into prose. The volume also includes first printings of ‘The Playhouse to be Let’, ‘Law Against Lovers’, ‘News from Plymouth’, ‘The Fair Favourite’, ‘The Distresses’, and ‘The Siege’. The posthumous collection was published under the watchful eye of “Lady Mary” D’Avenant. The poems reflect the attitudes of the Cavalier poets and the received tradition of earlier poets, particularly Shakespeare, Jonson, and Donne. She no doubt also insisted on the fine portrait frontispiece restoring her husband’s missing nose, which he had lost through illness in 1638.
Following the death of Ben Jonson in 1637, Davenant was named Poet Laureate in 1638. He was a supporter of King Charles I in the English Civil War. In 1641, before the war began, he was declared guilty of high treason by parliament along with John Suckling, after he participated in the First Army Plot, a Royalist plan to use the army to occupy London. He fled to France Returning to join the king’s army when the war started, he was knighted two years later by king Charles following the siege of Gloucester.
Wing D320
9) 592J Eusebius of Caesarea (275-339 AD)
The Avncient Ecclesiasticall Histories of the First Six Hvndred Yeares After Christ, written in the Greeke tongue by three learned Historiographers, Eusebius, Socrates, and Euagrius. Evsebivs Pamphilvs Bishop of Cæsarea in Palæstina uurote 10. bookes. Socrates Scholasticvs of Constantinople uurote 7. bookes. Evagrivs Scholasticvs of Antioch uurote 6. bookes. VVhereunto is annexed Dorothevs Bishop of Tyrus, of the liues and endes of the Prophetes, Apostles and 70. disciples. All which authors are faithfully translated out of the Greeke tongue and now perused and corrected by Meredith Hanmer, Doctor of Diuintie. Last of all herein is contained a briefe Chronographie collected by the said Translator, with a copius Index of the Principall matters throughout all the Histories.
London : Printed by Richard Field, dwelling in the Blackfriers, 1607. Price $1,600
Folio 27x 19 cm; Signatures: ¶⁶ A-2I⁶ 2K-2M⁴ 2N-3E⁶ 3F⁴. Third edition. The first edition was printed in 1577 by Vautrollier. Bound in contemporary calf, rebacked. A nice copy with a large publisher’s emblem of an anchor held by the hand of God entwinned with laural branches in a baroque cartouche frame motto Anchora Spei . In total there are 5 titlepages with the same publisher’s woodcut in two sizes.
“In his Church History, Eusebius attempted according to his own declaration to present the history of the Church from the apostles to his own time, with special regard to the following points: (1) the successions of bishops in the principal sees; (2) the history of Christian teachers; (3) the history of heresies; (4) the history of the Jews; (5) the relations to the heathen; (6) the martyrdoms. He grouped his material according to the reigns of the emperors, presenting it a she found it in his sources. The contents are as follows: After a detailed introduction, which treats of Jesus Christ, comes the history of the apostolic time to Trajan; books iv. and v. treat of the second century; book vi. of the time from Severus to Decius; book vii. extends to the outbreak of the persecution under Diocletian; book viii. treats of this persecution; book ix. brings the history to the victory over Maxentius in the West and over Maximinus in the East; book x. relates the re-establishment of the churches and the rebellion and conquest of Licinius. In its present form the work was brought to a conclusion before the death of Crispus (July, 326), and, since book x. is dedicated to Paulinus of Tyre who died before 325, at the end of 323 or 324. This work required the most comprehensive preparatory studies, and it must have occupied him for years. His collection of martyrdoms of the older period may have been one of these preparatory studies. The authenticity of Eusebius’ Church History is beyond dispute. Every new discovery shows anew the conscientious, carefull and intelligent use of the libraries of Caesarea and Jerusalem.” (Schaff-Herzog)
STC (2nd ed.), 10574
10). 895D. Fuler, Thomas (1608-1661)
The Church History of Britain; From the Birth of Jesus Christ, Untill the Year M. DC. XLVIII. Endevoured by Thomas Fuller.
London: for John Williams, 1655. Price $2,200
Folio 32 x 21.7 cm. Signatures: a4, A-Y4, Aa-Nn4, Oo2, P-Qq4, Rr2, Rr-Zz4, [Aa]-[Ii]4, Ccc4, [Ddd]-[Zzz]4, [aaa]-[ggg]4, [hhh]2: ¶¶4, Aaa6, Bbb-Zz4, [Aaa]-[Ggg]4, Aaaa-Zzzz4,[ Aaaa]-[Gggg]4, [Hhhh]2 , aaaaa4, Aaaaa-Xxxxx4, Yyyyy2, 6A-6C4, ¶-¶¶4, ¶¶¶2. First Edition Illustrated with three full-paged engraved plates:”The Seales of the Armes of all the Mitred Abbeys of England” The other two are separate views of Litchfield Cathedral; and a folding map of Cambridge. This copy is lacking the double-paged engraved plate: the arms of “the Knights Joined with the Monkes of Ely by William the Conqueror”; This copy is bound in full light modern calf by the Studio 4 bindery 1986.
“It is regrettable that so fine a writer as Fuller should so often be dismissed as merely ‘quaint.’ Coleridge— who, with Lamb, revived his reputation —ranked him with Shakespeare, Milton, Defoe, and Hogarth as one of the ‘uniques’ among the ‘mighty host of our great men,’ and although that ranking may be open to objection, it does suggest the stature of Pepys’ ‘great Tom Fuller.’ […] Fuller’s chief concern was the completion of two major works that had been long deferred — the promised Church History (1655) and The Worthies (1662) […] Into these two massive undertakings he poured enough antiquarian zeal, piety, patriotism, erudition, and witty common sense to supply a dozen lesser men. As his first, anonymous biographer observed in 1661, Fuller’s later life was ‘a kind of errantry,’ with the object of his quest the history of his native land. Wherever he went, jogging through the English countryside, ‘he spent frequently most of his time in views and researches of their antiquities and church monuments, insinuating himself into the acquaintance (which frequently ended in a lasting friendship) of the learnedst and gravest persons residing in the place, thereby to inform himself fully of those things thought worthy the commendation of his labors.’ He himself records that he wrote the first three books of the Church History (from the birth of Christ to the later fourteenth century) before 1649 and the other nine (which end with Charles’ execution) after ‘monarchy was turned into a state.’ Despite ‘much difficulty’ in completing this gigantic labor, the twelve books, each provided with a lavish dedication, appeared in 1655.” (Baker)
Wing F-2416. Gibson, Thomas More #304.
11). 770E. Greville Fulke, Lord Brooke (1554-1628)
Certaine Learned And Elegant VVorkes Of The Right Honorable Fvlke Lord Brooke, Written in his Youth, and familiar Exercise with Sir Philip Sidney. The seuerall Names of which Workes the following page doth declare.
London: Printed by E.[lizabeth]P[urslowe]. for Henry Seyle, and are to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Tygers head in St. Paules Church-yard, 1633. Price $5,500
Small Folio 24 x 15 cm. Signatures: π2; d-k4, L2, D-Z4, Aa-Qq4 Rr6, This copy is complete, lacking the first and last blank leaves.
[In all the known copies of this work the pagination begins with p. 23, signature d. It is generally believed that the book originally began with “A treatise on religion” said to have been suppressed by order of Archbishop Laud. Grosart thinks the missing pages were prefatory matter containing a life of the author “with fuller details of his murder than his friends cared to let the world read” as stated in Biographia Britannica. cf. Memorial-introd. in Grosart’s edition of Brooke’s works, 1870, and Grolier Club, Catalogue of … works … from Wither to Prior, 1905.]. This copy is in good condition internally with only the usual minor dampstaining, and closely trimed . It is bound in full nineteenth century calfskin, ruled in blind.
“Fulke Greville, afterwards Lord Brooke, who wrote (but did not publish) at the end of the sixteenth century a miscellaneous collection of poems called Caelica. The collection consisted of one hundred and nine short poems, on each of which the author bestowed the title of sonnet. Only thirty-seven, however, are quatorzains. The remaining seventy-two so-called ‘sonnets’ are lyrics of all lengths and in all meters. There is little internal connection among Brooke’s poems, and they deserve to be treated as a series of independent lyrics. […] The series was published for the first time as late as 1633, in a collection of Lord Brooke’s poetical writings. It may be reckoned the latest example of the Elizabethan sonnet-sequence.” (quoted from page 304, Cambridge History of English Literature, vol. III)
“Along with his childhood friend Sir Philip Sidney, Fulke Greville (1554–1628) was an important member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Although his poems, long out of print, are today less well known than those of Sidney, Spenser, or Shakespeare, Greville left an indelible mark on the world of Renaissance poetry, both in his love poems, which ably work within the English Petrarchan tradition, and in his religious meditations, which, along with the work of Donne and Herbert, stand as a highpoint of early Protestant poetics.” Bradin Cormack
“If Fulke Greville, first Lord Brooke (1554-1628), had been born twenty years later, he might perhaps have stood —with Chapman rather than with Donne— in the forefront of the metaphysical movement. What Edward Phillips called his ‘close, mysterious and sentencious way of writing’ is nearer the metaphysical than the Spenserian manner, yet Greville shows, in Humane Learning, a Hobbesian distrust of metaphor, and his normal utterance is of a massive realistic plainness fitted for sober and penetrating thought. In parts of Caelica, which was begun under Sidney’s inspiration, he wreathed iron pokers into true-love knots, and although, according to Naunton, he ‘lived, dyed, a constant Courtier of the Ladies,’ no series of love poems was ever less amorous. For all the Petrarchan and Sidneian fancies, and the omnipresence of Cupid, Caelica, Myra, and Cynthia are something less than shadows, and towards the end they fade away altogether behind religious and philosophical reflection.” (quoted from page 94, Bush’s English Literature in the Earlier Seventeenth Century)
STC 12361,; Grolier’s Wither to Prior, # 406; Pforzheimer 437.;Hayward #68
12). 825G Hale, Sir Matthew (1609-1676)
The Primitive Origin of Mankind considered and examined according to the light of nature.
London: William Godbid for William Shrowsbery, 1677 $ 2,500
Folio 30 x 20 Cm. Signatures: a-4,b2,B-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Bbb4,Ccc2. First edition. This copy is bound in full later panneled calf with a spine label. It is a very handsome copy. This copy was owned by Desmond Morris, and has his book plate.
“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). 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
13). 697J Hooker (1554- 1600)
The works of Mr. Richard Hooker, (that learned and judicious divine) in eight books of ecclesiastical polity, compleated out of his own manuscrips [sic]; never before published. With an account of his life and death. Dedicated to the Kings most excellent Majesty, Charles IId. by whose royal father (near his martyrdom) the former five books (then onely extant) were commended to his dear children, as an excellent means to satisfie private scruples, and settle the publick peace of this church and kingdom.
London : printed by Thomas Newcomb for Andrew Crook, at the Green-Dragon in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1666. . Price: $3,000
Folio 34 x22 cm. Signatures: π2, A⁴(-A4),*² a-d⁴e² A-Z4, Aa-Yy ⁴Zz²,Aaa-Zzz4 ,Aaaa-Iiii⁴. [First leaf of text signed B instead of A] COMPLETE. Bound in original full calf, a very crisp and clean copy. With frontis. portrait (plate) of the author signed “Guil. Faithorne sculp:” and additional engraved title page (plate) “Of the lawes of ecclesiastical politie”.
This edition is edited by John Gauden; the account of the life of Richard Hooker is by Izaak Walton. Cf. DNB. Includes: Travers, Walter. A supplication made to the councel by Master Walter Travers. This work offers a carefully phrased reply to the general principles of Puritanism. Book one of the work draws heavily upon the legal thought of Thomas Aquinas to distinguish seven different forms of law; based upon his Aristotelian belief that humans are naturally inclined to live in society. The work influenced not only Anglican thought, but also wider theology, political theory and English prose.
Richard Hooker Of Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie is Hooker’s best-known work, with the first four books being published in 1594. The fifth was published in 1597. while the final three were published posthumously. this Volume is the 1666 Edition and the ONLY One to contain ALL EIGHT LAWS! Of Lawes has been characterized as “Probably the first great work of philosophy and theology to be written in English” The book is far more than a negative rebuttal of the Puritan claims: it is (here McAdoo quotes John S. Marshall) ‘ a continuous and coherent whole presenting a philosophy and theology congenial to the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and the traditional aspects of the Elizabethan Settlement.
Hooker’s monumental Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity “formed the basis of Locke’s Treatise of Civil Government and can thus be considered the first statement of the principles behind the Constitution of England” (PMM 104). “Hooker’s work represents not only a solid compendium of philosophical ideas in support of ecclesiastical and secular hierarchy, but a reasoned proposal for an open and tolerant society based on mutual love and respect. The work is recognized as a monument of English prose styleâ ¦ it represents the high-water mark of a prose that is at once lucid and elegant, formally balanced and yet forceful and flowing” (Ruoff, 217). The influence of Hooker’s work, both directly and indirectly through the considerable influence of Locke’s Two Treatises, extends as well to the foundation of American constitutionalism. “Madison and the other framers made frequent reference to Calvin, Richard Hooker, and the New England divines in their political writings, and were vitally aware of the long history of compacts in America” (Lutz & Warren, A Covenanted People, 64).
Wing, H2631; Hill #23.
14) 748J. Juvenal and Persius, trans. Barten Holyday. (1593-1661)
Decimus Junius Juvenalis, And Aulus Persius Flaccus Translated and Illustrated, As well withSculpture as Notes. By Barten Holyday, D.D.and late Arch-Deaconof Oxon.
Oxford: Printed by W. Downing, for F. Oxlad Senior, J. Adams, and F. Oxlad Junior. Anno Dom. 1673. Price $3,200
Folio, 28.5×19 cm. First edition; first complete edition of all the Satires of Juvenal in English. [π]2, a-b2, B-Z4, Aa-Xx4 (lacking Xx4 blank ). Forty-eight text engravings and woodcuts appear in the text, as well as four large folding engravings. (4 engraved plates (incl. 1 map, 1 folding, & 1 of a manual counting system) The title page is printed in red and black.
This is a gorgeous copy, bound in full contemporary calf expertly rebacked , with renewed endpapers, later ownership note on title.
The Illustrations in this book include full-paged maps, portraits of the two authors, games, household objects, plants, animals, architectural styles, city views, and other things the commentator thought a seventeenth century English reader would need to see illustrated in order to better understand the Satires.This is a deftly executed edition with admirable plates. The completeness and breadth of illustrations isimpressive, greatly contributing to an English reader’s enjoyment of the Satires.
“The [engravings] are nearly all by David Loggan, but unsigned. There is a liberal use of ornaments in which the Sheldonian Press was markedly deficient at this time. […] The Oxford publishers may have wished to show that they could hold their own in the face of the University Press.” (Madan)
Holyday was a dramatist, translator, and divine, archdeacon of Oxford. This posthumous edition was issued by his step son. It is a line for line translation, devoid of poetry, but rich with learned annotations and interesting illustrations.
“Juvenal, satirist of Roman vices under the empire. Of his life little is known, although most early accounts agree that he spent some time in military service and ended his life in exile for having criticized a popular stage performer who was a special favorite of the emperor Domitian. He is the author of sixteen satires, divided traditionally into five books. In these biting attacks onpublic manners and morals. Juvenal shows himself to have been a sharp observer of his fellow men.
‘Whatever men do,’ he announces in his first satire, ‘their devotion, their fear, their rage, their pleasure, their joys, their conversations —all these will make up the potpourri of my little work;’ and he fulfills his pledge with the bitter gusto of an inspired cynic. Unlike Horace, the other great satirist of Roman letters, Juvenal seldom places himself among the foolish, the corrupt, and the frustrated; and while Horace’s satires are conversational in tone and meter, Juvenal’s are tight, rhetorical, and finely polished. He excels in sketching memorable vignettes and small portraits etched in vitriol. His satires abound in wittyobservations and terse proverbs, among which is the motto mens sana in corpore sano, ‘a sound mind in a sound body.’” (Sandys HCS)
Wing J-1276; Madan III, 2979; ESTC R12290; Brueggmann, p. 680;
)(-)(
15) 739J Leigh Charles (1662-1701)
The natural history of Lancashire, Cheshire, and the peak, in Derbyshire: with an account of the British, Phœnician, Armenian, Gr. and Rom. antiquities in those parts. By Charles Leigh, Doctor of Physick.
Oxford: Printed for the Author; and to be had at Mr. George West’s, and Mr. Henry Clement’s, Booksellers there; Mr. Edward Evet’s, at the Green-Dragon, in St. Paul’s Church-yard; and Mr. John Nicholson, at the King’s-Arms, in Little-Britain, London, 1700 Price $3,800
Folio, 8 3/5 x 13 3/5 in. First edition.Signatures: π2, A2, a2, [a]1, b-c2, π5, ***2, B-Z2, Aa-Tt2, π6, A-Z2, Aa-Bb2, A-S2, [t]-[v]2, T-V2, π2, X-Z2, Aa-Oo2, Aaa-Ddd2. COMPLETE Overall, this is a really lovely copy. It is bound in nineteenth century quarter calf over decorated paper boards recently rebacked.
The illustrations in this book are magnificent. They consist of twenty-two full-paged engravings of fossils, caves, and other geological sites; a double-paged map with contemporary coloring; two pages of the arms of the subscribers; and a portrait of the author after Faithorne.
The text of this volume is most intriguing; it is, all in one, a catalogue of antiquities, an archaeological survey, and a freak show. One of the author’s many goals is to demonstrate and prove, by producing artifacts and animals from far flung corners of the world, that a huge flood covered the whole earth and dislodged hippos from the home lands, planting them in the mud of Lancashire. The plates include ‘The devil’s arse,’ a woman with horns,Greek carved tablets, fossils, birds, skulls, and crustaceans. ….Twenty-two full-paged engravings of fossils, caves, physical anomalies, artifacts monstrous births, aberrant weather and other difficult to explain occurrences; a double-paged map with contemporary coloring; two pages of the arms of the subscribers; and a portrait of the author after Faithorne.
Leigh, remembered primarily as a naturalist and a Fellow of the Royal Society, was a physician by profession. He published several works, “the most important of which is a ‘Natural History of Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Peak of Derbyshire’.” (Thomas)
The text of this volume is most intriguing; it is, all in one, a catalogue of antiquities, an archaeological survey, and a freak show, medical book and classical history book.
One of the author’s many goals is to demonstrate and prove, by producing artifacts and animals from far flung corners of the world, that a huge flood covered the whole earth and dislodged hippos from the homelands, planting them in the mud of Lancashire. His investigations begin with a description of the weather and the physical environment (the temperature and pressure of air, the “principles” of mineral waters, soil and coal, minerals and metals) and performs experiments to demonstrate the properties of these various substances and their effects upon humans and animals. He are also describes the flora and fauna, with several long passages on trees and plants, and an entire chapter dedicated to marine biology and “Fossile Plants”. With this evidence, Leigh ‘proves’ the historical reality of the “Universal Deluge” by producing artefacts in Lancashire that were never naturally occurring and therefore must have been swept to England in the Flood.
‘In Book II, Leigh turns to a discussion of Physick, beginning with a description and comparison of variously textured solid substances, including shells, taken from “a man’s leg, a man’s stool, the bladder of a hog” and other surprising places. The rest of the second book concerns various ‘distempers’ including an account of a “The Pestilential Fever raging in Lancashire, in the years 1693, 94, 95, 96”. Leigh discusses the symptoms of each illness, provides case studies, offers medicinal cures, and posits causes, giving the reader a vivid and unadulterated understanding of the state of 17th century Medical arts.
Wing L975.
The Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 32 tells us, LEIGH, CHARLES (1662-1701 ?), physician and naturalist, son of William Leigh of Singleton-in-the-Fylde, Lancashire, and great-grandson of William Leigh [q.v.], B.D., rector of Standish, was born at Singleton Grange in 1662. On 7 July 1679 he became a commoner of Brasenose College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. on 24 May 1683. Wood records that he left Oxford in debt and went to Cambridge, to Jesus College, as is believed. He graduated M.A. and M.D. (1689) at Cambridge. He was on 13 May 1685 elected F.R.S. When Wood wrote his ‘Athenæ Oxonienses,’ Leigh was practising in London; but he lived at Manchester at a later date, and had an extensive practice throughout Lancashire.
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