fragrant discourse - by Thomas Hearne's teacher
DODWELL, Henry.
A discourse concerning the use of Incense in divine offices. Wherein its is proved, that the practice, taken up in the middle ages, both by the Eastern and Western churches, is, notwithstanding, an innovation from the doctrine of the first and purest churches, and the traditions derived from the apostles. Serving also to evince, that even the consent of those churches of the middle ages, is no certain argument, that even the particulars, wherein they are supposed to consent, were faithfully derived from the apostles, against the modern assertors of the infallibility of oral tradition. In a letter to a friend...
London: by J. Hepinstall, for James Holland, 1711.
8vo (180 × 115 mm.), pp. [xxiv], 227, [1] (adverts). Title partly in black letter within double ruled borders. Endpapers lightly browned, but otherwise very crisp and clean. Contemporary sprinkled panelled calf, sprinkled edges, expertly rebacked to style, red morocco label, gilt. A very good copy.
First edition, printed in the year of the author's death (from a cold caught while walking from his home at Shottesbrooke, near Maidenhead, to London.) Dodwell was a scholar of remarkable industry and versatility, though not universally admired by his contemporaries. Gibbon, for example, criticised his method and style as "the one perplexed beyond imagination, the other negligent to a degree of barbarism" (DNB). In retrospect, however, Dodwell's method appears remarkably apposite: witness the philological and palaeographical discussion of the relative antiquity of various manuscripts and books in A discourse concerning the use of Incense. Certainly his critical skills outlived him in the person of Thomas Hearne who was partly brought up by Dodwell at Shottesbrooke.On the issue of incense, Dodwell was perhaps ahead of his time. While always a point of discussion within the church, the matter did not become critical until later in the nineteenth-century when the use of incense in the Church of England was outlawed by Archbishop Temple.
£400.00
US$794.32*
* Given as a guide only. Based on an exchange rate of £1 = US$1.985799 for the day 25 July 2008 but liable to fluctuate.
25 July 2008