Search

First edition. Marsh, biblical critic and later bishop of Peterborough was born at Faversham, Kent, on 10 December 1757 and educated at Faversham grammar school and the King's School, Canterbury, before going up to Cambridge. He travelled in Egypt, Arabia and Europe before returning to Cambridge for his BD. The Authenticity of the five Books of Moses, defending Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch was one of his qualifying sermons.

With Cobbett’s autograph dedication addressed to Pope Pius VIII: ‘To His Holiness Pope Pius the Eighth. The present head of that holy church under the influence of which England enjoyed so many ages of plenty freedom happiness and renown this new edition of the history of the Protestant Reformation is dedicated by and in the handwriting of His Holinesses Most Humble Servant William Cobbett. Kensington [1?]0 May 182.’

A History of the Protestant Reformation describes at great length the means employed by the state to dispossess the English poor, beginning with the crown’s appropriation of church lands during the Reformation. It first appeared in two parts (1824–7) was a bestseller and was several times reprinted, including in this second edition (preceded by at least one stereotyped reprint). Cobbett had enthusiastically espoused the cause of Catholic emancipation; his autograph dedication to the Pope apparently appears in more than one copy.

[bound with:] — A plaine and familiar exposition of the eleuenth and twelfth chapters of the Prouerbs of Salomon. London: William Hall, for Thomas Man, 1612, pp. [viii], 191, [1], complete with first leaf, blank except for signature ‘A’ at foot, third edition, STC 6959;

[and:] — A plaine and familiar exposition of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth chapters of the Prouerbs of Salomon. London: R. B[radock]. for Roger Jackson..., 1609, pp.[iv], 1-45, 53, 52-54, 49, 48-49, 48, 55, 153, [3], complete with final blank, second edition, STC 6960;

[and:] — A plaine and familiar exposition of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seuenteenth chapters of the Prouerbs of Salomon. London: by Felix Kingston for Thomas Man, 1611, pp.[viii], 157, [3], complete with final blank, second edition, STC 6964;

[and:] DOD, John and Ronert CLEAVER. A plaine and familiar exposition: of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth chapters of the Prouerbs of Salomon... London: [William Stansby and Thomas Creede] for Roger Jackson, 1611, pp.[xii], 170, [2], complete with initial and final blanks; second edition, STC 6966.

Five works bound together, 4to (190 × 138 mm), woodcut ornaments and initials. Some light browning throughout, two small wormholes affecting upper line in final two works, becoming a track towards the end. Contemporary limp vellum, spine lettered in manuscript ‘Dod on Ye Proverbs’, soiled, upper hinge broken. Early inscription ’Mrs Joane Saunders’ to head of first dedication, later bookplate (Willey Park) and inscription ‘Jessie Hope - left to J.A.N. April 1900’.

Dod and Cleaver’s Plaine and familiar expositions were a Puritan publishing phenomenon. They were written while the two preachers were under a ban imposed by the Bishop of Oxford after they refused to subscribe to Whitgift’s Three Articles and were an inspiration to the generation of Puritans in England and America. Each book was separately issued and they appear bound up in a variety of formations, the present collection being typical. They were later collected as A brief Explanation of the whole book... of Salomon (1615).

The dedication to Sir Anthony Cope of Hanwell (patron of Dod’s former living in Oxfordshire) explains the desire to stir up evangelical zeal. ‘We are now more willing to make some worke for the Presse, because we have no imployment in the pulpit. And who knoweth, but that others... may be stirred up hereby, to publish some of their godly meditations; that as their faithful labours were formerly like pure fountaines, which did not only refresh their particular congregations: so now, by meanes of printing, they may be made like great and comfortable rivers, to water the whole Lands.’

James Speirs was a prolific evangelical speaker and publisher, whose printed output suggests he was an important figure in the Victorian Sunday School movement. Sown in the spring-time collects 12 addresses aimed at a juvenile audience by Speirs and others (R.L. Tafel, Alfred J. Johnson, Samuel Teed and Charles A. Faraday) several on a theme of natural metaphor: “About Hares and Tortoises”; “The Horse and its correspondence”, “The Serpent and its correspondence” and “Trees”. COPAC and Worldcat lists editions of 1876, 1877 and 1879. Worldcat lists 2 copies of this edition (Graduate Theological Union Library and Urbana College) but COPAC lists none in the UK

First edition. Taylor, or ‘Taylor of Stanford Rivers’, was an earnest and prolific scholar of early Christian history and it is said that he coined the word ‘patristic’ to refer to this field of study. ‘He argued in favour of the historical validity of the Bible in History of the Transmission of Ancient Books to Modern Times (1827) and The Process of Historical Proof (1828)’ (Oxford DNB). A devout Anglican, he was bitterly opposed to the Tractarian Movement led by Newman and Pusey and he argued tirelessly against the movement’s interpretations of scripture.

First and only edition of this virulent sectarian attack on the antinomian artist/engraver Garnet Terry (‘Onesimus’) by a dissenting ‘Minister of the Gospel at Nethaneel chapel, Eden Street, Tottenham Court Road’. The ‘minister of darkness’, Terry, and his ‘religious and political principles’, promulgated from ‘his haunt in Clare Court, Drury Lane’ are roundly dismissed in seven letters. M’Culla refers repeatedly to a book by Onesimus put into his hands by a bookseller, which we have been unable to identify from library catalogues: Terry’s earlier publications appear to have been on the subject of engraving or were simply short pamphlets. The work referred to by M’Culla ran to over 200 pages, if we can trust his references.

The imprint and final advert provide a useful insight into the dissemination of non-conformist writings. COPAC lists only the British Library copy; not found in OCLC.

First Elzevir edition of this biography of the French protestant hero Gaspard de Coligny.

Coligny had been appointed Admiral of France in 1552 and was captured at the siege of St Quentin in 1557. In the two years of his captivity he became a convinced Calvinist and went on to lead the French Huguenots in the religious wars against Catholic dominance in France. He was implicated in the murder of Francis, Duke of Guise in February 1563, an event which was to lead ultimately to the Massacre of St Bartholomew in 1572, in which Coligny himself was killed under the direct supervision of the Duke’s son, Henry.

Coligny’s life became an inspiration to Protestants throughout Europe. It was first printed in Latin in 1575 and had previously appeared in French earlier the same year, in a quarto edtion. Willems 564 ‘ce petit volume, parfaitement exécuté, est un des plus recherché de la collection elzevirienne.’