{"title":"Reformation","description":"\u003cp\u003eExploring the medieval Reformation and religious change. \u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"walther-johann","title":"WALTHER, Johann","description":"\u003cp\u003eCrisp copy of a German poem written to commemorate the death of Martin Luther in 1546, when the volume was first printed in five impressions (no priority has been established). Johann Walther (or Walter) (1496 1570), the  father of Lutheran church music , was composer and then director of the chapel choir of Frederick III, Duke of Saxony. In 1524, he published  Geistliches Gesangbuechleinin , a hymnal for Lutheran choirs, with a foreword by Martin Luther himself; the  Deutsche Messe  followed in 1527. For two decades, Walther worked incessantly with Luther to adapt Catholic church music to the needs of Lutheran liturgy, for instance, by introducing hymns into the mass and encouraging people to sing them at home and make them part of their everyday lives. The  Epitaphium  is Walther s tribute to a religious personality who had also become a close friend. The poem depicts Luther as a heroic figure whom Death cannot overpower and the Devil s bite cannot hurt, a soul who has escaped from the hellish torments reserved to Papists to revive in the teachings of God s word and the light of Christ. The fine woodcuts after Lucas Cranach the Younger immortalise Luther and Frederick III, one of the earliest defenders of Lutheranism and founder of the University of Wittenberg, where Luther taught. \u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n  The striking binding is made of two non-sequential leaves from the same manuscript in superb condition. It is probably a C15 German lectionary, with excerpts from the Acts of the Saints and Martyrs, associated with their calendar dates of worship. The front cover features passages from the acts of St Mathias (February 24) and the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (March 10), while on the back are extracts from the lives of St Peter and Paul (including Acts 1:21-26 and 12:2-8), interspersed with orations.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WALTHER, Johann","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816138580303,"sku":"L2748","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/frontcover_2d4127df-f89c-4889-9c1d-2abc3a65732f.png?v=1781795192"},{"product_id":"yepes-diego-de","title":"YEPES, Diego de","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of this important description of the persecution of Catholics in England in the reign of Elizabeth I, by the Bishop of Tarazona, Diego de Yepes. The work is of great historic and social interest, and provides much insight into the lives of Catholics in Britain, and the dissemination of their stories across Europe.  In fact, it is worth emphasising that whatever cognizance that Europeans obtained concerning events in England during the last decades of the 16th century came primarily from the published writings of figures like Persons and Allen and their fellow exiles, or alternatively figures such as Diego de Yepes whose  Historia particular de la persecucion de Inglaterra  shows that he was in close contact with them.  Brian C. Lockey  Early Modern Catholics, Royalists, and Cosmopolitans.  Yespes also seems to have been in contact with the indefatigable Verstegen whose close contacts with English recusants were important in the compilation of this work.  Though few remain, Petti estimates that (Verstegen) must have sent thousands of dispatches to key authors throughout Europe, funnelling through the news he received from his contacts in England. Dispatches to influential English exiles such as Robert Persons, Francis Englefield, Roger Baynes and Cardinal William Allen remain to this day, but he was also in touch with numerous other prominent Catholics throughout Europe who subsequently used his information for their own ends. Petti recognises Verstegan s hand in, for instance, Pedro de Ribadeneira S.J. s Historia Ecclesiastica del Reyno de Inglaterra (1593) and Diego de Yepes s Historia Particular de la Persecucion de Inglaterra (1599).  A Ewing  A Comparative Analysis of Catholic and Puritan Polemics, 1618- 1628.  A good example of the dissemination of these stories across is given by the English Nun Dorothy Arundel:  How did English nuns gain an international audience in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? One route was to write about persecution and martyrdom. The currency of such accounts was heightened in Counter-Reformation Europe, where the religious wars as well as efforts to halt or reverse the exponential growth of Protestant congregations gave strong impetus to the circulation of narratives strengthening Catholic identity. The religious orders were already transnational networks, transcending as well as embracing local and national allegiances. .. Dorothy Arundell, who resided at her widowed mother s home, Chideock Castle, in Dorset, provides one example. This recusant community was raided in 1594; Dorothy and her sister Gertude   who both went on to found the exiled Benedictine convent at Brussels in 1598   were among those arrested. Their priest, John Cornelius, was subsequently executed, reportedly making his Jesuit vows on the scaffold. Within a short time, Arundell had composed a narrative of the martyred priest, which was quickly absorbed by Jesuit historians across Europe. Her account was first publicised in Spain in the history of English persecution compiled by the Bishop of Tarazona, Diego de Yepes, in collaboration with the English Jesuit, Joseph Creswell: Historia particular de la persecucion de Inglaterra (Madrid, 1599).  Marie-Louise Coolahan.  Nuns  Writing and Martyrology.  \u003cbr\u003e\nA very good copy of the first edition of this most interesting work.  \u003cbr\u003e\nBM STC Spain C16th p. 220. Palau 377815.  Obra muy estimada en Inglaterra. Refiere la introduccion y succesivo establecimiento de la reforma anglicana en aquel pais y las persecuciones sufridas por los catolicos, con las biografia de mas de un centenar victimas de sus creencias\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"YEPES, Diego de","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816141496655,"sku":"L2566a","price":3500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2566-5.jpg?v=1781795176"},{"product_id":"harpsfield-nicholas","title":"HARPSFIELD, Nicholas.","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition of this major work of English Reformation history, including the first printed account of Henry VIII s divorce. Nicholas Harpsfield (1519-75) was a Catholic priest, theologian and historian who, after reading canon law at Oxford, became friends with Thomas More and during his brief exile to escape the increasingly rigid reformism, composed the account of Thomas s martyrdom. Upon Queen Mary s accession, he was appointed Archdeacon of Canterbury and involved in trials of hardened Protestants, being singled out for his ruthlessness in John Foxe s  Book of Martyrs . During his later years, imprisoned in the Tower of London, he penned an attack on the validity of Henry VIII s divorce, one against the  Wycliffite heresy , and the  Historia anglicana ecclesiastica , a posthumously published history of all English dioceses from the first century AD, according to the great tradition of Bede and William of Malmesbury. The editor of this edition, Richard Gibbon S.J., included an addition by the Jesuit Edmund Campion, the account of Henry VIII s divorce and the schism its first appearance in print. Widely circulated in ms. for half a century prior to its publication, the  Historia  became a major reference point for exiled English Catholics, who saw in ecclesiastical historiography a solid battleground for debate on the schismatic church. The eminent Cardinal William Allen left a ms. copy to the English Collegium at Douai, which was taken to Rome, whilst the learned Robert Parsons S.J. ranked it as important as Bede (Kewes,  Uses , 110; Birkhead,  Newsletters , 233). A monument of the English Counter-Reformation. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The C18 Italian owner of this copy felt the need to clarify on the flyleaf that  this book was written by a Roman Catholic .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HARPSFIELD, Nicholas.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816167547215,"sku":"L3245","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3245-1.jpg?v=1781794864"},{"product_id":"fisher-john-st","title":"FISHER, John St","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of the collected Latin works of St. John Fisher, with translations into Latin of his English sermons. John Fisher (1469 1535), appointed bishop of Rochester by Henry VII, was one of the most distinguished churchmen and humanists of the early sixteenth century and Reformation. A friend of Erasmus s, he introduced the study of Greek and Hebrew to the University of Cambridge, of which he was Chancellor, and was beheaded by Henry VIII for his opposition to the Act of Supremacy. He was a notable preacher and author of the first sermon sequence to be printed in English. Fisher s Latin theological and controversial writings were more widely read on the European continent, in their day, than the predominantly English religious controversial writings of St. Thomas More and were a key influence on the Catholic Counter-Reformation. According to Fr. Surtz, St. John Fisher s writings formed an important bridge between the Church Fathers, the Scholastics, and the Catholic Counter-Reformation. As Chancellor of Cambridge University, Fisher firmly established in English Universities the  new learning  of the classics, the Scriptures, and the Early Christian Writers in their original languages. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Fisher was brought to trial at Westminster (17th of June 1535) on the charge that he did  openly declare in English that the king, our sovereign lord, is not supreme head on earth of the Church of England,  and was condemned to a traitor's death at Tyburn, a sentence afterwards changed. He was beheaded on Tower Hill on the 22nd of June 1535, after saying the Te Deum and the psalm In te Domine speravi. His body was buried first at All Hallows, Barking, and then removed to St. Peter's ad vincula in the Tower, where it lies beside that of Sir Thomas More. His head was exposed on London Bridge and then thrown into the river. On the 9th of December 1886 he was beatified by Pope Leo XIII. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  This contains: 1.  The Assertio septem Sacramentorum  of Henry VIII against Luther, which finds a place in the collection as being 'Roffensis tamen hortatu et studio edita.' 2. Fisher's 'Defence' of the 'Assertio,' 1523. 3. His treatise in reply to Luther,  De Babylonica Captivitate,  1523. 4. His 'Confutatio Assertionis Lutheran‚àö¬∂,' first printed at Antwerp, 1523. 5. 'De Eucharistia contra Joan. ‚âà√≠colampadium libri quinque,' first printed 1527. 6. 'Sacri Sacerdotii Defensio contra Lutherum.' 7. 'Convulsio calumniarum Vlrichi Veleni Minhoniensis, quibus Petrum nunquam Rom‚àö¬∂ fuisse cauillatus est,' 1525. 8. 'Concio Londini habita vernacul√®, quando Lutheri scripta public√® igni tradebantur,' translated by Richard Pace into Latin, 1521. 9. 'De unica Magdalena libri tres,' 1519. Also the following, which the editor states are printed for the first time : 10. 'Commentarii in vii. Psalmos p‚âà√¨nitentiales, interprete Joanne Fen ‚àö‚Ć monte acuto.' 11. Two sermons : (a) 'De Passione Domini,' (b) 'De Justitia Pharis‚àö¬∂orum,' 12. 'Methodus perveniendi ad summam Christian‚àö¬∂ religionis perfectionem,' 13. 'Epistola ad Hermannum L‚àö¬∂tmatium Goudanum de Charitate Christiana.' At the end (whether printed before or not does not appear) are 14. 'De Necessitate Orandi.' 15. 'Psalmi vel precationes.   DNB.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FISHER, John St","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820353462607,"sku":"L2955","price":2450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2955-2.jpg?v=1781793815"},{"product_id":"toussain-daniel","title":"TOUSSAIN, Daniel.","description":"  Rare first edition of this English translation of Daniel Toussain s,  L exercice de l ‚àö¬¢me fidele, assavoir prieres et meditations pour se consoler en toutes sortes d afflictions. . Newton s library of nearly 2000 volumes remained virtually intact until 1920, when more than half the volumes were sold. John Harrison was therefore obliged to use three manuscripts sources to to reconstruct the library of Newton in his modern recension  The library of Isaac Newton  1978, which contains a catalogue of Newton s books. These were firstly, the inventory of Newton s belongings made at his death, secondly a list made by Huggins, established a few months after his death (BL ms. Add. 25, 424), and a catalogue, dating from 1766-1767 made by Musgrave (Trinity College no. 17.36.) This work does not feature on the list made by Harrison. However a curious feature is that several pages have their corners folded, either up or down, in order to point to passages of the text, which is consistent with Newton s own particular usage;  Evidence of Newton s use is provided by annotations or dog-earing (which are described in some detail wherever they occur), by references or citations in the manuscripts, and\/or by subsequent research which has otherwise demonstrated or suggested his use of a particular source. While it is possible that some dog-earing was the work of subsequent owners, it is evident from the fact that most instances of it point quite precisely to passages of demonstrable importance to Newton that the vast majority is his own. He used dog-ears not merely to mark pages but to align the page corners with specific passages of interest (hence the fact that pages may have their corners turned down, up, or both): see Harrison, 25-7 for a more detailed account.  Cambridge, The Newton Project,  About Newton s Library.  It could be therefore that the ms  Newton  is an independent early record or attribution of a very distinguished provenance.  \r  This work of Protestant piety is remarkable for containing an important account of the Reformed church at Orleans, where Toussain (or Toussaint) was a Pasteur, and particularly of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre that occurred there.  We also possess an exceptionally evocative overview of the fate of its reformed Church in the prefaces to two devotional writings written later in the century by its minister from 1562 to 1572, Daniel Toussaint. In the first years of the Reformation, Toussaint recalled, God has seem to bless his faithful in the city. During the first Civil War, just as Orleans was besieged by the Catholics and threatened with capture and sack, peace was negotiated.. But tribulations rained down after the Royal troops came in 1568. Acts of violence against the Protestants multiplied. It took a year for them to re-establish the church following the peace of Saint-Germain, during which time they  were daily threatened, beaten robbed and .. let and hindered .. to enjoy the greatest part of their goods.  The local reenactment of the Saint Bartholomew s massacre of 1572 was the final blow. The  greatest part of the church was slaughtered and many others fell away from the faith, so  that it seemesth, there is no trace or path of a Church left, or that ever there had been anie reformation  \u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e   Thomas Brady  A Handbook of European History 1400-1600:     \u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"TOUSSAIN, Daniel.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859634757967,"sku":"L3488","price":7500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3488-1.jpg?v=1781793782"},{"product_id":"luther-martin-4","title":"LUTHER, Martin.","description":"\u003cp\u003eHandsome copy of the second edition of this collection of Luther s writings, in a beautiful contemporary German binding. The elegant blind tooled palmettes and this religious roll depicting figures of the Old Testament were both popular decorative motifs in the mid. 16th century (see EBDB 128997b and 100083n), and often used combined. Interestingly, similar examples appear on the binding of another volume of Luther works, produced in Leipzig by Thomas Stelbogen (Henry Davis Gift 335). The upper cover bears the ownership stamp of Frau Margarethe von Hassenstein (c. 1514-1555), from the house of the Burgraves of Meissen (Saxony). Born Magarethe von Plauen, she married the Bohemian politician Bohuslav Felix von Hassenstein and Lobkowitz (1517-1583). An educated woman and assiduous Lutheran, her name appears frequently in the writings of Johannes Mathesius (1504-1565). Mathesius was a German minister and Lutheran reformer who had the privilege to assist, as a guest in Luther s home, to a series of his discourses, which he then published in the famous work  Table talk . \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A professor of theology and monk, Luther (1483-1546) is the initiator of the protestant Reformation. This collection contains a multitude of his writings, the majority of them being sermons. Among the most noteworthy, is Luther s famous commentary on chapters 5, 6 and 7 of the Gospel of Matthew: in his discussion, he strongly criticised the Catholic view and wrote: \"there have fallen upon this [fifth] chapter the vulgar hogs and asses, jurists and sophists, the right hand of the pope and his Mamelukes.\" Another interesting chapter is concerned with the text of the  Donation of Constantine    the Roman imperial decree by which Constantine the Great supposedly entitled the pope extensive temporal privileges   translated and commented on by Luther. Although this Latin document was declared a fake by Lorenzo Valla in 1440, the Church continued to defend its authenticity for centuries. After reading Valla s treatise in 1520, Luther frequently mentioned this as an example to condemn the corruption and greed of the Catholic Church. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This volume includes an important preface by the theologian Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560). A friend and collaborator of Luther, he wrote a fundamental systematic theology based on the reformer s ideas. The editor, Georg R√∂rer (1492-1557), is one of Luther s most reliable reporters. The volume also features the remarkable contributions of Caspar Creuziger (1504-1548), a humanist and professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg who wrote an important biography of Luther and assisted him in revising the German Bible.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LUTHER, Martin.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859638919503,"sku":"L3566","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8950.jpg?v=1781793773"},{"product_id":"agricola-johannes","title":"AGRICOLA, Johannes.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Carefully used copies, charmingly bound and extensively annotated, of the first and second part of this important early collection of German proverbs    one of the major literary documents of the Reformation  (Gilman, p.78). The first part   here in one of 5 first editions published in 1529 (priority not established)   comprises 300 proverbs; the second work, first published here, has another 450. In these two works, Johannes Agricola (1494-1566), a German Protestant Reformer acquainted with Luther, combined the medieval tradition of vernacular proverbs with Erasmus s humanist Latin  Adagia . At the same time, he  polemized  the content and gave it a different form   using the genre of the moralizing exemplum - so as to transmit Reformed ideas (Gilman, p.78). Indeed, each numbered proverb, accompanied by a Latin or Greek version, is followed by a short explanation in German, presented as a traditional harmless commentary with moral intent, but actually imbued with Reformation and nationalistic polemics, including biographical details of the early Reformers and observations on contemporary German economics and politics.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .The extensive annotations in this copy provide stellar evidence of ways in which contemporary Reformed readers engaged with Agricola. E.g., the annotator glossed  This is what false tongues and teachers have done  with  Thomas M√ºntzer , an early Reformer who eventually rejected Luther s ideas. He highlighted a passage on Luther s difficult position in 1518, glossing it with a reference to his work (1520) on the  Captivitas Baylonica  of the Roman Church. Other episodes from Luther s career are glossed with a date and  M L . He was interested in Agricola s account of the fortunes and activities of the merchant Jakob Fugger,  who pushed trade so hard like nobody in living memory , and who obtained with a bribe a monopoly over Portuguese spices (glossed with  Monopolia p[ro]hibita  by our annotator). Clearly interested in trade, he glossed with  Emporia Germanica  a passage on commercial centres, i.e., Antwerp, Frankfurt and Leipzig. He also marked references to sources, e.g., Erasmus and Huss, and added verse in German from his own personal knowledge. The slightly later annotators were more interested in the proverbs per se.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"AGRICOLA, Johannes.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859656253775,"sku":"L3949","price":5950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3949-6.jpg?v=1781793711"},{"product_id":"calvin-jean-3","title":"CALVIN, Jean.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Handsomely bound in contemporary Swiss polished calf, with cornerpieces much resembling in shape, size and style those in the Swiss BL, Davis592. It bears a gilt centrepiece with the arms of Geneva and a motto which can be translated  Not a day without a line . This was first hinted at by Pliny to describe the Greek painter Apelles s work; it was formulated as  Nulla die sine linea  in the medieval period, and, as here, by the Neo-Latin poet Fausto Andrelini in 1509, with the broader meaning  No day goes by without writing a line  or simply  without doing some work  (Nikitinski, p.430). The motto was especially popular among C16 and C17 lawyers, as far as north as the Inns of Court, and appears in  emblemata iuris , i.e., symbolic representations appropriated to represent the law (e.g., in Rollenhagen s  Emblematum ) (Goodrich, p.254). The early owner, unidentified, may have thus been a Genevan lawyer.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .Very good, handsomely bound copy of this immensely influential work by Jean Calvin (1509-1564), .a French theologian who contributed to the introduction of the Reformation to France and Switzerland. First published in Latin in 1536, the  Institutio  presented a systematic analysis of Protestant doctrines with the purpose of dissociating the new religious ideas from attacks against established political authority launched by the Anabaptists and condemned by Francis I, to whom the work is dedicated. The 4 parts discuss fundamental theological questions like the knowledge and understanding of God s divine nature, the doctrines of justification by faith alone and of predestination which differentiated Calvin s thought from Luther s. His influential theories inspired, among others, the religious and political ideas of the French Huguenots and the Scottish, English, and Irish Presbyterians. This edition has two remarkably detailed subject indexes, one by  loca , the other by specific keywords.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CALVIN, Jean.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859659039055,"sku":"L3575a","price":4850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3575a-3.jpg?v=1781793703"},{"product_id":"bible-36","title":"[BIBLE].","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very good, interesting copy of this lavishly illustrated bible, in handsome contemporary binding and with profuse C16 annotations. It was produced by the Piedmontese Jacques Sacon (d.1528\/30), printer in Lyon since 1498, at the expense of the German Anton II Koberger. Overall, Koberger commissioned to Sacon 28 editions of mainly theological works. The original handsome t-p woodcut was made by D√ºrer s pupil, Hans Springinklee (c.1490-1540), hired by Koberger in 1516. The large woodcuts with the six days of the Creation (a design reprised from C15 Venetian bibles) and the nativity, and the 123 smaller biblical scenes, were produced by local artists. First printed in 1512, this third edition, with revisions by Alberto Castellano and the addition of sidenotes and concordances, was edited by Johannes de Gradibus, a Milanese jurist, canonist and theologian; it was on the 1521 edition that Luther based his German translation of the Vulgate (Chalvin,  Jacques Sacon , 43). The contemporary annotator, probably a German friar, was a learned theologian and a serious student of the Scriptures, adding short explanations to passages or words. He also wrote a long paragraph the death of the Carthusian Martyrs from the London Charterhouse, imprisoned and executed by Henry VIII in 1535-37. He added four references to Lutheranism, in relation to Old Testament passages. In 1 Kings (1 Samuel), he identified Lutherans with Jonathan, who eats the honey in the woods, whereas his father Saul had made all his soldiers take an oath against eating before the end of the battle. In Judith (considered apocryphal by Protestants), he labelled  against Lutherans  the approval of fasting (not viewed by them as compulsory at Lent, like other forms of penitence), undertaken by the Israelites to pray God to protect them against the attack of the Assyrians. (Another reference to fasting was highlighted in Esther.) The annotator also noted, on the margins of the festivities for Judith s victory, the words  against Lutherans on holy festivities , which they had reduced in number. He wrote down numerous marginalia quoting from Gregorius Magnus, Chrysostom, St Jerome (also on the evils of wine drinking), Plato, Seneca, Socrates and Theophrastus (on their behaviour towards their wives), Polydore Virgil (from his  De invenctoribus rerum ), Origen, Cyprian, St Ambrose, Bede, Denis the Carthusian and Haymo\/Pseudo-Primasius (a commentary to the Epistles to the Jews). He was familiar with Greek as he traced the etymology of  apocryphus , which he wrote in Greek letters. In Genesis, he glossed God s gift of language ( vernaculum ) to Adam and Eve as  Vernaculus is what is born in our own homelands . He wrote a note on Arcturus and Orion, drawing astronomical information from Placus s  Lexicon Biblicon  (1543), as well as information on plants and illnesses (e.g., cholera) mentioned in the text.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[BIBLE].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859664576847,"sku":"L3278","price":7500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3278-1.jpg?v=1781793695"},{"product_id":"skargas-piotr","title":"SKARGAS, Piotr.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A good copy of the first edition of this rare and important vernacular polemic in defence of Catholicism, with contemporary annotations. The Polish preacher Piotr Skargas (1536-1612) was the first rector of the Jesuit Academy at Vilnius, professor at the Krakow College, and a major Counter-Reformation figure in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.  Undoubtedly, [he was] the most widely read Renaissance writer during the C18 [in Poland]. His devotional materials and sermons were among the most published works from the C16 through the C19  (Althoen, p.518). In addition to popular vernacular books, he wrote polemical pamphlets on Polish religious controversies.  Upominanie    a  warning    is addressed to Evangelicals and  other non-Catholics , at a time of religious unrest and Catholic persecution of dissidents and  heretics , such as Lutherans and Socinians, through the destruction of places of worship, attacks on funerals and the plundering of graves (Wilbur, p.443).  Upominanie  was written in the aftermath of the demolition of the first Evangelical Church in Krakow, established in St John s Street in 1572. Skargas remembers how  thousands  gathered to attack  dozens  of heretics. The remainder of the work is a harsh critique of the reasons for this unrest: i.e., the General Act passed by the Warsaw Confederation in 1573, recognising freedom of religion for nobles and freemen within the Commonwealth. The contemporary annotator was especially interested in the explanation of the Act, which, according to Skargas,  gave freedom to all false prophets . He glossed or highlighted arguments against the Act based on Old Testament and Patristic passages on early Christian heresies: e.g., how the Lutherans, Evangelicals (including a substantial community of Scottish merchants who had settled in Krakow), Arians and Calvinists are just like the Turks, and why fight against the latter and not the former; the activities of the Jesuit College in Vilnius; and the position of the king. Part II considers Catholics  behaviour towards  heretics ,  false ministers  and  false prophets , especially concerning the sacraments. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .Jan Januszowski brought Polish printing in line with the best practice of great European presses like Plantin s. He devised the first original Polish type (Szwabacher), officially presented in 1594 but already in use, as here.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SKARGAS, Piotr.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859665920335,"sku":"L4037","price":4250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4037-2.jpg?v=1781793692"},{"product_id":"calvin-jean-beza-theodore-de-ed","title":"CALVIN, Jean; BEZA, Theodore de, ed.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good copy of the first edition of Jean Calvin’s correspondence with major personalities of his time. Calvin (1509-1564), a French theologian, contributed to the introduction of the Reformation in France and Switzerland, his most important work being the ‘Institutio Christianae religionis’. After decades of intense correspondence with European intellectuals, Calvin left his personal archive to his disciple Theodore Beza (1519-1605), his designated successor as Protestant leader in Geneva. ‘Epistolae et responsa’ comprises 399 letters – 299 written by Calvin, 100 with his interlocutor’s reply. The work is prefaced by a long biography of Calvin written by Beda himself, appended to which is a complete catalogue, and probably the first official, of Calvin’s published works in Latin and French. Some of the latter, e.g., the pamphlet ‘Ad Hollandum’ (‘À un certain hollandois’), survive in less than a handful of copies. Calvin’s correspondents span Reformed theologians, his own disciples and even royalty. In 1545, he asked Melanchthon to read one of his works and give his opinion; he also wrote to the Queen of Navarre, who was displeased with his ‘De Libertinis’. In 1548, he wrote a long letter in French on Papists and sedition, addressed to Edward Seymour, Protector of England, recently appointed Duke of Somerset. Several letters shed light on Calvin’s own daily struggle, for instance, with raising money, as most alms were donated for the poor alone. In 1555, he wrote to Piperinus that a nobleman he knew died and left him 2000 crowns; however, he wasn’t allowed to use them as the bequest was done ‘sine chirographo’, i.e., without an official legal document. A most interesting work, shedding light on the politics, theology and everyday life of one of the greatest Reformers.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CALVIN, Jean; BEZA, Theodore de, ed.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859667984719,"sku":"L3575b","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3575b-2.jpg?v=1781793686"},{"product_id":"more-thomas-2","title":"MORE, Thomas.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Very interesting works of Thomas More, with one of the two 1565  first  editions of his Latin  opera omnia , and the rare 1529 first English edition of his  Dialogue . Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) was a statesman under Henry VIII, one of the most influential English Renaissance humanists, especially through works such as  Utopia  (1516), and a saint and martyr of the Catholic Church. First printed here by John Rastell, and requested by the Bishop of London, More s  Dyaloge  is devoted to the most controversial questions pertaining to the Catholic faith, in the making of the English Reformation: the veneration and worship of images and relics, prayers to the saints, and the rationale of going on pilgrimage. It is in the form of a humanist dialogue between More, on the side of the Catholic Church, and a messenger, who reports how image veneration, the worship of saints, and pilgrimage have been abused. Most interesting are the sections where More upholds, unexpectedly, the importance of the English translation of the Bible, praising the aptness of the English vernacular for the sacred text, and pondering on how the common people should read and interpret passages on their own. In 1530, William Tyndale wrote  An Answer  to More s  Dyaloge  rebutting his theories and defending himself from his direct attacks. The first title is one of the two printings, which appeared in Louvain in 1565, of More s complete Latin works. Since the two printers worked in tandem, and the text is identical, they are considered two variants of the first collected edition. The first work is, notably, More s ground-breaking political satire,  Utopia  (1516), a travelogue reporting on the customs, inhabitants, religion and society of the fictional island, in a not-too-veiled comparison to Henrician England. In this copy, three of the  Epigrammata  - witty, moralistic short poems on a variety of subjects - were censored by an early reader, all three criticising James V of Scotland, and the second the Battle of Flodden in particular. Other works include his celebrated translation of Lucian, an answer to Luther written on behalf of Henry VIII, and a treatise on Christ s Passion. Two important first editions. . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..It seems from the inscription that the curmudgeonly bookseller was alive and well in the early 1600 s..\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MORE, Thomas.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868679446863,"sku":"L4096","price":97500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_4330-copy.jpg?v=1781793644"},{"product_id":"bible-39","title":"[BIBLE].","description":"\u003cp\u003eA stunning copy of this beautifully printed, rare and important New Testament, in a very fine contemporary Lyon strap-work binding ‚àö‚Ć la cire, containing the Oliv étan translation of the New Testament into French, with exceptional and most appropriate contemporary humanist and Protestant provenance. A manuscript inscription on the title page records the gift of this bible by the Protestant humanist Justus Jonas (1493-1555) to the Protestant theologian Paul Eber (1511  1569).  Justus Jonas (1493-1555), German Protestant reformer, was born at Nordhausen in Thuringia, on the 5th of June 1493. His real name was Jodokus (Jobst) Koch, which he changed according to the common custom of German scholars in the 16th century, when at the university of Erfurt. He entered that university in 1506, studied law and the humanities, and became Master of Arts in 1510. In 1511 he went to Wittenberg, where he took his bachelor's degree in law.   His great admiration for Erasmus first led him to Greek and biblical studies, and his election in May 1519 as rector of the university was regarded as a triumph for the partisans of the New Learning. It was not, however, until after the Leipzig disputation with Eck that Luther won his allegiance. He accompanied Luther to Worms in 1521, and there was appointed by the elector of Saxony professor of canon law at Wittenberg. During Luther's stay in the Wartburg Jonas was one of the most active of the Wittenberg reformers. Giving himself up to preaching and polemics, he aided the Reformation by his gift as a translator, turning Luther's and Melanchthon's works into German or Latin as the case might be, thus becoming a sort of double of both. He was busied in conferences and visitations during the next twenty years, and in diplomatic work with the princes. .. In 1546 he was present at Luther's deathbed at Eisleben, and preached the funeral sermon; but in the same year was banished from the duchy by Maurice, duke (later elector) of Saxony. From that time until his death, Jonas was unable to secure a satisfactory living. He wandered from place to place preaching, and finally went to Eisfeld where he died.  Enc. Brit. (1911). \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n.Paul Eber (1511  1569) a German Lutheran theologian and poet.  a companion of Luther and Melancthon and an eminent Hebrew scholar and theologian, was born at Kissingen, November 8, 1511. In 1526 .. resumed his studies at Nuremberg, and in 1532 he entered the university at Wittenberg. Here he was employed as amanuensis to Melancthon, with whom he became so intimate that he consulted him on all important matters, and hence Eber received the name of Philip's Repository (Repertorium Philippi). He was also a faithful disciple of Luther. In 1536 he began to lecture on grammar and philosophy, and in 1541 he accompanied Melancthon to the Diet at Worms. In 1544 he was appointed professor of Latin grammar, in 1550 dean of the philosophical faculty, and in 1551 rector of the university. After the death of Forster (1556) he was appointed professor of Hebrew and chaplain to the royal chapel at Wittenberg. These positions he soon changed for others, and in 1559 he was made general superintendent of the electorate and, as doctor of theology, a member of the theological faculty of the university. From this time to' the day of his death, December 16, 1569, he devoted himself entirely to theology and to the faithful discharge of his duties as general superintendent of the electorate. After the death of Melancthon he was regarded as the head of the university.  The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. Eber and Justas Jonas are also closely linked as they were both enlisted by Martin Luther as the principal writers for the new hymn-books; several of their works were later used as cantatas by Bach. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n.The Oliv étan Bible (also known as the Martyrs Bible) was first printed in 1535 and was the work of Pierre Robert, also known as Oliv étan, assisted by such scholars as Lefevre D Etaples. It was the first complete Bible published in French from the original Greek and Hebrew texts. The scholarly manuscript annotations in the first part of the work examine the translation, offering alternatives in French from the Greek. A remarkable copy, beautifully bound, of this important work, with truly exceptional early Protestant provenance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[BIBLE].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868681019727,"sku":"L4023","price":15000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_4471-copy.jpg?v=1781793476"},{"product_id":"psalms-4","title":"[PSALMS].","description":"\u003cp\u003eExtremely rare books of Psalms in a stunning, and remarkable preserved contemporary polychrome strap-work binding ‘á la cire’, with the translation of the Psalms, made directly from the Hebrew into Latin by Santes Pagnini, printed opposite the French translation, also made directly into French from the Hebrew. The Dominican Sante Pagnini, a pupil of Savonarola, studied both Greek and Hebrew, and became one of the leading philologists and Biblicists of his day. His new Latin translation of the Bible was published in Lyon 1528. Pagnini was the first to divide the text into chapters and verses, and his division of the Hebrew Bible has become standard. His Latin translation of the Psalms was constantly reprinted, often with parallel texts in French or in Hebrew. His main work, the “Veteris et Novi Testamenti Nova Translatio”, was the first Latin translation of the Pentateuch using the original Hebrew since the late 4th-century scholar Jerome’s work. Pagnini prefaced it with his Latin translation of the book of Psalms. Notably, he also incorporated rabbinical commentaries into his version. His translation arrived as the both the Protestant Reformation and the advent of printing amplified the Catholic Church’s concerns with the translation of Scripture into vernacular languages other than Latin. The printer Balthazar Arnoullet had been arrested the previous year in 1553, along with Michael Servetus, for having printed clandestinely at Vienne, Servetus’ work, heretical to both Catholic and Protestants, “The Restitution of Christianity.” Arnoullet was released after three months of detention claiming that he has been misled in the affair by his brother in law and fellow printer Guéroult who had set up the clandestine press. Servetus escaped from Vienne but was captured in Geneva several months later and was burned at the stake after having been judged a heretic by Calvin. Arnoullet returned to Lyon where he was able to continue printing until his death in 1556.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis binding was most likely made in Lyon, where, with Paris, the best such bindings were executed during the reigns of Francis I and Henry II, often for the likes of Grolier and the English collector Thomas Wotton – the quality of this binding certainly matches those made for Wotton. Originally influenced by Islamic models, this type of strap-work decoration came from Italy to France, where it reached new heights of artistic creation, making some of the finest bindings of the period, with the additional use, as here, of painted onlays. They represent one of the most charming manifestations of the elegance of the Renaissance in France. Goldschmidt stated that these bindings were “great artistic creations” that represent “the highest achievements in the art of bookbinding in the Renaissance period”. This copy is particularly well preserved with only very minor restoration to the corners, and the paint work mostly intact.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eExtremely rare: USTC gives two locations only, one at Copenhagen and one at the Württembergische Landesbibliothek, and we have found no other. We can find no copies in North American libraries.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[PSALMS].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868681412943,"sku":"L3429","price":7500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_4476-copy.jpg?v=1781793476"},{"product_id":"calvin-jean-4","title":"CALVIN, Jean","description":"\u003cp\u003e.The second edition of theologian and Protestant reformer John Calvin s (1509-1564) commentary on the gospels and acts of the apostles. He began his career as lay administrator to a local bishop, before pursuing a career in law, studying at Orleans and Bourges. Here, he was introduced to the doctrine of humanism, with particular influence from Erasmus and Jacques Lefevre d Etaples, which promoted the restructuring of the church and society based on classical and Christian antiquity. It also encouraged the study of the Bible in Greek, Hebrew and Latin. Calvin s work hugely influenced Protestantism in Europe and North America, leading to the creation of multiple Calvinist churches, particularly in the USA; he is  the most perseveringly followed by his disciples of any Western writer on theology , his other work on the  Institutes of the Christian religion  becoming a handbook of Protestant belief.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..Calvin produced a number of in-depth biblical commentaries, covering most of the Old and almost the entire New Testament, except for the Revelation to John. In this edition, he addresses the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke in tandem, but dedicates entire commentaries to John and the Acts of the Apostles. Lines of Scripture are quoted in chunks, in a larger font, followed by references and detailed comments on various phrases in each text. These include explanations, clarifications, and personal opinions with the aim of identifying examples of Harmony within the passages.   His manner is classical; he reasons on system, he has little humour; instead of striking with a cudgel he uses the weapon of a deadly logic and persuades by a teacher s authority, not by a demagogue s calling of names. .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CALVIN, Jean","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868698878287,"sku":"L3912","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_3571.webp?v=1781793449"},{"product_id":"sarpi-paolo-6","title":"SARPI, Paolo.","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of this famous manual on how to deal with the Inquisition, commissioned by the Senate of the Republic of Venice. Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623) was a Venetian historian, lawyer, experimental scientist and polymath. His defence of the freedoms of the Serenissima‚Äôs institutions crowned him as anti-clerical and anti-Tridentine in Italy and abroad. His works were translated into English almost immediately and pressed into that state‚Äôs religious policies. D.E. Rhodes considers both the printing place and printer‚Äôs name as fictitious, and traces some initials and typographical ornaments to contemporary Chou√´t and Stoer eds printed in Geneva (pp.41-3), where other mid-C17 eds of this work were produced.\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n\u003cp\u003e‚ÄòHistoria‚Äô was aimed at ‚Äòcouncillors, theologians and politicians‚Äô, as a summary, requested by the Doge, ‚Äògathering together systematically all the information concerning the Office of the Holy Inquisition‚Äô, and based on archival material of the Venetian Councils. Its main task was to ringfence in detail the authority of the Inquisition so that it would not impinge onto that of the Venetian state. The 39 sections, accompanied by Sarpi‚Äôs commentary, address the resolutions and legislation pertaining to the Inquisition in Venice, describing how Inquisitors should interact and cooperate with Venetian officials. The first section clarifies the role of the Senator-Inquisitors for Heresy historically appointed by the Venetian authorities, in charge of monitoring the Inquisition friars, and states that they should be substituted by civic Rectors, or by their deputies, should they be unable to attend trial. Besides, Rectors had to report the activities of the Inquisitors in their cities, and were not allowed to let the Inquisitors enter the city without the Doge‚Äôs permission. Venetian authorities had to monitor every single trial, ecclesiastical or secular, in which the Inquisition was involved, with limitations on the Inquisition‚Äôs jurisdiction over imprisonment or the punishment of false witnesses. Sec.29 (pp.92-116) is like a short treatise on printing censorship. Sarpi writes: ‚ÄòThe subject of books may seem of little importance, as it just deals with words. But from those words come the opinions of the world, which cause partiality, seditions, and eventually wars. They are indeed just words, but they can bring with them armed legions.‚Äô There follows an examination of the history of censorship in Italy and Venice with a focus on the previous 100 years, discussing the ‚ÄòIndex expurgatorius‚Äô and the main reasons for printing censorship (e.g., for their lewd, offensive, defamatory content), highlighting what Inquisitors may or may not regulate and how these regulations may damage the book market and printing presses, through the necessity of an ‚Äòimprimatur‚Äô. An important, meaningful work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SARPI, Paolo.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868707397967,"sku":"L4458a","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"brunfels-otto-1","title":"BRUNFELS, Otto.","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis copy was part of the private library of Cardinal Michele Ghisleri (1504-72), who used the arms of the Ghisleri-Carafa between 1557 and 1566. In 1566, he was elected by the Conclave as Pius V, and famously excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I in 1570. His heroic efforts in Europe against the Turks were rewarded by the victory of Lepanto. The institutional stamp was that of the Convent of Santa Croce e Tutti i Santi established in 1566 by Pius V in Bosco Marengo, Piedmont, his hometown, which was closed in the C19. The opening page bears a ms ex-libris from that convent, and the arms include the shield of the Ghisleri and the Dominicans. Brunfels  name is censored throughout the volume; he was put on the Index of 1559. In the C19, this copy belonged to the bibliophile, patriot and minister Count Giacomo Manzoni (1816-89), whose library was sold in 1893. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n.Very good copies of the first and second parts (a third was published in 1539), both in the second edition, of  this celebrated herbal which marks an epoch in the history of botanic illustration  (Becher).  It was the first herbal illustrated with drawings which are throughout both beautiful and true to nature. The plants are represented as they are and in the greatest possible artistic perfection by one of the best German illustrators [...] Johann Weiditz. [...] The title indicates the most distinctive feature of the book, namely that the artist went direct to nature, instead of regarding the plant world through the eyes of previous draughtsmen  (Becher). \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n.Otto Brunfels (1488-1534) was a Reformed humanist and physician, trained at Basel. Whilst he also wrote in theology, linguistics and pedagogy, his herbals made him one of the  fathers of botany  for their accuracy and great attention to naturalistic representation. First published in 1530, with two subsequent parts printed in 1532 and posthumously,  Herbarum vivae eicones  illustrates, in the first vol., several dozen plants, each accompanied by their Latin, German and sometimes Greek names, and by quotations from ancient sources (e.g., Dioscorides, Aetius, Pliny, Razes, Avicenna) and later (e.g., Hermolaus Barbaro, Fuchs), as well as a description of the plant, its medical properties (e.g., limits menstruation, stops the shingles), with short recipes for the preparation of their roots, seed or juice, and its potential harmful effects. Plants include the narcissus, orchid, bugloss, verbena, germander, violet, sassafras, lily, scrophularia, and so on. On p.15, there are mentions of Guaiacum and Ulrich von Hutten (for his 1519 work on syphilis and Guaiacum) (Alden). Vol.2 includes fewer woodcuts but many more descriptions, including origanum persicum, herba syriaca, sanguinaria and helleborus. A final appendix provides German names for all the plants mentioned in the book, for easier consultation. Brunfels  herbals are  a treasury of select quotations. [...] He shows a preference for wild growths before those that have undergone domestication  (Green, Landmarks, pp.169ff). A very handsome copy, of illustrious provenance, of this important herbal. A similarly censured copy appears to be at the Bibliotheca Comunale Manfrediana.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BRUNFELS, Otto.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868707627343,"sku":"L4371","price":12500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4371-4.jpg?v=1781793426"},{"product_id":"taylor-thomas","title":"TAYLOR, Thomas.","description":"\u003cp\u003eScarce third editions of three works by the important early Puritan Thomas Taylor (1576-1632).  Taylor was a prominent member of the group of Perkins's disciples who came to embody the mainstream of moderate puritan divinity in early Stuart Britain. He had entered the pulpit at the age of twenty-one and preached at Paul's Cross before Elizabeth I and James I, but he soon clashed with the emerging anti-Calvinist wing of churchmen. At the university church in Cambridge he sharply attacked Archbishop Bancroft's campaign against puritan ministers. Samuel Harsnett, conducting Bancroft's metropolitan visitation in 1608, silenced Taylor and threatened him with degradation.  (McGee). There followed a period of seventeen years during which Taylor did not hold any benefice, which he used to write. In his many published works, Taylor appears as a full-throated opponent of popery, separatism, and antinomianism.  \u003cbr\u003e\n The first work examines  repentance , a term which was used by Tyndale and subsequent English scriptural interpreters to translate the New Testament Greek .metanoia., which, as a sidenote from the Geneva Bible explains,  signifieth a changing of our minds and heart from evil to better . Taylor s .The Practice of Repentance. is a guidebook to the topic of spiritual repentance; it outlines what true repentance is and the 'signs' by which it can be discerned, suggests a few 'helps' that can assist the believer in carrying out his duty of repentance, and warns the readers against several obstacles or 'lets of repentance'. The whole work is set out schematically  in an easy Method', according to the Table prefixed    the prefatory index sets out in detail the matter contained in each of the forty-one chapters, followed by a fold-out diagrammatic table which divides the whole book into sections and subsections. Taylor's goal is to provide easily consultable theological instruction for his readers.  \u003cbr\u003e\n In the second work, .A Man in Christ., Taylor turns his attention to outlining the character of the Christian individual who has undergone a successful and genuine repentance and has thus become  a new creature , reborn through Christ. Taylor makes it clear that true repentance involves the total renovation of the individual, and analyses the spiritual and ethical condition of the regenerated believer in some detail. The marks of the 'new man' involve the disclaiming of one's own righteousness, the giving of oneself wholly to Christ, and the renunciation of all deliberate sin. The  new , regenerate creature is also distinguished from the old by the vigour and merriness of his actions ( the new Creature doth duties with delight, freedome, cheerefulnesse ).  \u003cbr\u003e\n The last work consists of a series of meditations on the  book of nature . Though the title-page claims that the treatise is presented  as it was preached in Aldermanbury , the length of the piece as well as the schematic layout of the whole suggests that the original content of the sermon or sermons was reworked extensively. Taking Psalms 8:3 as his text, Taylor shows his reader the spiritual benefit to be derived by meditating on the natural and animal world. The natural beatitude and self-contentedness of animals in general teaches us  to bewaile our rebellion against God, which all of them reprove. For they all stand in their kinde and station, in which God set them at first . Living things  are the Lords professours, teaching us the invisible things of God   His Wisedome shineth in the exquisite, and artificiall cunning, in the frame of the smallest creature'. After considering creatures in general, Taylor turns his attention to bringing out the spiritual truths to be found in particular animate and inanimate objects, moving through the planets, sun, moon, stars, light, wind, dew, vegetation, and finally individual animals   the mule, for instance, is a living metaphor of  our untaught and refractarie nature . Taylor encourages the reader to learn the whole spiritual alphabet of creation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TAYLOR, Thomas.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868708610383,"sku":"L4244","price":2400.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20250212_172548-copy.jpg?v=1781793423"},{"product_id":"allen-william","title":"ALLEN, William","description":"First edition of the first Italian translation of this important account of the martyrdom of sixteen English Catholics, originally published as  Brief History of the Glorious Martyrdom  in 1582, now known in only 2 copies. William Allen (1532-94) was an English Catholic priest, and one of the overseers of the Counter-Reformation efforts of English Catholics through colleges set up in Europe to train future missionaries. He also oversaw the printing of the Douai-Rheims bible and the establishment of the English College at Rome, and was a close acquaintance of the other English Catholic mastermind, Robert Parsons.  Historia  narrates the martyrdom of Catholics in England in 1577-83.  It comprises, in fact, 19 martyr relations (of which the first 15 had appeared in the English original although the title had called for only 12, and the last 4 are added)  (Allison \u0026amp; Rogers). The introduction examines the reasons for the death sentence - e.g., whilst all religious groups in England did not consider proper to execute anyone on religious ground alone, in this case, the martyrs were seen as traitors - whilst justifying their deeds and exculpating them - e.g., they were accused of committing crimes in places where they had never been. There follow narratives of the martyrdoms, including those of Edmund Campion, Rudolf Sherwin, Alexander Bryant, Thomas Ford, John Johnson, Luke Kirby, Thomas Cottam, John Payne, and William Hart. The accounts encompass their imprisonment, questioning by the English authorities, trial, the piety and bravery of the martyrs  demeanour in prison and on the scaffold.  They had to face a hard and precarious life, often persecution, the rack, or even death. When found out they could be convicted of high treason, for which the punishment was to be hanged, drawn and quartered. More than one hundred and sixty Douay priests are known to have been put to death, the great majority belonging to the secular clergy. Many more suffered in prison as Confessors for the Faith  (Cath. Encyc.).","brand":"ALLEN, William","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868710838607,"sku":"L4462","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/allen-1.jpg?v=1781793404"},{"product_id":"verstegan-richard-4","title":"VERSTEGAN, Richard","description":"\u003cp\u003eA remarkably preserved, charmingly-bound copy of the second edition of the French translation, first published in 1584, the year after the first edition (in Latin) of this important and finely illustrated martyrology. A work of Counter-Reformation propaganda which caused great offence to Queen Elizabeth. The scenes evoked are of rare violence: monks gutted or castrated, a captain wearing a necklace made of priests  ears, children cut to pieces by sadistic soldiers   a transposition of the massacre of the Innocents. Richard Verstegan (i.e., Richard Rowlands, ?1548-?1636) was a Catholic Anglo-Dutch antiquarian, goldsmith and publisher. The first half of his life was spent in England, but he was prevented from obtaining a degree from Oxford because of his religion. Following the prejudice he suffered at Oxford and as a response to the incarceration and treatment of Mary Queen of Scots, Verstegan published the first edition of  Theatrum Crudelitatum , in 1583. The book may also have been conceived as a Catholic reply to the famous Protestant Book of Martyrs by John Foxe. Verstegan s book attempted to record, in gruesome detail, the cruelty, torture and murder of Catholic martyrs in Europe   especially English and Irish victims under Elizabeth I, at the hands of Protestants. On publication he was arrested and imprisoned for libel against the Crown and all copies were confiscated and destroyed, a single page has survived. Verstegan was able to secure his release and fled the country, ultimately settling in Antwerp where he became a prolific and influential author and publisher. One of his first works there was the expanded and definitive version of the  Theatrum Crudelitatum  published in 1587. Some of the 29 engravings were produced by the author, including an illustration of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. The  Theatre  is in five sections: an introduction and illustrated accounts of the persecution of Catholics during the reign of Henry VIII, during the French wars of Religion, in the early years of the Dutch revolt, and under Elizabeth. 'It was a seminal work of hagiology, but it was not only an important devotional work, it was also, if only indirectly, propaganda for the Spanish Armada. The book ends with a depiction of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots on the 8 February 1587, and a call to the Catholic princes of Europe to avenge this Calvanist regicide, while the introduction devotes considerable space to demonstrating that Elizabeth had broken her coronation oath and violated reason and justice with her various statutes and proclamations against Catholics. [...] Both as a devotional work and as propaganda the  Theatrum  far surpassed the immediate purpose of the moment and continued to be printed into the C17. As polemic it provided a historical argument against Calvinism which was to be picked up in a number of influential historical works. [...] Almost a century later, Anthony ‚àö‚Ć Wood was to write of the Theatrum that  Tis very scarce and sells for any money   (Arblaster). A fine copy of this extraordinarily illustrated work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"VERSTEGAN, Richard","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868711002447,"sku":"L4231","price":3350.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Verstegan-1.jpg?v=1781793402"},{"product_id":"deublinger-johann-columbinus","title":"DEUBLINGER, Johann,  COLUMBINUS.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Extremely rare first and only edition of this work of German Counter-Reformation literature, a tract on the sacrament by Johann Deublinger, with a prefatory letter to David Kolderer von Burgstall (d. 1579), Bishop of Regensburg, where Deublinger had been suffragan bishop. The work opens with two Latin poems addressed to the  violators  of the Sacrament. . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..Deublinger argues, using biblical evidence, for an apostolic succession from Christ to his Disciples and therefore for the legitimacy of the holy sacrament as a Catholic tradition ordained directly by Christ, as well as of the Catholic priesthood itself. Deublinger sees the ministry of Christ as a continuation and restoration of the Jewish tradition, placing the sacrament in a long lineage of tradition going back to the ancient Hebrews. This work followed hot on the heels of the 1570 decree by Pope Pius V making the mass as established by the Council of Trent obligatory, thus rejecting all compromise with Protestants and upholding the basic tenets of the Catholic faith. .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DEUBLINGER, Johann, COLUMBINUS.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868721848655,"sku":"L4307","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4307-titlepage.png?v=1781793344"},{"product_id":"more-sir-thomas","title":"MORE, Sir Thomas.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Fifth English edition of Sir Thomas More s Utopia, the second Alsop edition of Ralph Robinson s English translation, first published 1551, dedicated by the publisher Bernard Alsop to Cresacre More (1572-1649), the author s great-grandson and biographer. This copy has excellent Quaker provenance, being associated with the founders of Clarks footwear... . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..Utopia is certainly the most famous work of English humanism of the sixteenth century. Taking the form of a dialogue between scholars and diplomats meeting in Antwerp, it describes the journey of the Raphael Hythlodaeus to the fictional island of Utopia in the New World. A satire on the politics and mores of his own day, More s Utopia has been hugely influential and inspired the genre of utopian fiction, though in his own day he was perhaps better known for his translations of Lucian s satires, with Erasmus.  Utopia was published in the great year of Erasmian reform, when the new enlightenment seemed about to carry all before it   It was written as a tract for the times, to rub in the lesson of Erasmus; it inveighs against the new statesmanship of all-powerful autocracy and the new economics of large enclosures and the destruction of common-field agriculture, just as it pleads for religious tolerance and universal education  (PMM, p. 28). More s true intentions in writing Utopia have been the subject of much debate, especially regarding his opinions on traditional Catholicism, monarchy, and the ownership of private property as well as slaves. .. . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..Clarks was founded in 1825 by two Quaker brothers, Cyrus and James Clark, in Street, near Glastonbury in Somerset, where it is still headquartered. The Stephens and Clarks became linked through the marriage of James Clark to Eleanor Stephens, daughter of William Stephens, a Quaker draper from Bridport, Dorset. She was engaged in anti-slavery activities, running the Free Labour Cotton Depot in Street during the 1850s, which sold cotton produced by free rather than enslaved families in America (see Anna Vaughan Kett,  Quaker Women, Antislavery Activism, and Free Labour Cotton Dress in the 1850s  in Carey and Plank, eds, Quakers and Abolition (Oxford: 2014), pp. 56-72). Eleanor and James had fourteen children, one of whom was Francis Joseph Clark. This copy passed, therefore, through at least three generations of two Quaker families: William Stephens to his daughter Eleanor Clark, n ée Stephens, to her son Francis Joseph Clark. .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MORE, Sir Thomas.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868722766159,"sku":"L4731","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage.png?v=1781793337"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/collections\/Screenshot_2026-06-20_at_2.02.23_PM.png?v=1781961943","url":"https:\/\/sokol-books-ltd.myshopify.com\/collections\/reformation.oembed","provider":"Sokol Books Ltd","version":"1.0","type":"link"}