Browse Similar Items
THE LIFE OF SIR THOMAS MORE.
(London: Printed for James Woodman and David Lyon, 1726). 228 x 144 mm. (9 x 5 3/4"). xxxi, [i], 336 pp., [8] leaves.
ESPECIALLY ATTRACTIVE SEA-GREEN CRUSHED MOROCCO, GILT, BY RIVIERE (stamp-signed on verso of front free endpaper), covers with French fillet frame, sprays of strawberries at corners, raised bands, spine compartments densely gilt, gilt titling, turn-ins with multiple decorative gilt rolls, marbled endpapers and flyleaves, all edges gilt. In a fine modern clamshell box. With engraved frontispiece portrait after Holbein. Front pastedown with book label of H. Harvey Frost and bookplate of Dudley C. Majoribanks. ESTC T86087. ◆A VERY FINE COPY, clean, fresh, and bright internally, and in a lustrous binding with only trifling signs of wear.
This is a very handsomely bound copy of the biography of the author of "Utopia," one of the major figures of his time. A friend of Erasmus and a believer in church reform, Thomas More (1478-1535), served Henry VIII as chancellor, disagreed with the king's severance of ties with the Catholic Church, and was executed for his refusal to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England. Our preface tells us that Thomas More, the great-grandson of Sir Thomas, was the author of this work and that the first edition of it was published within two years of the author's death. But Lowndes correctly points out that in our edition, as in the first printing of 1631, this work "is assigned to a member of the family of More who could not have been the writer of it." The book is actually the work of Cresacre More (1572-1649), younger brother of Sir Thomas. An ardent Catholic, Cresacre dedicated his work to the French queen of Charles I, Henriette Marie. The biography, which includes a number of letters written by More to his family, has always been considered a principal source for More's career. The binding here is typical of the first-class materials, design, and workmanship of the long-lived Riviere firm. (ST17769a)
Price: $1,750.00