A 16th Century English Book Exploring The Power that Money Exerts over Humans

THE BAYTE [AND] SNARE OF FORTUNE. WHERIN MAY BE SEEN THAT MONEY IS NOT THE ONLY CAUSE OF MISCHEFE AND VNFORTUNAT ENDES: BUT A NECESSARY MEAN TO MAYNTAYNE A VERTUOUS QUIET LYFE. TREATED IN A DIALOGE BETWENE MAN AND MONEY.

BIESTON, ROGER.

(London: Imprinted at London by Iohn Wayland, at the signe of the Sunne ouer against the Conduite in Fletestrete, [1556?]). 335 x 222 mm. (13 1/8 x 8 3/4"). [10] leaves. FIRST EDITION, with "Baite" in headline on A2 recto.

Period-style 19th century limp vellum by Maltby's of Oxford, flat spine with ink lettering, remnants of leather ties. Title page with ornate woodcut architectural frame (McKerrow and Ferguson 76). Printed in black letter type. Front free endpaper with ex-libris of Kenneth Rapoport. STC 3055.5; ESTC S91099. ◆Vellum faintly soiled, one corner creased, covers tending to splay, but the binding entirely sound and inoffensive; text with a score or so small, round wormholes to the (spacious) fore margin, trivial stains or smudges at edges, but a very pleasing copy--quite fresh and generally clean.

Derived from the French translation of an anonymous Italian poem, "Contrasto del denaro e dell' uomo," Bieston's dialogue between Man and Money examines the power cash has over humans. It is prefaced with a prose discussion of greed, noting the warnings against avarice advanced by St. Paul, St. Jerome, and the Roman poet Horace, and lamenting the covetousness of man, which makes money his master. The dispute between man and money, in eight-line stanzas, which ends with man conceding his need to have ready funds, is followed by a 14-line poem setting forth the name of the otherwise-unknown author--Rogerus Bieston--as an acrostic. The work concludes with the poet's "Good Counsayle": "Get thy goods truly, Spende them precisely. / Set thy goods duly, Lende thou them wisely." Printer John Wayland (ca. 1508 - between 1571-73) could have profited from that advice. He printed several books between 1537 and 1539, then abandoned this pursuit in 1540, perhaps due to lack of capital, and worked as a scrivener for the next 13 years, at the same time he was selling books. Returning to printing in 1553, he obtained a royal patent to produce the "Sarum Primer" devotional books, the contents of which were attacked in the second edition of John Foxe's "Actes and Monumentes." Though his printing work should have been lucrative, Wayland was constantly plagued by debts, often arising from his unsuccessful lawsuits. Our volume is the final work to bear Wayland's imprint; DNB notes that "from 1556 onwards the additional phrase 'by the assigns of' occurs throughout Wayland's publications." Even though our book has just 10 leaves, its dimensions as a tall folio make it more substantial than it might otherwise seem. It very rarely appears in the marketplace. (ST19303)

Price: $11,000.00