A Remarkable Survival: Two Very Rare Religious Works from Differing Political Contexts, in a Fine Interregnum Volume

SAINT CHRYSOSTOME HIS PARAENESIS, OR ADMONITION WHEREIN HEE RECALLS THEODORUS THE FALLEN. OR GENERALLY AN EXHORTATION FOR DESPERATE SINNERS. [bound with] STRONG, WILLIAM. THE CERTAINTY OF HEAVENLY, AND THE UNCERTAINTY OF EARTHLY TREASURES. TOGETHER WITH A DISCOVERY WHERE THE TREASURE AND HEART IS PLACED.

CHRYSOSTOM, JOHN, SAINT.

(London: Thomas Dring; W. Wilson, 1654). 142 x 82 mm. (5 1/2 x 3 1/4"). 6 p.l. (first blank), 126, [6] pp.; 1 p.l., 204 pp.Translated by Viscount Grandison. FIRST EDITIONS.

Fine contemporary sprinkled calf, smooth spine divided into panels by blind rules, remnants of paper (shelf?) label to tail panel, fore-edge of text block with "Misc 57" written in ink by an early hand. Front flyleaf with early bibliographical note in ink. First work: Wing C-3980; ESTC R208923. Second work: Wing S-5998; ESTC R33662. Boards tending to splay slightly, lower corners somewhat rubbed (one with leather lifting), small chip to head edge of spine at rear joint, small water spot to rear cover, but the unsophisticated binding solid, lustrous and quite pleasing; occasional faint dampstains, a couple of tiny wormholes, but AN EXTRAORDINARILY CLEAN AND FRESH COPY INTERNALLY. A remarkable survival.

This is an extraordinarily attractive little 17th century volume--and a remarkable survival--offering two very rarely seen religious texts originating from two different factions in the midst of the English Interregnum, but exhorting readers toward heavenly behavior in much the same way. Our first text, emerging from a Royalist context, is a translation of St. John Chrysostom's "To Theodore upon His Fall." One of the most important Church Fathers, Chrysostom (ca. 347-407) was the Archbishop of Constantinople and the most celebrated orator of the early Christian period ("Chrysostomus" means "golden-mouthed"). He was a voluminous writer of sermons and homilies, often illustrating his points, not by using abstruse allegorical interpretations, but by referring to the things of contemporary daily life. It is clear from this mid-17th century imprint that his appeal has persisted over the centuries. The Theodore in question was Chrysostom's friend Theodore of Mopsuestia (ca. 350 - ca. 428), a theologian and bishop of Mopsuestia in Anatolia. "To Theodore" is a response to an incident in which Theodore was considering abandoning his vows of celibacy for marriage, and Chrysostom urges him to embrace the Godly life. The present translation is dedicated to Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Cleveland (1591-1667), who was a Royalist general during the Civil War and at the time of publication was enduring his second period of imprisonment in the Tower of London, from 1651-56. Our translator, named only as "Lord Viscount Grandison, [also!] prisoner in the Tower" is generally thought (per ESTC) to be William Villiers, second Viscount Grandison (1614-43), a Royalist commander who died of his injuries in battle. The second work in our volume was written by a notable Independent preacher, the Puritan divine William Strong (d. 1654) who was educated at Cambridge but expelled and stripped of his degrees in 1634 for controversial statements against Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud. In 1643, after a three-year stint as rector in Moor Critchell, Dorset, he fled the Royalist incursion to begin a successful career in London, where he regularly preached to Parliament and, starting in 1650, had his own Independent congregation at Westminster Abbey. He was buried there following his death in the year these two works appeared, but was disinterred after the Restoration. The present publication is composed of his final sermons preached before his death in June of 1654, in which he encourages his congregation to focus on their heavenly "treasures" instead of being caught up in earthly desires and gains, a message not dissimilar to Chrysostom's in the first work. The fact that these two works--produced by a translator and a cleric on opposing sides of the ongoing conflict--were bound together near the time of their production opens up interesting questions about the reception of religious thought during the time. OCLC indicates that these two 1654 imprints were not normally bound together (see below), so some presumably devout reader intentionally had them put between the same covers. Perhaps for that everyday reader living in the immensely complex religious and political world of the Interregnum, the similarity of the religious thought expressed here may have enabled him or her to overlook the religious and political differences of opposing sides in order to embrace the coinciding message of the two texts. Whatever we can suppose about the juxtaposition, two things are certain here: (1) this very appealing little volume--put into the most modest of calf bindings and normally expected to be read to death--has no business being as well preserved as it is, and (2) both of the works in question are very rare: we were unable to trace any copies of either at auction, and OCLC finds just five copies of the former and two of the latter in North American institutions (and there are no instances where the two works are bound together). (ST20897)

Price: $7,800.00