[Rarebooks] fa: GRANVILLE SHARP - English Abolitionist, Supporter of America - INSCRIBED PAMPHLET 1798

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Auction ending Sunday, Nov. 22. Details and images can be found at the  
URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://shop.ebay.com/arch_in_la/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

Cheers,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

GRANVILLE SHARP: Remarks on the Uses of the Definitive Article in the  
Greek Text of the New Testament; Containing Many New Proofs of the  
Divinity of Christ, from Passages which are Wrongly Translated in the  
Common English Version. By Granville Sharp, Esq. To which is added a  
Plain Matter-oF-Fact Argument for the Divinity of Christ, by the  
Editor. Durham: Printed and sold by L. Pennington, 1798. FIRST  
EDITION. Pamphlet, 8vo (23 cm), in stitched binding as originally  
issued; viii + 52 pp.; with the half-title. ESTC T137100.

PRESENTATION COPY: inscribed on the half-title to "The Revd. Mr.  
Viner / From the Editor," the inscription identified underneath, in a  
different but contemporary hand, as by "Granville Sharp. 1798." Sharp  
(1735-1813), though a classicist and biblical scholar of note, and a  
gifted musician and singer to boot (George III once described his  
voice as "the best in Britain"), achieved his greatest renown for his  
pioneering and tireless efforts to abolish the slave trade. In 1769,  
he published A Representation of the Injustice and Dangerous Tendency  
of Tolerating Slavery, the first English tract attacking slavery. In  
1787, he co-founded and chaired the The Society for Effecting the  
Abolition of the Slave Trade and remained its leading light for the  
twenty years of its existence. He is considered one of the founding  
fathers of Sierra Leone for his efforts to settle a black colony  
there, first, disastrously, at Granville Town and later at Freetown.  
In 2007, he was honored, along with Wilberforce and other leading  
abolitionists, on the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in  
the United Kingdom. In keeping with his progressive worldview, Sharp  
was an early and ardent supporter of the American colonies, publishing  
A Declaration of the People's Natural Right to a Share in the  
Legislature in 1774. He resigned his position as Clerk in the Ordnance  
Office in 1776, refusing any longer to assist in supplying British  
forces fighting "a bloody war carried on, unjustly, against my fellow- 
subjects." As if that weren't enough, Sharp also promoted  
parliamentary reform, advocated the legislative independence of  
Ireland, and agitated against the impressment of sailors for the  
king's navy.
Like any member in good standing of the Enlightenment, Sharp possessed  
a seemingly inexhaustible curiosity about a wide range of subjects.  
Here we find him turning his attention from world events in order to  
parse the use of the definite article in the Greek text of the New  
Testament. Hardly as historically momentous as some of his other  
efforts, but still, even here, in this dusty and arcane little corner  
of philology, Sharp makes news: the pamphlet contains the first  
appearance in print of what is still known as "The Granville Sharp  
Rule" (or "Sharp's Rule") regarding the use of the Greek article ho —  
a principle which, if true, would have a profound bearing on Unitarian  
doctrine and which led to a celebrated controversy and the outbreak of  
a "pamphlet war" between opposing theologians and bible scholars.

Pamphlet is still in its original stitched binding as issued; bumping,  
dust-soiling and a few small nicks to the untrimmed edges, last two  
leaves with creasing at the corners, first (half-title) and last page  
mildly browned, last leaf a bit loose but still secure; otherwise  
quite clean and fresh. A remarkable survivor and a unique copy of a  
significant work of biblical scholarship by a remarkable and  
significant figure in 18th-century English history. Uncommon even  
without the inscription: a search of ESTC turns up only 4 copies in  
U.S. institutions (Yale, Boston Athenaeum, GTS, Lib Co of Philadelphia).