[Rarebooks] fa: 1692-93 ATHENIAN MERCURY - ASTROLOGY, WITCHCRAFT & PRESTER JOHN

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, January 20. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/boyw7qe

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.



The Athenian Mercury. Vol. 9, Numb. 8. [AND] Vol. IX, Numb. 23. [AND] Vol. 10, Numb. 23. London: Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey, 1692-1693. Three sheets, folio (32.5 x 19.5 cm.; 12 3/4 x 7 3/4 in.), printed on both sides. Mild browning and wear to the edges, a few light spots.

Three issues of this popular late seventeenth-century English coffeehouse newspaper, the first and third issues being entirely devoted to a discussion of Astrology, specifically the influence of the stars and planets over the actions and destinies of individuals. In the first issue, the Athenian's editors acidly refute the arguments in favor of "Judicial Astrology" proposed in John Goldsmith's Almanack for 1693 (e.g., to the proposition that No Sceptick denies Superior influences Inferior; Stars and Planets are Superior to all terrene Bodies, and must therefore influence them, the editors respond, "…at this rate every Chimney is more noble than a Man, because 'tis higher…"). The third issue here is entirely given over to "An Answer to the Athenians Arguments against Astrology" by "A Student in Astrology," with the editors' barbed comments sprinkled throughout. The second issue here is largely devoted to a discussion of the trial and testimony of "divers Persons in the County of Kent being accused of Practicing Witchcraft" ("a third Woman did Confess that she had been a Witch upwards of Fifty Years, that she had two little things like Mice that suckt her, but she never hurt any Body, except only one Child…").

The best-known and longest-lived of all seventeenth-century literary periodicals, The Athenian Mercury was the first advice column and the first newspaper to use the question-and-answer format. A widely-read staple of the coffee houses, it is also generally considered the first major popular periodical in England as well as the first miscellaneous periodical, and the first to appeal to both men and women. Published twice weekly from 1691-1697 by the eccentric pamphleteer and prolific publisher John Dunton, the Athenian Mercury took its name from Acts 17:21 ("For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing"). Over the course of its 580 numbers, Dunton and his two principal writers, Richard Sault and Samuel Wesley (father of Charles and John Wesley), answered nearly 6000 questions, both weighty and frivolous, on a dizzying array of topics, including theology, philosophy, politics, health, natural history, science, literature, courtship and marriage, sex, etiquette, etc., etc.


The Athenian Mercury. Vol. 10, Numb. 4. London: Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey, 1693. One sheet, folio (33 x 20 cm.; 13 x 8 in.), printed on both sides. Mild toning and spotting, light wear, creasing and damp-stain to the margins; otherwise clean and sound.

Contains a discussion of the fabled Prester John (aka Presbyter Johannes) and his long-sought Christian kingdom. The Athenian Mercury was a popular English newspaper that inaugurated the question-and-answer format. In this issue, a reader asks the question:  "Where is Prester John's Countrey? what's the Original of that Name, and what Religion the Natives are of?" In their lengthy response touching on all these questions, the editors side with those Portuguese explorers who place Prester John's realm in Ethiopia: "…his Countrey lying toward the middle of Africa, North of the Cape of Good-Hope, South of Egypt, wash'd to the East, or East and by South, with the Red-Sea…"

In keeping with the eclectic nature of the Mercury, this issue also offers answers answers to questions on marriage, moles and birthmarks, and Moses, and advises a tongue-tied young man on "how I shall attain to an Easiness of Behaviour and Unconcernedness in Discourse in all Companies", etc.