[Rarebooks] fa: NARRATIVE HISTORY OF KING JAMES I, FOR THE FIRST FOURTEEN YEARS - 1651

[ArCh]

Auction ends Sunday, April 2. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/3y65p68b

Many thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


[James I; Michael Sparke, et al:] The Narrative History of King James, for the first fourteen Years. In four Parts. I. The state of England at His Majesties entrance, and relation it had to other parts: ... also the rising of Somerset, ... II. The proceedings touching the divorce betwixt the Lady Frances Howard, and Robert Earl of Essex, ... Also, the arraignment of Sir Jer. Elvis Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Thomas Monson Knight, Anne Turner, Rich. Weston and James Franklin, &c. touching the murthering and poysoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, ... III. A declaration of His Majesties revenue with assignations and defalcations upon the same, and of all monies brought into His Majesties coffers from time to time, ... IV. The commissions and warrants for the burning of two hereticks, both holding part of the same our ranters do, being old heresies, newly revived. Also two pardons, the one for Theophilus Higgons, the other for Sr Eustace Harte. London: Printed [by Richard Cotes] for Michael Sparke at the sign of the Bible in Green-Arbour, 1651. First edition. Small 4to (19.5 cm) in later polished calf, rebacked, with the earlier spine label laid down; [20], 80, 93-162, 165-192, [4], 72, [2], 18 pp.; with an extra engraved allegorical title-page and two engraved plates. Wing S4818; Goldsmiths 1238; ESTC R32146.

Bound without the blank leaf (V1), else complete. The portrait plate of Robert Earl of Somerset and Lady Frances Howard has been trimmed/remargined. The "Compleat Table" (i.e., table of contents) is bound in at the front, as often. Binding with some wear to the corners and edges, contents with mild browning to the edges of the text block, a few small spots, light dust-soiling to the title-page and portrait of Thomas Overbury, top corner of the last leaf professionally repaired, otherwise exceptionally clean and sound, firmly bound. A very nice copy indeed, with an interesting provenance: affixed to the front free-endpapers are a clipping from a Sothebys auction catalog dated "6/04," presumably when the book was purchased, the armorial bookplate of the Russell family (bearing the motto "che sara sara"), and later illustrated bookplates of C. A. O. Fox and Egerton Parker.

Michael Sparke (ca. 1586-1653) was a Puritan printer and author who in 1633 had been condemned to stand in the pillory and pay a fine of £500 for publishing William Prynne's Histrio-mastix, an attack on the theatre, Christmas celebrations, and other such semi-pagan abominations. Less controversially, Sparke also published John Smith's History of Virginia (1624) and Mercator's Atlas (1635). The present work contains much on the early part of James I's reign, with the second section dealing extensively with the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury in the Tower.