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BECON Thomas.
Anthologia Lactantii ... elegantissimas sententias.
Lyon, Clement Baudin 1558
£1750.00
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FIRST EDITION. 8vo. pp. (xvi) 246 (viii). Roman letter, woodcut initials and headpieces. First and last few ll. distinctly yellowed, occasional much lighter yellowing in text. In contemporary Spanish vellum, edges speckled red. "Este Tomas Becono es autor condenado" and "Damnatum Authorem, sed in hoc opere [permissionem]..." in contemporary inquisitor's hands on t-p. First edn. of a very rare anthology of passages drawn from Lactantius on a variety of subjects including demons, the Devil, magic, spirits and ghosts, images, the nature of man and his different conditions and types and the nature of evil and its different manifestations, of sin, virtue, wisdom, philosophy, etc.; the text is preceded by a detailed index. Becon (1512-1567), a Norfolk man, educated at S. John's, Cambridge was ordained in 1538 despite his pronounced attraction for the teachings of the reformers, becoming a disciple of Latimer. All his books (he was a prolific writer) were successively proclaimed as heretical by a still doctrinally orthodox Henretian church. He prospered greatly under Edward VI, however, becoming chaplain to Cranmer and the Protector, Somerset and one of the six preachers at Canterbury Cathedral. On the accession of Mary, Becon was briefly arrested as a 'seditious preacher' and ejected from his living on account of his marriage; whereupon he took up residence in the more congenial atmosphere of Strasburg. In 1555 in London his books were banned by proclamation. But his trials were short, he returned to England on Elisabeth's accession and was restored to his benefices. The present work is remarkable for its 18 page dedication (from Marburg, 1557) to Alexander Neville whom Becon probably knew from Canterbury (where Nevilles' father lived and his brother Thomas was Dean), in which Becon sets out his personal creed on writing, learning and scholarly works. Neville was an appropriate addressee. He was a protestant scholar of note, author of the official account of Kett's rebellion and successively secretary to Archbishops Parker, Grindal and Whitgift. It is surprising to find such a book printed in France and owned in C16th Spain, but as the ms on the title indicates, although the author was generally condemned, the work itself was permitted, containing nothing objectionably protestant. Nevertheless it is rare. Not in BM. STC. Fr. Adams B 440. Shaaber B 363. Baudrier V p. 25.
SNL123.
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