[Bacon, Nathaniel]. An Historicall Discourse of the Uniformity of the Government of England. The First Part. From the first Times till the Reigne of Edward the third. London: Printed for Mathew WalbanckeÉ1647. [Bound with:] The Continuation of an Historicall Discourse of the Government of England, Untill the Reigne of Queene Elizabeth. With a Preface, being a Vindication of the ancient way of Parliaments in England. London: Printed by Tho: Roycroft, for Matthew Walbanck, and Henry TwyfordÉ 1651
Contemporary calf, ruled in blind, with paper spine label, lettered in manuscript. Edges stained red. , [16], 323, [1, blank], [11, table], [3, blank], [26], 307, [1, blank], [8, table] pp. Al is an engraved title-page.
Joints, corners rubbed. Several marginal tears, not affecting text. Overall a very good, clean copy. With the armorial bookplate of Henry Fox-Strangeways, second Earl of Ilchester (1747-1802)., Nathaniel Bacon (1593-1660) was the half-brother of Francis Bacon. This is his most substantial work. It is ÒÉa sort of constitutional history of England, showing much knowledge of the development of its institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, and pervaded by a strong spirit of hostility to the claims of the royal prerogative and to hierarchical pretensionsÓ (D.N.B.) For this reason, the work was suppressed and attempts to republish it were prosecuted, until in 1689 the edition of 1665 was reissued with a new title making the doubtful attribution to Selden., Wing B349, B348.
$US750
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