first edition Hardcover
1679 · Amstelodami (Amsterdam)
by LEIGH, Eduardo
Amstelodami (Amsterdam): Johannis a Someran, 1679. Hardcover. Folio (12 3/4" X 8½"). Full vellum with faded paper spine label. Volume I: (16pp), 288pp, (20pp index). Volume II: (20pp), 418pp, (30pp index). Preliminary title in red and black with woodblock vignette. Full-page steel-engraved portrait. Overall very good. Binding quite age toned, spotted and rubbed, though intact and quite handleable despite the usual mild bowing; blank preliminary leaves heavily age toned, with four lines inked from one unidentified early owner (seemingly in early German); occasional age toning and sporadic bits of foxing throughout. A tight and rather nice first Latin edition of this 2-title opus by Edward Leigh (1602-71), English gentry who fought in the English Civil War, served in Parliament (1645-49) and earned a seat at Westminster Assembly but is mainly known as a lay writer. His "Critica Sacra, or Philologicall and Theologicall Observations upon all the Greek Words of the New Testament in order alphabeticall, &c." was published in London in 1639 and its follow-up "Critica Sacra. Observations on all the Radices or Primitive Hebrew Words of the Old Testament in order alphabeticall, wherein both they (and many derivatives . . .) are fully opened" in 1642, then published together in 1650. In 1679 they were first translated into Latin by Henricus a Middoch in this edition, which went through several printings over the next few decades. From the collection of (of all people!) Adlai E. Stevensonn II (1960-65), Illinois governor and twice Democratic presidential candidate; Stevenson visited England as a young man in the 1920s and perhaps acquired this at that time. (#45971).
(Inventory #: 45971)
(815) 777-3749
