B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S A U G U S T 2 0 2 3 "THE SPOKESMAN BEFORE GOD OF A VIRILE, UNCONQUERABLE HUMANITY": RARE FIRST EDITIONS OF JOHN DONNE'S LXXX SERMONS (1640), FIFTY SERMONS (1649), AND XXVI SERMONS (1660) 14. DONNE, John. LXXX Sermons Preached by that Learned and Reverend Divine, John Donne… WITH: Fifty Sermons… BOUND WITH: XXVI Sermons. London: Printed for Richard Royston et al., 1640, 1649, 166061. Three volumes bound in two. Thick folio (9-1/2 by 13-1/2 inches), 19th-century half calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, black morocco spine labels, patterned paper-covered boards. $29,500 Extremely rare first editions of the three separately published folio collections of sermons by "the outstanding preacher of his day" and one of the greatest poets in the language (Baugh, et al., 613)—the third, XXVI Sermons, one of only 500 copies printed, is "considerably rarer" than the first two (Keynes)—handsomely bound together in two volumes, with engraved additional title page by Merian featuring a portrait of Donne. John Donne, Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, is remembered as "one of the most celebrated preachers of his age as well as its greatest non-dramatic poet" (Drabble, 283). "Thou shalt yield no precedence, but of time," wrote poet Thomas Carew on Donne's death. In 1919, T.S. Eliot praised Donne for possessing "uncommon dignity and beauty—a style which gives at times what is always uncommon in the sermon, a direct personal communication… [He was] an artist doing the traditional better than any one else had done it… putting into the sermon here and there what no one else had put into it" ("The Preacher as Artist"). Of Donne's estimated 180 sermons, 160 survive, "and they demand reading and study not just as the major productions of his maturity but also as intricate and beautiful pieces of prose… [They demonstrate that] his concern during his ministry was most often to seek edification—of his auditors and of the English church—and, while criticizing those whom he regarded as sectarians, both Puritan and Roman Catholic, to find some form of accommodation with elements of both. As Donne preaches to congregations ranging from the inhabitants of Blunham to the members of the courts of James I and Charles I, he can be seen to be mapping out a middle way that offers at the same time a strong vision of a church still seeking identity and a voice with which its ministers can speak both with and to authority" (DNB). "The sermons are not only rich in learning and curious lore: they are characteristically personal and powerful in their phrasing… At his most characteristic, [Donne] is the spokesman before God of a virile, unconquerable humanity" (Norton Anthology, 918). Donne's sermons "are now very rare" (Allibone, 513). Very faint dampstain along lower and outer edge of both volumes, text generally quite clean. Fifty Sermons title page darkened and stained, with a minor repair and creasing. XXVI Sermons with marginal tear to G3, not affecting text; final two leaves with some larger marginal repairs, affecting a few words on just the last leaf. A very good and handsome, tall copy. 14
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDg3OTM=