B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S W O M E N S H I S T O R Y 2 0 2 4 Women's History Month SCARCE FIRST EDITIONS OF PARTS I AND II OF A SEMINAL COLLECTION OF KEY CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE COURTS OF HENRY VIII, ELIZABETH I, JAMES I AND CHARLES I, FEATURING THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF ELIZABETH'S FAMED ARMADA SPEECH 14. (ELIZABETH I, HENRY VIII, JAMES I, CHARLES I, et al.). Cabala: Sive Scrinia Sacra. Mysteries of State & Government: in Letters of Illustrious Persons, and Great Agents; in the Reigns of Henry the Eighth, Queen Elizabeth, K: James, and the late King Charles. In Two Parts. London, 1654. Two parts bound in one volume. Small quarto, period-style dark brown paneled calf. $3500 First editions of both parts of this major collection of official correspondence from the courts of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I, featuring the first publication of Elizabeth’s renowned Spanish Armada Speech (1588), a printing of Henry VIII’s 1533 letter “Touching his Title of Supreme Head of the Church of England,” and a letter from Ann Boleyn written from the Tower shortly before her execution, along with first or early printings of letters from James I, the Earl of Essex, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Donne, Francis Bacon and other key figures in the often perilous tumult of court rivalries, religious furor and foreign intrigue. This scarce volume contains first editions of Parts I (Cabala) and II (ScriniaSacra… Supplement) of a major collection of more than 300 letters—official correspondence from the reigns of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I—that includes many of the most “important state papers issuing from the English court” and provides fascinating insight into court rivalries, religious politics and foreign intrigue (Sir Walter Raleigh and his Colonie, 23n). Of particular interest is the first printing of Elizabeth’s powerful Armada Speech, delivered by her at Tilbury (1588), present in a letter (circa 1624) from Doctor Leonel Sharp to the Duke of Buckingham (Cabala, pp. 257-262). As chaplain to the Queen’s Lieutenant General, Sharp was present at Tilbury, and his transcription of the Queen’s Armada Speech is of great import, for “nothing of it survives in her own handwriting. The speech was not published until 1654 [i.e. 1653, this edition], when a copy sent many years later by Sharp to the Duke of Buckingham was printed.” Sharp’s letter had been given by Buckingham to an anonymous collector; scholars have discovered only one other copy, which Sharp sent to the Queen. While debate remains on the Queen’s sole or full authorship of the Armada Speech, most historians agree that Elizabeth “was speaking extempore, without notes… Sharp was the first person to commit her words to paper.” As Sharp’s transcription seems to have been “scribbled out as the Queen spoke,” this first printing stands as a crucial record of “the inflections of Elizabeth’s voice as she was delivering the words by which—thanks to Dr. Sharp—she will always be remembered” (Pryor, Elizabeth I: Her Life in Letters, 99). Part I (Cabala) bound without publisher’s advertisements at rear; Part II with pagination as issued of “160, 181-355” with page 255 misnumbered 355. ESTC R21971. Wing C184. See Wing C183, S2110. Owner ink stamp to upper margin of Part I title page. Upper margin of general title repaired on verso, text mildly toned in places, occasional spotting and faint dampstaining. Period-style binding attractive and fine. 14
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