"AS A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION, IT IS FOR MOST ENGLISHMEN SECOND ONLY TO THE BIBLE": 1707 BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED WITH 54 ENGRAVINGS, IN LOVELY CONTEMPORARY MOROCCO WITH SILVER FITTINGS
BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments… London: Charles Bill, and the Executrix of Thomas Newcomb, 1707. Octavo, contemporary full black paneled and blind-tooled morocco, original silver centerpieces, cornerpieces, clasps and catches, raised bands, marbled endpapers.
1707 edition of the beloved Book of Common Prayer, extra-illustrated with an engraved extra title page and 53 engraved plates by John Sturt from 1717, handsomely bound in contemporary blind-tooled morocco with silver fittings.
Born of Thomas Cranmer's desire for liturgical texts upon which all of Europe's Protestant, English-speaking churches could agree, the beautiful and dignified language of the Book of Common Prayer, first issued in 1549, has considerably influenced not only ecclesiastical practice but also literature in English. "The language of the Prayer Book is now part of the whole language… and as a source of spiritual inspiration, it is for most Englishmen second only to the Bible" (PMM 75).
The additional illustrations are from a separately sold suite by master engraver John Sturt. "Like most engravers of the time, he derived his staple income by working as a book illustrator, and in the course of a long and industrious life he executed the plates for many important works… He specialized in miniature work, and it was said that he could engrave the creed on a silver penny, a claim amply reinforced by his best-known works: engraved versions of the Book of Common Prayer and of Laurence Howell's The Orthodox Communicant, published respectively by subscription in 1717 and 1721" (ODNB). Bound with a 1708 edition of Sternhold and Hopkins' popular metrical psalter. The engraved additional title that accompanies the suite of Sturt's illustrations says "Adorn'd with 55 historical cuts." There are 54 plates bound in. Griffiths 1707:2. Owner ink signature.
Interior quite clean, short closed tear to lower edge of leaf M8, affecting a few lines of text but not legibility, and to lower margin of plate 49, not touching image. Lower clasp not present; upper clasp functional. A desirable, near-fine copy, beautifully bound with silver fittings and extra-illustrated.