An Apology for the True Christian Divinity

Item Details

(Aberdeen?), (John Forbes?), 1678, Hard Cover

First English Translation, Fair Condition

[22], 392, [21]; rebound with leather spine, red label lettered in gilt; most of original calf laid down on later leather covered boards; new pastedowns and endpapers; a fragment of original leaf (endpaper? ) laid down on front pastedown with ownership description: "Francis Newton Book, given Him at London by His Brother, John Newton," below which is written "Robert Shepherd, Book 1803". The last leaf also has further ownership inscriptions on both sides, dated 1755, some in Latin. Top edge of the text block seems to have been shaved in rebinding, as all of the copies located are listed as quarto, this copy 8" x 6". 

Title page soiled, stained with edges heavily chipped, somewhat fragile at the hinge with loss at the top but holding. Dedication page soiled and chipped, with autograph inscriptions on top corner margin in a small hand by Francis Newton, dated 1709, then Robert Shepherd, Stockport, 1779. Leaves 5&6 are separating from the hinge but holding firm below at several stiches. The rest of the text pages soiled particularly at the margins. There is a closed 1.25" horizontal split at the leading margin on (p. 7) of the Tables in the rear. The last leaf has 1.5" even loss across the top. With all of this, the binding is of course tight, and the whole pretty well preserved. 

Robert Barclay (1648 –1690) was a Scottish Quaker, one of the most eminent writers belonging to the Religious Society of Friends and a member of the Clan Barclay. He was a son of Col. David Barclay, Laird of Urie, and his wife, Lady Katherine Barclay. Although he himself never lived there, Barclay was titular governor of the East Jersey colony in North America through most of the 1680s. This is his most famous work, published first in Latin (in Amsterdam in 1676).

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