English Prayer Books; An Introduction to the Literature of Christian Public Worship
Cambridge: At the University Press, 1949. Third edition. Original blind-stamped blue cloth (7 1/8 inches tall), gilt spine, original dust jacket. Slight wear to jacket. A near-fine copy. Item #1587
"THE NATURE OF THE PRINCIPAL BOOKS EMPLOYED IN PUBLIC WORSHIP IN ENGLAND"
Third edition—considerably enlarged and revised—of Stanley Morison's important history of liturgical printing in England. With a frontispiece portrait of Thomas Cranmer and sixteen additional illustrations. An excellent copy of the most comprehensive edition.
First published in 1943, Morison's study of the origin and development of printed Service-Books was published as the inaugural volume in the Problems of Worship series, edited by W.R. Matthews (Dean of St. Paul's) and F.W.D. Dwelly (Dean of Liverpool). Morison describes four separate "Creative Periods," including First: Apostolic Times to the Fifth Century, Second: Fifth to Tenth Century, Third: Tenth to Fifteenth Century, Fourth or Modern Period: Sixteenth to Twentieth Century. The brief Editor's Preface, alluding to the Second World War, attributes "an increased interest in the great truths which are exhibited in Christian theology, the editors believe also that there is a widespread feeling of need to relate these truths to the emotional life in the experience of worship."
The Alcuin Club printed its own edition of English Prayer Books (also in 1943 by Oxford University Press) which brought the "criticism of a more learned audience than it might otherwise have reached." Members of the Alcuin Club "passed on numerous important corrections" with Morison noting "corrections at several points regarding editions of the Book of Common Prayer." This third edition concludes a Postscript with Morison's statements regarding the nature and extent of the revisions for the First Edition (1943), the Revised Edition (dated, "London, 23 January 1945"), and the Revised and Enlarged Edition ("London, March 1949"). Printed at the University Press, Cambridge under the supervision of Brooke Crutchley, University Printer. With two indexes: Author's and Printers and Prayer Books and Literature. Appleton, Writings of Stanley Morison, 166.
Price: $95.00