The History of the Church of Englande; Compiled by Venerable Bede Englishman
Oxford: Shakespeare Head Press, 1930. Limited edition. Two volumes. Quarto (11 1/2 inches tall), original blue paper boards, linen spines with paper labels printed in black-and-red, uncut. Bookplates to both volumes, modest staining to rear board of volume I. A nearly fine set. Item #1838
"BEDE'S NARRATIVE IS AGLOW WITH THE LEGENDS AND ACTS OF THE FIRST ENGLISH KINGS AND THE EARLY ENGLISH SAINTS"
Superb limited edition of the Venerable Bede's chronicle of England's sixth-century conversion to Christianity. One of only 475 copies printed by the Shakespeare Head Press and issued in two formats (two volumes in boards and one volume in calf). Will Ransom notes that the single volume in the calf binding is far more common than this two volume set. Illustrated with a full-page map of "Bede's Britain" (by W.F. Colley) and three original woodcuts (re-engraved, in a slightly larger size, for this edition by John Farleigh). Includes the original 1929 four-page prospectus ("Now printing at the Shakespeare Head Press"). This set belonged to the American Ambassador David K.E. Bruce, with his large Staunton Hill bookplate in both volumes. A grand edition of a classic English book printed by an exemplar of the Private Press movement.
Known as "The Father of English History," the Venerable Bede (sometimes referred to as Saint Bede) was a seventh-eighth century English monk of Northumbria. Bede is considered by many historians to be the single most important scholar of antiquity for the period between the death of Pope Gregory I (604) and the coronation of Charlemagne (800). Composed in Latin at the Benedictine monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow and completed in 731, Bede's history "will probably continue to stand in the first rank of literary works because of its simple unaffected style, and its sure handling of the picturesque and the dramatic" (Frank N. Magill).
Founded in 1904, the Shakespeare Head Press was taken over by Basil Blackwell in 1920. The Stonyhurst-educated Bernard Newdigate was engaged as designer for the press, and for the next two decades Shakespeare Head became a leading producer of English privately printed books. This edition was produced precisely in the middle of the twenty-year period during which Colin Franklin says that Shakespeare Head was "the most mature and sophisticated of the private presses." The text for this edition is taken from the English translation by Thomas Stapleton as first printed in Louvain in 1565. After a "brilliant career at Oxford," Stapleton was ordained and became "one of the foremost scholars and theologians of his day." Stapleton left England after Elizabeth’s accession to the throne and spent time with Cardinal William Allen and the English Catholic college at Douai. Stapleton's status as a Catholic exile is reflected in his lengthy dedicatory letter to Queen Elizabeth (printed here with an engraved headpiece), imploring her to commit to the "restoring of the one catholike and Apostolical faith of Christendom, to the extirping of schisme and heresy."
The text concludes with the Prayer of St. Bede, printed here in the original Latin ("Oratio Bedae Ad Christum"): "I implore you, good Jesus, that as in your mercy you have given me to drink in with delight the words of your knowledge, so of your loving kindness you will also grant me one day to come to you, the fountain of all wisdom, and to stand for ever before your face." Edited by Philip Hereford with a valuable Appendix, containing an Index of Proper Names & Glossary of Obsolete Words and a Note to the Present Edition (dated "December 8th, 1929"). Hereford describes the omissions and additions to this edition and declares Stapleton's English translation ("the first since King Alfred") as the first modern translation of Bede. The purpose of this edition was "to rescue from oblivion a splendid piece of English prose" after it was superseded by other editions in the eighteenth century. Frank N. Magill. Masterpieces of Christian Literature; Will Ransom. Private Presses, 63; Colin Franklin. The Private Press.
Price: $750.00