Provenance:  From the collection of 19th-century scholar Dr. Johann August Neander (1789–1850), a convert from Judaism who became a leading scholar of Christian church history.

•  Brunet 18324.   Contemporary calf, spine with raised bands, gilt-stamped compartment decorations at top/bottom, and later black leather gilt-stamped labels; covers blind-tooled in concentric compartments. Rubbed with bits of leather lost at extremities; offsetting from leather along margins of endpapers and title-pages. Marbled endpapers, free ones missing in both volumes; front pastedowns each with library bookplate and both title-page versos with call number in pencil. Initial pages of vol. II toned. A good solid set. (21186)

•  ESTC T96164.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Pages slightly age-toned, else clean. (20770)

Click the images for enlargements.

The original Whole Duty is now generally ascribed to Allestree although, as the DNB says, “it has by some been supposed that Allestree joined [his good friend and biographer] Bishop [John] Fell” in writing it.” Allestree (1619–81) was a royalist Church of England clergyman; Bishop Fell reports that “few of his time had either a greater compass or a deeper insight into all parts of learning” (DNB). The hand responsible for the present alterations of his most famous work has not yet been identified.

The volume begins with a copper-engraved frontispiece depicting Moses giving the law and Jesus giving grace and truth, and an additional engraved title-page. The frontispiece to the original edition, done byHollar, is reproduced here as a full-page illustration. The section of “Private Devotions: Containing directions and prayers for morning and evening . . .” has a separate title-page.

Provenance: Large ownership note of Nathan Levering on imprimitur page; the start, perhaps, of his second signature (much smaller) to the bottom of the title-page.

This edition is uncommon, as are most of the other printings from this time period.  OCLC and ESTC locate only three U.S. institutional holdings, two of which have since been deaccessioned.

•  ESTC T80506. On Allestree, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Contemporary speckled calf framed in gilt double fillets, recently rebacked, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-dotted raised bands; corners and edges rubbed. Lower edges (closed) institutionally rubber-stamped; frontispiece and several pages pressure-stamped; dedication with inked annotation and numeral. Front fly-leaf with early inked annotation consisting mostly of numerals; title-page verso with inked ownership inscription as above. Foxing and the occasional stain; one leaf with short tear from outer margin touching text without loss; one index leaf with tear affecting a few words. In fact, a decent copy of this interesting book.  (25857)

Provenance:  A signature “Fr. Antonio Lobato de Sto. Thomas” appears at the bottom of the last page and is almost certainly that of the the friar himself, which would mean that this is his autograph manuscript of the sermons.

•  Contemporary very stiff vellum. Binding gnawed by a rodent with loss. Written on a good quality European paper, with some soiling and an occasional stain. No faults are serious and overall this is a remarkably good survival for an 18th-century Philippines manuscript. Now housed in a blue cloth clamshell box.  (23668)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Brunet, I, 453–54; Dibdin, I, 301–02; Graesse, I, 207; Schweiger, I, 46. Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges tooled in blind, spine with gilt-dotted raised bands, gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. All edges gilt. Vol. I title-page with inked ownership inscription dated 1884 in upper outer corner; frontispiece with ink stain to outer margin not touching image (in our picture above, this misleadlingly looks like it could be a wormhole). Faint spots of foxing in some sections, pages otherwise clean.

•  ESTC T108041. On Arnall, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, II, 103). Removed from a nonce volume and now in a Mylar folder. Final page stamped by a now-defunct institution. Small area of worming in lower outer corner throughout, not touching text.

This example is apparently a variant state of the first edition of 1712 (ESTC does not distinguish between variants, grouping all entries under one listing), with p. 61, line 8 ending “of the Romish Persuasion.’

•  ESTC T41498. On Asgill, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, II, 159–61. Removed from a nonce volume, now in a Mylar folder. Title-page with small numeric stamp, spots of discoloration. A few pages more notably browned than their neighbors; otherwise generally clean.

The wonderful cataloguers at the American Antiquarian Society write of this edition: “Apparently printed in sections, presumably by John Dixon, Thomas Nicolson and Augustine Davis, rival Richmond printers. The first 16 p. were probably printed in 1791; p. 17-60 in or before April, 1792. Evans, however, postulates that the first 16 p. were printed by Thomas Dobson of Philadelphia in September, 1792, and that Asplund replaced the original gatherings A and B of this edition with Dobson’s corrected sheets. Cf. the prefaces to the 1794 and 1796 editions, with title: The universal register of the Baptist denomination . . .”

This was a standard Baptist stance, if not one universally held; it is striking here as appearing on p. 52, in the part of the pamphlet that Evans and the AAS agree was Richmond-printed.

he is writing from the American “field”

Rare. We trace fewer than half a dozen copies in U.S. libraries.

•  Evans 26580; Sabin 2222; ESTC W37301.   19th-century half morocco with marbled paper covered boards; binding with label of “John C. Moore, Rochester, NY.” Ex-library with area of discoloration on front board where call number label was removed; bookplate on front pastedown; rubber-stamp on title-page, and small stamp and pencilling on rear of same. Approximately 60% of title-leaf replaced in pen and ink facsimile. Some foxing and age-toning. Not an ideal copy, but given the rarity, a darned good one.  (24456)

Click the images for enlargements.

As is the case with the 70 p. issue, the first 16 p. are the same sheets as appear in the original [Richmond, April 1792] edition (Evans 26580), and were probably printed in 1791. Evans, however, postulates that the first 16 p. were printed by Dobson in September 1792. He accounts for their presence in copies of the [Richmond] edition of 60 p. by suggesting that Asplund substituted the corrected Philadelphia sheets for the unsatisfactory sheets of the earlier edition. Cf. the prefaces to the 1794 and 1796 editions, with title: The universal register of the Baptist denomination.”

In addition to its exhaustive account of who's who and what's where, this lists both principles of belief and “Rules of Decorum”; the latter, e.g., forbid laughing and whispering when another member of the association is speaking in assembly. Between the “Rules of Decorum” and the Index, Asplund remarks on the un-Christian “inconsistency” of “Keeping our fellow-creatures in bondage, who have as good a right was we, both to civil and religions liberty — Not only so; but misusing them, concerning common blessings, which certainly is a violation of the rights of nature and inconsistent with a republican government.”

•  Evans 26582; ESTC W37302.   Uncut copy. In 20th-century black buckram binding. Ex-library with bookplate but no other markings.  (24467)

The volume is illustrated with a frontispiece and three other copper-engraved plates done by “I. Simons.”

•  ESTC T97614.   Contemporary speckled calf framed and panelled in blind with contrasting plain calf panel and blind-tooled corner fleurons, rebacked with lighter speckled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; sides abraded. Contemporary inked ownership inscription to back of frontispiece and similarly old small inked notation (monogram?) to title-page; ; title-page institutionally rubber-stamped at base (no other markings). Pages age-toned; intermittent light spotting and staining.  (24438)