Beschreibung:

EDWARD VI (1537-53) -- CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Iniunccions geveñ by the moste excellent prince, Edward the sixte ... to all and singuler his louyng subiectes, as well of the clergie, as of the laietie . London: Richard Grafton, 31 July 1547. Collation: a-c 4 d 2 . Architectural woodcut title border [McKerrow & Ferguson 63], full-page woodcut of Grafton's device at end [McKerrow 104]. STC 10090.5, one of 8 printings by Grafton of the same date. [ Bound with ]: Articles to bee inquired of, in the Kynges Maiesties Visitacion . London: R.Grafton [1547?]. Collation: A 4 B 2 . Drop-head title on A1. STC 10116, one of 5 printings by Grafton (this edition often bound and presumably issued with 10090.5 above). [ And ]: Certayne Sermons or Homilies, [by Thomas Cranmer, John Harpsfield, Edmund Bonner, and others] appoynted by the Kynges Maiestie, to be declared and redde, by all Persones, Vycars, or Curates, euery Sonday in their Churches where they have cure . London: Edward Whitchurch, 20 August 1547. Collation: π 4 a-Y 4 Aa-Bb 4 . Architectural woodcut title border [McKerrow & Ferguson 60b]. STC 13641.7, one of four printings. 3 works in one volume, 4° (197 x 140mm). BOUND FOR THOMAS WOTTON IN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH CALF GILT, single gilt fillet border around sides, upper cover lettered in gilt with the legend 'THOMAE WOTTONI ET AMICORUM' above a central medallion of Tarquin in a fashionable hat, and date '1548' below, lower cover with gilt-lettered title 'THE KINGES INVINCTIONS' above a medallion bust of Lucrece stabbing herself, and below the repeated legend 'THOMAE WOTTONI ET AMICORUM', spine with raised bands gilt-tooled in the 17th-century, later red morocco lettering-piece (neat repairs to head and foot of spine and corners), blue morocco solander case. Provenance : THOMAS WOTTON, OF BOUGHTON MALHERBE, KENT (1521-87) -- James Bindley, Commissioner of the Stamp Duties (1737-1818), with his bookplate, his sales 1818-1821 -- Rev. J. Fuller Russell (1814-84), with his signature inside front cover -- Lord Amherst of Hackney (1835-1908), bookplate mostly removed; his sale Sotheby's 24 March 1909, lot 480 (subsequently resold 12 December 1911) -- Mortimer L. Schiff, with his bookplate, his sale Sotheby's Part III, 6 December 1938, lot 1512 -- Major J.R. Abbey, with his bookplate (JA 1944), his sale part I, Sotheby's 21 June 1965, lot 309. THIS IS ONE OF ONLY FOUR KNOWN BINDINGS EXECUTED IN ENGLAND FOR THOMAS WOTTON, 'THE ENGLISH GROLIER.' The group of four bindings, the earliest executed for Wotton, comprise: a much smaller and somewhat damaged one containing four English tracts in Cambridge University Library; a rebacked 1545 Geneva printed-book in English in the British Library; the binding offered here; and Wm.Patten, The Expedicion into Scotlande , 1548, also in the British Library (cf. M.M. Foot, The Henry Davis Gift , ii, no.39). The first three are all dated 1548 and have the medallions of Tarquin and Lucrece, the last has Wotton's arms. All four bindings cover English Protestant texts and are likely to have been executed in London. The three texts bound together here mark an important stage in the English Protestant reformation, consisting of prescriptions for liturgical reform, a list of inquiries to be made by visiting ecclesiastics to ensure uniformity in the liturgy, and a collection of twelve sermons, five of which (nos. 1, 3-5, and 9) are by Archbishop Cranmer. According to Dr. Foot, all other decorated bindings were made for Wotton in Paris during the five or six years up to 1552, before he went to prison in 1553 for his participation in Wyatt's Rebellion ( History of Decorated Book Binding in England , 1992, p. 34). See also G.D.Hobson, Bindings in Cambridge Libraries , 1929, p.68 and plate xxiiiB; English Bindings of J.R.Abbey , 1940, no.7; and H.M.Nixon, Twelve Books in fine bindings from the library of J.W.Hely-Hutchinson , 1953, p. 47.