Beschreibung:

EVELYN, John (1620-1706)]. The History Of the Three late famous Impostors, viz. Padre Ottomano, Mahomed Bei, and Sabatai Sevi. London: for Henry Herringman, 1669. Small 8° (163 x 103mm). Title and three section headings faintly ruled in red, final blank, numerous corrections in a single hand. (Upper margins close-shaved with slight loss to headlines of F1, F8, G3, G6, H1-2, H4-5.) 19th-century green morocco gilt, gilt edges, by Riviere (slightly scuffed). Provenance : Ralph Bathurst (1620-1704, inscription on flyleaf recording gift by the author dated [16]69 and various textual corrections); Dudley C. Marjoribanks (armorial book-label). PRESENTATION COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION. Ralph Bathurst was made president of Trinity College Oxford in 1664. Early in 1667 the son of his friend John Evelyn was sent to Trinity; he left in March 1669. The present work was published in early 1669 (Evelyn noted in his diary for 13 February "I presented his Ma[jes]ty with my Historie of the Foure [sic.] Imposters; he told me of other like cheates") and was probably presented to Bathurst in thanks for his efforts with the author's son. Bathurst was an early member of the Royal Society, being elected in 1663 and was made president of the branch established in Oxford in 1668. Catholic-spirited, he was liked and admired by the scientific savants of the time as well as the religious establishment (he was made dean of Wells in 1670, and turned down the bishopric of Bristol in 1691). The 'Impostors' described are "Padre Ottomano, Mahomed Bei, and Sabbatei Sevi, the first two being pretenders in the Turkish Imperial Family, the third a Jewish pseudo-Messiah, Shabbethai Zebi" (Keynes). The origin of the story of the first two characters is 'Sign[o]r Pietro Cesii, a Persian gent,' (diary entry, 29 Setember 1668). The third narrative is probably by Sir Paul Rycaut (he is identified in the present copy [see. p.iii] by Bathurst) who reprinted the story in 1680 in his History of the Turkish Empire . Keynes 89; Wing E-3490.