Title: The life and raigne of King Henry the Eighth. Written By the Right Honourable Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury
Description: <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;">Small folio. pp. [2] (blank) [10], 79, 90-203, [19], 185-404, 369-575, [11]; leaf [A4] bound after [A1). Signatures: A⁶(-A6), B-R⁴, S-X⁶, Y⁸, Z¹⁰, 2A-2N⁴, 2O-2Y⁶, 2Z-4C⁴, 4D⁶(-4D6). Bound in early 19th-century blind-stamped calf, neatly repaired. With engraved frontispiece portrait of Henry VIII by Thomas Cecill. Engraved vignette on title page. Title printed in red and black. Gilded inner edges and corner ornaments, gilded spine on 5 bars, marbled edges. Printed within rules, including side notes. Wood-cut initials; head- and tailpieces. The irregular pagination was due to ‘this impression passing in Presse through the hands of divers Printers’, rendering the Index ‘not so exact as it might have been’ (note on 4D4). Label of Robert Ball, plate of John Gordon.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:15.3333px;">First edition of the historical magnum opus of Lord Herbert (1583-1648), discussing the character of Henry VIII, published posthumously, but with a dedication (c. 1639) to Charles I, whose military cause Herbert in fact abandoned in 1642. Includes the first publication (pp. 382–86) of Anne’s letter of 6 May 1536 (‘universally known as one of the finest compositions in the English language’ – Sir Henry Ellis, 1825), the authenticity of which has been in dispute since its first (alleged) discovery, among the papers of Thomas Cromwell. The modern consensus, from Froude onward, is that it is a clever forgery of the Elizabethan era: see Sandra Vasoli, Anne Boleyn’s Letter from the Tower. 2015 (Bib# 6239903/Fr# 216.4 in this collection). See also D. Wing (ed.), Short-title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America, and of English Books Printed in Other Countries, 1641–1700. 4 vols. New York, 1982-98 (2nd ed.), H 1504; "From the ornaments, it would appear that the first section was printed by [Edward] Griffin; the second cannot be identified since there are no ornaments; the third, including the index, was printed by Ruth Raworth or her husband Thomas Newcomb": see The Carl H. Pforzheimer Library: English literature, 1475-1700. New York, 1940, vol. 2, p. 463.</span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/catalog/bib_6239856" rel="ugc nofollow">Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.</a></span></span></p>