£400
FIRST EDITION, 8vo, pp. [ii], 62. Contemporary calf, spine divided by raised bands, red morocco label, other compartments tooled centrally in gilt, edges sprinkled red. A little marginal toning to first and last leaves. Two small patches of insect damage to front board. Slightly cropped manuscript correction to one margin.
Printer and publisher Thomas Ruddiman (1674-1757) published his 2-volume edition of George Buchanan's works in 1715, and defended it vigourously throughout his life. When Aberdeen philologist and schoolmaster James Man (1700-1761) published an attack entitled 'A censure and examination of Mr Thomas Ruddiman's philological notes on the works of the great Buchanan' in 1753, 'a learned but abusive work, 574 pages long, attacking what Man, like other vocal presbyterian scholars before him, believed was anti-protestant bias and poor Latinity', Ruddiman, although then in his late 70s, used his own press to issue his rejoinder 'Anticrisis' the following year, itself running to 226 pages, 'with only marginally less scurrilous attacks' (ODNB) on Man. There the matter may have rested were it not for a slightly complimentary review of Man's work in the December 1754 issue of the Monthly Review (in which the reviewer still rebukes Man for 'deal[ing] too much in abuse and scurrility'). This incensed Ruddiman enough to write a letter to the editors, which is reproduced here, and compile this exhaustive list of Man's errors. Given that the Monthly Review had taken notice of Anticrisis in July 1755 and pronounced in their pages that Ruddiman and Man's quarrel was 'of no very interesting kind' and that to cover the minutia of their dispute 'would indeed by leading [their] readers into a dry and barren field', it's hard to imagine that they gave this pamphlet much consideration. It proved to be the last word on the subject, as Man was not heard from again and the indefatigable Ruddiman died the following year. ESTC records a dozen locations, half in the British Isles, half in North America.
