£250
SOLE EDITION, 8vo, pp. [xxxii], 96, 95-488, [22]. Contemporary blind-panelled calf, spine divided by raised bands, red morocco label, other compartments with gilt rules and central gilt tools, edges red. Some spotting and toning.Joints rubbed, extremities a touch worn, front flyleaf loose. Armorial bookplate of the North Library of Shirburn Castle, embossment of the Earls of Macclesfield to first few leaves.
The main work of Cantabrigian scholar and linguist Robert Sheringham (c.1604-1678), holder of various positions around Gonville and Caius (apart from a gap when as a royalist he spent several years in the Netherlands). 'Based on a vast assortment of Gothic and early English sources, [this book] argues for the descent of the English from the Getae, whom Sheringham, like many of his contemporaries, identified with the Goths. Rejecting the widespread idea that they were descended from Noah's son Japhet, however, he maintained that they were the descendants of Shem, had moved from Scythia to Scandinavia, had then emigrated to the Baltic and Germany, and had gone from there to Asia and back to Germany. Although the work was never reprinted it was quoted with respect by James Tyrrell in 1698, Thomas Herne in 1744, and David Wilkins in 1748' (ODNB).
