The Booke of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments. And other parts of divine Service for the use of the Church of Scotland. [With, as issued:] The Psalter, or Psalmes of David: According to the last Translation in King James his time. Pointed as they shall be sung or said throughout all the Churches of Scotland.

  • (Book of Common Prayer)
  • Edinburgh: Printed by Robert Young 1637
  • ESTC S101893; Griffiths 1637.9.

£2,500

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SKU: 8201 Category: Tags: ,

Description

Folio, pp. [456]. [Bound with, as often:] The Psalmes of David: Translated by King Iames. London: Printed by Thomas Harper, 1636. Folio, pp. [ii], 147, [1]. First title-page and Calendar printed in red and black, two proof leaves loosely inserted (see below). 20th-century crushed brown morocco, spine divided by raised bands, second and fourth compartments gilt-lettered direct, edges gilt. Somewhat soiled and toned, waterstaining to corners most prominently at beginning and end, first title-page and that of the Psalmes trimmed at fore-edge and renewed at foot, proof leaves fragmentary with significant loss from edges. Spine very slightly mellowed. ‘Alexander’ in an early hand to margin of D8 verso, that name repeated to one of the proof sheets along with plentiful pen trials and scribbles and ownership inscriptions of James Allan dated 1799 and 1805, more modern bibliographical notes in pencil to pastedown, along with a typed slip.

Notes

The famous Prayer Book imposed on Scotland by Charles I, resulting in riots in St Giles's, Edinburgh, when first used in a service - the catalyst being a stool thrown at the dean while he read by an anonymous woman, traditionally named as 'Jenny Geddes'. The follow-on effects of this book included the National Covenant of 1638, the Bishops' Wars, Charles I's downfall and the English Civil War, and it 'provided a model for the American BCP of 1789 and its successors; the prayer books of the Scottish Episcopal Church (1929) & the Province of South Africa (1954)' (Griffiths).
An impressive as well as an important piece of printing, it was produced in considerable numbers thanks to an act mandating two copies in every parish in Scotland, though this was only issued after printing had started, leading to a frantic process of resetting and reprinting with attendant multiple variations, cancels, etc. The prose Psalter here is the 'first edition' described by Morgan in The Bibliotheck 5, p. 16, with the catchword 'Certaine' on kk6 and the Psalter title reading 'According to the translation...'. Leaf hh3 was cancelled in both editions, and a cancellans printed in two separate settings, resulting in copies having one of four potential leaves (two cancellans, two cancellanda); in this case the cancellans with line 1 verso ending 'he' is present.
Morgan also notes that the 1636 London printing of the Psalms is (as here) 'frequently found bound with copies of this Prayer Book, and is present in eighteen of the thirty-seven copies examined. Presumably Young, the printer, ordered a consignment to be sent from London to Edinburgh to be bound with the Prayer Book' (p. 19).
This copy additionally preserves, almost certainly from an earlier binding, two proof sheets, both printed on one side only and with textual variants to the pages in the full book. The proof sheets are of aa2 verso and aa7 recto, and are different variants to those recorded by Morgan as present in the proof sheets preserved in copies in the NLS and Glasgow.

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