captain onesimus (2 Ergebnisse)

Leather_bound. Zustand: Good. Second edition. 12mo. in original full calf, spine lettered in gilt and lined and with fleurons, boards lined in gilt. 457 pp. + (2, A Synoptical View of This Little Work" and list of "Names of the Rev. Clergy who have patronized this work"). Illustrated with numerous half-page woodcuts. Good, rubbing to the binding, rounded corners, short split to the top front outer hinge and a somewhat longer one to the lower rear outer hinge. Firm in its binding and generally free form internal foxing. The author was inspired to compose this work of theological fiction/conjecture/allegory upon viewing Benjamin West's mammoth-sized painting "Christ Rejected" at Congress Hall in Philadelphia in 1830. After beginning with a description of the coming ashore of "Captain Onesimus" in Philadelphia harbor, his perambulations around the city and his coming upon the painting, the "Captain" begins thinking of the subject matter. In brief, the main portion of the work assumes that Jesus's eleven remaining original disciples steal his body from the tomb. They are charged eighteen hundred yaers later by firstly Caiaphas and the Romans who guarded the tomb; secondly "by the Jewish nation for these eighteen hundred years"; thirdly, "by philosophers and the Deists of Christendom, more or less for the last three hundred years.". The trial lasts for 26 days (chapters). Spoiler alert: the Chief Judge passes judgement of banishment on Caiaphus, Pilate, and Guards,

Hardcover. Zustand: Very Good. First edition. 12mo. 444pp. [4]. Illustrated with woodcut engravings. Bound in contemporary red straight-grain morocco with gilt tooling on both boards and spine, marbled endpapers, and all page edges lightly marbled. The gold tooled spine is divided into three panels with lettered title: "Christ Rejected" and two devices. Owner name of Miss Sophia Hart on the verso of the front free endpaper. Boards and spine show some wear, and scattered foxing throughout, still very good or better in a handsome morocco binding with an elaborate and unusual gilt tooled spine and with the binding remaining tight and sound.