delphick oracle (3 Ergebnisse)

PAP. Zustand: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000.

Zustand: New. KlappentextrnrnThis is a reproduction of the original artefact. Generally these books are created from careful scans of the original. This allows us to preserve the book accurately and present it in the way the author intended. Since the origina.

8vo, seven numbers, pp. [viii], viii, 40; [ii], 47, [1] blank; 47, [1] blank; 48; 48; 48; 80; (the first four leaves for December 1719 are misbound, but counted here in their correct place); some browning, but a good usable copy, rebound in modern quarter calf over marbled boards, preserving old bookplate (see below). The Delphick Oracle was a short-lived question-and-answer periodical issued by James Roberts (at the Oxford Arms, Warwick Lane), every month from September 1719 to March 1720. Each number was 40-48 pages, but the concluding number was almost double the size, at 80pp. Like so many periodicals of this nature, it seems to have run out of steam, but there must have been plenty of unsold sheets left when it ceased publication, and they were passed on to another bookseller. The first to reissue these sheets was Robert Willoughby, of Fetter Lane, off Fleet St, and the general title page which he issued was dated 1720. Perhaps he could not shift many, as a couple of years later Samuel Illidge took over the unsold stock, and put his own title page on them: it is interesting that whereas the original title offered the periodical as giving information 'set forth by the most learned scholars in the most famous universities of Europe' (and the titles to each part retain that), Illidge marketed the book rather differently, stressing 'Love and Gallantry' rather than dryasdust learning. The contents of each number were indeed varied, though love and gallantry tends not to feature prominently: the first question in the first number is about the most difficult one could imagine - 'What is God?' - but the tone then becomes a little less speculative: Which of the English sovereigns had been most bountiful to the poor clergy; What sort of government is most agreeable to the English nation; Which is the best poem, the Iliad or the Aeneid; In what sense is the word Transubstantiation to be taken; Can astrologers and others actually see into the future - and so on, and so forth. One young gentleman, a pupil at Westminster School, sends in an acrostic poem, wanting to know if it is well done (the answer is, 'his early Parts are very promising'). Sets of the complete periodical must be rare, even in its collected state. See NCBEL II 1294. Provenance. 19th century bookplate of Sir C.C.W. Domvile, bt (1822-84).