An Historicall Discourse – Nathaniel Bacon – 1672 | Secret Printing of History of England

Discourses was an anonymously published collection of short essays describing the laws, government, and political history of Great Britain. Scholarship generally agrees that this work is attributed to Nathaniel Bacon, many suggest that the source of this work was the working notes and historical research of John Selden, England’s first great historian. This work, which was first published in 1647 (with a second part in 1651), portrays England as a free society through a royal monarchy and a prominent church hierarchy. It also describes early Saxons and Normans, English nobility, court proceedings, and the state of the church through the early 17^th-century.

Interestingly, this example, while featuring a 1647 imprint, is actually from a secret and ultimately suppressed print run from 1672 (see below for details).

Bibliographic Details

• Title: An historicall discourse of the uniformity of the government of England. The first part, From the first times till the reigne of Edward the Third
• Author(s): Nathaniel Bacon (attributed)
• Contributor(s): John Selden (source, attributed)
• Publisher: London, Printed for M. Walbancke
• Edition: 1672 edition
  • Imprint on both title pages are false (1647 and 1651).
  • “Walbancke at Grays-Inn-Gate” (spelling of Walbancke and Grays) is indicative of the 1672 secret, unauthorized print run.
• Format: Quarto (single volume)
• Binding: Full leather
• Size:  8 in x 6.25 in (20.3 cm x 15.9 cm)
• Collation:
  • Vol 1: [12], 323, [12]
  • Vol 2: [24], 307, [8]
• Contents Include:
  • list one more bullets of prefatory texts, highlights, key
• Provenance: bookplate – Pauncefort Duncombe of Buckhill Manor, Bucks
  • 19^th-century English baronetage of Buckingham
• Reference(s): Wing B 349

Condition:

Full leather binding, rebacked with gilt title. Some pulling at hinges yet remains sound. Text block tight and secure.

Why Collect This?

• Scarce, valuable suppressed printing of 1672
• Political and legal history attributed to Nathaniel Bacon and John Selden

Item Number: # 29196