A Description Of England in 1685

Veridicus, Theodorus (Pseudonym for George Bate). Elenchus motuum nuperorum in Anglia. Simul ac Iuris Regii et Parlamentarii brevis enarratio. Paris, 1649
Bate, George [pseud. Theodorus Veridicus] (1608-1668), physician (of Charles I., Cromwell and Charles II) and author (Source - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) We offer here the scarce first edition of Bates work. In the Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of London. Vol. 17 No. 2 April 1983 you find the following article: George Bate-Cromwell's Devious Physician by L.J. Bruce-Chwatt, MD, FRCP. Emeritus Professor of Tropical Hygiene, University of London. .......But what of Cromwell's chief physician? Soon after the return of the monarchy Bate had no difficulty in persuading the King's entourage that he had always been a concealed Royalist and, to prove it, not only told in detail the story of Cromwell's last illness and his post-mortem examination, but also implied that, by a dose of medicine given to Oliver, he had hastened him to his death. He soon secured the appointment of physician to Charles II and became a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1666 he delivered the anatomy lectures at the College of Physicians. He died at his house in Hatton Garden on 19th April 1668 and was buried at Kingston-on-Thames by the side of his wife Elizabeth who had pre-deceased him by one year. This date of death is inscribed on the small plaque attached to the monumental and ornate tablet on the south wall of the church of All Saints at Kingston-on-Thames. Other authorities give the year of his death as 1669. Dr Bate's most important written work, as far as Cromwell's life is concerned, was his Elenchus Motuum Nuperorum in Anglia. The bibliography of this book is singularly obscure. Much of the Latin text is based on Bate's previous work The Royal Apologie or the Declaration of the Commons in Parliament published in Paris and London in 1648. This book defends the King in his quarrel with Parliament. The first Latin text of Elenchus was published in Paris in 1649 under the pseudonym Theodorus Veridicus; an English text was printed in 1649 in London. A French translation Abbrege de derniers mouvements d'Angleterre Aves un raisonnement succinct des droits tant du Roy, que du Parlement was published in 1651 in Antwerp, and in 1652 the second English translation appeared in London: A Compendious Narrative of the late Troubles in England; or Elenchus Englished. First written in Latin by an Anonymous, for the information of Forreners and, now, done into English for the behoof and Pleasure of our Country-men. The two parts in the original Latin were published in London in 1661 and 1663: Elenchi motuum nuperorum in Anglia pars Prima simul ac juris Regii ac Parlamentarii brevis enarratio . . . recognita et aucta . . . anno 1660; Elenchi pars secundo: simul ac Regis effugii mirabilis e praelio Wigorniae Elarratio. A new and expanded text appeared 25 years later: Elenchus motuum nuperorurn in Anglia; or a Short and Historical Account of the rise and progress of the late Troubles in England. In two parts, written in Latin by Dr George Bates . . . Motus compositi; or, the History of the composing the Affairs of England by the Restoration of K. Charles the Second . . . and other principal occurrents to the year 1669. Written in Latin by Tho. Skinner, MD. Made English by Archibald Lovell. To which is added a Preface by a Person of Quality, etc. (3 pt. London, Abel Swalle, 1685). The first part of the book is of particular interest, since it shows the author's Royalist sympathies at the time when he was serving Cromwell. Following the description of the execution of Charles I, Bate writes: ..nor are they satisfied to have exerciced their rage and cruelty against him while he was alive; they dishonour his martyred body, wash their hands and dip their sticks in his blood; set to sale the block, cut into pieces and the sand underneath it moistened with his royal, blood and make money also of his hair. Cromwell, that he might to the full, glut his traitrous eyes with that spectacle, having opened the coffin wherein the body was carried from the scaffold into the palace curiously viewed it and with his fingers severed the head from the shoulders as we have been informed by eye-witnesses. Afterwards they gave the body to be embowelled by a rascially physician and some surgeons of the army most inveterate enemies to the very name of king (his Majesty's own servants being removed) who had orders carefully to inquire (which was the same to them as if they had commanded positively to affirm) whether he had not the venereal distemper or any signs of frigidity, with a design to take an occasion from thence of branding either himself or posterity with infamy. But that villainy was crushed in the egg by the presence of an honest physician who getting to be admitted to the dissection over-awed them by his reverence and authority; the same person having also reputed that by the healthfulness and vigour of his constitution he might have outlived most men so that all who consider the humorous temper both of his body and mind are fully now satisfied of it. As pointed out by Peachey the 'rascally quack physician' (medicaster nebulo) was Thomas Trapham, surgeon-general to the Parliamentary army; naturally the honest physician' was Bate himself. Moore remarks crisply that there is nothing in the Elenchus to make its author respected among contemporary politicians or of value to subsequent historians: There are some doubts as to the authorship of this work. According to Wood the second part of it was based on papers lent to Bate by Sir Edward Hyde, Lord Chancellor. Several passages in the book gave offence to the Royalists and Robert Pugh, who was a captain in the King's army, wrote strong criticism under the title Elenchus Elenchi: sive Animadversiones in Georgii Batei, Cromwelli paricidae aliquando protomedici, Elenchum Motuum nuperorum in Anglia. Parisiis, 1664. Bate made a reply to it but it was not published. To add to this bibliographical confusion, another book was published in London in 1661 under the title: Bate (George) Royalist. The Lives, Actions, and Execution of the prime Actors, and principall Contrivers of that horrid Murder of our late pious and sacred Soveraigne King Charles the first With severall remarkable passages in the lives of others, their assistants, who died before they could be brought to justice (London, Tho. Vere, 1661)

Erste Ausgabe / First Edition. 8°. 10 nn., 228 pages. No binding ! Only front endpaper and complete text. Needs new binding. The textblock is in good to very good condition. Last page with minor tear and little bit dusty.

[SW: Cromwell; England; English History; History]

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FLAMSTEED, John. "Observationes Defectus Lunaris Grenovici Habitae in Observatorio Regio Februarii 11/21 1682. p.m.," from <I>Philosophical Transactions</I> , vol. 13, pp. 89-92.London, 1683.WITH: "An abstract of a letter from Mr. J. Flamsteed, ... giving an account of the Eclipses of [Jupiter]s Satellits, anno 1686; and containing a table of the parallaxes of [Jupiter]s orb, and an ephemeris of [Jupiter]s geocentric places for the same year," from <I> Philosophical Transactions</I> , vol. 15, pp. 1215-1230.London, 1685.WITH: "An abstract of a letter from Mr J. Flamsteed. ... giving the Description & Uses of an Instrument for finding the Distances of [Jupiter]s Satellits from his Axis, with the help of the table of parallaxes and catalogue of eclipses; printed in the preceding <I>Transactions</I> ," from <I> Philosophical Transactions</I> , vol. 15, pp. 1262-1265.London, 1685. 4to. Three astronomical articles by Flamsteed, one with an engraved astronomical instrument for calculating the positions of Jupiter's moons. The first article gives observations of a 1682 lunar eclipse by Flamsteed himself, Edmund Halley and a certain Haynes. The second gives Flamsteed's calculations of the eclipses of Jupiter's four moons for the coming year 1686, intended in part as an aid to the determination of longitude. The third gives an engraved dial with four scales around its perimeter, with Flamsteed's description of its use to calculate the positions of Jupiter's moons. The same plate also contains a map of the moon with curved lines showing the progression of a lunar eclipse, which accompanied Johannes Hevelius's article preceding Flamsteed's in the <I>Transactions</I> . Disbound.
Science [General],Illustrations [Engraving],Early Printing [17th Century],Cosmography,Charts,Astronomy

89-92; 1215-1230; 1262-1265 pp. <I>www.adsabs.harvard.edu (under Flamsteed and Flamsteedio); for Flamsteed's life: DSB V, pp. 22-26.</I> Three astronomical articles (2 in the form of letters) by England's first Royal Astronomer, John Flamsteed (1646-1719) at the Greenwich Observatory from its establishment in 1675, published in the <I>Philosophical Transactions</I> of the British Royal Society in the years 1683 and 1685. Flamsteed's magnum opus, his great star catalogue and charts, appeared posthumously in 1725 and 1729, so his most important publications during his own lifetime were a single book in 1680 and a dozen short astronomical articles in the years 1672 to 1686, three of them present here.The first article gives the minute by minute progression of the lunar eclipse of 21 February (11 February old style) 1682, from 8:48 pm to 12:45 after midnight, as measured by Flamsteed himself at Greenwich, Edmund Halley, also at Greenwich, and a certain Haynes in London. Most of their measurements differ by only a few seconds, and the largest discrepancy is only 1 minute and 12 seconds.The second article gives Flamsteed's calculated times for the eclipses of Jupiter's four moons for the coming year 1686. Before John Harrison perfected and demonstrated the efficacy of his chronometer in 1762, the determination of longitude at sea remained, and measurements of lunar eclipses were one of the inconvenient tools used. Flamsteed here notes of his eclipses of Jupiter's moons that "observations of these eclipses would certainly give us the difference of longitude, as exactly as the latitudes are pretended to be observed by our more knowing sea-men, and certainly much better then the observations of lunar eclipses." (they also, of course, occurred much more frequently than lunar eclipses). This and the third article frequently use the symbol for the planet Jupiter, rather than its name. We represent it in the titles above by setting "Jupiter" in square brackets (though in our copy of the third article, the symbol did not print properly in the title, leaving a blank space).Flamsteed published the third article primarily to present the instrument he had invented as an aid to calculating the positions of Jupiter's moons. Anyone who wished could either cut out or copy his calculating dial in the engraved plate (they would probably wish to mount it on stiff card stock) and put a string through the centre of the dial. It depicts Jupiter in the centre, with the orbits of the four moons around it. A series of parallel vertical lines on the face of the dial gives a scale, using the radius of Jupiter as the unit. The four scales around the perimeter, one for each moon, are graduated to give the number of days and hours of the relevant moon's orbit. One could therefore use the tables Flamsteed had published in the second article to determine the position of a moon at some given time, and then use the calculator to determine its present position, reading the horizontal position where the string intersects the relevant orbit. Though primarily intended as an aid to the observation of the eclipses of Jupiter's moons noted in the second article, the calculator is not limited to the times of eclipse. Flamsteed's text describes the calculator and its use, giving examples for both eclipsed and non-eclipsed moons, and the two smaller figures below the calculator itself show examples of the situation of Jupiter and its moons without an eclipse and at the beginning of an eclipse. Flamsteed's three figures in the plate are numbered 2 to 4. Figure 1, a map of the moon with curved lines to show the progression of an eclipse, belongs to Johann Hevelius's article, "Eclipsis Lunae Totalis ... 1685" on an eclipse he observed at Gdansk, which preceded Flamsteed's article in the <I>Transactions</I> , pp. 1256-1261 (the last page is present here because it appears on the back of the first page of Flamsteed's article).The articles and plate have been disbound, with some damage in the gutter margin, not affecting the text or plate, but they are otherwise in very good condition, with only some minor spots in the text, some folds along the edge of the plate, and a couple tears (one reparied) affecting only the border of the Hevelius figure. Three of Flamsteed's rare non-posthumous astronomical publications, with an engraved plate of his calculating dial.

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MacArtney, Earl George, Audinet: A Complete View of the Chinese Empire: Exhibited in a Georgraphical Description of That Country, a Dissertation on its Antiquity, and a Genuine and Copious Account of Earl MacArtney's Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China. 1798 Bx480 G. Cawthorne

Hardcover Good Hardcover. 8vo. Bound in full brown leather with calf spine. Published by G. Cawthorne. 1798, Lxxii, 456 pgs + 2 ads. Fine black and white engraved frontispiece of Kien Long. Bookplate from binder on the inside of the front board along with tipped auction description. Laid in newspaper article from the early part of the 20th century detailing the failed diplomatic mission. Boards are scuffed and worn with both hinges cracked but repaired (19th century repair) with flexible cloth tape. Marbled paper to edges, gilt banding to the spine label, speckeled edge. This book describes (from the English point of view) Lord George Macartney's mission to China. From the online article: "After being created Earl Macartney in the Irish peerage (1792) , he was appointed the first envoy of Britain to China (his visit followed by more than a hundred years the first visit to England by a Chinese man, Michael Shen Fu-Tsung in 1685). He led the Macartney Embassy to Beijing in 1793 with a large British delegation on board of a 64-gun man-of-war, the HMS Lion. The embassy was ultimately not successful. This was not due to Macartney's refusal to kowtow in the presence of the Qianlong Emperor, as is commonly believed. It was also not a result of the Chinese reliance on tradition in dictating foreign policy but rather a result of competing world views which were uncomprehending and incompatible. After the conclusion of the embassy, Qianlong sent a letter to King George III, explaining in greater depth the reasons for his refusal to grant the requests of the embassy. The Macartney Embassy is historically significant because it marked a missed opportunity by the Chinese to move toward some kind of accommodation with the West. This failure would continue to plague the Qing Dynasty as it encountered increasing foreign pressures and internal unrest during the 19th century." This seems to be an printing of this history which is a single volume condensation of a three volume work done in 1797. Photos sent upon request. Bx480; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 456 pages

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Blackmore, Richard Doddridge (1825-1900): Lorna Doone; a romance of Exmoor, Chicago and New York, Rand, McNally & Company 19
Near fine copy in the original [period] title-blocked pictorial cloth. Slightest suggestion only of dust-dulling to the spine bands and panel edges. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong.

1st Edition. Description: 316 p. Subjects: Monmouth's Rebellion, 1685--Fiction. Exmoor (England)--Fiction. Form/Genre: Historical fiction. 316 p.

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