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1720 first edition n.p. [Thomas Meighan] (London?), 4 1/2 x 7 1/8 inches tall light gray paper-covered boards over blue cloth spine, printed paper title label to spine, [26], 204, lxviii, [1] pp. Title page a bit soiled. Minor staining to the top margin of the first few pages. Otherwise, a very good copy of a scarce work. Association copy: Armorial bookplate of Joseph Gillow to front free-endpaper, and signed note by Gillow on the front pastedown identifying the author of this anonymous work as Fr. Robert Manning, and referring to his entry on Manning in Gillow's monumental work, the Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics (5 vols, 1885-1902). Gillow (1850-1921) was an English Roman Catholic antiquary and bio-bibliographer, referred to by Thomas Bridgett in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as 'the Plutarch of the English Catholics.' The English Short Title Catalog (No. T59201) locates copies of this work at only five American institutions: Univ. of Notre Dame, Univ. of Pennsylvania, UCLA, St. Louis University and Perkins School of Theology at SMU. ~H~ The author of this anonymous work, Robert Manning (1655-1731) was an English Roman Catholic priest and controversialist. Born to an English mother and Dutch father, Manning entered the English College, Douai in 1668, and later taught humanities and philosophy there. Ordained a priest in 1690, he was sent to the English mission in 1692, becoming chaplain to Lord Petre and other members of the Petre family at Ingatestone Hall. Stylish, learned, and dialectically convincing, Manning produced a string of polemical works that rank him as one of the leading figures in that silver age of English Catholic controversial writing. (Michael Mullett, ed., 'English Catholicism 1680-1830,' Vol. 1, pp. 289-90). In his preface to this work, Manning refers to the anonymous tract entitled, 'A Protestant's Resolution Showing His Reasons Why He Will Not be a Papist, Directed to the Meanest Capacity.' This tract was frequently reprinted, the sixth edition, London, 1684. (The end of the title to this work by Manning reads: 'With a preface and appendix, in vindication of Catholick morals, from the old calumnies faithfully collected in a libel, entitled, A Protestant's resolution, &c.') The publisher of this edition, Thomas Meighan, is sometimes referred to as the 'father of Catholic booksellers in 18th century London,' working during a time when it was most impolitic to be a Catholic there, let alone a Catholic publisher and bookseller. His shop was at the northern end of Drury Lane, in the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. He can be found in business there as early as September 13, 1715, when Viscount Townshend, Secretary of State for the Northern Department, issued instructions for the interception of mail destined to 'Mr. Mahon's, a bookseller near the Crown tavern in Drury Lane.' Advertisements Meighan published in 1715 and 1717 display a wide range of Catholic books. Not content with selling, he also became what we would call nowadays a publisher, that is, one who acted as a catalyst and helped authors to get their books printed and sold, and as early as 1715 we find a book with 'sold by Thomas Meighan' in the imprint. Usually, however, the restrictions on English Catholics prevented such a public display, and most Catholic works appeared anonymously, often with false imprints, so that it is impossible to identify the printer, much less ascertain which bookseller sold the work. In 1726, when the government decided to seize all copies of Robert Manning's newly printed 'England's Conversion and Reformation Compared,' the warrants were issued only against Meighan, implying that the book was on sale at his shop alone.
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