Book Common Prayer Binding, Signed (1 results)

Full leather. This large folio publication of the Book of Common Prayer is beautifully bound for King George II (1683-1760), a magnificent volume with exceptional provenance and association. The royal binding is contemporary full dark brown calf featuring broad, elaborately gilt tooled cover borders and spine, gilt royal monograms in each spine compartment, and splendid royal gilt heraldic centerpieces on each cover. The cover edges are blind-tooled. The fore edges retain the two original linen ties. The text is printed in double columns of large type with wide margins and hand-applied red and black rules throughout. The massive volume weighs nearly 10 pounds and measures 17.5 x 11.75 x 2 inches. The spine has been rebacked, with the original laid down, the corners restored. The interior is quite clean, the bottom of the title page remargined.Provenance compels and intrigues in equal measure. This book features two King George II's signatures "George R" one at the head of the title page, the other on the facing blank recto below the cryptic apparent epitaph, also in the hand of George II "Clarus fata suprema Cinis". At the foot of the title page is the signature "W. Pitt" beside the manuscript birth notation "William born May 28 day 1759". The signature is that of William Pitt "The Elder" (1708-1778), later 1st Earl of Chatham and prime minister (1766-1768). The birth notation is for William Pitt "The Younger" (1759-1806), future last prime minister of Great Britain and first prime minister of the United Kingdom.Affixed to the front pastedown is the bookplate of the antiquary and naturalist Reverend William Borlase (1696-1792). Tipped onto the lower front free endpaper verso is a note from the librarian of All Souls Library, Oxford, dated 4 November 1932, presenting this volume to an unknown recipient on behalf of All Souls fellow, historian Sir Charles Oman (1860-1946), author of the monumental History of the Peninsular War (1902). Unattributed pencil notation on the upper front free endpaper verso, notionally that of a bookseller, terminates with a price of "120 Guineas"."At the close of the reign of George II, Pitt was in the zenith of his glory. The 'Great Commoner,' as he was called, 'was the first Englishman of his time, and he made England the first country in the world'. His power over the House of Commons was complete." How a Book of Common Prayer belonging to George II would find its way into the Pitt family is a matter for conjecture, since by 1757 (the date of publication of this copy) George was the near the end of his years and habitually ill-inclined to the persistently influential elder Pitt.Equally a mystery is the reference to fate ("fata") and ashes ("Cinis") in the king's Latin inscription. There is, of course, the irony of a royal, Latin inscription in the Book of Common Prayer a book quite intentionally meant to be read in accessible, vernacular English. Perhaps the reference is to the fate of Thomas Cranmer, the man who conceived the Book of Common Prayer and was eventually burned at the stake. Perhaps, like the slaves who whispered "Memento mori" in the ears of triumphant Roman generals, it was an admonition to humility by a king nearing his end to a powerful and difficult subject whose hallmark was "effortless effrontery".Less a mystery is the significance of the book itself. "The English Book of Common Prayer was the first single manual of worship in a vernacular language directed to be used universally by, and common to, both priest and people." Since it was first published in 1549, "it has been a source of spiritual inspiration in England second only to the Bible." The man responsible for conception of the Book of Common Prayer, Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by the famously reproductively frustrated Henry VIII in 1533.This began an unusual relationship wherein Cranmer and the king used one another to further their respective ambitions. The king went through a series of marriages and divorces and sought Cranmer's assistance in granting permission, while Cranmer used his newfound religious influence to embrace and promote Reformation ideals.Cranmer's greatest achievement came in 1549, with publication of the Book of Common Prayer. Cranmer and a commission of twelve bishops and dignitaries compiled a prayer book drawing from various sources, including the Bible itself, traditional Catholicism, continental Protestantism in "a multiple departure from medieval precedent." Not only was it compiled in English rather than Latin, but it also replaced seven distinct medieval books which had been "known and used almost exclusively by the clergy. The name of the book was to be taken literally: it was to be a Book of Common Prayer; as useful to any layman as to the bishops and clergy themselves."Cranmer was burned at the stake in 1556 by order of the Roman Catholic Queen "Bloody" Mary. His Book of Common Prayer proved less inflammatory and remains an incredibly influential devotional, at the heart of Anglican worship and influencing English-speaking Christians across many traditions.Sources: Griffiths, The Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer; Printing and the Mind of Man; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.