MICRO-COSMOGRAPHIE: WORLD DISCOVERED by EARLE/GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS/RARE 1928

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MICRO-COSMOGRAPHIE: WORLD DISCOVERED by EARLE/GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS/RARE 1928 MICRO-COSMOGRAPHIE OR A PIECE OF THE WORLD DISCOVERED IN ESSAYES AND CHARACTER. BY JOHN EARLE EDITED BY GWENDOLEN MURPHY PRINTED AND PUBLISHED AT THE GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS MCMXXVIII. London: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1928. Limited Edition. Rare. A nice First Edition of this very scarce and fascinating book offering an humorous and astute catalog of personality types, as compiled by the author originally in 1628. This book was published by the famous Golden Cockerel Press, a well known Fine PRess in England. This book was one of the early works of that press, and it is numbered 28 of the 400 copies printed in total. Published more than 80 years ago, this book is now out of print and quite scarce and can sell for high prices. Such a nice edition is not likely to come up for sale again soon on ebay. From the Colophon: "This book was printed by Robert Gibbings at the Golden Cockerel Press, Waltham Saint Lawrence, Berkshire, and completed on January 10th, 1928. Compositors: A.H. Gibbs and F. Young. Pressman: A.C. Cooper. This edition is limited to 400 copies, of which 150 are for the United States of America. This is Number 28." From the Introduction: "An harmonious pattern emerges as we observe how the contrasts in John Earle's life are related to that dominant quality of humanity recognized as his in all the contemporary records we possess. Were its date unknown his Microcosmographie might well be praised as crystallizing the experience of a man of the world as well as a cleric, of a man of considerable contemplative capacity as well as one evidently at home in the universersity. The psychological insight unusul in his age and the quiet but incisive humour would suggests a mature mind. But as we read the story of his life it would become clear that all his imagine experience came after the book supposed to be its expression. Then would be recognized the remarkable quality which enabled him to prouct it while still an untravelled student at Oxford. Boirn at York c. 1600, he passed through Christ Church to become phobationary Fellow of Merton College in 1620; he took his degree of Master of Arts four years later, and his Doctorate of Divinity in 1640. His characters written by 1627 & published anonymously the next year. In none of the twelve editions of the Microcosmographic which were issued in the seventeenth century is there any reference to Earle, whose authorship is first acknowledged in the preface to the 1732 edition of his book. He was, however, mentioned in a Latin translation in 1654, admirably printed in an Elzevir edition at Leiden. In 1632 Milton's peaceful seclusion at Horton was beginning. And for Earle an idyllic period in spirit not unlike, though its form was special, had begun two yers before at Tew, Lord Falkland's beautiful home. The pleasant country in the twenty miles between Oxford and Great Tew becomes suddenly picturesque in this wooden village. Here, 'in a purer air,' gathered famous men from Oxford and London, nor, says Clarendon, 'did the lord of the house known of their coming and going, nor who were in his house till he came to dinner or supper, where all still met'; wit and humour made the 'gravity of the argument itself (whatever it was) very delectable.' But the Platonic symposium, a significant activity of Earle's and forunately staged in a setting no less symbolic, was only an interlude broken off by the civil war. Earle had meanwhile become proctor of the university in 1631, ad then rector of Gamlingay and chaplain to Phillip Earle of Pembroke, at that time Chancellor of Oxford: a friendship which brought him the living of Bishopston in Wilts (1639) and an introduction to the King, Lord Pembroke being the Lord Chamberlain of the King's household. As chaplain and tutor to the Prince, for the King had forthwith invited him, Earle began in 1641 that association with the second Charles which continued at home in exile till his death five years after the Restoration. In 1643 he wisely refused wha... read more

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