Of The Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, HOOKER (Richard).

THE FIRST STATEMENT OF THE PRINCIPLES BEHIND THE CONSTITUTION OF ENGLAND

Eight Bookes.

Engraved architectural general title-page by William Hole, and separate titles-pages within woodcut architectural borders to the Fifth Booke (dated 1616), Certayne Divine Tractes (1618), The Answer of Mr Richard Hooker To a Supplication (1618), A Learned Discourse (1618), Three Learned Sermons (1618), and Two Sermons upon Part of S. Judes Epistle (1618). Woodcut head and tail pieces and initials.

Six parts in one volume. Folio. [285 x 190 x 50 mm]. [30]ff, 453, [1], [2]blank, [4], 96, [6], 95-120 pp. Bound in contemporary calf, the covers with a blind double fillet border. The spine divided into seven panels by thick bands, flanked with blind double fillets, plain endleaves and edges. (Neatly rebacked preserving large section of original spine, corners repaired).
London: printed by Will Stansby [for Henrie Fetherstone], and are to be sold by Mat. Lownes, 1617 [1618].

STC 13716.

With the first blank leaf and the blank at the end of the fifth Booke. A small strip of paper was stuck to the head of the general title-page at an early date, apparently to conceal a signature. Some light dampstaining (mostly at the lower outer corner but ascending at the end) and soiling, but a good and complete copy in a sturdy contemporary binding which has been neatly repaired. An ink signature has been crossed through at the head of A2 but there is a fine bold calligraphic ownership inscription of Francis Parsons dated 1st August 1709 on the front pastedown and an ink note "October the old month 1708" on the opposite endleaf. Removed from Joseph Clark's library at Hindhayes in 1929, remaining in the Clark family library.

Hole's iconic title-page promised more than was delivered and all early editions contain only Books 1-5. The first four books were first published in 1594 and the fifth in 1597; Books 6 and 8 were published in 1648 and Book 7 in 1661. Books 1-4 were republished in 1604, and 1-5 in 1611. This is the first edition to contain the five Tractates, each with their separate titles dated 1618.

"The monumental work of Richard Hooker was intended as a defence of the Church of England as established in the reign of Elizabeth I, and more particularly as a defence of the Episcopacy and the government of the Church against the objections of the Presbyterians. In fact he proceeds to consider the ultimate principles on which all authority rests, which he finds in the concept of law "whose seat is the bosom of God, whose voice the harmony of the world". Law, operating in nature, controlling the character and actions of individual men and visible in the formation of societies and governments, is equally to be seen as part of the divine order according to which God himself acts" ..... "This is the earliest statement of the "original contract" as the basis of government, which had originated in France and was to become a major issue in the political struggles of the seventeenth century. Hooker's theory formed the basis of Locke's Treatise of Civil Government and can thus be considered the first statement of the principles behind the Constitution of England". - Printing and the Mind of Man, 104.

Stock no. ebc7809