S. Augustine's Confessions: With the Continuation of his Life to the End thereof, Extracted out of Possidius, and the Father's own unquestioned Works

1679. ~Mid-20th-century rebind in quarter dark brown calf, hand-marbled paper to boards. Blind ruling and brown gilt label to spine. Spine slightly faded. Two minor marks to front board. 8vo (12 x 19cm). Hinges sound. Replacement laid paper endpapers uncracked at gutters. Recent small bookplate to inside front board. Binder's label of Brignell, Cambridge, to inside rear board. Some soiling to t.p.; pencil library marking and small loss to top margin. Title page has been reinforced with cloth backing to blank verso. Closed tear to top first page of text proper (A2), c. 2cm, secured with archive tape to both sides. Damage (from sealing wax?) and old repairs to pp. 183-84: traverse tears mended with strips of paper, with minor loss to text on p. 183. Text complete despite erratic pagination. A little scattered foxing; occasional pencil sidelining. At rear is a table of contents (of Part I by chapter divisions; of Part II by page numbers) and ‘Ad perennis vitae fontem’, ‘a hymne of the Joyes of Paradise, found in the Ninth Tome of St Austin’s works, Lib. Meditationum, c. 26’ printed in Latin followed by an English translation. This translation of the first ten books of the Confessions was first published in 1660; the 1679 edition added Part II, 'the History of It Written by Possidius', along with table of contents and hymn to rear. There had been two previous Englishings, by Toby Mathew at the English College of St. Omer in 1620 and by the Protestant William Watts in 1631; a 1739 translation by Richard Challoner was to follow. No publisher. Errata to verso of final leaf. This translation was the work of the Roman Catholic controversialist Abraham Woodhead (1609-1678), founder of a community of Catholic scholars at Hoxton and a man who 'inspired enormous personal devotion' (ODNB) and respect amongst his contemporaries: Anthony a Wood notes that his 'calm, temperate, and rational discussion of some of the most weighty and momentous controversies' under debate between Catholics and Protestants 'rendred him an author much fam'd, and very considerable in the esteem of both' (Athenae Oxonienses III, 1817, 1158). Quite possibly printed by Obadiah Walker at University College, Oxford. Slusser 12(2), Clancy 47. Scarce. ~Robust packaging. Overseas orders trackable on request. . 1st edn thus. Hardback. Very Good+. (iv), 287, (iv), 281-402, 425-501, (xxiii)pp. Binding sound, text unmarked.