The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments

G.E. Eyre and A. Spottiswoode. Very Good. 1843 G.E. Eyre and A. Spottiswoode (London), 3 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches tall black faux leather bound, all page edges gilt, gilt lettering to spine, black endpapers, unpaginated, sewn in ribbon marker, complete. Recently rebound. Paper repair to title page, which has mild to moderate (mostly marginal) staining. Two pages with slight darkening where a news clipping had been laid in. Otherwise, apart from mild overall age toning, and an occasional instance of light staining, foxing or creased page tip, a very good copy - clean and unmarked - of this scarce 1843 Eyre & Spottiswoode edition of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. ~DDD~ The Book of Common Prayer was and is used in many churches in the Anglican Communion. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English Reformation following the break with Rome. The 1549 book was soon succeeded by a more reformed revision in 1552 under the same editorial hand, that of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1604, James I ordered some further changes, the most significant of these being the addition to the Catechism of a section on the Sacraments. Following the tumultuous events leading to and including the English Civil War, another major revision was published in 1662, and that edition has remained the official prayer book of the Church of England. Together with the King James Authorized version of the Bible and the works of Shakespeare, the Book of Common Prayer has been one of the three fundamental underpinnings of modern English. As it has been in regular use for centuries, many phrases from its services have passed into the English, either as deliberate quotations or as unconscious borrowings. The publisher of this edition, Eyre & Spottiswoode, Ltd., was the London-based printing firm that was the King's Printer through 1929. It became part of Associated Book Publishers and merged with Methuen Publishing in the 1970s.