[LUPTON, Donald]
The Glory of their times, or the lives of ye primitive Fathers […]
London, I. Okes, 1640.£1,650.00
FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 4to. Pp [8], 64, 77-324, 321-336, 329-440, 451-538, complete. Roman letter, little italic. 44 ½ page engraved portraits of male religious figures. Text ruled in black, t-p with images of the saints in heaven and 4 ecclesiastical roundel portraits, engraved by George Glover (active 1625-1650), who specialised in portraiture and likely executed the other plates. Historiated initials and textual ornaments throughout, two contemporary marginalia. Light age browning, some contemporary underlining in pen, monogram gilt spine and early C19 bookplate on front pastedown of Samuel Rigby. A good, clean, well-margined copy in later vellum over boards, red morocco label.
A fascinating ecclesiastical biobibliography, recording the lives, written works and deeds of the most important early Christian writers, Church Fathers and martyrs from the 1st until the 13th C, beginning with Philo of Alexandria and ending with Thomas Aquinas, including figures from across Europe and northern Africa. The text is chronological, and each new biography is headed by an engraved portrait of the figure discussed. The contents page categorises authors by century and uses a separate dating system, counting from the date of creation rather than the birth of Christ, for Philo and Josephus, presumably as they were Jewish. It sets out a brief biography for each figure, followed by a detailed list of works, numbered, and set out into columns, sometimes with a brief explanation as to the content. Lupton often refers to contemporary catalogues by Johannes Trithemius (1462-1516), who composed chronicles of German and French regions, with a focus on ‘illustrious men’, Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), best known for his Disputationes, which explored controversies of the Christian Faith, and Jacobus Pamelius (1536-1587), who edited the works of St Cyprian and Tertullian, as well as existing literature by other ecclesiastical writers such as Eusebius.
The author was an obscure clergyman who published a number of works between 1632 and 1658 upon a variety of subjects, including devotion, ecclesiastical history, warfare, topography, and geography. With many of its subjects eventually canonised, the writer’s style is extremely complimentary and often hagiographical. The introduction identifies the work’s purpose to ‘satisfie the Readers curiosity, but even draw him to wonder and admiration’.
44 out of 45 portraits, described as ‘probably fictitious’, depict white men, but Tertullian’s darker complexion is particularly striking. A Christian convert from the 3rd C Roman Africa, scholars have debated the matter of his ethnicity. Lupton refers to him simply as an ‘African’, but other scholarly sources have hinted at Berber origin. Tertullian refers to himself in his De Pallio as ‘Punic among Romans’, but this provides little insight.
A work of great bibliographical interest with a beautiful set of engraved portraits.
ESTC: S108921; Lowndes: 1414; Hind III: p.243; Johnson: Glover 15; not in Bestermann