Sir Richard Baker,
A Chronicle of the Kings of England from the time of the Romans Goverment unto the Raigne of our Soveraigne Lord King Charles.
London: Printed for Daniel Frere, and are to be sold at his shop, at the Red Bull in Little Brittaine, 1643.
Baker’s famous Chronicle, that would be re-published 11 times up to 1733. Here in the scarce First Edition, complete with the portrait of a young Prince Charles. In a fine restored contemporary binding.
$4,500.00
Baker’s famous Chronicle, that would be re-published 11 times up to 1733. Here in the scarce First Edition, complete with the portrait of a young Prince Charles. In a fine restored contemporary binding.
Baker’s famous Chronicle, that would be re-published 11 times up to 1733. Here in the scarce First Edition, complete with the portrait of a young Prince Charles. In a fine restored contemporary binding.
The volume(s) measure about 33.5 cm. by 23 cm. by 5.4 cm.
Each leaf measures about 330 mm. by 215 mm.
- Main description
- Condition
- Biography / Bibliography
Main description
The full title reads:
A Chronicle of the Kings of England from the time of the Romans Goverment unto the Raigne of our Soveraigne Lord King Charles. Containing all passages of State & Church, with all other observations proper for a chronicle. Faithfully collected out of Authours Ancient and Moderne; & digested into a new method. By Sr R. Baker, Knight. London: Printed for Daniel Frere, and are to be sold at his shop, at the Red Bull in Little Brittaine, 1643.
The volume is paginated as follows: [14], 181, [1], 163, [1], 108, 163, [37] p.
The volume collates as follows: (pi) – (pi)2, A – A5, A – X4, Y6, Z1, 2A4 – 2V4, 2X2, 3A4 – 3N4, 3O2, 4A4 – 4V4, 4X2, 4Y4 – 4Z4, 5A4 -5B4, 5C2
With frontis. portrait of Prince Charles (pi1v) signed: Cor: V. Dalen. sculp.
First Edition. The only edition published during the Author’s lifetime.
Title page is engraved and signed: W. Marshall sculpsit. Last leaf bears errata.
ESTC: R4846 Wing B501
Condition
A Rare Survivor in Original Binding.
Bound in fully restored blind ruled contemporary calf, typical to the first half of the 17th Century. The spine in seven compartments, with six raised bands. The boards scuffed with the edges and corners renewed where necessary. Much of the original spine still wrapped around without cracks. The missing sections cleverly replaced with matching calf to style. Wonderfully the original headbands survived and are now incorporated into the new sections. The inner hinges were strengthened with acid free material and any curling leather on the original paste-boards tamped down. A new acid free endpaper at the end of the volume.
The volume, now restored, can be easily read.
Internally there is some browning to the edges of the first few leaves front and back due to acid from the leather transferring. The front flyleaf with some brittle edges. The volume has some old water staining, now faded, and some dustiness to the center and top, (see photographs), but is generally quite pleasing.
Biography / Bibliography
Per DNB: BAKER, Sir RICHARD (1568–1645), religious and historical writer.
Baker’s principal work was a ‘Chronicle of the Kings of England from the time of the Romans’ Government unto the Death of King James,’ 1643. The author describes the book as having been ‘collected with so great care and diligence, that if all other of our chronicles were lost, this only would be sufficient to inform posterity of all passages memorable, or worthy to be known.’ The dedication was addressed to Charles, Prince of Wales, and Sir Henry Wotton contributed a commendatory epistle to the author. The ‘Chronicle ‘ was translated into Dutch in 1649. It reached a second edition in 1653. In 1660 a third edition, edited by Edward Phillips, Milton’s nephew, continued the history till 1658. Fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth editions, with continuations, appeared in 1665, 1670, 1674, 1679, and 1684 respectively. ‘The ninth impression, freed from many errors and mistakes of the former edition,’ appeared in 1696. An edition continued ‘by an impartial hand’ to the close of George I’s reign was issued in 1730, and was reprinted in 1733. An abridgment of the ‘Chronicle’ was published in 1684. The account of the restoration given in the fourth and succeeding editions is attributed to Sir Thomas Clarges, Monck’s brother-in-law. Phillipps and the later anonymous editors of the book omit many original documents, which are printed in the two original editions.
Baker’s ‘Chronicle’ was long popular with country gentlemen. Addison, in the ‘Spectator’ (Nos. 269 and 329), represents Sir Roger de Coverley as frequently reading and quoting the ‘Chronicle,’ which always lay in his hall window. Fielding, in ‘Joseph Andrews,’ also refers to it as part of the furniture of Sir Thomas Booby’s country house. But its reputation with the learned never stood very high. Thomas Blount published at Oxford in 1672 ‘Animadversions upon Sr Richard Baker’s “Chronicle,” and its continuation,’ where eighty-two errors are noticed, but many of these are mere typographical mistakes. The serious errors imputed to the volume are enough, however, to prove that Baker was little of an historical scholar, and depended on very suspicious authorities. Daines Barrington, in his ‘Observations on the Statutes,’ writes that ‘Baker is by no means so contemptible a writer as he is generally supposed to be; it is believed that the ridicule on this “Chronicle” arises from its being part of the furniture of Sir Roger de Coverley’s hall’ (3rd ed. p. 97, quoted in Granger); but the only claim to distinction that has been seriously urged in recent times in behalf of the ‘Chronicle’ is that it gives for the first time the correct date of the poet Gower’s death.
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