Hooker, Richard

Of the Lawes Ecclesiastical Politie; Eight Books.

      London, UK 1639 - 4to - 29 x 18.5 cm.; Bound in full calf (brown) with a six panel ribbed spine and blind stamped double line border to front and back. A brief pagination description follows: 1 blank preliminary, engraved title page blank on verso; 5 page "To the Reader" with blank verso on last page (unpaginated); 47 page "The Preface" with blank verso on last page (unpaginated); 2 page "What Things Are Handled in the Books Following" (unpaginated); pages 1 to 51 - "The First Book - Concerning Lawes and their severall kindes in generall"; pages 53 to 80 - "The Second Book . . . Concerning their First Position who urge Reformation in the Church of England . . ."; pages 81 to 125 -"The Third Book . . . Concerning their second Assertion . . ."; pages 127 to 168 - "The fourth Book . . . Concerning their third Assertion . . ."; pages 169 to 180 not being numbered with page 169 being the title page of the fifth book and dated 1639 and pages 171 to 179 being a Dedicatory Epistle follwed by pages 181 to 453 of "The fifth Book . . .Of their fourth Assertion . . ."; Title page for "Certain Divine Tractes and Other Godly Sermons" dated 1639 followed by page 453 (repeated page number) - "To the reader", page 454 - "The Contents of the Treatises Following", page 455 to 466 being "A Supplication Made to the Councell by Master Walter Travers", page 467 being title page "The Answer of Mr. Richard Hooker to . . ." and dated 1639, pages 469 to 484 being "The Answer . . .", page 485 being the title page "A Learned Discourse of Justification, Works, and How the Foundation of faith is overthrown" and dated 1639, page 487 and 488 - "To the Christian Reader" by Henry Jackson and dated 1612, pages 489 to 522 being the Discourse, page 523 being the title page "Five Learned Sermons . . ." and dated 1639, pages 525 to 583 - the sermons, and lastly an incomplete and improperly sequenced alphabetical table of 12 unpaginated leaves. One printing point is noted in that the header on page 50 reads "The Second Book of . . ." where it should read "the First Book . . .". Minor spotting and some marginal browning present to the paper though not affecting any text and the text margins are good showing no evidence of having been shaved. The leather binding is worn on the board edges (worn through on the back cover fore edge), the spine crown and heel are worn to the text block, the joints are rubbed with the front joint split on the lower third. The working hinges are good while the end paper hinge is gone at both front and back. Stubs from two missing preliminary and presumed blank, are present in the front. [Attributes: Hard Cover]