Bishop Overall’s Convocation- Book, MDCVI.

Offered for sale by Trillium Antiquarian Books. For more information please contact William Van Nest at [email protected].

[Bishop John Overall]. Bishop Overall’s Convocation - Book, MDCVI. Concerning the Government of God’s Catholick Church, and the Kingdoms of the Whole World. London: Printed for Walter Kettilby, at the Bishop’s Head in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1690. First edition (pp. [vi], 338). Quarto (24 cm) in contemporary plain full calf, five raised bands (corners worn); skilfull repairs to spine. Ms note on ffep dated 1690, “Read over on board ye Sterling Castle in his majesties fleet.” Partial signature (“Charles A...”) in similar hand on pastedown. “R West” on title page. This is the first appearance of Overall’s work.  John Overall (1561- 1619), Bishop of Norwich, was one of a team of biblical translators who worked with Lancelot Andrewes to produce the King James Bible. The original of the Convocation Book (1606) ran afoul of James I’s reading of certain points respecting support the hand of the Almighty might lend to the absolute monarch who crossed belligerently into the territories of another absolute monarch (Can God serve two masters?) and was only preserved in manuscript by a succession of bishops until published with an introduction and edited by William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury. Text printed in black letter (gothic) and common type, wide margins. Absent any portrait; clean, bright, and sound.