Cabala, Mysteries of State, in Letters of the great Ministers of K. James and K. Charles. Wherein Much of the publique Manage of Affaires is related. Faithfully Collected by a Noble Hand.
London: Printed for M.M. [i.e. Mercy Meighen] G. Bedell and T. Collins, and are to be sold at their shop at the Middle-Temple Gate in Fleetstreet, 1654. Quarto (7 ¾ x 5 7/8 inches). Collation: A⁸ B-Z⁴ 2A-Z⁴ ²2A⁴. Pp. [xvi], 347, [xxi] including the front blank. Woodcut title page vignette; woodcut head-pieces; woodcut initials. (Light old worming to the upper inner blank margins of pp. 287/288 to the end.) Near-contemporary early 18th-century half calf over marbled paper-covered boards, red morocco label to spine (worm hole to spine, some light scuffing, joints cracked but holding, book-block a little skewed). Provenance: J W Sanders (armorial bookplate); ‘Hen. Rutter’ (signature).
This work is complete as is, but a second part was issued together with a collective title page (“Cabala sive Scrinia sacra” 1654 [Wing C184]).
A seminal Restoration-era—or, more precisely, Protectorate-era—printed collection of purportedly confidential state letters from the courts of James I and Charles I, dominated by correspondence to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.
Includes index (pp.349-360), and ends with signature ²2A⁴ which consists of publishers’ advertisements for William Lee, D. Pakema, Ga. Bedell, M.M. (Mercy Meighen), and Bedell and Collins. ²2A4 is a cancel with verso blank, there is a variant with ²2A4 as a cancellandum with a title page of a 1654 edition of "The ladies cabinet enlarged and opened" reproduced on the verso.
ESTC R13349 ; Wing (CD-ROM, 1996) C183 (and see C184); Thomason, E.221[3]
- Binding Condition: very good
- Overall Condition: very good
- Size: 7 3/4 x 5 7/8 inches
