In desperation.

[luckymarine]

I have decided to join up to the forum in an attempt to find more information about a book I purchased the other day.

Not to say Im desperate Im just curious (and a little scared) about it.

Its called "An apology for the discourse of humane reason" by M A. Clifford, Efq; being a reply to plain dealing. with the author's epitaph and character. and was printed in Amen Corner (London) for Walter Davis, MDCLXXX (1680?)

I believe its a 1st edition that is if any more were ever made.

I have looked everywhere and cannot get any real information on this book, thing is I'm a little affraid of something so old just knocking about in my house and if it is of use to an exibit or museam or anything I would rather it be in their hands!

 

[sparkchaser]

From the Google cache of a rare book dealer:

93WARREN, Albertus. AN APOLOGY FOR THE DISCOURSE OF HUMANE REASON, Written by Ma. Clifford, Esq; Being a Reply to Plain Dealing. With the Author’s Epitaph and Character. London, Printed for Walter Davis in Amen Corner, 1680.£ 950


FIRST EDITION. pp. [xxiv], 144; apart from some minor light foxing in places, a clean copy throughout; in contemporary sheep, binding lightly rubbed, but still an appealing copy; with armorial bookplate of the Earl of Macclesfield with their blindstamp on title and first page of the prelims; an appealing copy.


Scarce first edition of Albertus Warren’s defence of Martin Clifford’s major work, A Treatise of Humane Reason, which advocated the private conscience as the judge of religion and stirred up a ten-year controversy.


Martin Clifford (1624-1677) was Master of the Charterhouse, who in 1674 had published A Treatise on Humane Reason, a work which was later translated into French, and which caused a considerable controversy (see G. Tarantino, Martin Clifford, 1624-1677: deismo e tolleranza nell’Inghilterra della Restaurazione, Florence, 2000). Marvell’s Plain Dealing was published in 1675, and is reprinted in Margoliouth. The present work by Warren is dedicated to the earl of Shaftesbury, who had been instrumental in getting Clifford’s salary at the Charterhouse increased, and is intended as a riposte to Plain Dealing.


“The only defence of Clifford’s [work] which I have been able to find is a book called An Apology for the Discourse of Humane Reason, published anonymously but written by a friend of Clifford’s named Albertus Warren, a devout admirer - and one of the few admirers - of Thomas Hobbes. Warren had written the Apology in 1677-1678. ... Why Albertus Warren failed to publish in 1678 what he had written on behalf of Clifford, is any man’s guess but there was a cogent reason for its publication in 1680, for by that time Shaftesbury was exerting all of his astonishing energies to bring dissention to a climax” (Edward Hooker, ‘Dryden and the Atoms of Epicurus’, ELH 24, 1957, 181-2).


Wing W950; OCLC: 5742482 records copies at UCLA, Yale, Library of Congress, Iowa, Chicago, Cincinnati and North Carolina (Chapel Hill).

It is still for sale for £ 950.


Does that help?

 

[Polly Parrot]

Author: Warren, Albertus.
Title: An apology for the Discourse of humane reason, written by Ma. Clifford, esq. Date: 1680 Reel position: Wing / 1135:10
Copy from: Union Theological Seminary (New York, N. Y.) Library

That one? Found it in the EEBO database.

 

[luckymarine]

Wow, where did you manage to find all that?

Thats a big help, although I might have to insure it now!

 

[Polly Parrot]

You probably should.

I can view the NY copy through university sources.

 

[Blindsided]

awesome find!