Apr 15, 2021 - Sale 2564

Sale 2564 - Lot 81

Price Realized: $ 2,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
(AMERICAN ENGRAVING.) Amos Doolittle, engraver; text by Rowland An Epitome of Ecclesiastical History. Engraving, 38 1/2 x 27 inches, on two conjoined sheets; 2 repaired closed tears, 4 and 9 inches; edges uncut. New Haven: William F. and Henry A. Rowland, 5 March 1806

Additional Details

This graphic representation of eighteen centuries of Christian history was compiled by David Sherman Rowland (1719-1794), a Congregational minister in Windsor, CT. It was published by his sons twelve years after his death. The renowned Amos Doolittle was brought in to do the engraving and printing. Two vignettes depict Adam and Eve, and Solomon's Temple. Some American history is presented for context in the 17th and 18th centuries, including the founding of the colonies and Yale College, and the key events of the American Revolution. Many of the sects which went from Europe to the colonies, such as the Moravians, Methodists, and Shakers, are noted, though the Society of Friends (Quakers) are notable by their absence.

"The central stream of Christianity becomes murky with 'the dark shades of error' during the Middle Ages, with only a thin, clear channel of dissent running through. During the Protestant Reformation, several dissenting channels separate from and then rejoin the main stream of Christianity"--Rosenberg & Graton, Cartographies of Time, page 148. O'Brien, Doolittle page 34.