Oct 21, 2014 - Sale 2362

Sale 2362 - Lot 49

Price Realized: $ 688
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 500
[COWARD, WILLIAM.] The Grand Essay; or, A Vindication of Reason, and Religion, against Impostures of Philosophy. [8], 248 pages. 8vo, 196x116 mm, contemporary calf, rebacked in the early 19th century, endpapers renewed, spine ends chipped, front cover detached; occasional toning and foxing. Pencil signature and bookplate of William Berrian; rubberstamp and perforated stamp of Meadville Theological School on title, their ink accession note on next leaf. London: P. G. for John Chantry, 1704

Additional Details

first edition. Coward was a physician whose theological writings provoked accusations of atheism and materialism, culminating in a formal complaint in the House of Commons about The Grand Essay and another work, Second Thoughts Concerning Human Soul. "The house resolved that the books contained offensive doctrines and ordered them to be burnt by the common hangman" (ODNB). No copy recorded in American Book Prices Current, which cites only one of his medical works sold in 1977.