Bentley, Thomas (comp.)

Seven parts in one volume, 4to (7 1/2 x 5 in.; 191 x 127 mm). General title within woodcut architectural border, text in black letter, woodcut initials (some criblé and historiated), head- and tailpieces, Lamps 2–4 with separated title-pages dated 1582, each within woodcut architectural borders, Lamp 1 has separate pagination, lamp 3 begins a new register, otherwise pagination and register are continuous, full-page woodcut of the Resurrection inserted after 2H1 and 4C8; lacks initial blank marked "A.1" and quire 4D (last 8 leaves of Lamp 4), title-page and dedication leaf browned and faded, occasional text browning, chiefly in Lamp 4. [Bound with]: The Fift Lampe of Virginitie: Conteining Sundrie Forms of Christian Praiers and Meditations, To Bee Used Onlie of and for All Sorts and Degrees of Women, in Their Severall Ages and Callings. [and with]: The Sixt [–Seventh] Lampe of Virginitie: Conteining a Mirrour for Maidens and Matrons: Or, the Severall Duties and Office of All Sorts of Women in their Vocation out of Gods Word, with their Due Praise … Togither With the Names, Lives, and Stories of All Women Mentioned in Holie Scriptures, Either Good or Bad. London: [H. Denham, quires A–B only and] (T. Dawson for the assignes of W. Seres), 1582. Lamp 5: Title within woodcut border, table of contents at the end of quire O; minor dampstaining, short corner tear to O4, slightly affecting text. Lamps 6–7: Titles for both within woodcut borders, continuous pagination and register; occasional text browning. Sixteenth-century black morocco lavishly gilt, gilt dentelle in outer frame, inner frame with a central circle formed with an alternating obverse and inverse vasiform tool, repeated in the corners and above and below the circle, the remaining field filled with small leafy sprays, and various sized drawer handle tools, turn-ins gilt with small tulips and marguerites, spine richly decorated and lettered gilt in six compartments with raised bands, Dutch comb marbled endpapers, elaborately gauffred edges comprising a center diapered panel tooled with small daisy stamp, within a dentelle gilt border; extremities rubbed, large label evidently removed from front free endpaper.

Lamps 1–4: STC 1892; ESTC S101562. Lamp 5: STC 1893; ESTC 101563. Lamps 6–7: STC 1894; ESTC S101565

First editions. Parts 1–5 were compiled from the writings of Frances Abergavenny, Anne Askew, Théodore de Bèze, Lady Jane Dudley, and others. The second Lamp reprints "The Lamentacion of a Sinner" and "Prayers or Meditacions" by Catherine Parr, "Morning and Evening Prayers" by Elizabeth Tyrwhit, and "A Godly Medytacyon of the Christen Sowle," which is a translation of "Le Miroir de l'âme pécheresse" by Queen Marguerite of Navarre. In a handsome period binding.