Maggs Bros Ltd. Rare Books, Manuscripts, Autographs and first editions.

following. Translated out of Latin into Englishe, Ihon Daus. Here unto is added also an apology of the authoure.First edition in English.Folio. [5], 470, [18] ff. Lacking A6 and QQq4, blanks. Title-page soiled, stained and reinforced along the inner gutter, initial gathering lightly browned, small horizontal incision to the first few gatherings (no loss of text), repaired tear to the lower blank margin and inner gutter of Q1 (no loss of text), paper flaw to Cc1 (loss of a letter or two of text), gatherings Ff and Gg lightly browned, light dampstaining to the blank foremargin of the final quarter of the book, blank corner of IIIii tornaway and repaired (no loss of text), light intermittent worming throughout (denser towards the end), final leaf strengthened and repaired along inner gutter (loss of about 10 letters to the recto), occasional light soiling and staining. Bound in modern brown calf, red morocco label to spine.London: Jhon Daye for Abraham Veale and Nicholas England,

STC 19848 (+,+).A good copy of the only English translation of an important account of the Protestant Reformation written by "the father of Reformation history" (Kelley, 573), Johann Sleidan [Johann Philippson von Schleiden] (1506-1556) and one of apparently two translations penned by the English printer, John Day."One of the great challenges of the new Protestant faith was to establish itself in a hitherto Catholic world. Protestantism was faced with an urgent need to create a common identity, a key element of which involved a repossession of the past: history had to be rewritten to underline the Protestant Church's claim for legitimacy and authority, and to give believers a sense of belonging" (Kess, 1). The leaders of the Schmalkaldic League, the alliance of German Protestant states, "employed their fellow Alsacian Johann Philippson von Schleiden, or Sleidanus in the Latinised form, to write the official history of the Protestant movement. Sleidan was not the most obvious choice; one would expect that a more central figure, somebody with the stature of Philip Melanchthon, would have been entrusted with such an important task ... Sleidan had advantages of his own: he had been close friends with Strasbourg's Johann Sturm since their early childhood. Moreover, Sleidan had filled Sturm's position as a secretary and diplomat at the court of the Parisian Cardinal Jean Du Bellay ... and become a key player in the network of European intellectuals from both sides of the confessional divide who were working towards an alternative, moderate policy" (ibid, 1).Sleidan began collecting materials for his history of the Reformation from at least 1539. Initially he entitled the workHistoria restauratae religionis("History of the reformed religion") but later opted for a title that emphasized the dual religious and political purposes of the work.De statu religionis et reipublicae, Carolo Quinto, Caesare, Commentarii("Commentaries on the state and religion under the Emperor Charles V"). The work spans the period from All Saints eve 1517 to February 1555 in twenty-five books ... after his death a twenty-sixth book was assembled out of his notes, taking the story down to September 1556" (ibid, 591). The work first appeared from the press of Wendel Rihel in Strasbourg in the spring of 1555 and was "an immediate bestseller - until 1560 no fewer than 48 editions of theCommentariesin six languages had been published" (Kess, 2).Sleidan'sCommentarii"was much more than partisan propaganda. Epic in theme, European in scope, and annalistic in method, it was, however inadvertently, the first attempt to treat synthetically 'the rise of modern Europe.' Sleidan's first premise was to give equal weight to what Luther himself had referred to asPoliteiaandReligio. 'In the history of religion,' he explained in his preface, ' I would not omit what concerned the civil government because ... they are interwoven with the other, especially in our times, so that it is not possible to separate them.' He began [De statu ...]in medias reswith the epoch-making exhibiting of the Ninety-five Theses ... His narrative proceeds year by year, stopping occasionally to fill in background on particular topics, taking up persons and events as they appear without much regard for relevance except for matters of state and war" (Kelley, 592).In producing the great Protestant narrative of his time, Sleidan produced a work of great value to posterity. This is due to the fact that he applied the methods of the Renaissance humanists to the discipline of history by consulting archives, searching for the most accurate texts and the rarest manuscripts to give his work an uncommon breadth and depth yet at the same time was not consumed by demoninational fervor. "A passionate Lutheran, he was at the same time an extraordinarily accurate, fair - and internationally-minded observer of the upheavals of his time, the Thucydides as well as the Eusebius of early Protestantism" (idib, 574). As the translator, John Day, notes in his preface, Sleidan was "not content to go by heare say, or by common report of people, hathe fished for the certenty of his story out of common recordes, or at the least by report of men of worthy credit, and herein hath spared nether cost nor paine" (A2v). Consequently, "Sleidan's key role in some of the events he described, his friendship with many of the protagonists of his history and his access to important Protestant archives enabled him to write the first comprehensive history of the Reformation" (Kess, 2).John Day (1521/2-1584) the English printer who was the nexus of the dissemination of important Protestant texts penned this, the only early English translation of Sleidan'sDe statu religionis et reipublicae.It appears that Day's only other translation that he himself executed was of a collection of sermons on the Book of Revelation by Heinrich Bullinger (A hundred sermons upo[n] the Apocalips.London: John Day, 1561. STC 4061). Day has included in the prefatory material to his English translation of Sleidan what is likely to be his only published poem. Offered to his book, Day's poem of seven quatrains bids farewell to "my painful boke". This poem nor the fact that this is only one of two works translated by John Day is discussed in Elizabeth Evenden'sPatents, Pictures and Patronage: John Day and the Tudor Book Trade.(Ashgate, 2008).Literature:Kelley, Donald R. "Johann Sleidan and the origins of history as a profession",Journal of Modern History, vol. 52, no. 4 (Dec. 1980), pp. 573-598.Kess, Alexandra.Johann Sleidan and the Protestant Vision of History.Hampshire (England): Ashgate Publishing, 2008.

SLEIDAN, Johann Stock Code: EA14343