4to (267 x 212 mm). 2 engraved section titles, 44 engraved plates, 27 vignettes and 8 other engravings, many by G. Bickham. (Lacking one preliminary leaf, a few short tears not affecting text, some spotting, staining, or offsetting.) 18th-century half calf, marbled boards gilt, edges marbled, (rebacked, some light wear). Provenance: C.A. (long inscription in an early hand bound in, some early annotations).

 

FIRST EDITION of Bellamy the Elder's work, which was revised by his son, Bellamy the Younger, who was a Chaplain of Petersham and Kew in Surry. This work contains five parts, the first of which is “The Comforts of Philosophy: in five books, from the Latin of Boetius” (p. v).  The inscription notes: “Botius’ [sic] Consolations of Philosophy was a favorite book with King James I when a prisoner in England and confined at Windsor Castle. It was a popular work among the writers of that day, and which had been translated by Chaucer. Indeed it would be difficult to find, out of the sacred writings, a more admirable text book for meditation under misfortune. It is the legacy of a noble and enduring spirit, fortified by sorrow and suffering, bequeathing to all its successors in calamity, the stores of eloquent but simple reasoning, by which it was enabled to bear up  against the various ills of life, it is a talisman which the unfortunate may treasure in his bosom, or like the good King James, lay it nightly on his pillow. C.A.”