It is clear that neither the Vice-chancellor nor the printer of this volume had any suspicion that there had been printing in Oxford previous to the publication of the present volume, unless “recepit” be a vague allusion to it.
The work is a companion one to the same author’s Summa veterum interpretum in universam dialecticam Aristotelis, Lond., Tho. Vautrollerius, 1584, see 1592. C, 1598. C: and there is even a typographical connexion between the two.
For an account of the author, see Wood’s Ath. Oxon., i. 685. The method adopted by Case is by quaestiones, oppositiones and responsiones in the manner of the disputations in the schools at the time. Other editions were issued at Oxford in 1596, and at Frankfurt in 1589, 1610 and 1625. See 1596. C.
3. Corro, Antonio de. Sermons on Ecclesiastes: see 1586. E.
4. Dudley, Robert, earl of Leicester. [ornament] IN | ADVENTVM ILLVSTRIS-|SIMI LECESTRENSIS COMITIS AD | Collegium Lincolniense. |
Impr. 3: “tertio idus Ianuarij” 1585: (one) 8o: pp. [2]: chiefly Pica Roman. Contents:—p. (1) title as above: large device of University arms: then “Carmen gratulatorium” of 8 elegiac lines, beg. “Comiter hoc factum est”: then imprint.
Very rare. The visit appears from Wood’s Annals ii. 223 to have been in Jan. 1584/5, and the date of printing 11 Jan. 1584
5. The difficulties in the way of regarding this sheet as the first printing of the new Oxford Press are the form of the date, which usually implies Jan. 1585
6, the assertion of Barnes that the Case was the first production, and the improbability that the Committee of Convocation appointed to consider “de libris imprimendis” on 23 Dec. 1584 would proceed to action so soon as 11 Jan. 1584/5. But the fitness of the earlier date is too obvious to be gainsaid. This piece is probably the first printed sheet issued by Barnes.
5. Parsons, Robert. A | BOOKE OF | CHRISTIAN EX-|ERCISE APPERTAI-|ning to Resolvti-|ON, that is, shewing | how that we should re-|solue our selues to be-|come Christians in-|deede. By R. P. | Perused, and accompanied | nowe with a treatise ten-|ding to pacificati-|on, By | EDMVND BVNNY. [Then a motto from Hebr. xiii. 8: the whole title and imprint is within a border of ornament.]
Impr. 2a (colophon 4): 1585: sm. 12o: pp. [28] + 494 + [2] + 140: p. 11 beg. ons, or if, 111 confidence, 2nd p. 11 helpes whatsoeuer, 111 hel should: chiefly Long Primer Roman. Contents:—p. (1) title: (3–8) Bunny’s Epistle dedicatorie to Edwin Sandys, archbp. of York (9–18) Bunny’s “Preface to the reader”: (19–28) “The contentes of ... this booke”: 1–493 [misprinted 439], the work, in 2 parts: (1) title of Bunny’s treatise: 1–140, the treatise: before p. 1 of the treatise is an oblong sheet 5 × 11 in., folded, containing on one side in two divisions “A table ... of the treatise following”: on p. 140 is also a colophon.
Of this book also there is a curious history. Gaspare Loarte, a Spanish Jesuit who spent most of his life at Rome, wrote an “Essercitio della vita christiana” some time before 1569. In 1570, J. Sancer, a friend of Robert Parsons the Jesuit, published a translation into English of one of the three parts of the work. In 1582 Parsons himself published “The firste booke of the Christian Exercise, appertayning to resolution” in two parts, which is practically a new work based on part of the original “Essercitio.” Loarte is mentioned in the preface, but the author only signs his name by the initials, R. P. This was again issued without Parsons’ knowledge in 1584.