Exposing Papist ‘Prophanation’: Chaotically Printed
STEELE, Richard.
The Romish Ecclesiastical History of late Years. London, J. Roberts, 1714.
8vo, pp. [14], xii, vi, 167, [1], with engraved frontispiece of Papal consistory (explained at pp. 38-9) and with the cancelland F8 (the text repeated, with one amendment, on G1), other stubs preceding B6, D1 (two stubs), D4, E5, E7, and F5; small paperflaw to outer margin D1, otherwise a good copy; contemporary calf, borders and spine ruled in gilt, edges speckled red; rubbed, upper joint chipped and partially split.
First and only edition of Steele’s anti-Popish account of the canonisation of Pius V. Prominent in the Whigs’ print campaign of the later years of Anne’s reign, Steele had earlier in 1714 published his incendiary ‘seasonable remarks on the danger of a Popish successor’ in The Crisis. The pamphlet led to his expulsion from the House of Commons, leaving him with more time to write; this volume, published later in the year, continues with his anti-Catholic campaign, and is ‘design’d to expose the prophanation of true religion by the artifices of the church of Rome’. The main text purports to be a translation from an Italian document describing the canonisation of Pius V, with a dedication, preface, introductory paragraphs, and running commentary by Steele.
The remarkable number (eight) of leaves cancelled during printing suggests a considerable degree of chaos in the work’s publication, as does the fact that the Contents ends at p. 80 and the Errata at p. 77.
ESTC T146635; Rothschild 1955 (without F8).