WITH PRESENTATION LETTERS FROM THE AUTHOR
TURNER, Sharon.
The sacred history of the world, as displayed in the creation and subsequent events to the deluge. Attempted to be philosophically considered, in a series of letters to a son.
London, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, 1832 [– 1834; – 1837].
3 vols, 8vo, pp. I: xvi, 520, II: xvi, 583, [1], III: xiv, [2], 603, [1]; small loss to blank corner of last leaf of vol. 1, a little foxing at beginning and end of each vol.; overall very good in contemporary calf, spines gilt in compartments with lettering- and numbering-pieces, marbled edges; small chip to headcap of vol. I, slight splitting to upper joint of vol. II, some rubbing to extremities and boards; each vol. with autograph presentation letter from the author (signed ‘Shn Turner’) to Thomas Gaisford and with Gaisford’s armorial bookplate (‘T. Gaisford, S.T.P. Aed. Xti. Decan.').
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The sacred history of the world, as displayed in the creation and subsequent events to the deluge. Attempted to be philosophically considered, in a series of letters to a son.
First edition, each volume with a presentation letter from the author (dated 1 March 1832, 12 December 1834, and 27 March 1837 respectively) to the classical scholar Thomas Gaisford.
Turner (1768–1847) is best remembered as a pioneering historian of the Anglo-Saxons, but he ‘was also a true son of the Enlightenment, who took other disciplines – theology, philosophy, and poetry – in his stride ... His theological opinions, ultimately orthodox, found expression in his Sacred History of the World ... Solidly protestant, he contrasted monkish and papal Christianity with its purest apostolic form’ (ODNB).
In spite of leaving school at fifteen to be articled to a London attorney, Turner acquired a sound foundation in the classics and clearly came to admire the classical scholar Thomas Gaisford (1779–1855), Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, curator of the Bodleian Library, and delegate of the Clarendon Press. In his letter to Gaisford found here in volume I, Turner expresses his ‘sincere respect – of some years duration now – and personal feeling of your classical preeminence and well merited reputation’. c
