Author: AMES (William):
Title: Guiljelmi Amesii de Conscientia et Eius Jure. vel Casibus. Libri Quinque.
Description: Amstelodami apud Ionnem Tanssonium, 1630. FIRST EDITION. Small 4to, 192 x 151 mms., pp. [viii],324 [325 - 334 "Paraensis," 335 - 336 index], including engraved title-page, contemporary vellum (soiled; rear hinge severely cracked with interior of spine exposed, upper front joint split,, base of spine chipped. With two contemporary inscriptions (?purchase information) on verso of front free end-paper, and on the top margin of the title-page, in a neat hand, "Guillillami Asmesii [?bo] liber suos 1630/ Amstelodami," with the letters in square brackets marked out. There is an additional ownership inscription on the rear paste-down end-paper, "Henderson/ Flaccus 1693/ Burkely [sic] Manor/ Sheffield." A marginal note appears in the lower margin of page 2. perhaps in the same hand as that on the title-page. I have not been able to confirm that this is Ames's autograph, and the handwriting is more in the style of the 20th century than the 17th century The English-born theologian, university lecturer, and Puritan divine William Ames (1576 - 1633) studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, but his non-conformity led him to an academic and clerical career in the Dutch Netherlands. He became Professor of theology at the University of Franeker in 1622 and remained there until his death in 1633. During this period, he produced his so-called magnum opus, Medulla Theologiae as well as the present book, both of which made him famous. His biographer, Keith L. Sprunger records in his ODNB entry,that De Conscientia "pleaded for less doctrinal wrangling and more zeal for 'life and practice … conscience and its concerns'. Franeker needed more daily puritanical 'observance'. During his years as professor Ames often called for a 'reformation' to deliver professors and students from love of stage plays, oaths, dicing, masking, swearing, heavy drinking, and Sabbath breaking; instead, they would all work for personal godliness. He warned: unless the godly party acted decisively, the university motto might just as well be changed from Christo et ecclesiae ('for Christ and church') to Bacchus et Bacchantibus ('for Bacchus and the Bacchants')...." Sprunger, in his various works on Ames and Puritanism, especially in New England in the 17th century, underscores the importance of Ames's writings in the emigration of English Puritans to and in America. See these works by Sprunger: The Learned Doctor William Ames (1982); The Auction Catalogue of the Library of William Ames (1980; and "William Ames and the Settlement of Massachusetts Bay" (The New England Quarterly, 1966).

Keywords: theology association copy prose


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