Author: CHILDREY (Joshua):
Title: Britannia Baconica: Or, The Natural Rarities of England, Scotland, & Wales. According as they are to be found in every Shire. Historically related, according to the Precepts of the Lord Bacon; Methodically digested ; and the Causes of many of them Philosophically attempted,M With observations upon them, and Deductions from them, whereby divers Secrets in Nature are discovered, and some things hitherto reckoned Prodigies, are fain to confess the cause whence they proceed. Usefull for all ingenious men of what Profession or Quality soever
Description: London, Printed for the Author,, and are to be sold H. E. at the sign of the Greyhound in St. Pauls Church-yard , 1661. Small 8vo, 162 x 102, pp. [xxxii], 184, including initial blank, contemporary sheepskin, gilt rules across spine, black leather label; spine slightly dried, top and base of spine chipped, corners slightly worn, but a good to very good copy, with a number of notes in pencil on the front end-papers.. In his early life, the antiquary and astrologer Joshua Childrey (1625–1670) maintained himself by keeping a school, but he was also later appointed by Henry Somerset, later marquess of Worcester, as one of his chaplains, and was later Archdeacon of Sarum. "In Britannia Baconia, or, The Natural Rarities of England, Scotland and Wales (1660), also published in French in Paris in 1662 and 1667, Childrey relied mainly on descriptions of curiosities taken from other writers, but there are occasional references to his own observations. In it he alludes at least twice to what he had seen in his native Kent, and mentions visits to Wiltshire, Witney, and Gloucester Cathedral. He also restates his belief that astrology's reform, as Bacon had suggested, 'will not only try the truth of old Principles, but adde new ones: such (it is very likely) as the sons of [the] Art do not yet dream of' (Childrey, B5v–6v). However, it is significant that, after a decade of such efforts on his part, he was still relying principally on a rhetorical call to arms. None the less, the work was undoubtedly popular, and allegedly inspired Robert Plot's Natural History of Oxfordshire (1677)" (ODNB). ESTC distinguishes among three issues of this work, dated 1660, 1661, and 1662, but all with the same register. This one, ESTC R25345, seems to be the most common, and is, according to ESTC, an "imprint variant of the edition dated 1662."

Keywords: natural history astrology prose


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