Author: Dart, J(ohn): (Cole, J., illus.:)
Title: The History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury and the Once-Adjoining Monastery: Containing, An Account of its First Establishment [...] A Survey of the Present Church and Cloysters [...] The Lives of the Archbishops [...] An Appendix of Ancient Charters and Writings [...].
Description: London: printed, and sold by J. Cole, J. Hoddle, J. Smith, A. Johnson, 1726. Folio, pp. [iv], IX, [i], 204, lvi, including list of subscribers in the form of nine pages showing their coats of arms (page ix having 26) + 4 double-page plates and 37 further plates. Title page in red and black, woodcut initials and head- & tail-pieces, additional engraved illustrations in the text. Occasional light smudges, some sooty marks to p.117. Contemporary calf neatly rebacked, gilt spine label, date to tail of spine, plain gilt borders, corners repaired, edges sprinkled red, endpapers replaced. Very good. John Dart (d. 1730) suffered a somewhat lacklustre reputation in his endeavours as both an attorney and an antiquary. His main antiquarian works comprised Westmonasterium, or, The history and antiquities of the abbey church of St. Peter's, Westminster (published in two volumes first in 1723 and then posthumously in 1742) and this work on Canterbury Cathedral. The two received as little acclaim as his literary endeavours, as both were considered "more notable for the quality of their engravings [...] than their antiquarian content". Richard Gough considered the former "a pompous, but very inaccurate work" (Gough, 1.763), and William Gostling, in his A Walk in and about the City of Canterbury (1774), wrote of the latter that "Mr Dart came to see our cathedral, and did see it, most certainly; but it is one thing to see and another to observe" (Gostling, 164).' (ODNB) ESTC T65420; Upcott p.391.

Keywords: Early Printing (to c.1800, all subjects);British & Irish History & Topography


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