A commentarie of ... Martin Luther upon the epistle of S. Paul to the Galathians. by Luther, Martin - 1616

London: Richard Field, 1616. Small 4to (18 cm; 7"). [4], 296 ff.

Fourth edition in English of Luther's In epistolam Sancti Pauli ad Galatas commentarius, which first appeared for the English monoglots in 1575, with second and third editions in 1577 and 1602.
    The Epistle to the Galatians held a special place in Luther's heart and mind; he lectured on it in 1519 and also in 1523. It is widely reported that in his table talks he is recorded as saying: "The Epistle to the Galatians is my epistle. To it I am as it were in wedlock. It is my Katherine [i.e., the name of his wife]."
    Provenance: Ownership inscription of Bryan Tompson, 1735 (fol. 166r); also on A2r, undated, family name spelled "Thompson" and with notation of cost of book as 5/3. Late 19th- or early 20-century ownership inscription on front free endpaper of G.P. Hesketh, of Beltrami Cty., MN; later given (1907) to Dr. Charles Schwartz.
    
    ESTC S108962; STC (rev. ed.) 16973. 18th-century English speckled sheep, recently rebacked; late 19th- or early 20th-century endpapers. Title-page cut down close to text (supplied from a different copy?), mounted to restore page size and expose type on verso; leaf soiled. Top margins throughout closely cropped, costing the top line of text on five of the eight preliminary pages and the running heads and folio numbers on many (not all) text leaves; staining in portions in margins and sometimes into the text of the upper outer sixth of a leaf; longitudinal hole on fols. 259 to 262 costing three words total. Not a perfect, but a decent copy of a Lutheran mainstay in an edition not often found on the market.