Epistles. In Six Decads [from A recollection of such treatises as haue bene heretofore seuerally published, and are nowe reuised, corrected, augmented. By Ios: Hall Dr of Diuinity. With addition of some others not hitherto extant]

London: Printed by Felix Kyngston, for Henry Fetherstone, dwelling at the signe of the Rose in Paul’s Churchyard , 1620. Disbound. Very Good. Disbound folio measuring 8 ½ inches by 13 inches, complete consisting of 65 leaves (130 pages) printed in single column within rules. Pages moderately dampstained, with a few other small stains and holes largely unaffecting text. A collection of letters on a wide variety of subjects including education, liturgy, miracles, separation and divorce, the character of a courtier, dueling, comments upon his travels in Continental Europe and advice to other contemporary travelers, French and Russian affairs, Protestant separatists in Holland, trade with the Turks, and his defenses of the married clergy, the Oath of Allegiance, and his “metaphrase” of the Psalms. Joseph Hall (1574–1656) was one of the earliest English satirists, an influential Anglican bishop and devotional author. His contemporaries also knew him as a high-profile controversialist of the early 1640s, although when less visible, he tended to the “via media” made famous by Richard Hooker, the noted Anglican churchman. Thomas Fuller, who was a contemporary as well as the author of Worthies of England, wrote of Hall that “He was commonly called our English Seneca, for the purenesse, plainnesse, and fulnesse of his style. Not unhappy at Controversies, more happy at Comments, very good in his Characters, better in his Sermons, best of all in his Meditations.” Despite that fact that Hall was a genuine literary innovator on several fronts, he has been chiefly remembered as the unfortunate recipient of John Milton's later attacks. However, as literary scholars have come to assess the full measure of Hall's literary and ecclesiastical accomplishments, his reputation as a pivotal figure in the Tudor and Jacobean periods has been assured.