Virgilii evangelisantis Christiados libri XIII, in quibus omnia quae de domino nostro Iesu Christo in utroque testamento, vel dicta vel predicta sunt, altisona divina Maronis tuba susvissime decantantur…

London: Richard Thrale, 1638. Hardcover. Very Good. 8vo (140 x 92mm). [20], 311pp. (including engraved title but without the printed title, cancelled in this copy). Dedicated to Charles I of England. Emblematic engraved title by William Marshal depicting Virgil as wingless angel, wearing wreath on head, playing trumpet from which hangs banner with crown of thorns encircling sun and surrounded by beasts of the Evangelists and out of which issue the words “Iesus Christus Salvator Mundi.” 18th-century three-quarter calf over paper boards, (without the printed title as common, small tear to upper margin of A2, margins trimmed close, occasional stains; spine chipped and with crude cello tape repair the length of it). To front pastedown is the armorial bookplate of Thomas Alcock Beck, (1795–1846) who was known as the author of the Annales Furnesienses (1844), a history of Furness Abbey.

Rare copy with the fine engraved title by William Marshall in this the partly original edition (extensively revised and expanded edition of the Virgilius Evangelisans, (Virgil the Evangelist, 1634), dedicated to King Charles I of England. This long declamation in verse, composed of passages from different authors was disposed in a new order (according to the poetic form known as “cento”), and extols the insights pre-Christian Virgil. Alexander Ross was born in Aberdeen but spent much of his later life in England, as vicar on the Isle of Wight from 1634 to his death twenty years later. He was a prolific and established writer, and is best known for his first English translation of the Koran (from the French). While in living in Southampton, Ross produced two Virgilian centos made up of lines from the works of Virgil, who was for Ross the “King of Poets.” The first, the Virgilius Evangelisans, uses Virgil’s words to relate the Christian Gospel. In 1637, Ross worked this concept out on a more impressive scale as the Virgilii Evangelisantis Christiados (The “Christiad” of the Evangelist Virgil). His epic work consisted of more than ten thousand Virgilian hexameters which traced the “types” of Christ in the Old Testament and examined His role and prophecies in Scripture, with each cento giving the principal Biblical events from the death of Abel to the Ascension of Christ. The Virgilii Evangelisantis Christiados is rich in allusions to England’s growing unrest and concludes with an appeal for peace and unity among Christians. The book is known for the variances in its makeup, notably in the final leaves. This copy ends on page 311 and includes the colophon “Imprimatur Guil. Bray, Iune 14, 1637.” Very rare and important.