A New Systeme of the Apocalypse, Or Plain and Methodical Illustrations of All the Visions in the Revelation of St. John. Written by a French Minister in the Year 1685 and Finisht but two days before the Dragoons plundered him of all, except this Treatise. To which is added, This Author's Defence of his Illustrations, concerning the Non-Effusion of the Vials, in answer to Mr Jurieu. Faithfully Englished. London: 1688.
FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF THIS VERY RARE EARLY EXEGESIS OF THE BOOK OF REVELATIONS, INCLUDING COMMENTARY ON 'THE BEAST', THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST (666), THE TRUMPETS OF GOD, ETC
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Some have ascribed this work to Thomas Philpot such as in pp.lxix of the 1835 edition of 'A Dictionary of Writers on the Prophecies'. However, this name is not otherwise known in any literature on the topic. A very early ink inscription to the final page of the second work bound into this volume interestingly attributes it to John Calvin, though clearly the timeline doesn't quite match up for that to be true.
It was written originally in French in 1685 as a counterargument to Pierre Jurieu who was a very controversial French Protestant theologian who argued that the overthrow of the Antichrist, who he determined was the Pope, would occur in 1689. The author of this therefore determined it was important to counter his radical views with a more thorough exegesis of the book of Revelations and so we are left with this first English edition of this generally unknown theological work concerning the Apocalypse. From our research we think it can be attributed to Jacques Philpot who was credited as the author of a work called 'Edaircissements sur l'Apocalypse de S.Jean' which roughly translates to the title of this book and was seemingly published in the correct year of 1685, though sources differ on this. One copy of this work is held at the University of Glasgow.
This work is incredibly rare, perhaps the scarcest theological work we have encountered to this date. There are no sales records for this work in at least the last 200 years that we can access. We can see that the British Library has a copy, though the ESTC record is currently unavailable due to their bibliography not currently functioning. WorldCat traces a few extant copies, one of which is the British Library copy (OCLC 557901976). However, WorldCat does have a collated example (OCLC 15364555) which follows our copy. They trace eight extant copies with just 3 in the UK, but they do not attribute the work to an author.
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Size: 95 x 160 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[A1-P12, ([24], 288pp, [12], 61pp, i.e. 59pp)]
Contemporary full calf, probably the original binding, with stamped designs in the corners of the boards and a little border decoration which could potentially identify the binder. Binding a little rubbed, mostly across the joints and extremities as typical. Shelf wear with minor loss to the corners. Boards slightly scuffed. Both boards are securely attached, the binding is secure and without significant shelf lean. The front pastedown is slightly coming loose. First blank trimmed, losing around half of the leaf, presumably to remove a prior ownership inscription. Else it is internally collated as complete according to the WorldCat copy. Pagination resets for the second part but the signatures run consecutively throughout with N1 being the title page for the second part. E4 is incorrectly signed F4 and the pagination of the second part omits pp.58-59 with the pagination going 57, 60, 61, but no pages are actually lacking due to the pagination error as noted by WorldCat. Page edges a little dulled as typical but generally as expected. Generally very clean throughout the text, mildly toned throughout as typical. Early ink inscription to pp.61 ascribing this to John Calvin, with a later ownership inscription to the final blank, inverted, reading 'Waldences', else free of writing throughout.
An excellent example of a very scarce work.
[OCLC 557901976, 15364555].
