Milestones of Science Books

BOYLE, Robert.

Some Motive and Incentives to the Love of God, Pathetically Discours'd of in a Letter to a Friend. The Fourth Edition, much Corrected.

London: Printed for Henry Herringman, 1665.

4th Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002497

8vo (162 x 104 mm). [18], 173 [1] pp. Signatures: A-M8. Contemporary calf, spine with 4 raised bands (boards, spine and extremities rubbed, upper hinge split but holding). Internally only very little browned. Provenance: The library of Hugh Selbourne (small ink stamp to half-title verso and p.51). Good copy. ----

Fulton 4. Fourth Edition of Boyles first separate work. The type of this edition is entirely reset from the previous. Known under the title "Seraphick Love" from the running head used in all 17th -century English editions, it did not find a place on the title-page until the 1693 Latin edition (see Fulton, p.2). Though perhaps as little known as any of Robert Boyle's numerous writings, there is much interest attaching to this work, as well as something of a romance in his life. By 1752, the work had been carried through fifteen English editions or variants. The text was written by Boyle when he was but 22 years old and is in the form of a letter addressed to Lindamor, 'a learned youth, well-born and well-bred.' It was suggested that this imaginary character, who appears in a number of Boyle's writings, was in fact no other than Boyle himself. (Fulton, p.3).

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