Author: TILLOTSON (John), Archbishop. BIRCH (Thomas):
Title: The Life Of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. Compiled chiefly form His Original Papers and letters.
Description: London: Printed for J. and R. Tonson and S. Draper... [et al], 1752. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 198 x 120 mms., pp. [ii], iii - vii [viii "Additions and Corrections"], 489 [490 - 504 Index], contemporary calf, red morocco label; slight wear to joints, but a very good copy. Thomas Birch (1705 - 1766) was one of the 18th century's most assiduous biographers, though his biographies are often compilations rather than narratives. In 1732, he worked on General Dictionary, Historical and Critical, an English, an expanded version of an earlier translation of Bayle's famous Dictionnaire. Birch's biography is one of the most important sources for information about Tillotson's life. A second edition was published in 1753. George Smith, commenting on the work in his Remarks upon The Life of the most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson (1753), observed, "It had been expected for half a century that some one who had a Regard for the Memory of Archbishop Tillotson, a Man so famous in his Generation upon many Accounts, would have oblig'd the World with an exact and impartial History of his Life. At length an ingenious and industrious Gentleman has endeavour'd to perform this Service to the Publick: And I can't but be of Opinion he would have done it better, had he not made too great Use of Bishop Burnet's Flourishes and Hyperboles."

Keywords: biography History prose


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