PETRA, A Poem. Second Edition. To Which a Few Short Poems are Now Added.

Burgon, John William (1813-1888).

Published by Oxford: F. Macpherson, 1846., 1846

About this Item

INSCRIBED BY THE ANGLICAN DIVINE JOHN WILLIAM BURGON TO THE REV. HEATHCOTE - Small quarto, 7-3/4 inches high by 5-3/4 inches wide. Brown cloth titled in gilt on the front cover. Large portions of the spine have perished and the rubbed & bumped covers are detached. 62 & [1] pages, illustrated with a frontispiece of an orchid above a banner title, "The Peristeria Elata", the inner petals of which give the impression that a dove is seated within. The text block is cracked and the binding shaken. There is a tiny tear to the front edge of one leaf. The pages are toned with some occasional minor foxing. A complete copy which would be well-worth rebacking. Second edition.Inscribed on the front endpaper by Burgon as the writer: "To the Rev. W.B. Heathcote LLD with the writer's very kind regards Mar. 25, 1846".Arthurian scholar and Grolier Club member Nathan Comfort Starr's book label is mounted on the front pastedown.The Turkish-born English Anglican Divine, John William Burgon (1813-1888) became Dean of Chichester Cathedral in 1876. The son of an English merchant, he was born in Smyrna and later went to school in England. He attended Worcester College in Oxford from 1841 through 1845 and, in that last year, won the Newdigate Prize for his poem "Petra" about the inaccessible city in Jordan: ". match me such marvel save in Eastern clime, a rose-red city half as old as time". His passionate sermons in defense of Biblical inerrancy, the doctrine that the Bible is without error or fault, led to his appointment as Vicar of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin. In that same vein, he took a stance against Wescott and Hort's Revised Version of the Bible and opposed almost every change in church and university practice.The book is inscribed to the Rev. William Beadon Heathcote (1812-1862). A Fellow and Tutor of New College, Oxford, he was educated at Winchester College. Consulted over the founding of Radley College, he was later approached to replace Singleton as Warden and, as he intended to marry, the Statute prohibiting a married Warden was suspended. He carried through several reforms but, uninformed of the serious financial conditions at the school, announced his resignation in 1852 leaving Sewell to take over control of the entire college. Involved in the reform of liturgical music, he published works on settings of Gregorian Chants, adapting Gregorian tones to the Canticles in the Prayer-Book and to the Psalter. He also published views an sermons on doctrine. Heathcote is commemorated by the Heathcote Prize, a scholarship for the Classics at Radley College. Seller Inventory # 33770

Bibliographic Details

Title: PETRA, A Poem. Second Edition. To Which a ...

Publisher: Oxford: F. Macpherson, 1846.

Publication Date: 1846

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fair