[DONNE, John], [KEYNES, Geoffrey, ed.]
Death's Duell
A Sermon delivered before King Charles I in the beginning of Lent 1630/1
By Dr John Donne Late Dean of St Paul’s
Boston: David R. Godine, 1973

First edition thus. Quarto (overall 27.2 x 19 cm, 10-1/2 x 7-1/2 in.). Numbered issue, numbered 12 and signed “Geoffrey Keynes” in ink on the colophon. Quarter black morocco, gilt lettering and decorative tools on spine, gilt edge banding, over maroon, black, grey and ivory Stormont-type marbled paper covers, top edges gilt, others cut. Printed by Brooke Crutchley, University Printer, at the University Printing House, Cambridge, on fine wove paper watermarked “John Donne.” Fine, in the original glassine (glassine with some tears and creases). With the engraved bookplate of Kenneth Garth Huston (1926-1987), discerning collector of Geoffrey Keynes material. Keynes’s substantial postscript, including an account of Donne’s sermons and brief textual appreciation of readings of “Death’s Duell” starting with its first publication in 1632, examines especially the story of Donne’s last appearance in the pulpit and how he prepared to solemnize his death-bed scene, presaged by these famous earlier words: “Perchance hee for whom this bell tolls, may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him” (17th Mediation).

Price: $100
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