BLAXTON, John (ed.).

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The English usurer; or Usury Condemned, Second edition, published the same year as the first, of this scarce anthology of contemporary English writing on usury. This copy includes a crisp example of the woodcut frontispiece, contrasting a gowned moneylender with pigs rooting in filth.During this period, the use of money as capital, investment, and interest increased substantially. John Blaxton assembles material by the leading divines of the day to reaffirm that these practices of usury are incompatible with religious doctrine. His collection invokes the Christian ideals of neighbourly compassion and charity, and the Christian sin of storing up treasure. Blaxton graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1614, and preached at Osmington, Dorset, from 1621 to 1662 - a period spanning the civil war, Commonwealth, and Restoration.Provenance: Howard & Linda Knohl, with the 20th-century bookplate of the Fox Pointe Manor library to the front pastedown.

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