BOWER, Archibald.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The History of Popes, from the Foundation of the See of Rome, to the Present Time. First editions save the first volume, which is a second edition. Bower (1686–1766) produced his controversial antipapist work at the end of his life, having broke with the Jesuit faith for the second time. This set is handsomely presented in unusual stencilled bindings.We have traced a few other examples of this very unusual binding, one of which is held in the British Library. The same stencil seems to have been used across them all, and their edges are also green. While green edges are often a mark of Irish bindings, the provenance of these books suggests that the binder was either English or Scottish, and producing these stencilled bindings c.1760-1780. The present bindings bear the later crest of the library at Camperdown House, with the earl's coronet of Robert Dundas Duncan, 1st Earl of Camperdown (1785–1859). Camperdown was built between 1824 and 1828 in Dundee, Bower's birthplace.

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