BULSTRODE, Whitelocke.

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Metempsychosis: sive, Tentamen de transmigratione, in Pythagorae Defensionem: First edition in Latin, from the library of the dedicatee Thomas Parker (1666-1732), the first Earl of Macclesfield, in his well-preserved Harleian-style binding. This copy includes a tipped-in leaf presenting the work to Macclesfield, printed on superior paper and not called for by ESTC. Whitelocke Bulstrode (1652-1724) had previously addressed his Essays (1724) to Macclesfield. In Metempsychosis, the dedication is printed on a single leaf and tipped in before leaf a2. We identify copies with and without it: another copy with the leaf is held at the University of Michigan. This suggests that the dedication was added at a late stage. Without it, the book opens with a lengthy epistle to Whitelocke's son Richard.In the Essays, Bulstrode lauded Macclesfield as a "master" of "polite learning", and he has recently been characterised as "a man of vigorous intellect" (ODNB). This extended to scientific matters. Parker was a fellow of the Royal Society, a patron of Halley, and a pallbearer at Newton's funeral.Bulstrode, a Whig lawyer, wrote on religious, mystical, and philosophical matters. First published in English in 1692, this is a wide-ranging study of natural philosophy influenced by George Starkey (1628-1665), a colonial American alchemist. Many key figures of 17th-century science were influenced by Starkey, including Boyle, Hartlib, and Newton, whose corpuscular theories of matter owe much to his wr

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