Author Name: William Williams
Title: Primitive History, From The Creation to Cadmus.
Binding: Half Calf - Marbled Boards
Book Condition: Very Good
Type: Book
Edition: First Edition
Size: 4to - over 9" - 12" tall
Publisher: Chichester Printed and Sold by J. Seagrave 1789
Seller ID: 12937
An incredibly rare book on Primitive History, printed in 1789. Fewer than 20 copies are known to be extant. Size Quarto 10.25" x 8.5". Large Paper Copy, originally sold by subscription for a guinea. Complete in 3 Volumes, continuously paginated 595 pages plus Supplement of Emendations 5pp, and 8pp Heads of the Chapters, that gives a summary of the contents of each chapter. Original binding of tan half-calf over marbled boards. Condition very good, corners and edges rubbed and scuffed, boards slightly scuffed, upper quarter of front hinge cracked on volume III, volume II front upper outer corner and bottom edge of spine chipped. Internal condition near fine, a very clean example of this rare historical work, occasional light spotting and fingermarks, one or two short marginal tears, else fine. Volume I includes a dedicatory Epistle to George, Prince of Wales; Preface 4pp; also a fold-out table "A Geneological Table of The Titans, and their Contemporaries ; Chiefly from Apollodous, with Additions from Pausanias, and others." also 2 engraved plates; the first depicting ancient letters, Celtic, Runic, Latin and Lacedaemonian; the second decpiting Bornean and Brachygraphy; and also "A Table of Ancient Calendars". Volume III contains a table of "Sanchoniatho's Phenician Genealogies" A fascinating Historical and Theological work. Exceptionally rare, fewer than 20 copies are known to be extant. Primitive History is Williams' greatest work. In it he tries to explain the early history of mankind, arguing that the complete history of intelligent mankind is available in the Bible provided it is translated correctly, he preferred that used by Archbishop Ussher who picked out a weekday afternoon in 4004 B.C. as the beginning of time. He argued that the mythologies of ancient Greece, Egypt, Mexico, and other cultures agree with many of the events of the Old Testament and that we just need to realise that being deprived of divine revelation, they had to interpret things on their own so some of the basic outline came out wrong. Noah, for example, became Poseidon in the Greek version. But the truth is there if, like he, you can calculate properly. In the first chapter, he discusses the timing of comets, the fitting of the planets of the Solar System into the six days of Creation, the speed of Earth's movement, the speed of light, the movement of columns of ether, the possibility that other planets in the Solar System were habitable, and the possibility that the Earth itself was not habitable. He also discusses how Irish Goths (or Scythians) introduced cannibalism to Europe, how Chinese and English could be proven to be closely related if one traced words to their Hebrew roots, how Aztecs, Tartars, and Arabs were all descended from a Celtic tribe that itself descended from Shem. Williams knew his book would be subjected to ridicule: he was ahead of his time. Like other authors he mentions Homer, Socrates, Galileo, Bacon, Locke, and Newton he knew he'd be understood by a later, wiser generation.
HISTORY THEOLOGY THEOLOGICAL HISTORY RELIGIOUS RELIGION
Price =
4500.00 GBP
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