Item #107044 [Religio Medici] A True and Full Coppy of that which was most imperfectly and surreptitiously printed before under the Name of 'Religio Medici'. Thomas BROWNE.

BROWNE, Thomas

[Religio Medici] A True and Full Coppy of that which was most imperfectly and surreptitiously printed before under the Name of 'Religio Medici'

[London], Andrew Crooke, 1645 [third authorised edition].

Small octavo, with the integral initial blank and the engraved title page by William Marshall.

Early full calf, asymmetrically panelled with double fillets in blind, expertly recased with new endpapers; the early monogram 'WA' in ink on the front board and recto of the integral initial blank, the verso of which also bears the early ownership signature of Thomas Ingram; a few leaves slightly cropped (affecting only the catchwords); mild traces of worming to the covers; a few passages highlighted with early ink manicules in the margins; trifling signs of use and age; an excellent copy in a custom-made clamshell box (with the bookplate of George Frederick Birks).

For what it's worth, we quote from an obituary in the 'Sydney Morning Herald', 7 May 1948: 'By the death in Sydney of Mr. George Frederick Birks, aged 82, Australia has lost one of the last intimate links with the ill-fated communist settlement founded by William Lane in Paraguay 55 years ago. Fred Birks, a member of one of Adelaide's best-known pioneering families, was a member of the second party which migrated to Paraguay in 1893'. This third authorised edition was published in the same year as the second. The engraved title is unchanged, but the letterpress has been reset, with minor emendations to the text. Keynes 5.