Ussher, Archbishop James; Annales veteris et novi Testamenti, a prima mundi Origine deducti. Una cum rerum asiaticarum et Aegyptiacarum chronico, a temporis historici principio usque ad extremum templi et reipublicae judaicae excidum producto ... Quibus onminus praefixa est Jacobi Usserii vita, à Th. Smitho ... [Hrsg. von Johann Clericus]. Genevae, Gabriel de Tournes et fils, 1722. Folio, pp. 1, half title, title in red / black with vignette, 12, 652, 32, 66, half title, 124, half title, 19, 1, copy of portrait of Ussher tipped in at front.
In original vellum boards with later vellum spine and gilt spine label. Light toning to last text pages. In very good condition.
James Ussher (1581-1656) was the Anglican archbishop of Armagh Ireland, ?and head of the Anglican church in Ireland. He was one of the most respected scholars and theologians of his time, and traveled widely in search of original documents, or at least the oldest versions of them he could find. He is primarily known today for his 1650-54 chronological work and in particular for the precise date he fixed for the Creation of the world (at noon on October 23, 4004 BC). The above is the second edition of Ussher's work, edited by the Antwerp theologian Johann Clericus (1698-1724) and finely printed by Gabriel de Tournes in Geneva. Contrary to popular misconception, Ussher did not simply count up years by following who begat whom in the Book of Genesis. Rather, he undertook a careful, critical synthesis of historical documents including Biblical, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean sources, knowledge of the calendrical systems of antiquity, Roman history, and any ancient documentary sources he could acquire and verify (then as now the lucrative traffic in antiquities lead to numerous counterfeits in circulation). His scholarship was impeccable, and the end of that scholarship was not so much to fix the date of Creation (although that was the one result we remember and many attribute to him), but rather to compile as complete and historically correct a chronology of human history as the documentary evidence would allow. It is well to remember that in the 17th century this was a topic of great scholarly interest, as it is now. Ussher was instrumental in putting this endeavor on a sound scholarly basis, as well as for exposing numerous counterfeit documents.