Importance: Joseph White (1745-1814) was an English orientalist and theologian, Laudian Professor of Arabic and then Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford.
In 1783 White, one of the preachers at Whitehall Chapel, was appointed to the recently founded Bampton lectureship for 1784, his subject being a comparison between Islam and Christianity. He asked Samuel Badcock, an impoverished clergyman and newspaper writer, to write up one lecture and large portions of others, as a secret arrangement. The lectures were very well received, and White received preferment: the rectory of Melton, Suffolk, through Moore's influence, and then a prebend at Gloucester Cathedral, through Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow.
Source: *Wikipedia.
Binding: Large Octavo (8.5” x 5.375 x 1.125”). 14 oz. Rebacked late 18th c. tree calf binding. Spine double gilt-filleted and title in capitals SERMONS BEFORE OXFORD. Plain endpapers. Chipped and worn.
Provenance: A1r stamped NEW BEDFORD CITY LIBRARY.
Collation & Notes: A-T8 ([A1r] TP), W4r. [156] ff. & [312] pp.
Complete, with an original title page. Vertical chain lines. 21st c. wove endpapers. WC/OCLC 3.
Condition: ff. (8.1875” x 5”). Scattered foxing & offsetting; A1 chipped; A4 1.75” & A5 .75” tail paper loss; H8 1.25” tail tear; Some tails deckled after K4; O7 tail slight paper loss; Q4 1.5” tail paper loss.
