Puritanism; Samuel Garey (1582/3-1646) Manuscript commentaries on the Gospel of John, c.1620 in English and Latin, [36] ff., written on rectos and versos in brown ink, 12 blanks, leaf dimensions 14.8 x 9.5cm, contemporary limp vellum binding, covers gilt with concentric single-fillet frames enclosing floral cornerpieces and seed-head centrepieces, damp-staining to rear blanks (text not affected), covers sprung and soiled, ties perished, loss to lower fore corner of rear cover

Note: The dedication (ff. 1-3) is to Sir Robert Naunton (1563-1635) as secretary of state to James I ('Regiae ma[jestatis] secretario'), and is signed 'Samuell Garey', to be identified with the 'preacher of Gods Word at Winfarthing in Norf[folk]' who published four books of similar tracts between 1605 and 1623; this manuscript, presumably autograph, would have been an apposite gift for a figure who had reached the apex of Jacobean politics from landed origins in neighbouring Suffolk. The two texts discussed are John 3:16 ('For God so loved the world [...]'), which Garey introduces as 'the very axis & cardo of all sacred comfort', and John 3:2 ('He [Nicodemus] came to Jesus by night'). Among Garey's writings which still attract comment today is his recommendation in Great Brittains Little Calendar: or, Triple Diarie, in Remembrance of Three Daies (1618) that the 5 November be kept 'a holy feast unto the Lord throughout the generations'. Provenance: 1) Richard Heber (1773-1833), his sale, Evans, 13 February 1836, lot 513; see Bibliotheca Heberiana ... Part Eleventh. Manuscripts (1836), p. 533, catalogued as 'Theological Discourses dedicated to Sir Robert Naunton, in the original vellum binding'. 2) Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), with manuscript note 'Phillipps MSS 9167' to inside front cover. 3) John Rose (ownership inscription 'John Rose, June 17th [18]76' to initial blank); his sale, Sotheby's, 13 December 1938, the buyer's name recorded as Halliday. 4) Private collection, Edinburgh.