Monthly Archives: July 2015

a donation from Professor Fuller

Tim Fuller, a member of the CC political science department since 1965, donated two rare and valuable books to Special Collections this month, both by Richard Hooker.

hooker 1617Professor Fuller writes: “My primary field of research is in British political thought since the English Reformation.  Richard Hooker was considered, and many still consider him, the greatest Anglican theologian. In the turmoil of the 16th century, Hooker defended the natural law tradition (he is sometimes referred to as the English Thomas Aquinas). He wrote against the “religious enthusiasm” of the Puritans, in defense of what became known as the Elizabethan Settlement which established Anglicanism as we have since known it. His great work, Laws of Ecclesiastical Politie, I acquired in two versions: hooker 1705the 1705 folio [below] in an Oxford bookshop in 1989, and the 1617 edition [above] from a Connecticut book dealer about 10 years later.  The 1705 is the complete work with a famous biographical introduction by Isaac Walton, the version used today by students of Hooker’s thought.  The complete work was not published until the 1660s.  The 1617 is roughly the fourth edition (there are several versions of it) which published through only the fifth book (of what was ultimately eight books), but is historically important.”

We are very pleased to have these at CC!

Library record for 1617 edition: https://tiger.coloradocollege.edu/record=b2370155~S5
Library record for 1705 edition: https://tiger.coloradocollege.edu/record=b2370143~S5

Dante again!

Special Collections seems to be making a habit of acquiring editions of Dante’s Commedia. Maybe this is because it was a hugely popular book in the early years of printing history, and it helps that Re Evitt teaches a whole course at CC on the text.

Our newest Dante is a five volume edition published in Padua in 1822 with the commentary of Baldassare Lombardi. The frontispiece illustrations in volumes 1, 2, and 3 will knock your socks off. Just look at ’em!

dante 1822 vol 1dante 1822 vol 2dante 1822 vol 3