MONASTICON ANGLICANUM / SIR WILLIAM DUGDALE / 1693

Dugdale, Sir William.  MONASTICON ANGLICANUM, OR, THE HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT ABBIES, AND OTHER MONASTERIES, HOSPITALS, CATHEDRAL AND COLLEGIATE CHURCHES, IN ENGLAND AND WALES, WITH DIVERS FRENCH, IRISH AND SCOTCH MONASTERIES FORMERLY RELATING TO ENGLAND. COLLECTED AND PUBLISHED IN LATIN BY SIR WILLIAM DUGDALE, KNT. , LATE GARTER KING OF ARMS. IN THREE VOLUMES. AND NOW EPITOMIZED IN ENGLISH, PAGE BY PAGE, WITH SCULPTURES OF THE SEVERAL RELIGIOUS HABITS.  London: Sam Keble and Ben Rhodes, 1693.  Folio (approx 7.75 x 12.5”).  Bound in original full leather, spine in six compartments separated by five raised bands.  Illustrated with 15 full-page engravings.

FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. Hardcover without dust jacket (as issued) . Donation inscription on ffep (see photo).  All pages are present. Both boards are separated and the first few pages are loose. Mild foxing throughout.  The original leather binding is in very poor condition and the volume needs to be rebound. All of the pages, however, are present and in good condition, with no significant losses. POOR.

Published originally in three volumes in Latin, this first English edition, abridged, by James Wright, with page references in the margins, contains the history of all the abbeys, priories, monasteries, hospitals, and collegiate and cathedral churches in England from earliest times, before most were burnt during the rise of Protestantism by king Henry VIII. It also includes the history of the Knights Templar, of the new temple in London, foreign monasteries situated in France, Ireland and Scotland and much more.

This is three volumes in one, continuously paginated. Each volume is preceded by a half-title: Volume One: Of the Benedictine Monks, Cluniacs, Cistercians, and Carthusians; Volume Two: Of the Canons Regular of St. Augustin, Hospitalers, Templars, Gilbertines, Praemonstratenses, and Maturins, or Trinitarians; Volume Three: Of the Cathedral and Collegiate Churches. Two indices provide access by county or by religious house to all three volumes.

This is the first abridgment of Dugdale's greatest work, one which has become a standard work of reference to every serious student of medieval antiquities marking an epoch in the study of charters as a source of English history. There are the usual numerous pagination errors, but the work is complete.