BILLS OF MORTALITYBiblio.com
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1665148683London: printed and are to be sold by E. Cotes 1665. The great plague of 1665 First edition of this complete annual sequence of the London bills of mortality for 20 December 1664 to 19 December 1665 issued at the height of the Great Plague. First instituted in 1592 and placed under the control of the Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks in 1611 the bills formed the essential statistical substrate for John Graunt's Natural and Political Observations Made upon the Bills of Mortality 1662 the foundational work of modern medical statistics. Graunt 1629-1674 a member of the Common Council of London had analysed mortality data for several years before publishing his seminal study which had already reached its second edition with a third in press by 1665. Wing attributes London's Dreadful Visitation to "John Graunt of Bucklersbury" an author of religious tracts but not of statistical works; this is almost certainly a misattribution for the celebrated statistician. Most bibliographies cite the work anonymously. The work was printed for the Parish Clerks' Company by Ellen Eleanor Cotes active 1652-70 widow and executor of Richard Cotes the City of London's official printer. Surveyed in 1668 she was operating three presses with two apprentices and nine pressmen at the Barbican. Both she and her husband produced notable medical books illustrated with large anatomical plates including translations of works by Ambroise Paré and Adriaan van de Spiegel. Cotes contributed the prefatory note "The Printer to the Reader" "I am a Printer no Preacher". Two issues are distinguished by title-page dating: one as here begins "the 20th. of December"; the other "the 27th. of December". Although the folding table is described in the title as integral Goldsmiths' catalogues it separately as a broadside nos. 1759 and 1760 the latter with mourning border. While not exceptionally rare copies are typically found worn defective or lacking the folding table; sound examples are uncommon. Bound up with it are two scarce related broadsides and a copy of Roger Drake Sacred Chronologie 1648 pp. 44; ESTC R206239. Further details of these are available on request. Small quarto 222 x 172 mm. Folding table at rear titled "A general Bill for this present year ending the 19th of December 1665.". Title page text set within a thick black woodcut border decorated with memento mori motifs including a skull-and-crossbones crowned with a winged hourglass under a banner lettered "Memento mori" plus bones picks and spades and full skeletons and three coats of arms above the imprint; woodcut headpieces initials; arms of the Parish Clerk's Company running throughout. Bound with 3 other items in late 18th-century continental half parchment marbled boards labelled "Pot Pourri" and numbered "2" in black. Spine ends lightly rubbed front joint largely cracked but board still holding firmly; blank upper margin of title a little creased very occasional light spotting or rust marks; an excellent copy with several uncut edges. Garrison-Morton 5119 27th issue; Goldsmiths' 1761 27th; Kress 1160 27th; Norman 1386 27th; Wing G-1598A issue not differentiated. hardcover