8vo. [8], xxiii, [1], 380, [2], xiv, 215pp, [5]. With an engraved portrait frontispiece. 'The Song of Solomon paraphrased' has separate dated title page and pagination; register is continuous. Contemporary speckled calf, tooled in gilt and blind, contrasting red morocco lettering-piece. Rubbed, lower joint split, loss to head and foot of spine. Later inked ownership inscriptions to FEP.

The first edition of sometime Bishop of Ely Simon Patrick's (1626-1707) paraphrase of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon. Patrick's Old Testament commentaries constitute one of his most enduring legacies. He published his annotations on the book of Job in 1679, the book of Psalms followed in 1680, and Proverbs in 1683. Subsequently the complete paraphrase of and commentary upon all the books of the Old Testament were published in ten volumes between 1695 and 1710.