A brief account of the vaudois, His Sardinian Majesty's protestant subjects In the Valleys of Piedmont. In a letter from a Gentleman on his Travels in Italy..
London.
Printed for R. Dodsley...and sold by M. Cooper, 1753.
First edition.
8vo.
32pp. Contemporary grey paper wrappers, title in manuscript to upper wrapper. Lightly rubbed and marked, slight loss to foot of spine. Occasional light marking to text.
The first edition of an anonymous description of the beliefs and lifestyle of the Sardinian Vaudois, or Waldensians, a proto-Protestant sect founded in the twelfth century, sometimes attributed to clergyman and schoolmaster William Goldwin, author of a popular poetic Description of Bristol (London, 1712). Targeted by the Catholic Church, which issued a bill demanding their extermination in 1487, many Vaudois fled south - such persecution would only be formally rescinded in 1848, when the King of Sardinia granted his Vaudois subjects freedom of religion on an equality with his other subjects.
ESTC T99294.
£ 250.00
Antiquates Ref: 34063
