First edition of an eye-witness account of seventeenth-century England – the dark side of Pepys. Seven-volume set.
Compiled between the years 1677 and 1691, the Entring Book is 900, 000 words long, with many sensitive passages written in a secret shorthand that has only recently been decoded. This remarkable chronicle of public affairs has remained for nearly three centuries, secure but little known, in Dr Williams’s Library, London.
The Entring Book fits no simple definition. It is not just a political diary, nor is it only the newsletter it sometimes resembles.It’s possible that it could have been the material for a history of Morrice’s own times, or it may have been a letterbook, recording correspondence to an unnamed recipient. Writing in great detail, with meticulous regularity, Morrice may have been passing on all he knew to senior figures in the opposition to Charles II and James II.
The Entring Book’s enormous scope means it also covers publishing, plays, business, military and religious matters, foreign affairs, public opinion and London life, making it an essential resource. Through it we can trace the transformation of puritanism into Whiggery and Dissent. This seven volume set includes an introductory and an index volumeas well as a biographical encyclopedia of names.
Tentang Penulis
Mark Goldie is Emeritus Professor of Intellectual History in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Churchill College. He has edited or authored 12 books and published more than 60 essays on British political, religious, and intellectual history in the period 1650-1800. Two of his books are published by Boydell and Brewer: The Entring Book of Roger Morrice and Roger Morrice and the Puritan Whigs.