Item #15590 An Inquiry into the Secondary Causes Which Mr. Gibbon has Assigned for the Rapid Growth of Christianity. David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, third baronet.
An Inquiry into the Secondary Causes Which Mr. Gibbon has Assigned for the Rapid Growth of Christianity.
An Inquiry into the Secondary Causes Which Mr. Gibbon has Assigned for the Rapid Growth of Christianity.

An Inquiry into the Secondary Causes Which Mr. Gibbon has Assigned for the Rapid Growth of Christianity.

Edinburgh: Printed by Murray & Cochrane. For T. Cadell. 1786. First edition. With the printed presentation leaf to Richard Bishop of Worcester, before the title-page. Verso of title-page with two old rubberstamps of St. Andrews University, one for deaccession. A very good copy. Contemporary marbled boards, rebacked and recornered in recent calf, gilt flat spine with burgundy morocco label. Quarto. [4], 214 pp. Item #15590

David Dalrymple, third baronet, Lord Hailes (1726-1792) was a Scottish advocate, judge, and historian. His best known work was his Annals of Scotland (1776-9). In the present work, he attacked Gibbon over his account of the effect of Christianity on the decline of the Roman empire. Controversial when it was published, it was a minor blow in the ongoing controversy between theological traditionalists such as Hailes and more liberal thinkers, led by David Hume.

Price: $950.00