The Life of Cardinal Wolsey

London: Printed for John Barber, 1724. First edition. Cloth. A very good or better copy, modern rebinding, leaves very bright, small chip to lower margin of frontis else plates sharp and clean, overall contents near fine.. [4], lv, [1], 534, 260 pp. Illus. with seven copper plate engravings and one in-text engraving. Folio. With a list of subscribers. Illustrations include portrait frontispieces of Fiddes, portrait of Wolsey, the Magdalen College Tower; two further portraits: of Bishop Tunstall and Bishop Fox, the House Of Lords; Christ Church College, Oxford (dbl. page); two views of Christ Church interiors; plus in-text engraving of coins. In this work, Fiddes ... "it attempted to vindicate Wolsey's memory from the obloquy which had persistently pursued it, and also that it took a view of the Reformation less unfavourable to the mediaeval church than that of most Protestant writers. Fiddes was immediately attacked both by the press and in the pulpit. He had been faithful to the Earl of Oxford after his fall, and had frequently visited him in prison; further, in the preface to the ' Life of Wolsey,' he said that Atterbury had offered him the opportunity of writing it in his house, and he paid a warm tribute to Atterbury's abilities. It therefore suited Atterbury's assailants to accuse Fiddes of popery, and represent him as employed by Atterbury to write his work," DNB XIX, 398. ESTC T76228. Lowndes 796.