WARBURTON, William, Bishop of Gloucester. 17669

£375

Description

Autograph Letter Signed ‘W.Gloucester’, to his bookseller [probably John Nourse], saying that he has received Voltaire’s Life of the Czar, and that Warburton will call at the end of the week “& desire that my bill may be wrote out”. 1 page 4 x 5 inches, neatly laid down on an album page beneath an engraved portrait of Warburton. Grosvenor Square, 12 November, no year given [probably c.1763]. William Warburton (1698-1779), bishop and scholar, defender of Pope’s Essay on Man, a controversialist who tackled Hume, the Deists, Voltaire and Wesley. We have been unable to trace this letter in the Oxford Bibliographical Society publication: Pope’s Literary Legacy: The Book-Trade Correspondence of William Warburton and John Knapton with other letters and documents, 1744-1780, Edited by Donald W.Nichol [1992]. Voltaire’s book, The History of the Russian Empire under Peter the Great, was published in its English translation in London by J.Nourse and P.Vallant in 1763. John Nourse (d.1780) was a London bookseller who specialized in French literature and scientific works. Warburton ordered many books from him.