"This scarce early-eighteenth-century liturgical handbook, Clavis Calendaria: or, The Liturgy-Calendar of the Church of England Explain'd, was printed in London in 1700 for John Nutt near Stationers' Hall, at a moment when questions of calendar reform, feast days, and ecclesiastical computation were still widely debated. Written by W. C., M.A., the work sets out to clarify the structure and meaning of the Anglican liturgical year, providing a practical "key" to the Church calendar that would have been of real use to clergy, scholars, and informed lay readers alike. Its publication date places it firmly in the post-Restoration Church of England, still negotiating its identity amid lingering confessional tensions and the intellectual legacy of the Reformation.
The text carefully explains the English computation of time, distinguishing between Old Style and New Style dating, and addresses concepts such as the Golden Number, Epact, Dominical Letter, and the cycles governing the moveable feasts. Particular attention is given to saints' days, festivals, fasts, and notable ecclesiastical observances throughout the year, with commentary that blends historical explanation, theological context, and practical instruction. The preface reveals an author conscious of superstition and legend, seeking instead to ground the calendar in reasoned authority and approved sources, reflecting the rational Anglican tone characteristic of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
Offered here in its original early binding and complete text, this 1700 edition is a genuinely scarce survival, with no copies observed available online globally at the time of listing, underscoring its rarity in the current market. As both a liturgical reference and a historical document, it provides valuable insight into how time, worship, and tradition were understood in the Church of England at the dawn of the modern era, and would appeal particularly to collectors of early English theology, ecclesiastical history, and seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Anglican imprints.
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