The Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies gratefully acknowledges the donation of this volume by Prof. Peter Blayney (University of Toronto) to our rare book collection.

Isaacson, Henry. Saturni Ephemerides Sive Tabula Historico-Chronologica. London: Printed by B[ernard] A[lsop] and T[homas] F[awcet] for Henry Seile and Humphrey Robinson, 1633.

The Saturni Ephemerides Sive Tabula Historico-Chronologica “Saturn’s Diary or a Historico-Chronological Table” is an ambitious attempt at a chronology of world history focused through key events and figures. The six pages of “authorities” Isaacson references range from Ovid and Boccaccio to Bede and Holinshed. The first section offers an abridged history of the “Four Monarchies” (Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome) before moving to the chronology table which comprises most of the book. Isaacson begins this section with the biblical patriarchs and proceeds through to the time of the book’s composition with various European locations each receiving their own columns. Alongside each year Isaacson also includes noteworthy events such as the founding of cities, universities, and the births and deaths of famous figures such as Sir Philip Sidney and John Harington with notes about their accomplishments. Appended to the work is a Christian history of Britain that lists the successions of bishops and archbishops. At the end of the book is an index which organizes the “famous men” that Isaacson includes into categories such as poets, musicians, philosophers, mathematicians, painters, grammarians, and others.