" of the early 1560s (1835–1910) It was as a prolific scholar and writer that Selden won his reputation. The early books were on English history.
English history and antiquities In 1610 three of his works came out:
Jani Anglorum Facies Altera (
The Back Face [or
Two Faces]
of the English Janus) and ''England's Epinomis
, which dealt with the progress of English law down to Henry II; and The Duello, or Single Combat'', in which he traced the history of
trial by battle in England from the Norman Conquest. In 1613 he supplied a series of notes, including quotations and references, to the first eighteen
cantos of
Michael Drayton's
Poly-Olbion. In 1614 he published
Titles of Honor, which, in spite of defects and omissions, remained a comprehensive work for centuries. It was republished in a larger and greatly revised edition in 1631, and in a third edition in 1672. It earned for Selden the praise "monarch of letters" from his friend
Ben Jonson. In 1615, the
Analecton Anglobritannicon, an account of the civil administration of England before the
Norman Conquest, written in 1607, was published; its title and argument imitated the
Franco-Gallia of
François Hotman. In 1616 appeared notes on
John Fortescue's
De laudibus legum Angliae and
Ralph de Hengham's
Summae magna et parva. In 1618 his controversial
History of Tithes was published. A first sign of the coming storm was the 1619 book controverting Selden,
Sacrilege Sacredly Handled in two parts; with an Appendix, answering some objections by
James Sempill. Selden hit back, but was soon gagged. The churchmen
Richard Tillesley (1582–1621) (
Animadversions upon M. Seldens History of Tithes, 1619) and
Richard Montagu (
Diatribae upon the first part of the late History of Tithes, 1621) attacked the work. There were further replies by
William Sclater (
The Quaestion of Tythes Revised, 1623), and by
Stephen Nettles (''Answer to the Jewish Part of Mr. Selden's History of Tithes'' 1625). In it Selden tried to demonstrate that tithing depended on the civil law, rather than
canon law. He also made much of the complexities of the ancient Jewish customs on tithes. The work was also a milestone in the history of English historical writing through its mixture of
antiquarian-philological scholarship with historical narrative, two approaches to the study of the past previously seen as distinct. In 1623 he produced an edition of
Eadmer's
Historia Novarum. It was notable for including in appendices information from the
Domesday Book, which at the time had not been published and could only be consulted in the original at Westminster, on the payment of a fee. He published in 1642
Privileges of the Baronage of England when they sit in Parliament and Discourse concerning the Rights and Privileges of the Subject. In 1652 he wrote a preface and collated some of the manuscripts for
Sir Roger Twysden's Historiae Anglicanae scriptores X.
Literature and archaeology of the Near East In 1617, his
De dis Syris was issued, and immediately established his fame as an orientalist. It is remarkable for its early use of the comparative method, on
Semitic mythology. Also, in 1642, he published a part of the Arabic chronicle of
Patriarch Eutychius of Alexandria, under the title
Eutychii Aegyptii, Patriarchae Orthodoxorum Alexandrini, ... ecclesiae suae origines. Controversial was the discussion in it of the absence in Alexandria of the distinction between priests and bishops, a burning issue in the debate at the time in the
Church of England. In 1628, at the suggestion of Sir Robert Cotton, Selden compiled, with the assistance of two other scholars,
Patrick Young and
Richard James, a catalogue of the
Arundel marbles.
Studies on Judaism He employed his leisure at Wrest in writing
De successionibus in bona defuncti secundum leges Ebraeorum and
De successione in pontificatum Ebraeorum, published in 1631. During the progress of the constitutional conflict, he was absorbed in research, publishing
De jure naturali et gentium juxta disciplinam Ebraeorum in 1640. It was a contribution to the theorising of the period on
natural law. In the words of
John Milton, this "volume of naturall & national laws proves, not only by great authorities brought together, but by exquisite reasons and theorems almost mathematically demonstrative, that all opinions, yea errors, known, read, and collated, are of main service & assistance toward the speedy attainment of what is truest." It develops into a theory of
international law, taking as its basis the
Seven Laws of Noah. In 1644, he published
Dissertatio de anno civili et calendario reipublicae Judaicae, in 1646 his treatise on marriage and divorce among the Jews entitled
Uxor Ebraica, and in 1647 the earliest printed edition of the old English law-book
Fleta. In 1650 Selden began to print the trilogy he planned on the
Sanhedrin, as the first part of
De synedriis et prefecturis juridicis veterum Ebraeorum through the press, the second and third parts being severally published in 1653 and 1655. The aim of this work was to counter the use by the Presbyterians, in particular, of arguments and precedents drawn from Jewish tradition; it was a very detailed study aimed at refuting such arguments, and pointing out the inherent flexibility of the tradition that was being cited.
International law His
Mare clausum was written to dismantle the pretensions advanced by
Grotius in
The Free Sea (
Mare liberum), on behalf of the Dutch fishermen, to poach in the waters off the English coasts. The circumstances of its delayed publication, in 1635, suggest that during the early 1630s Selden inclined towards the court rather than the popular party and even secured the personal favour of the king,
Charles I. It had been written sixteen or seventeen years earlier, but for political reasons Charles's predecessor,
James I, had prohibited its publication. When it eventually appeared, a quarter of a century after
Mare liberum, it was under Charles's royal patronage, as a kind of state paper, and with a dedication to him. The fact that Selden was not retained in the great case of
ship money in 1637 by
John Hampden, the cousin of Sir Edmund, his former client in the Five Knights' Case, may be taken as additional evidence that his zeal for the popular cause was neither so warm nor so unquestioned as it had once been. His last publication was a vindication of himself from certain charges advanced against him and his
Mare clausum around 1653 by
Theodore Graswinckel, a Dutch jurist.
Posthumous publications Several of Selden's minor works were printed for the first time after his death, including a tract in defence of the 25 December birth of Christ written during the Puritan Commonwealth (1649–1660) when celebration of Christmas was prohibited. A collective edition of his writings was published by
David Wilkins in 3 volumes folio in 1725, and again in 1726.
Table Talk, for which he is perhaps best known, did not appear until 1689. It was edited by his
amanuensis,
Richard Milward, who affirms that "the sense and notion is wholly Selden's" and that "most of the words" are his also. Its genuineness has sometimes been questioned. ==Views==