Thomas Traherne (1637?-1674), a clergyman of the Church of England during the Restoration, was little known until the early twentieth century, when his poetry and Centuries of Meditations were first printed. There have beensince only miscellaneous publications of his poetry and devotional writings. The Works of Thomas Traherne brings together for the first time all Traherne's extant works, including his notebooks, in a definitive, printed edition. The six works in this volume are taken from two manuscripts. The first, held at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (MS Eng. th. e. 50), contains Centuries of Meditations; the other, held at the BeineckeRare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University (Osborn MS b. 308), is comprised of three works by Traherne, Select Meditations and two brief untitled treatises, "Being a Lover of the world" and "The best principle whereby a man can Steer his course". It also includes two works by an unidentified writer, A Prayer for Ash Wednesday and A Meditation; neither work is of Traherne's making.
