2) The page numbers didn’t match up with the actual pages I turned through. Turns out, this was because the pages were bound out of order! (Page order was actually 96, 101, 102, 103, 104, 97, 98, 99, 100, 109, 110, 111, 112, 105, 106, 107, 108, 113, 114, 115)
Not sure if this weird scavenger hunt is the annotator’s way of drawing attention to the misbound pages or if the scavenger hunt actually leads to a huge Da-Vinci Code-esque revelation if you use some sort of top secret cipher.
Intrigued? Come visit Wilson Library and solve the mystery yourself!
After looking through slideshows of last night’s Met Gala, I was determined to find a truly impressive outfit of the day in our special collections. But in my attempts to choose a favorite, I couldn’t decide between these three amazing hats from Wilson Library’s 1625 copy of Della novissime iconologie.
Whateveryour particular favorite Renaissance fashion look might be, it’s clear that all three of these early modern emblems are absolute style icons.
The Lacemaker Artist: Bernhard Keil (Danish, 1624–1687) Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 28 ¼ x 38 ¼ in. (71.8 x 97.2 cm) Classification: Paintings Credit Line: Bequest of Edward Fowles, 1971 Accession Number: 1971.115.2 Metropolitan Museum of Art
Madonna and Child in a Domestic Interior Artist: Painting by Manohar (active ca. 1582–1624) Object Name: Illustrated single work Date: early 17th century Geography: India Culture: Islamic Medium: Black and colored ink and gold on paper Dimensions: OveralL. 9 9/16 x 5 13/16in. (24.3 x 14.8cm) Dimensions of blue frame: 2 15/16 x 2 1/4in. (7.5 x 5.7cm) Dimensions of painting: 5 ¾ x 3 5/16in. (14.6 x 8.4cm) Classification: Codices Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1970 Accession Number: 1970.217, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Study of a Sleeping Cat Artist: Attributed to Jan Miel (Flemish, Beveren 1599–1664 Turin) Date: mid-17th century Medium: Black chalk Dimensions: Sheet: 3 ¼ × 3 ¾ in. (8.3 × 9.6 cm) Classification: Drawings Credit Line: Gift of Paul Jeromack, in honor of Robert Tuggle, 2013 Accession Number: 2013.997.1
A shelf-check undertaken in 2019 turned up a book held by the Alexander Turnbull Library that was once owned by the 17th-century collector Frances Wolfreston (1607-1677), a gentrywoman who formed a substantial library focused primarily on English literature and drama. (Better late than never to announce the find!)
The book is The dance machabre or Death’s duell:a metrical treatise on death composed by the English Franciscan friar Walter Colman (1600-1645). It is also an extremely scarce work, with just nine copies recorded in the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC). Wolfreston’s ownership inscription appears on the first page of verse.
In her will, Wolfreston bequeathed her library to her son Stanford (b. 1652). Her collection remained with the family until the mid-19th century when much of it was sold by Sotheby’s in 1856 and dispersed.*
Wolfreston’s copy of Colman’s La dance machabre was purchased in the Sotheby’s sale by the writer and book collector George Daniel (1789-1864), whose collection was sold over a ten-day period in July 1864 just a few months after his death. La dance machabre was lot 377 and was acquired by Joseph Lilly on behalf of the notable bibliophile Henry Huth (1815-1878). His 'Ex Musæo Huthii’ book label is present on the front pastedown.
Huth’s vast library was auctioned in a series of Sotheby’s sales that took place between 1911 and 1922. La dance machabre was sold in 1912 (lot 1702), and was likely knocked down to Bernard Quaritch on behalf of Alexander Turnbull.
Although his bookplate is not present, Turnbull purchased numerous books in the Huth sales - most notably Huth’s complete set of Theodor de Bry’s voyages in both the German and Latin editions - and like Wolfreston he had a particular interest in English literature. A work as scarce as Colman’s La dance machabre with such a collecting lineage would not have escaped his eye.
*For the wonderful project being led by Sarah Lindenbaum that seeks to list the surviving books from Wolfreston’s library along with their present locations (including the book described here) see:
‘I am not covetous, but as ambitious as ever any of my sex was, is, or can be; which makes, that though I cannot be Henry the Fifth, or Charles the Second, yet I endeavour to be Margaret the First’.
~ Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
This week’s Turnbull Rare Books post marks International Women’s Day (8 March) by highlighting a selection of books written by women in the 17th and and early 18th century. Click the name links to read biographies of each author primarily through the Poetry Foundation website.
The authors and their works from the top are (in date order of publication) …
Poems on several occasions. Together with the Song of the three children paraphras’d. London: printed by D. L. for Bernard Lintott, 1709, Alexander Turnbull Library, REng CHUD Poems 1709.
A bold stroke for a wife. A comedy. London: printed for T. Lowndes, T. Caslon., W. Nicoll, and S. Bladon, 1783, Alexander Turnbull Library, REng CENT Bold 1783.
A title too good not to share, complete with a former owner’s drawings of perhaps his or her own personal Blunderella.
Its verse, however, leaves a lot to be desired:
BlunderellaIdol of the Vain/ And first in the Loquacious Train/ In all things ignorant and weak/ Yet on all Subjects would she speak …
Part of a collection of 28 poems bound together in a single volume, the earliest being a copy of Charles Hardy’s Bacchanalia: or a description of a drunken club (1680).
Blunderellais book-ended by two anonymous poems: The Cambridge election. A new ballad (1729) and Female chastity, truth and sanctity: a satire (1734).
–
Henry Carey, Blunderella: or, the impertinent. A tale … London: printed for A. Dodd, 1730; Alexander Turnbull Library, fREng DARBY Bacc 1680.
Restoration of a Vermeer’s painting-new in history (8/?)
In a recent restoration of a Vermeer masterpiece, an image of Cupido was restored. While it was already longer know that an image of Cupido was painted over, recent research proved it wasn’t painted over by Vermeer, but in a later stage. This recent restoration now shows the painting as it was intended by Vermeer. (x)
Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) was a Dutch Baroque painter during Holland’s Golden Age.
A rock crystal ball talisman mounted as a pendant in silver and decorated with stylised roses at each end. The sling mount is early seventeenth century and is decorated with punching in the form lozenges and pellets. Abrasions to the ball suggest that it might be considerably earlier then the silver work. It is contained within a fitted wooden case lined with velvet and covered in shagreen. English?, c.1620. Photographs: Author.
