Recent Acquitions

2007

Medieval Travel Writing. Catkey: 7134425

Processus contra Templarios (Scrinium, 2008). This facsimile reproduces the original documents from the Secret Vatican Archives containing the proceedings from the investigation and trials of the Knights Templars. Stanford researchers will be able to consult the facsimile in Green Library, Special Collections. Catkey 6987936

2006

The Frank J. Novak collection of early English documents, 1326-1701.
Collection of Twelve English Manuscript Documents Dating from 1326 to 1701.
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Frank Novak
This varied assortment features such things as an indenture (1577), army commissions (1688 & 1689), an indulgence (1441), a deed of gift (1326) and grant deeds (ca. 1415 and 1573), among others. All are written on vellum. The 1689 military commission is a printed document with blanks that have been filled in by hand with particulars. The two commissions (1688 & 1689), under the authority of Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk (1655-1701), are especially interesting: they each commission the same man, one Anthony Mingay, of Norwich, as a lieutenant in the “Regiment of the trained bands of the City of Norwich.” The Mingays were an important merchant dynasty in Norwich that dates back to at least the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The first commission is dated the “seventeenth day of November In this fourth yeare of the reigne of our Sovraigne Lord James the Second by the grace of God … 1688.” The second commission is dated “the 23rd day of July in the first yeare of the Reigne of our Soveraigne Lord and Lady King William and Queen Mary … 1689.” Mingay’s first commission was issued during the reign of James II. In the Glorious Revolution of 1688 James was forced off the throne in favor of William and Mary, of the House of Orange (Mary was the daughter of the Catholic James II, but was herself a Protestant; she married her first cousin William III in 1677); the commission was re-issued in this new reign. Norfolk’s commission as Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk lapsed with the departure of James II, and all of the commissions he had issued under James II lapsed as well, necessitating the second commission in 1689.

Andrea Alciati.
Les Emblemes de seigneur Andre Alcia: de nouveau translatez en françois vers pour vers ….
A Lyon: Chez Guill. Rouillé, 1549.
Acquired through the Albert M. Bender Fund.
Emblem books featured collections of symbolic pictures, usually accompanied by mottoes and expositions in verse and often by prose commentary as well. A development of the medieval allegory and bestiary, the emblem book enjoyed a tremendous popularity in 16-century Italy and by the 17 century was popular throughout Europe. The father of emblem literature was the 16th-century Italian lawyer and humanist Andrea Alciati, whose Emblemata was first published in 1531. Alciati’s work became a popular book in the Renaissance; revised by many editors and translated by various scholars, it appeared in more than 150 editions over the course of 100 years or so. This edition is rare, with the text in the French translation of Bartolemy Aneau. The publisher Ruoillé commissioned the woodcuts by Pierre Eskrich, in imitation of those done by Bernard Salomon for Jean de Tournes; while using the Salomon illustrations as a source, Eskrich expanded the scenes and added more detail.

Apuleius.
L’Amour de Cupido et de Psiché ….
[Paris?]: Leonar. Galter. fec. & excu., [1590?].
Acquired through the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund
Apuleius is best-known as author of Metamorphoses, or The Golden Ass, the only Latin novel to survive in entirety. It describes the adventures of a young man transformed through magic into an ass. The novel enjoyed great popularity and was printed in dozens of editions throughout the Renaissance. Many stories are embedded within the novel, stories that reappear in such works as Boccaccio’s Decameron, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, and Alain Le Sage’s Gil Blas. The most famous of these stories is that of Cupid and Psyche, the story featured here. This French translation is fully engraved throughout, with a half-page illustration and engraved text below. The illustrations are by Leonard Gaultier (1561-1641).

Bible. Latin. 1574.
Biblia, ad Vetustissima Exemplaria Nunc Recens Castigata …
Venetiis: Apud Haeredes Nicolai Beuilaquae, & Socios, 1574.
Acquired through the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund.
This is a lavishly illustrated Bible; the fine woodcuts were inspired by a variety of sources, notably the three sets of woodcuts by Hans Holbein, Bernard Salomon, and Pierre Eskrich that first appeared in Lyons between 1538 and 1562 and were commonly used in Bibles and picture books. The text of this Bible follows the 1547 Louvain edition, edited by Johannes Henten.

Cantica Natalia: Viginti Hymni in Honorem Nativitatis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi.
Ditchling, Sussex: E Typographia S. Dominici, 1926.
Acquired through the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund.
Surely one of the grandest and most elaborate and beautiful books of Christmas carols ever produced, this volume is printed throughout in red and black, with plain-chant notation. The beautiful typeface and layout are complemented by wood-engravings by David Jones, Philip Hagreen and Desmond Chute. Saint Dominic's Press was founded about 1916 by Harry Douglas Clark Pepler (1878-1951), an English printer, writer and poet. Pepler converted to Roman Catholicism in 1916 and joined the Dominicans as a lay member in 1918, at which time he changed his name to Hilary. He was also a founder with Eric Gill and Desmond Chute in 1920 of a Catholic community of craftsmen at Ditchling, Sussex. St. Dominic’s Press became the private press of this community, and was well-known for its music printing: here familiar carols are transposed into a medieval, four-line stave format. The twenty one carols include "Adeste Fideles" and "Hodie Christus Natus Est" in the traditional setting which Benjamin Britten would use in his celebrated "Ceremony of Carols.”

Hablot Knight Browne.
Illustrations to Shakespeare.
London: [S.n., 18--].
Acquired through the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund
This is one of only fifty copies with the plates colored. It has another set of the same plates, uncolored, bound in. This copy came from the library of Alistair Cooke, KBE (1908–2004), the legendary British-American journalist and broadcaster. Browne’s illustrations for Shakespeare first appeared in 1858 in a two-volume edition, appearing later in 1872 and 1882-1884 editions; all of these editions are considered rare.

Jean de La Quintinie.
The Compleat Gard'ner, or, Directions for Cultivating and Right Ordering of Fruit-gardens and Kitchen-gardens: with Divers Reflections on Several Parts of Husbandry: in Six Books … Made English by John Evelyn, Esquire.London: Printed for Matthew Gillyflower, at the Spread Eagle in Westminster-Hall, and James Partridge, at the Post-house at Charing-Cross, 1693.
A Gift of the Associates of the Stanford University Libraries
This is the first edition of this translation of Jean de La Quintinie's Instruction pour les jardins fruitiers et potagers, a translation done by John Evelyn, with the assistance of Thomas Creech and George London. The work consists mainly of directions for fruit and kitchen gardens, with shorter essays on orange trees and melons. Evelyn created one of London's greatest gardens at Sayes Court, his home at Deptford; this led to his writing the Elysium Britannicum, an encyclopaedic history of gardens and gardening practices that occupied him for most of his life. Elysium also proved to be the catalyst for Evelyn's pioneering work on tree cultivation (Sylva, 1664) and on soils (A Philosophical Discourse of Earth, 1676). Evelyn is best remembered as a diarist and garden designer, but he was in fact interested in a wide range of scientific fields. Evelyn created many gardens, and his writings laid the groundwork for the English landscape garden of the eighteenth century.

Natale Conti.
Natalis Comitis Mythologiae, sive Explicationis Fabularum, Libri Decem …
Francofvrti: Apud Andreae Wecheli heredes Claudium Marnium & Ioannem Aubrium, 1584.
Acquired through the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund
This is an early edition of a very important guide to mythology, a guide that was enormously popular and influential from the late Renaissance into the Baroque period. It influenced literary authors such as Chapman and Bacon as well as artists and writers on art theory, who used it as a reliable and important source.

Novi Testamenti Aeditio Postrema per Des. Erasmum Roterodamum ….
Tiguri: In Officina Froschouiana, anno 1554.
Acquired through the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund and the Robert L. Goldman Fund.
This is a rare illustrated pocket edition of the New Testament. The text is edited by Desiderius Erasmus (1466?-1536), the Dutch humanist and theologian and a major figure of the Reformation. The copious illustrations are by Heinrich Vogtherr the Elder (1490-1556), commissioned by the publisher Froschauer. These celebrated illustrations show great originality, though the woodcuts for the Apocalypse are based on Holbein’s designs and are executed by a hand other than Vogtherr’s.

Ovid.
P. Ovid Nasonis XV Metamorphoseon ….
[Cologne]: Prostant apnd [sic] Crisp. Passaeum Chalcographum Coloniense[m] et Joannem Jansonium Typographum Arnhemiensem, Anno 1607.
Acquired through the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund
This is the second printing of Crispijn van de Passe’s extraordinary engravings illustrating the Metamorphoses of Ovid (43 B.C.–17 or 18 A.D.), with two couplets under each illustration. The engravings are published here for the first time with the letterpress text of Wilhelm Salsmann (fl. 1607-1629), in Latin and German in double columns, the text summarizing the subject of the illustrations. The book was published in Arnhem by Johannes Janssonius; the copperplate illustrations had been done in De Passe’s workshop in Cologne. De Passe (1564-1637) was a celebrated engraver, print publisher, and painter. His career began in Antwerp and one of his earliest achievements was a series of forty-six biblical illustrations engraved for the great Renaissance printer Christopher Plantin. These engravings from Ovid were done from his own and others’ designs, notably those of Bernard Salomon, Virgil Solis, Antonio Tempesta, and Hendrik Goltzius.

Ovid.
Les Metamorphoses d'Ovide en latin et françois …
Edition nouvelle, enrichie de tres-belles figures.
A Amsterdam: Chez P. & J. Blaeu, Janssons à Waesberge, Boom, & Goethals, 1702.
Acquired through the Fitger Williams Fund
The Metamorphoses of Ovid (43 B.C-17 or 18 A.D.) stands as our best classical source for some 250 myths; it has been enormously popular throughout history and has never been out of print. Its stories have been the source of innumerable literary writings and art. This is a beautifully illustrated large folio edition of Ovid, featuring the Latin and French texts in double columns. The engraved illustrations are mostly by Martin and Paul Broche, and the extensive notes on the fables are by Pierre du Ryer (d. 1658), a member of the Academie Française. This translation was originally published in Brussels in 1677.

Samuel Johnson.
A Dictionary of the English Language ….
The fourth edition, revised by the author.
London: Printed by W. Strahan, for W. Strahan, J. & F. Rivington, T. Davies, J. Hinton, L. Davis ... [and 20 others], 1773.
Acquired through the University Libraries Research Fund
The achievement of Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) in creating the first great English dictionary can hardly be overstated. This edition contains a large number of textual corrections and additions by Johnson, and while he may have intended further changes in the fifth edition, such changes exist only in manuscript. The many added quotations reflect Johnson's reading in the years between the first publication of the dictionary (1755) and 1773. Allen Reddick states: "Many of the new sources from which he borrowed were theological writers, and the cumulative effect of the new quotations and their accompanying definitions or notes on usage is to draw attention to a broader theological sense of the word in question ...." Johnson himself said "Many faults I have corrected, some superfluities I have taken away, and some deficiencies I have supplied. I have methodised some parts that were disordered, and illuminated some that were obscure."

David Loggan.
Oxonia Illustrata ...
Oxoniae: E theatro Sheldoniano, ano. Dni. 1675.
A Gift of the Associates of the Stanford University Libraries
Loggan (1634?-1692) was born in Danzig and studied there and in Amsterdam before coming to London in the 1650s. He was appointed “public sculptor” to Oxford University in 1669, when he began to draw and engrave this series of engravings which illustrate the Bodleian Library, the University schools, the newly-built Sheldonian Theatre, the University church, and the University's various colleges and halls. The volume is completed by panoramic views of the city from a distance, an excellent plan of the city in bird’s eye perspective, a plate illustrating the varieties of academic dress, and a plan of the University Botanic Garden. The engravings are highly esteemed for their combination of accuracy and visual attractiveness. This is an invaluable architectural, topographical, and social resource, and a landmark in the history of the illustrated book in England.

Onofrio Panvinio.
De Ludis Circensibus ….
Patavii: Typis Petri Marie Frambotti Bibliop., 1681.
Acquired through the Althea H. Warren Fund
Panvinio (1529-1568), an erudite Augustinian, was a great historian and archaeologist of his time. This work is a treasure trove of information about the buildings of ancient Rome. The illustrations—thirty-six magnificent engraved plates—highlight such scenes as a panorama of the Circus Maximus on the Palatine Hill, a map of Rome and its theaters, and Caracalla’s great circus. The title-page itself is a triumph of illustration, featuring among other images chariot racing, fighting lions, and a mock naval battle. Panvinio included information not only on the buildings and monuments but also on ceremonies and transcriptions of inscriptions. He had a fine appreciation of antiquity in general and was one of the first historians to apply rational, historical criticism to the historical accounts he had discovered.

Gabriele Simeoni.
Dialogo pio et speculatiuo con diuerse sentenze latine & volgari ...
In Lione: Apresso Guglielmo Rouiglio, 1560.
Acquired through the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund
This is the first edition of this important work in which Simeoni (1509-1575) endeavored to establish a link between devices (simple symbols, allegorical vignettes, or rebuses) and ancient medals: “Those figures which the ancient Romans used to stamp on the reverse side of their medals were nothing but devices, and sometimes maxims." Simeoni was from Florence, but fled to Lyon in 1556 having escaped from the Italian Inquisition. The illustrations are from the set attributed to Pierre Eskrich (ca. 1530-ca. 1590), designed for an edition of Guillaume du Choul's Discours de la religion des anciens romains but they include two new woodcuts (the tomb of Simeoni and the view of the château of Polignac).

Johann Joachim Winckelmann.
Storia delle arti del disegno presso gli antichi di Giovanni Winkelman, tradotta dal tedesco e in questa edizione corretta e aumentata dall'abate Carlo Fea ...
In Roma: Dalla stamperia Pagliarini, 1783-1784.
Acquired through the Fitger Williams Fund
Wincklemann’s Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums, a monumental text in the understanding of Greek art, was first published in 1764; it became the bible of neo-Classicism and was a major text in the 18th-century search for and reinterpretation of Classical Antiquity. Many of the contributions of Winckelmann (1717-1768) were remarkable, but his greatest contribution lay in his interpretations of the works of antiquity in which Greek art represented the ideal of perfect beauty. This edition of the translation of Carlo Fea (1753-1834) is significant in having Fea’s preface and commentary (absent in the first Italian edition of 1779) and more than fifty illustrations.

John Mustain, Rare Book Librarian