Aaron T. Pratt — Quires & Clasps

James I and Charles I of England. The Kings Maiesties Declaration to His Subiects. Concerning lawfull Sports to bee vsed. (London: Robert Barker and John Bill, 1633). Quarto. STC 9254.7.

Best known as the Book of Sports, this proclamation was first issued at the order of James I in 1617. Originally, it applied only in Lancashire, but in 1618, the next year, James extended it throughout the nation more generally. And it was at this point that it was first printed. Much to the chagrin of many Puritans, the Book of Sports demanded the reversal of any and all policies that prohibited sports and several other leisure activities on Sundays. James specifically allowed “dauncing, [for] either men or women, Archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any other such harmelesse Recreation, […] having of Maygames, Whitson Ales, and Morrisdances, and the setting vp of Maypoles & other sports therewith vsed,” but still banned “all vnlawfull games […] as Beare and Bullbaitings, Interludes, and at all times in the meaner sort of people by Law prohibited, Bowling.” In 1633, Charles I again issued the proclamation, reportedly at the behest of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud. The 1633 printed edition, the second, adds to the original text a new preface and conclusion. When issued under both James and Charles, the Book of Sports faced strong opposition from those who wished to preserve the austerity of the Sabbath. Indeed, in 1643, the Puritan-leaning Parliament ordered it publicly burned.

The present copy, secured in an older marbled wrapper with endpapers, collates complete, including both A1 and the final blank, C4. Trimming at the top occasionally encroaches into page numbers, but the margins are otherwise quite ample. The coat-of-arms impression on the title page verso is bold and clear, as are the text and ornaments throughout.

All said, this is a nice, complete copy of an important entry by the Crown into the religious debates of seventeenth-century England. It is relevant not only to students and collectors of religious and political history, but also those interested in the Early Modern stage. SOLD

Rowley, Samuel. When yov see me, You know me. Or the famous Chronicle History of king Henrie the Eight, with the birth and vertuous life of Edvvard Prince of Wales. As it was playd by the high and mightie Prince of Wales his seruants. London: [by Thomas Purfoot for] Nathaniel Butter, 1621. Quarto. STC 21419.

The first edition of When you see me, you know me was published in 1605, predating Shakespeare’s own Henry VIII, another play covering the reign of the famous Tudor monarch. Rowley’s play, in fact, served as one of the sources of Shakespeare’s later and admittedly more famous work. But, although early attention was paid to When you see me, You know me almost entirely because of its relationship to Shakespeare, recent decades have seen renewed interest in it as a compelling piece of drama in and of itself. Although Rowley was necessarily selective about what he included, his plot spans three full decades of Henry’s reign, devoting most of its attention to the conflict with Cardinal Wolsey, whose lines open the play, and the early childhood of Henry’s son and heir, Edward. Performances of When you see me, You know me and Henry VIII appear to have been the only occasions when Henry VIII appeared as a character on the early modern stage.

The present copy of the third edition, unfortunately, lacks the title page (sig. A1) and terminal blank (L4), but is otherwise—and thus textually—complete. The binding is in half-calf with marbled boards and dates from the 1820s. As is the case with so many nineteenth-century bindings, the front board has separated. The margins are generally ample; the trimming occasionally encroaches into the headlines, but only touches the body text on one page, sig. A2v. No letters or words are lost. The recto of the front endpaper contains a nineteenth-century ink inscription indicating the play’s title and author; the verso is filled with a list of the dramatis personae in another similar, though more formal, manuscript hand.

The bookplate of John Duerdin, which bears the motto “Le bon jour viendra,” is pasted down on the front board, which also includes the ink signature of John Genest, dated 1827. Several institutional libraries own copies of other playbooks and early modern works with the Duerdin bookplate. One of these at the Folger Shakespeare Library, an 1820 edition of John Heywood’s play, The Pardoner and the frere, also has Genest’s autograph. There are surely others.

Ultimately, this is a desirable copy of a notable and essentially unattainable Jacobean play quarto. It would, without a doubt, constitute an important acquisition for any institution or private library. SOLD

Lowe, Peter. A Discovrse of the VVhole Art of Chyrvrgerie. VVherein is exactly set downe the Definition, Causes, Accidents, Prognostications, and Cures of all sorts of Diseases, both in generall and particular, which at any time heretofore haue beene practised by any Chyrurgion : According to the opinion of all the ancient professors of that Science. Which is not onely profitable for Chyrurgions ; but also for all sorts of people : both for preventing of sicknesse; and recoverie of health. Compiled by Peter Lowe Scottishman, Doctor in the facultie of Chyrurgerie at Paris : and ordinary Chyrurgion to the French King and Navarre. Whereunto is added the Rule of making Remedies which Chyrurgions doe commonly use : with the Presages of Divine Hippocrates. The third Edition ; corrected, and much amended. Thomas Purfoot, London, 1634. Quarto. STC 16871.

Peter Lowe (c.1550-1610), a Scotsman, was a prominent surgeon and the founder of the Faculty of Physicans and Surgeons of Glasgow. After leaving the British Isles during his childhood and living in France for nearly thirty years (serving as surgeon to Henri IV for six of them), he returned around 1596 and arrived in Glasgow by early 1598. The Whole Course of Chirurgerie, his major work, was first published in 1597, and, in the course of expansion and revision for the second edition (1612), its title was changed to that of the present copy. A fourth and final edition was printed in 1654. This textbook and reference work appears to have been popular among students of medicine, and, if we are to trust the title, some general readers as well.

Lowe opted to write the work

in the vernacular, a move which could have attracted much criticism from contemporaries, who favoured Latin as the legitimate medium for academic discourse. It was constructed partly in the form of a catechism, or conversation between the author and a student, and partly a description of surgical techniques, medical treatments, and examples from his practice in France. The second edition of the book implies that his son John was the second party in the catechism, although at the time he was still a child. Lowe’s translation, probably from the French, of the Presages of Hippocrates is included in the work, which was republished on a number of occasions, being retitled A Discourse of the Whole Art of Chirurgerie from the second edition, published in 1612. Interestingly, though perhaps typically, many of the illustrations in the book are copied directly—in some cases with the French titles reproduced—from the works of Ambroise Paré. (From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

This edition, the third, is illustrated with 22 large woodcuts of medical instruments and human anatomy; there is also a large woodcut coat of arms on the title page verso. Beyond the illustrations, it is worth noting that Lowe’s work contains an early English translation of the famous Hippocratic Oath, the first having appeared in Francisco Arceo’s Most Excellent and Compendious Method of Curing Wounds in the Head (1588). And, as the 1597 date of the first edition predates the first usage recorded by the OED (1617), the work may be the first to have used “amputation” in its current medical sense.

The present copy collates complete and is bound in what appears to be its original 17th-century calf binding with its original endbands and with simple blind-ruled borders on each cover. A morocco label with gilt title has been added to the spine by a later owner. The fore edge of the title page and following leaf are frayed with some loss to the paper, but the loss only minimally affects the printed material at the foot of each leaf: no text is compromised and the woodcut on the verso is only slightly disturbed. A strip containing the top 3cm of sig. I4 (pp. 119-20) has been torn away, fortunately resulting only in the loss of the page number and “THE” in the section title on recto (“THE FIFT BOOKE”), and five chapter titles (22-26) in the table of contents that follows on the verso. The missing titles are of course repeated later at the head of each chapter. Finally, roughly a third of the final leaf of the volume at the end of “The presages of Hippocrates,” sig. D4, is torn away. The loss affects only part of the “S” in “FINIS” on the recto; the missing paper has been replaced in a later repair. A worm track that does not obscure any text appears near the gutter at the foot in some quires.

Sig. D1v contains the signature of Laurence Wilde, who confirms that the present copy was his “Booke” in a statement that is repeated on sig. B5v. The latter page also includes an inscription in Wilde’s hand that appears to indicate that an “I Walker” “gaue” it, seemingly to Wilde himself. The verso of the final leaf in the volume contains the additional signature of one “A F” or “A[…] Firby.” The hands of both signatures appear to date from the 17th century.

Overall, this is a nice, complete copy of an important work in the history of English and Scottish medicine, a copy made more desirable because of its original binding and its preservation of the full set of woodcuts in clear impressions. It would be a great addition to any collection of Early Modern medicine. SOLD*

*A copy of this edition with similar fraying to the edges of the title page (though repaired), a facsimile final leaf, and an unremarkable modern cloth binding reached $2160 at Christie’s in 2005: Sale 1534, Lot 136.