Tudor-Era Books Acquired for the Schulich-Woolf Collection
Posted: March 10th, 2016The first acquisitions have been made for the Schulich-Woolf Collection, thanks to funds generously provided by Mr. Seymour Schulich. They become part of a signature collection of books on history, exploration and culture from the 16th to the 19th centuries, donated by Mr. Schulich and by Queen’s Principal Daniel Woolf. The Schulich Woolf Collection is housed in the W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library.
The newly acquired books are important examples of the Tudor interest in history and governance, and as artifacts, they carry with them indications of personal ownership and use, and other traces of the time in which they were produced. Six titles, dating from 1557 to 1596, have been received.
The Boke Named the Governor, by Sir Thomas Elyot, 1557 Schulich-Woolf Dated 1557.E49
The Chronicle of Fabian, by Robert Fabyan, 1559 Schulich-Woolf Dated 1559.F33 folio
Certain Discourses, by Sir John Smythe, 1590 Schulich-Woolf Dated 1590.S69
Elyot’s Boke Named the Governor is a treatise on the learning and education required to govern well. It is considered one of the earliest examples of the confident use of the English vernacular for serious purposes. The Chronicle of English history written by Robert Fabyan (d. 1512) was first published posthumously, in 1516, and enlarged by others in editions of 1533 and 1542. The 1559 edition brings forward the history from the time of Henry VII to the end of Queen Mary’s reign. An example of fine “black letter” printing, our copy is in particularly good condition, in a noteworthy mid-19th-century binding by the firm of Clarke & Bedford. Smythe’s Certain Discourses present the argument that archers and the English longbow should be maintained in battle rather than relying upon new-fangled armaments such as “mosquets”. It’s not so much the argument that makes this book important, however, but the fact that it was suppressed by Lord Burghley because of impolitic personal statements made in the text. As a “banned book”, this volume will have a place in our Freedom to Read displays and events.
Three works have come bound together in one volume Schulich-Woolf Dated 1596.C66
The Historie of Philip de Commines, 1596
The Florentine Historie, by Niccolò Machiavelli, 1595
The Historie of France, by Lancelot-Voisin La Popelinière, 1596.
These three historical works are still in what appears to be their original folio binding, which can be dated to May 1597. Two strips of manuscript waste are used to secure the fly-leaves; these are written in an English “secretary” hand. Numerous early signatures, notes and underlinings tell us about who owned the volume and something about what readers found interesting in the contents. The histories of France by de Commines and La Popelinière both have the same elaborate woodcut frame on their title-pages, associated with William Ponsonby, the printer of Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney. The prefaces and dedications to the works explain the reasons for making translations to inform, educate and entertain the reading public in the age of Shakespeare.
-
- Title page from The Boke Named the Governor
-
- Initial from The Boke Named the Governor
-
- Manicule from The Boke Named the Governor
-
- The Chronicle of Fabian title page
-
- The Chronicle of Fabian
-
- Initial from The Chronicle of Fabian
-
- Certain Discourses, by Sir John Smythe, 1590
-
- Certain Discourses, by Sir John Smythe, 1590
-
- Manuscript note in Certian Discourses
-
- The Historie of Philip de Commines, 1596
-
- The Florentine Historie, by Niccolò Machiavelli, 1595
-
- The Historie of France, by Lancelot-Voisin La Popelinière, 1596.
-
- Previous owner’s signature in collected histories
-
- Manuscript waste used as hooked vellum guard in collected histories
-
- Verso edge of hooked Vellum guard in collected histories
RSS