Historiae Augustae Scriptores VI.

Aelius Spartianus, Iulius Capitolinus, Aelius Lampridius, Vulcatius Gallicanus, Trebellius Pollio, Flavius Vopiscus. Claudius Salmasius ex veteris libris recensuit, et librum adiecit notarum ac emendationum. Quib. adiunctae sunt notae ac emendationes Isaaci Causauboni iam antea editae.

Folio. [345 x 215 mm]. [12 (with the half-title], 255, [1 (blank)], [39 (index)[, [1 (blank)], 519, [71 (index / errata)], [8], 258, [22 (index)] pp. Piece torn from the outer margin of the final leaf. Contemporary English calf over pasteboards, sewn on six tawed leather slips, covers with a border of two blind fillets, in the centre the gilt arms block of William Herris with his initials "W" and "H" on the sides and "P H" [Pembroke Hall] above, board edges with a single gilt fillet; spine with seven panels, ruled in blind; edges painted blue/green and with the initials "W H" blocked in gilt on the fore-edge; plain paper flyleaves, vellum strengtheners (plain at the front, cut from a manuscript legal document at the end), no pastedowns (rebacked by Bernard Middleton preserving the original - but much worn - spine; new headbands).

Paris: [Hierosme Drouart]

Provenance: Covers with the gilt arms of William Herris / Harris, of Cricksea (Crixeth), Essex, 1563-1622, 3rd son of Sir William Herris: arms: quarterly 1 & 4: On a bend engrailed three cinquefoils (Herris); 2 & 3: Goutty de sang [7 drops of blood] (?Lemming / Montgomery], a crescent for difference as a 2nd (surviving) son. His initials "W H" in gilt on the covers (with "P H" [Pembroke Hall] ) and on the covers.

David Pearson, in Provenance research in Book History: a Handbook (1994), notes the unusual use of Herris's initials on the fore-edge as a mark of ownership (p. 125) and illustrates one of the Pembroke College examples (fig. 4.29).

The online database of British Armorial bindings records 13 titles with Herris's arms (not including the present). Nine of these are still at Pembroke College, 3 are in other Cambridge colleges (St John's, Magdalene, Emmanuel) and 1 is at Birmingham Oratory. Two of the remaining volumes complement the present volume in subject matter: Janus Gruterus, ed, Historiae Augustae scrioptores latini minores (Hanau, 1611) and Friedrich Sylburg, Romanae historiae scriptores Graeci minores (Frankfurt, 1590; Vol 3 only); both are still at Pembroke College. Two of the volumes (at St John's College and Emmanuel College) have contemporary gift inscriptions: "Anno Domi, 1630. Ex dono Richardi Sybbes ... theologiae professoris, huius collegij quondam socii senioris" [Gift of Richard Sibbes (d. 1635), Senior Fellow, to St John's College]; "Ex dono magistri Hanscombe" and "Magister Hanscombe huius collegij socius moriens D.D." [probably Thomas Hanscombe, Fellow of Emmanuel College 1620, d. 1625]. It has not yet been possible to explain what these inscriptions, as well as the one recording the gift of Peter Wentworth in the present volume, are doing in bindings with Herris's arms.

William Herris or Herris matriculated as a Fellow-Commoner from Pembroke at Easter 1608 and proceeded B.A. 1611/12; he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn Feb. 25, 1612/13.

Herris's Will was dated 28 March 1622, probate granted May, 1622:

"... I do give unto Pembroke Hall in Cambridge the Somme of ffortie poundes of lawfull money of England to be bestowed upon theire Librarye at the discretion of the present Master Doctor Beale. Item - I give tenne poundes more of the like money to be bestowed uppon some one poore Scholler of that house such that the payer [i.e.?present] Mr. Doctor shall think fitt. Item - I give and bequeath to the Library in Christ Church in Oxford the Somme of fortie poundes to be bestowerd at the Discretion of the nowe present worthie Deane of Christ Church Mr. Doctor Corbett. Item - I give the somme of tenne poundes more to be bestowed uppon some one poore Scholler of that house that the Payer [i.e. ?present] Deane shall think fitt to be most Charitable bestowed. ..."

 

It is probable that these books were not actually owned by Herris but were purchased after his death by Pembroke Hall with his £40 bequest and that his arms were added as a memorial. With the exception of one volume printed in 1535 all the surviving books with his arms were printed between 1590 and 1624 - one was printed in 1622 (the year of his death) and two after his death, in 1623 and 1625.

 

 

Signature on the title "Wentworth" and Greek motto "ouden glukuteron n panta eidenai" [Nothing is sweeter than to know everything], another Greek motto opposite "Naphe kain memnes apistein, arthra tauta ton phrenon" [Be wakeful and distrustful, these are sinews to the mind"], (slightly later) ink note beneath Wentworth's signature, mis-identifying him as "that renouned Thomas Earle of Strafford, and eminent martyr for his loyalty to his Soveraign, King Charles the first." On the 2nd front flyleaf is a 7-line quote from André Thévet's La Cosmographie Universelle (1575): "A Vienne a flory Jadis le sainct Evesque Maner du tempts du roy Clovis premier roy Chrestien entre les francois...". Mid-17th-century inscription on the front pasteboard: "Ex dono Dni Petri Wentworth, summa spei juvenis, mihi [amantissimi (deleted)] charissimi pupilli" [The Gift of Peter Wentworth, a young man of the highest hope, and my dearest pupil]; five lightly deleted early ink shelfmarks on the front pasteboard; later (18th-century) signature on the half-title "Jo: Waugh", perhaps Joseph Thomas Waugh, admitted pensioner (aged 18) at Pembroke College 28 June 1784, B.A. 1788, Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College, London, died 16 Dec. 1807, aged 42. The only likely "Petri Wentwoorth" is probably Sir Peter Wentworth, Kt. (1592-1675), radical M.P. for Tamworth, Staffordshire, in the Long Parliament, member of the Commonwealth Councils of State but absented himself from London during Cromwell's Protectorate. "He combined an intimacy with John Milton, to whom he would bequeath £100 (referring to Milton's writing against the French monarchist Salmasius [editor of this volume]), with fellowship with Henry Marten" (ODNB). Wentworth matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1610 and entered Lincoln's Inn in 1613. Wentworth, however, had no known connection with Pembroke College, Cambridge or with Cambridge at all. The only Peter Wentworth of the time with any Cambridge connection was the former Dean of Armagh (1637-41), Archdeacon of Carlisle (c. 1645). He had also martiruclated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 13 march 1617/8 aged 16, proceeded B.A. (1621), M.A. (1624), B.D. (1631) and was a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.He died at Bath in July 1661, aged 60. His degree of B.A. at Cambridge was incorporated from Oxford in 1623, soon after Herris's death, but this Cambridge connection is tenuous at best.

There are occcasional annotations (ranging from single words to a couple of sentences), on pp. 35, 107, 152, 155, 227, 246, 249, 282, 290 (blotted), 310, 333 (blotted), 337 (blotted), 350, 354 (inner margin), 357 (blotted, 359 (blotted), 369, 376, 384, 393, 407, 459, 461, of Salmasius's "Notae" and pp. 6, 132, 141 & 235 of Casaubon's "Notae", mostly giving Italian or French equivalents for Latin and Greek words.

For a binding with a similar arrangment of initials, both of the owner and his college, see the copy of the Eton Chrysostom at Winchester College which belonged to the warden John Harmer and has the initials "IH WC". It was illustrated in Paul Quarrie's recent exhibition catalogue Winchester College & the King James Bible (2011), p. 20.

Stock Code: 62669