English Book Collectors Part 22

Lydgate's _Siege of Troy_, probably written for William Carent, of Carent's Court, in the Isle of Purbeck, about 1420. The volume has illuminated borders and seventy miniatures, and bears the arms of Carent at the end.

_Missale Romanum_, six volumes folio, written on vellum in 1510-17 for Cardinal Pompeo Colonna. The tradition handed down by the family was that the large full-page illuminations with which the ma.n.u.script is adorned were executed by Raphael about the year 1517, when the owner was made a cardinal; and there is no doubt that, if not actually by his hand, the work was done by his followers under his supervision. In all probability, we may say that the large miniatures are painted by Timoteo Viti, and the illuminations and arabesques by Litti di Filippo de'

Corbizi.[103]

Some of the more notable of the incunabula are two block-books--the first Dutch edition of the _Speculum Humanae Salvationis_, and a copy of the _Ars Memorativa_ printed before 1474-75. Cicero, _Officiorum libri tres_, printed at Mentz by Fust and Schoeffer in 1465. Lactantius, _Opera_, printed in the Monastery of Subiaco, near Rome, by Sweynheym and Pannartz in 1465. Higden's _Polychronicon_ and the _Boke of Eneydos_, printed by Caxton in 1482 and 1490. The _Chronicles of England_ and the _Speculum Christiani_, printed by Machlinia. Lyndewode, _Const.i.tutiones provinciales ecclesiae anglicanae_, printed at Oxford by Rood and Hunte in 1483-85. The _Croniclis of Engl[=o]de with the frute of timis_, from the St. Albans press.

Among other books of later dates deserving of special notice may be mentioned--Vespucci, _Paesi novamente retrovati_, Vicenza, 1507. The first and very rare edition of the celebrated Thesis of Luther against the system of indulgences, which he affixed to the gate of the University of Wittemberg, 1517. _Huon of Bordeaux_, printed by Wynkyn de Worde about 1534--believed to be unique. Archbishop Parker's _De Antiquitate Britannicae Ecclesiae_, London, 1572. A magnificent set of De Bry's _Grands et Pet.i.ts Voyages_, in one hundred and eighty-two volumes, 1590-1644. A Booke containing all such Proclamations as were published during the Raigne of Elizabeth (and James I.); collected by Humphrey Dyson, London, 1618. The first and second Shakespeare folios. Three copies of the first edition of Milton's _Paradise Lost_, with the first, third and fourth t.i.tle-pages.

The immense collection of broadsides forms one of the most remarkable features of this magnificent library. In volume iv. p. 201 of the _Transactions of the Bibliographical Society_, published in 1898, Lord Crawford informs us that 'in the last fourteen or fifteen years he had managed to collect something like nineteen thousand of them, including English, French, German and Venetian Proclamations (3000), Papal Bulls (11,000) and English Ballads (3000).' Among them are several very rare indulgences printed by Wynkyn de Worde and Pynson, and a large number of proclamations and ballads of special interest and value, far too numerous to mention.

The present Earl of Crawford, who is a Trustee of the British Museum, President of the Camden Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries, and who was formerly President of the Royal Astronomical Society, has printed catalogues of the English broadsides and ballads, and of the Chinese books and ma.n.u.scripts in his collection, together with hand-lists to the Oriental ma.n.u.scripts, the early editions of the Greek and Latin writers, and the proclamations issued by authority of the kings and queens of Great Britain and Ireland. He has also printed collations and notes of some of the rare books in the library.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 101: Mainly contributed by Mr. J.P. Edmond, Librarian to Lord Crawford.]

[Footnote 102: Lord Crawford's Seat, near Wigan.]

[Footnote 103: Since the above was printed it has been announced that Lord Crawford's MSS. have become by purchase the property of Mrs.

Rylands of Manchester.]

HENRY HUTH, 1815-1878

Mr. Henry Huth, who was born in London in 1815, was the third son of Mr.

Frederick Huth of Hanover, who settled at Corunna, in Spain; but on the occupation of that town by the French in 1809 he came to England, where he became a naturalised British subject, and founded the well-known firm which is still carried on by his descendants. Mr. Henry Huth, we are informed in the preface to the Catalogue of the Huth Library, written by his son, Mr. Alfred Henry Huth, was intended for the Indian Civil Service, and was sent to Mr. Rusden's school at Leith Hill in Surrey, where he 'learned Greek, Latin, and French (Spanish was his mother-tongue), and had also got well on with Hindustani, Persian, and Arabic'; but in 1833, the East India Company having lost their Charter, his father removed him from the school and took him into his business.

Office-work proving distasteful to him, he travelled for some years on the Continent and in America, rejoining his father's firm as partner in 1849. From his early years Mr. Henry Huth had been a collector of books, and on his return home he set energetically to work to form that splendid library which ranks among the finest in England, and which has been carefully preserved and augmented by his son, Mr. Alfred Henry Huth. Mr. Henry Huth gave commissions at most of the important book-sales, and we are told that 'he called daily at all the princ.i.p.al booksellers on his way back from the city, a habit which he continued up to the day of his death.' He was a member of the Philobiblon Society, and in 1867 printed for presentation to the members a volume of _Ancient Ballads and Broadsides published in England in the Sixteenth Century_, reprinted from the unique original copies he had bought at the Daniel sale. He was also a member of the Roxburghe Club. Mr. Huth died on the 10th of December 1878, and was buried in the churchyard of Bolney, in Suss.e.x. He married Augusta Louisa Sophia, third daughter of Frederick Westenholz of Waldenstein Castle, in Austria, by whom he had three sons and three daughters.

Among the treasures in Mr. Huth's library are block-books of the _Ars Moriendi_, _Ars Memorandi_, and the _Apocalypse_; the superb copy of the Gutenberg Bible which was formerly in the libraries of Sir M. Masterman Sykes and Mr. Henry Perkins; two copies of the Fust and Schoeffer Bible of 1462, one on vellum; and a particularly fine copy of St. Augustine's _De Civitate Dei_, printed at Rome in 1468. The collection also comprises several of the pre-Reformation German Bibles; the first edition of Luther's Bible; the Coverdale Bible of 1535, and the Icelandic Bible printed at Holum in 1584; together with upwards of one hundred other Bibles, a large number of New Testaments, and various portions of the Scriptures in all languages.

In books from the presses of Caxton and other early English printers the library is remarkably rich. It contains no less than twelve Caxtons; about fifty Wynkyn de Wordes, of which several are unique; sixteen Pynsons, and a Machlinia. A vellum copy--the only one known--of the _Fructus Temporum_, printed at St. Albans about 1483; and the _Exposicio Sancti Jeronimi in Symbolum Apostolorum_, printed at Oxford, and bearing the date 1468 (a typographical error for 1478), are also found on its shelves.

Among the books printed by Caxton are the first editions of _The Dictes or Sayings of the Philosophers_, Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_, _Tully of Old Age_, Gower's _Confessio Amantis_, and Christine de Pisan's _Fayts of Arms_.

The books from the presses of foreign printers are both numerous and fine. Some of the most notable examples are the Dantes of Foligno and Mantua, both printed in the year 1472; the first edition of Homer, printed at Venice in 1488; a magnificent copy on thick paper, with the original binding, of the _Poliphili Hypnerotomachia_, printed by Aldus at Venice in 1499; the Aldine Virgil of 1501, with the book-plate of Bilibald Pirkheimer; and two copies of the _Tewrdannck_, one on vellum, printed at Nuremberg in 1517. There is also a copy of the first edition of _Don Quixote_, with the Privilege only for Madrid.

Few collections are richer than the Huth Library in old English poetry and dramatic literature. It contains the first four folio Shakespeares, and a goodly gathering of quarto plays, many of which were acquired at the Daniel sale in 1864. Among them are the first editions of _Richard II._ and _Richard III._, printed in 1597; _Henry V._, _Much Ado about Nothing_, _Midsummer Night's Dream_, and the _Merchant of Venice_, all printed in 1600; the first sketch of _The Merry Wives of Windsor_, printed in 1602; the second edition of _Hamlet_, printed in 1604; and the first editions of _Pericles_, printed in 1609, and _Oth.e.l.lo_, printed in 1622. Other rare Shakespeareana are the first editions of _Lucrece_, the _Sonnets_, and the _Poems_, printed respectively in 1594, 1609, and 1640. It is only possible to mention a few of the rare English books in this grand library; but the _Hundred Merry Tales_, published by Rastell about 1525; the unique copy of Munday's _Banquet of Daintie Conceits_, printed in 1588; a first folio of Ben Jonson's _Works_ on large paper, of which only one other copy is known in that state, and a perfect set of the editions of Walton's _Compleat Angler_ from 1653 to 1760, cannot be pa.s.sed over without notice. The unique collection of Elizabethan ballads, to which reference has already been made, would be considered a great treasure in any library. The collection of Voyages and Travels is believed to be the richest private one in Europe. It comprises the early letters of Columbus and Vesputius, and perfect editions of De Bry, Hulsius, Hakluyt, Purchas, etc., together with the voyages of Cortes, Drake, and other famous travellers.

The fine and large collection of ma.n.u.scripts contains many choice and interesting examples. Several beautifully written Bibles, and a number of Books of Hours are to be found in it. Some of the latter are most charmingly illuminated; two of them, written in the fifteenth century, of Flemish execution, are especially good. One of these contains the coats of arms of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and Isabella his wife. There are also three handsomely illuminated Petrarchs, and a remarkable ma.n.u.script on vellum in four volumes, with very beautiful ill.u.s.trations of beasts, birds, fish, and insects, painted by George Hoefnagel for the Emperor Rudolph II. A collection of Madrigals for three voices, the words by John Milton, Thomas Tompkins, and others, is of especial interest, for Mr. A.H. Huth informs us that several of the songs by Milton in it have never been published, and that he composed some of the music.

The library also contains a considerable number of interesting letters, and a very fine collection of engravings; the series by Albert Durer being nearly complete. A somewhat recent addition to the collection is 'a proof set before numbers of the engravings to the Landino Dante of 1481, by Baccio Baldini, after the designs of Botticelli, and separately printed on slips.'[104]

Many of the volumes once formed part of the libraries of Grolier, Maioli, Canevari, Diana of Poitiers, Henry IV. of France, De Thou, Count Mansfeld, Louis XIII., and other celebrated collectors, and bear on their covers the arms or devices of their former owners. There are fine examples of the work of all the great binders, and many books bound in silver, needlework, etc.

The admirable catalogue of the library in five volumes was compiled by Mr. F.S. Ellis and Mr. W.C. Hazlitt, and partly revised by Mr. Henry Huth himself.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 104: Account of additions to the Huth Library, by Mr. A.H.

Huth, in Mr. Quaritch's _Dictionary of English Book-Collectors_.]

ROBERT SAMUEL TURNER, 1818-1887

Mr. Robert Samuel Turner was born in 1818. Although engaged in commercial affairs from his youth he was a most enthusiastic book-collector, and at a very early age began to form that n.o.ble library, with which only a few collections of his time could vie in value, extent or condition. Mr. Turner princ.i.p.ally directed his attention to the acquisition of rare Italian, French and Spanish books.

His English books were not numerous, and there were but few German ones in the collection, but some of them were of much interest. He possessed one of the finest copies in existence of the first folio of Shakespeare's Plays, and an exceptionally good example of the _Tewrdannck_. He always endeavoured to obtain the best and choicest copies possible, and many of them, especially the French volumes, were clothed in beautiful bindings, bearing the arms or devices of Grolier, Maioli, Diana of Poitiers, Count Mansfeld, Cosmo de' Medici, Thomas Wotton, Longepierre, Count von Hoym, and other famous collectors. Mr.

Turner resided for some years in Park Square West, Regent's Park, London, but in 1878 he removed to the Albany, Piccadilly. In antic.i.p.ation of his change of residence he determined to part with a portion of his collection of French books, and on the valuation of the late M. Potier, of Paris, he offered it to an eminent French amateur _en bloc_ for four thousand pounds. This offer was declined, and he sent the books to Paris to be sold by auction. The sale took place at the Salle Drouot on the 12th of March 1878, and the four following days, when the lots, seven hundred and seventy-four in number, realised three hundred and nineteen thousand one hundred francs--considerably more than three times the sum Mr. Turner was willing to take for them. After his death, which occurred at Brighton on the 7th of June 1887, the remainder of his library was disposed of in two sales by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge: the first on June 18th, 1888, and the eleven following days, and the second on November 23rd, 1888, and the thirteen following days. They realised respectively thirteen thousand three hundred and seventy pounds, thirteen s.h.i.+llings, and two thousand eight hundred and seventy-four pounds, seventeen s.h.i.+llings and sixpence. The prices obtained for the books, especially at the French sale, were very high. A dedication copy to Mademoiselle de Montpensier, with the signature of Charles de Lorraine on the t.i.tle-page, of _Recueil des Portraits et eloges en vers et en prose (de personnages du temps par Mademoiselle de Montpensier et autres)_, Paris, 1659, with a morocco binding of the seventeenth century, ornamented with _fleurs-de-lis_, fetched fourteen thousand francs; La Fontaine's _Fables Choisies_, five volumes, Paris, 1678, 1679 and 1694, bound by Boyet, eleven thousand nine hundred and fifty francs; _Les Fais de Jason_, par Raoul Le Febvre, printed at Lyons about 1480, seven thousand six hundred francs; _Le Livre appelle Mandeville_, Lyon, 1480, six thousand two hundred and fifty francs; _Les OEuvres de Guillaume Coquillant_, Paris, 1532, five thousand four hundred and fifty francs; and _Les OEuvres de Moliere_, eight volumes, Paris, 1739, with additional plates, five thousand francs. Among the books at the English sales the exceptionally fine and large copies of the _Tewrdannck_, Nuremberg, 1517, and the Aldine _Poliphili Hypnerotomachia_, sold respectively for two hundred and fifty pounds and one hundred and thirty-seven pounds; a copy of _Paesi Novamente Retrovati_, Vicentia, 1507, with the t.i.tle in facsimile, for one hundred and eighty-six pounds; and Shakespeare's _Poems_, 1640, for one hundred and six pounds. The first folio of Shakespeare Mr. Turner sold privately to an American collector. A Grolier binding realised three thousand francs; another binding with the devices of Diana of Poitiers, four thousand four hundred francs; a book from the library of Longepierre, two thousand five hundred francs; two sets of volumes with _doublures_ by Boyet, respectively four thousand francs and three thousand nine hundred francs; and Rogers's _Italy and Poems_, with beautiful bindings by Bedford, sixty-one pounds.

Mr. Turner was an accomplished linguist, and he possessed a wide and accurate knowledge of the literary history and bibliography of France, Italy and Spain. He was also a collector of rare and beautiful bindings before the interest and value of these works of art were generally appreciated.

FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON, 1821-1895

[Ill.u.s.tration: MR. LOCKER LAMPSON.]

Mr. Frederick Locker, the author of _London Lyrics_ and other volumes of delightful light and social verse, was born in 1821. His father was Mr.

E.H. Locker, a Civil Commissioner of Greenwich Hospital, and founder of the Naval Gallery there. For some years Mr. Locker was Precis Writer in the Admiralty. He was twice married: first in 1850 to Lady Charlotte Christian, a daughter of the seventh Earl of Elgin, and secondly in 1874 to Hannah Jane, a daughter of the late Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson, Bart., of Rowfant, Suss.e.x. On the death of his father-in-law in 1885 he added the name of Lampson to his own. He died at Rowfant on May the 30th, 1895.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ONE OF MR. LOCKER-LAMPSON'S BOOK-PLATES.]

Mr. Locker-Lampson tells us in his interesting autobiography ent.i.tled _My Confidences_, that he first collected pictures and rare sixteenth century engravings, but collectors with long purses outbid him, so he turned to old books: 'little volumes of poetry and the drama from about 1590 to 1610.' These formed the nucleus of his collection, which soon grew wide enough to include Caxtons and the works of the poets of the last century. Rare editions of Sidney, Spenser, Churchyard, Middleton, Herbert, Herrick, Dekker, Chapman, and many other writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, are to be found in it, and Shakespeare is splendidly represented by a perfect copy of the first folio, the first editions of _Lucrece_, the _Sonnets_ and the _Poems_, and a large number--some thirty in all--of the quarto plays, many of which are the original editions. Mr. Locker-Lampson's folio wanted Ben Jonson's verses, and he gives an amusing account in _My Confidences_ of an unsuccessful attempt to purchase a copy of them from a Mr. Dene, who possessed an imperfect first folio. He ultimately bought the precious leaf, which had been pasted in a sc.r.a.p-book, for one hundred pounds, and so completed his copy. The library is also very rich in first editions of Byron, Tennyson, Browning, and other English poets of recent times, many of the volumes containing autograph inscriptions to Mr.

Locker-Lampson himself. Mr. Locker-Lampson placed his library, together with his collections of autograph letters, pictures and drawings, in his residence at Rowfant, the beautiful home which he and his wife inherited from the lady's father; and a handsome catalogue of them published in 1886 by Mr. Quaritch, with an introduction by their owner, tells us of the treasures they contain. An etched portrait of Mr.

Locker-Lampson and a sketch of his study are inserted in the volume, and Mr. Andrew Lang has prefixed some charming lines descriptive of the library:--

'The Rowfant books, how fair they show, The Quarto quaint, the Aldine tall; Print, autograph, Portfolio!

Back from the outer air they call The athletes from the Tennis ball, The Rhymer from his rod and hooks; Would I could sing them, one and all, The Rowfant books!

The Rowfant books! In sun and snow They're dear, but most when tempests fall; The folio towers above the row As once, o'er minor prophets--Saul!

What jolly jest books, and what small "Dear dumpy Twelves" to fill the nooks.

You do not find in every stall The Rowfant books!

The Rowfant books! These long ago Were chained within some College hall; These ma.n.u.scripts retain the glow Of many a coloured capital; While yet the Satires keep their gall, While the _Pastissier_ puzzles cooks, There is a joy that does not pall, The Rowfant books!

ENVOY.

The Rowfant books,--ah magical As famed Armida's golden looks.

They hold the Rhymer for their thrall-- The Rowfant books!'

In 1900 was published an Appendix to the Catalogue, the work of Mr.

Frederick Locker-Lampson's son, Mr. G.o.dfrey Locker-Lampson, consisting of additions to the library since the printing of the Catalogue in 1886, to which Mr. Andrew Lang again contributed some verses:--