CARACCIOLI (Charles):

The Antiquities of Arundel; The Peculiar Privilege of its Castle and Lordship; With an Abstract of the Lives of the Earls of Arundel, From the Conquest to this Time. By the Master of the Grammar-School at Arundel. By the Master of the Gramar-School at Arundel.

London: Printed for the Author; and sold by G. Robinson and T. Robets...[inter alia] 1766. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 205 x 123 mms., pp. [vi], 276 [277 - 280 list of subscribers, including Richard Nash], with two dedication leaves, one to the Duke of Norfolk and a second to Edward Howard, the heir apparent to the Duke of Norfolk. Bound in later calf, rebacked, red morocco label; ex-library with East Sussex Count Library stamp in blind on rear cover, A good to very good copyl. The topographer Charles Caraccioli (1722 - ?1783), though born in Le Mans, moved to England in the 1750s and published a number of books thereafter. Since there was no grammar school at Arundel in 1766, his self-description is a bit dubious. The work was reviewed in The Monthly Review for 1766: "The antiquities of Arundel employ but few pages of this volume; which is chiefly filled with Memoirs of the Earls of Arundel.... With respect to the work before us, however, it may afford amusements to those, who having some acquaintance with the town and castle of Arundel, in their present state, may be desirous of improving that acquaintance with an intimacy with the history and antiquities of the place: especially the history of those great men who have borne the title of Earls of Arundel; in which there are some entertaining anecdotes."

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Book number: 10017

Catalogue: Antiquities

Keywords: antiquities topography prose

ROSINUS (Joannes):

Antiquitatum Romanarum Corpus Absolutissimum, in quo praeter ea quae Ioannes Rosinus delineaverat, infinitia supplentur, mutantur, adduntur: ex Criticis, et Omnibus utriusque linguae auctoribus collectum: Poetis, Oratoribus, Historicis, Jurisconsultiis, qui laudati, explicate, correctiq: Thoma Dempstero... Edition Postrema, emendatior.

Genevae. Apud Petrum & Jacobum Chouet, 1632. 4to, 211 x 151 mms., pp. [xxxii], 1063 [1064 blank, 1065 - 1202 index], title-page printed in red and black with engraved vignette, 2 folding engraved maps, one of early Rome, another of the Forum (short tear in one fold), engraved woodcuts on pp. 778, 121, 125, 130, 143, 151, 169, 125, 130, 143, 151, 169, 170, 174, 176, 177, 198, 199, 203, 230, 2237, 281, 285, 292, 297, 298, 304, 319, 320, 359, 509, 569, 579, 748, 110, and 1007, including several almost full-page ones, contemporary vellum, red morocco label; some lower margins closely trimmed but with no loss, occasional ink stain, but a very good copy, with the following ownership inscriptions on the top margin of the recto of the front free end-paper: "J. T. Coleridge/ C. C. C./ Oxford/ Given him by Boileau Merton Coll./ May 20th 1812/ Given by him to John Duke Coleridge/ July 6th 1837." Sir John Taylor Coleridge (1790 - 1876) was a nephew of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834). Boileau is almost certain Sir John Peter Boileau (1794 - 1869), a graduate of Merton College, Oxford; and John Duke Coleridge (1820 - 1894) was the son of John Taylor Coleridge. A very attractive provenance. The precocious Scottish scholar Thomas Dempster (1579 - 1629) had an eventful life, leaving home for Cambridge sometime after his elder brother married his father's mistress. He attended Pembroke College for a while, then went to Paris for further education and was robbed of his money and clothes on his way. He was affected by the outbreak of Plague in Paris, but recovered, and pursued his studies in Louvain. In 1613, he published this edition of Rosinus and dedicated it to James VI and I of Scotland and England. Rosinus (1550 - 1626) published this work on Roman antiquities in 1585. This is the first posthumous publication of Demptster's edition.

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Book number: 7296

Catalogue: Antiquities

Keywords: antiquities provenance prose

TURNOR (Edmond):

Description of an Ancient Castle at Rouen in Normandy, Built by Henry V. King of England, &c. &c. Read at the Society of Antiquaries of London, April 1,1784. And published in the Seventh Volumes of the Archaeologia, or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity.

London: Printed by J. Nichols, Printer to the Society, 1785. 4to, 258 x 200 mms., pp. [ii], 5 [6 blank], folding engraved plate, 450 x 320 mms., recently recased in quarter calf, marbled boards. A very good copy. The antiquary Edmond Turnor (1755?-1829), was born into a family with a large estate in Lincolnshire, which enabled him to pursue his interests in antiquities, publishing an account of sculptures and paintings in Guildhall in London, even before he went to university. After finishing a B. A. and an M. S. at Trinity College, Cambridge, he embarked upon the "Grand Tour," when he saw, among other ruins, the castle at Rouen, called Le Château du Vieux Palais. After presenting this paper at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries in 1784, He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1786 and continued for the rest of his life to indulge his passion for antiquarian pursuits. ESTC T109986 locates copies in BL and Ripley Castle Library. OCLC adds a copy in NLS. I was unable to find a library in North America or the UK which had a copy of volume 7 of Archaeologia, or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity in which the description was first published. There is one, however, in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in München.

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Book number: 7767

Catalogue: Antiquities

Keywords: antiquities architecture prose

WORLIDGE (Thomas):

Collection Choisie de Desseins Tirés de Pierres Preçieuses Antiques; Pour la Plus Part dans la Possession de la Grande et Petite Noblesses de ce Royaume. Gravés dans le Gout de Rembrandt. Par T. Worlidge, Peintre.

A Londre: Imprimée par Dryden Leach, pour M. Morlidge, dans la Grand Rüe de la Reine prés, de la Place Nommée Lincoln's-Inn-Fields; et J. Wicksteed, Graveur de Sçeaux a Bath. 1768. 4to, 233 x 169 mms., pp. [xiv, including ten pages "List of Subscribers"], 48 [49 - 56 "Liste des Souscrivans"], 48 [i. e., with the list of subscribers and the Preface both in English and French], 174 engraved plates, mostly of classical authors, rulers, famous people, etc., with an occasional animal, plate are measuring 82 x 64 mms., and, curiously, a double leaf of "Catalogue of Mr Worlidge's Prints..." i. e., a price list of Worlidge's engravings but which doesn't seem to relate to the engravings in the book. attractively bound (perhaps by Staggemeier and Welcher) in full red morocco, with large gilt roll binder to an acorn motif, central gilt lozenge on each cover enclosing an ornamental figure in gilt, spine gilt in compartments to the same figure, olive morocco label, all edges gilt, marbled end-papers; spine darkened and faded, corners worn, but a good to very good copy, with the "Astle Library" rectangular stamp on the verso of the front free end-paper. The provenance is interesting: Thomas Astle (1735 - 1803) collected books and manuscripts on a large scale, and inherited the library of his father-in-law, the Rev. Philip Morant. The library was dispersed in sales in the 1960s and 1970s. The listings in library databases for this work report that it was published in two folio volumes, but this is clearly a quarto and complete. My guess is that this is the work published as A Select Collection of Drawings from Curious Antique Gems; Most of them in the Possession of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom; Etched after the Manner of Rembrandt. By T. Worlidge, Painter, first in 1768, but in the present volume, the half-title and title-page are in French, as are the Preface and List of Subscribers. Among the subscribers, surrounded by other Scottish names, is "Mr Hume," though I seriously doubt that this is the David Hume. William Kenrick was also a subscriber, and so was the physician William Hunter,who used engravings by Worlidge of a foetus in his Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata (1774).

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Book number: 9060

Catalogue: Antiquities

Keywords: antiquities provenance prose