Host Volume

Colchester: University of Essex Library, Harsnett H.c.11

Publication Details

Type of host: 
printed book retaining early binding
Author of volume: 
Seneca
Title of volume: 

Opera

Publication: 

Basel: In officina Frobeniana, 1529

Binding Information

Binding style: 
blind-stamped, panel
Binding detail: 

Rebacked (1970) on four thongs. Panel formed of four intersecting rolls (Oldham, Blind-Stamped, 520), filled with quincunx of Tudor rose ornament (Oldham, Blind-Stamped, 1039). This combination not recorded by Oldham but the ornament was used in London in the mid-1520s (sub Oldham, Blind-Stamped, FL.a.4). Remains of two fore-edge clasps; catch-plates still in situ.

Place of binding: 
London
Date range for binding: 
c. 1530

Hosting Information

Number of manuscripts represented: 
1
Number of fragments: 
1

Further information

Provenance: 
  • 'Tho: Leuers[?]'. Possibly the Thomas Lever who was Fellow of St John's, Cambridge from 1543 and its Master 1551-53, a Marian fugitive who was later Archdeacon of Coventry, 1560-77 (Venn, AC, 3:78). Perhaps responsible for the motto in a humanist cursive book-hand at middle right of first original flyleaf: 'Sors mea mortalis non est mortale quod optas' (ie Ovid, Metamorphoses, II, 55).
  • John Field: 'I. Feildus' 'Cantab. Aule Pembroch.' (across top of title-page and three times more); elected a fellow of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, in 1593 (A. Hegarty, Biographical Register of St John’s College, Oxford, 1555–1660, OHS n.s. 43 (2011), 273). It is perhaps Field who adds the price '10 s' at top right of title-page.
  • Samuel Harsnett (1561–1631), archbishop of York, 1629–31.
Date last updated: 
Friday, September 23, 2016 - 08:04