Initials of Timothy Alden together with stamp ‘T. Alden’s. Given by Mr Daniel Waldron, 1802’ Title page of Malvezzi, Virgilio. … David persecuted, London, 1637. Ex 3131.656.328.56.

I first became aware of the special respect paid to books formerly owned by Timothy Alden (1771-1839) in 2005 while working on one of the central questions of the Davies Project, directed by Princeton president Harold Shapiro. That question was: why and how did Princeton become a collector of rare books? That research resulted in an 80 page article published in 2023 in the Princeton University Library Chronicle, entitled ‘Rare Books at Princeton 1873-1941’. A central theme of the article is that there was no one genesis point, but ‘rare book collecting’ as we understand it today developed over generation after generation as each cohort rethought, revalued, reorganized and repurposed the Library. One major milestone on this journey was the establishment of the ‘Art Room’ in 1878 as a separate space and separate stock in the Chancellor Green Library. The chief documentation of this establishment is a manuscript catalogue currently held in the Library records at the University Archives.
While the great majority of books in the ‘Art Room’ were illustrated works about major artists, ancient ruins, or monuments of architecture, mixed in were books that we today would call ‘rare books,’ chiefly association copies either by or once belonging to ‘worthies.’ Decisions about including these books were likely the decisions of head librarian, Frederick Vinton. In 1874, Vinton published a chief desideratum for a library of an American institution of higher education in his article ‘American College Libraries’.

… It is the duty of every college to provide largely for a knowledge especially of the American history. Our nation is to the full as unique in modern times as Israel was in ancient. God’s providence has made use of each as a lighthouse to for the world. … American institutions endure on condition of the continued knowledge of American history and principles among us. … It is the imperative duty of American colleges to make known the history of our republic and of our fathers. … It must be known in particulars and in original sources. How shall we sure that Bancroft has given us the true history of our revolution, unless we have the contemporary narratives? … Within the present century, every considerable nation of Europe has been reprinting its old historians, and bringing to light its medieval records. Our government leaves such enterprises to local historical societies. American colleges should help to cultivate, diffuse, and impress this knowledge.

Toward that end, Vinton stocked the ‘Art Room’ with books of four men whom he deemed to rank among ‘our fathers’ — Gov. Jonathan Belcher, the Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon, Thomas Balch, and the Rev. Timothy Alden. While the first two may seem obvious choices given the importance of each in Princeton’s early history, the final two appear to be a bit curious. Thomas Balch (1821-1877) was an historian of American revolutionary history and promoter of the idea of international arbitration. The Rev. Timothy Alden had a varied career as clergyman, bookseller, librarian, historian of American local history and Native Americans, and headmaster of various educational academies, He is best known as the founder of Allegheny College in 1815 in western Pennsylvania as well as gatherer of its remarkable-for-its-day library (7,000 vols.) which included the books of the learned clergyman, William Bentley, and the books of the Winthrop family.

Initials of Timothy Alden. Title page of Bastwick, John. … Apologeticus ad praesules anglicanos criminum ecclesiasticorum in curia celsae commissionis. [Leiden?], 1636. Ex 5934.15. [In 1878, this book was located in the ‘Art Room’].

Stamp ‘T. Alden’s. Given by Mr Daniel Waldron, 1802’ Title page of Malvezzi, Virgilio. … David persecuted, London, 1637. Ex 3131.656.328.56.

Signature of Timothy Alden on title page of Fenton, Roger. A treatise of usurie. London, 1611. Ex HB521 .F36.

While piecing together the story of the various association books in the ‘Art Room,’ I became intrigued by those once owned by Timothy Alden, chiefly because of the elliptical way he marked his books, with simply his initials ‘T.A.’ Frederick Vinton must have recognized the initials, but I needed dispositive evidence that the initials were indeed Alden’s. Between 2005 and 2026, I discovered beyond the two preserved in the ‘Art Room,’ another eight Alden books in the Library, making a total of ten, acquired by the Library at different times between 1810 and 1921. One discovered recently firmly linked his ownership with the initials ‘T.A.’. On its titlepage it bears not only his initials but the stamp ‘T. Alden’s. Given by Mr Daniel Waldron, 1802.’ (Il Davide perseguitato. David persecuted, written in Italian by Marques Virgilio Malvezzi, and done into English by Robert Ashley, gentleman. [London, 1637], Ex 3131.656.328.56.  See title page in full at the beginning of this essay.). The earliest record of this book is in the catalogue of the Library’s holdings made in 1810. (Books with both this stamp and other Alden markings are also in the New-York Historical Society; Waldron was a wealthy man of property in Portsmouth, NH, during the years Alden served as minister to a parish there.) The full extent of Alden’s personal library remains to be determined.

The following is a list of the 10 Alden books and the dates when they were first recorded in the Library’s holdings:

Front cover of G. Malynes, Consuetudo, vel, lex mercatoria London, 1636 (Ex HF1005.M26q)

The library was dispersed starting about 1902 and nearly 4,000 Goertz books made their way to Princeton in 1907-1908, where a number were retained as a separate special collection and a good number were dispersed into other existing collections.  Recently discovered in the general rare book collection is the Goertz copy of an early 17^th century English imprint covered with elaborately tooled boards dating from 1569.  Such 18^th century repurposing of 16^th century boards to cover a 17^th century book is a particular case of a special practice called ‘remboîtage,’ which according to the authoritative online dictionary for bookbinding terms, Legatus.org.uk, is ‘transferring into a superior binding of a text more interesting or valuable than the one for which it was made.’ (There is no native English term in bookbinding vocabulary for such a confection, so the French term is used.)

Research has revealed the name of the 16^th century bookbinder who tooled the boards as well as the name of their original owner.  Key to identifying the binder were not only the particular motifs of the tooling but also the initials ‘D V’.  The general pattern of the tooling is a framing array of rectangular panels made incrementally by narrow bands resulting from a rolling tool being impressed into the leather.  The panels divide into two major groups – the outer panel and the inner panel.  The outer panel is made up with what the Germans call a ‘portraitrolle’: profiles of individuals in ovals connected by patterns of foliage. In this instance the profiles are labeled ‘Martinus Lutter’, ‘Joannes Friderich Dux’, ‘ Virgilius Maronis’ and ‘Priamus Rex Trojaneru’ The inner panel consists of a ‘tungendenrolle,’ that is, depictions of figures of virtue. In this instance, these are ‘Justicia’, ‘Pruden[tia]’,'[Suavitas] 1544′, ‘Lucrecia’ with initials ‘D.V.’ Furthermore, stamped just above the inner panel are the initials ‘L K D’ and just below the inner panel the date ‘1569’.

A keyword search in Google for the labeled portraits as well as the figures of virtue turned up an identically tooled binding dating from 1568 in the library of the University of Rostock.  The description of the Rostock binding reveals two key points: ‘D.V.’ are the initials used by the bookbinder Dietrich vom Lohe (before 1529 – c. 1583), who worked in Rostock.  He was also author of the Rostock Chronicle.  The owner’s initials ‘L K D’ are those of ‘Laurentius Krichovius (Kirchhoff) Doctor,’ Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Rostock and onetime Rector.

Inner panel of G. Maylnes, Consuetudo, vel, lex mercatoria, London, 1636. Ex HF1005.M26q

Detail of outer panel of G. Malynes, Consuetudo, vel, lex mercatoria, London, 1636. Ex HF1005.M26q

Detail of outer panel of G. Malynes, Consuetudo, vel, lex mercatoria, London, 1636. Ex HF1005.M26

Sources:

Identification of binding: Die Inkunabeln der Universitätsbibliothek Rostock : mit den Inkunabeln der Landesbibliothek Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Schwerin und der Kirchenbibliothek Friedland (Weisbaden, 2003) entry D9, p.208,  and Anna Maria Floerke “Die ersten Buchbinder in Mecklenburg-Schwerin,” in I. Schunke (ed.) Beitrage zum Rollen-und Platteneinband im 16. Jahrhundert Konrad Haebler zum 80. Geburtstage am 29. Okt. 1937 gewidmet (Leipzig, 1937), p.266-267.

Laurentius Krichhoff: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurentius_Kirchhoff

Dietrich vom Lohe: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_vam_Lohe

Title page of G. Malynes, Consuetudo, vel, lex mercatoria, London, 1636 (Ex HF1005.M26q)

Armorial bookplate of Goertz with Princeton booklabel in G. Malynes, Consuetudo, vel, lex mercatoria, London, 1636 (Ex HF1005.M26q)

1984 – ‘Guide’ as printed document first issued in 1984.  This was laser printed output of a SCRIPT document running on the University mainframe. It was updated regularly, that is, entries were added and / or updated.  Maintained by the Curator of Rare Books.

1997 – ‘Guide’ moved to the Web – earliest capture in the Internet Archive is 2 August 1997  — see

https://web.archive.org/web/19970802014615/http://www.princeton.edu/~ferguson/handbook.html

2015– The ‘Guide’ was hosted on the Curator’s personal University-provided web server space until  April 2015 when it was moved to server space used by the Special Collections in general – At transfer it stood at 300 entries.

https://www.princeton.edu/~ferguson/handbook_decommisioned_1.June.2015/handbook.html

It was expanded further after transfer to include other topics added by Special Collections reference staff, such as ‘Academic History’  see, for example,

https://web.archive.org/web/20150411073248/http://rbsc.princeton.edu/topics

2019 – The URL for ‘Topics’ was changed in October 2019 – see

https://web.archive.org/web/20191027094817/https://library.princeton.edu/special-collections/topics

2024 – ‘Topics’ remained at the 2019 URL until June 2024 —  The last capture is here

https://web.archive.org/web/20240530065223/https://library.princeton.edu/special-collections/topics

June 2024 to the present —  ‘Topics’ (including the content of its predecessor ‘Guide’) no longer appears on the Library’s website.

1897 bookplate engraved by E.D. French.

For over two centuries, the Princeton University Library has marked its books with various marks of ownership as well as shelfmarks. The links below provide visual evidence of those marks over time. Also supplied are images of property markings of books once owned by various local groups but are now absorbed into the Library’s collections. The marks date from the early 19th century down to the late 20th century.

1. Shelf marks and ownership marks of thePrinceton University Library [link]
2. Shelf and ownership marks of selected libraries and collections absorbed by the Princeton University Library [link]
3.Variants of shelf and ownership marks of selected libraries and collections absorbed by the Princeton University Library [link]

The Duke of O—-d’s Complaint. Princeton University Library. Mss Coll. C0140, Box 37, folder ‘Pembroke.’ 36 cm tall.

It is very uncommon to get direct evidence of government authorities at work seizing street literature and jailing the perpetrators.  In the Princeton University Library’s General Manuscripts collection (C0140) there is a folder in Box 37 labeled ‘Pembroke’ containing two documents.  One is an illustrated ballad sheet without imprint headed ‘The Duke of O—-d [Ormond]’s Complaint.’ The other document is a manuscript letter from Thomas Herbert, 8^th Earl of Pembroke (1674-1738) to Lord Charles Townsend, Viscount Townsend, Secretary of State for the Northern Department (1674-1738)  It was written at St Alban’s and is dated March 10, 1725.   It is a ‘covering letter,’ explaining the circumstances by which the enclosed broadside ballad, deemed a libel, was obtained.    Transcription in full:

My Lord

This afternoone being informed two persons were singing in this Burrō, the enclosed Libel, and collecting a Mobb, harangueing them with praises of an attained Rebel, as Duke of Ormond, forced from this Countrey and Robbed of His Estate, I thought it my Duty to Order the Constable to  apprend them, and on their examination before me, (after their being searched and a large quantity of the same Edition was found upon one of them secreted between his Shirt and his Skin) they owned the publication of them at Barnet and here, & Confessed they were going further downwards and that they bot them of the Printer (Yesterday) One – Dodd near the Fleet Prison by Fleet Ditch.

I have committed them to this goal and assure myself that however small the offense may seem to others on first view, I shall have the honour of your Lordships Approbation, while I judge every publick Representation of a Traitor as being Englands delight, a great and publick misdemeanour tending to alienate ye affection of His Majesties Subjects and to Robb His Majesty of the Treasure he hath A Justly Claime to and which he most values, the hearts of His People.

Is it your Lordships pleasure the Offenders be Removed to Hereford the asizes being next Monday or remain here to be indi[c]ted at the Boroughs Sessions.

I beg your Lordships pardon for giving your Lordship this trouble and have leave to subscribe my self

my Lord

Your Lordships most Devoted and Obedient Humble Servant

Pembroke

1725 March 10 ALS Pembroke to Townsend, page 1. PUL Mss Coll C0140, Box 37, folder ‘Pembroke.’

1725 March 10 ALS Pembroke to Townsend, page 2, PUL Mss Coll C0140, Box 37, folder ‘Pembroke.’

The particulars of the misdemeanour are evident:

1. The topic of the ballad is James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormond (1665-1743), an ‘attained rebel,’ supporter of the enemy to King George I, that is, the Pretender to the throne, James III, the son of James II.
2. The import of the ballad is that it is capable of stirring up a mob that threaten the order of realm.
3. The singers were not just conducting a one-off rendering of this libelous song, they were intent on going from settlement to settlement to agitate for their cause. Their purpose was spurring larger scale unlawful behavior, not just entertainment.
4. From Pembroke’s letter, we also learn who the printer of this libel was ‘One – Dodd near the Fleet Prison by Fleet Ditch.’ That information may have prompted an effort to effect Dodd’s arrest, but, alas, directories of 18^th century British printers of this period yield no information that any such Dodd near Fleet Prison existed.

We do not yet know the fate of the jailed performers, neither as to in which court they were tried nor the sentence they may have served.

What we are left with is a text of a political song, preserved in various ways and, having been recorded in different media of print, is now known in four versions.  What follows is a chronology of these versions:

1715 — A Song on the Late Duke of Ormond . Date of 1715? assigned by David Foxon in his massive catalogue English Verse 1701-1750, entry S591. – However, the title suggests the song is about the ‘late Duke’ who is known to have died in 1745, so perhaps this text comes later – Exemplar illustrated: A Song on the Late Duke of Ormond. London?, 1715?. Cambridge University Library,  Madden ballads, vol.2, number 1377  — 5  verses

Cambridge University Library, Madden ballads

1725 – The Duke of O—–d’s Complaint. Exemplar illustrated: slip ballad held in Princeton Univ. Library’s collection  C0140 (General Mss), Box 37, folder ‘Pembroke’ – 6 verses

[1731 – Music only in George Lillo’s ballad opera Sylvia, published London: J. Watts.  Scene XIX, Air LX ]

1841 – I am Ormond the Brave [first line] reported in the 1848 publication England under the house of Hanover; its history and condition during the reigns of the three Georges, illustrated from the caricatures and satires of the day. By Thomas Wright … With numerous illustrations, executed by F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A. (London: Bentley, 1848) v.1, p. 27-29. It is claimed that the singer of this ballad, as recorded in 1841, learned it from his father and grandfather. 5 verses.  Other 19th cent. reports regarding the I am Ormond ballad repeat what Wright published in 1848.  Example: Political ballads of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, annotated by W. Walker Wilkins (London: Longmans, et al., 1860) v.2, p.168-169.

1892 (1830s) – Ormond the Brave. This version of the song appears in a collection of Devon folk songs published in 1892 by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould and the Rev. Fleetwood Sheppard, who, in subsequent work claimed they ‘listen[ed] to old yokels wheezing out almost forgotten airs.” This rendering was sourced from a singer who learned it from his father who sang it ’60 years’ ago, i.e. 1830s. 4 verses. (Cf. Songs and ballads of the West : a collection made from the mouths of the people / by S. Baring-Gould and H. Fleetwood Sheppard. Harmonised and arranged for voice and pianoforte by H. Fleetwood Sheppard. (Methuen & co., 1892) p. 26-27 [music, p. 26; lyrics, p. 27; explanatory note, p. xvi-xvii]

1841 version. Hathi Trust.

1892 (1830s) version. Hathi Trust.

Observations on the versions:

• All four versions have verse one in common with slight variations in wording.
• The 18^th century versions are more alike in verses 2 to end than the 19^th century versions. For example, stanza 5 in version (a) is stanza 6 in version (b) and stanza 6 in version (b) is stanza 5 in version (a). Several lines in stanzas 2 to 4  in version (b) appear verbatim in version (a).
• After verse one, the 19^th century versions vary greatly from the 18^th century versions. For example, version (c) [1841] renders verses 2 to 4 as a sparring dialogue between the Hanoverian supporter, the Duke of Marlborough and the Jacobean supporter, the Duke of Ormond. No such dialogue appears in the 18^th century versions.  Further, version (d) [1892 (1830s)] distinctly references Ormond’s landing with troops at Devon in 1714, an attempt to excite public support for the Jacobean cause. (It failed.)
• The 19^th century versions in their last stanzas pick up themes from the 18^th century versions, namely i) denial that Ormond was a traitor to his country and ii) that he did not rob his soldiers of their pay, a claim that was made against Marlborough.

Lincoln’s autograph signature. Scheide Library 115.2

Today, 27 of the 48 copies are known to survive.

Princeton connections: Charles Godfrey Leland (Princeton Class of 1845) fought for liberty on the barricades of Paris in 1848 and with the Union Army at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. He helped popularize the term ‘emancipation’ (in place of ‘abolition’) and later became a journalistic editor and folklorist.

See Leland’s papers at PUL: https://findingaids.princeton.edu/catalog/C0204

George Henry Boker (Princeton Class of 1842) was a distinguished poet and playwright and an avid fundraiser for the benefit of Union casualties. He later served as a diplomat in Turkey and Russia. Boker and Leland had been good friends since childhood.

See Boker’s papers at PUL: https://findingaids.princeton.edu/catalog/C0208

Three hundred years ago, at the beginning of September 1724, the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was putting the finishing touches on his sacred cantata ‘Allein zu dir Herr Jesu Christ’ (‘To Thee Alone, Lord Jesus Christ’, BWV 33). Individual copies of each of the musicians’ parts, based on this manuscript score, were being written out for its inaugural performance during church services on the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, that is, September 3, in the Lutheran church of St Thomas in Leipzig. The intended ensemble was comprised of a four-voice chorus with three soloists (alto, tenor, and bass), 2 oboes, 2 violins, a viola, and basso continuo (usually an organ or harpsichord, often combined with cello, etc.). Sung in German, the cantata’s six movements consist of an initial chorus, a recitative for bass, a lovely alto aria, a recitative for tenor, a duet for tenor and bass, and a choral finale. Purchased in 1965 by Willam Hurd ‘Bill’ Scheide (1914–2014), Princeton University Class of 1936, the complete original autograph score of this cantata is one of the most important Bach manuscripts in the United States.

When students and visitors see Bach’s signed score in the Scheide Library (call # WHS 30.21), the first question asked is usually something along the lines of ‘How did this manuscript come down to us?’ This is indeed a wonderful, fundamental question, one that has important implications for the manuscript’s authenticity, the arc of Bach reception and scholarship, and the history of collecting. The short answer is ‘Through the Bach family for the first century, and through private collectors during the next two’, but there is much more to it; this blog intends to answer the question more fully, adding previously unknown information.

After serving musical appointments at Weimar, Arnstadt, Mühlhausen, and Cöthen, J. S. Bach became the musical director (Cantor) of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig in 1723. In Leipzig he was responsible for musical instruction as well as composing and leading the weekly musical liturgy, at the heart of which was the sacred cantata, a multi-movement musical composition for voices with instrumental accompaniment, generally based on older Protestant hymns. During his first year in Leipzig, Bach made use of a combination of older compositions and some 40 new cantatas, but in the church year 1724-25 he undertook the composition of a completely new cycle of 52 weekly cantatas. The present cantata was based on the German text of a hymn composed in 1540 by Konrad Hubert (1507–1577), a Calvinist theologian in Strasbourg. Over his prolific career Bach eventually composed some 300 cantatas (at least 100 of them have been lost to posterity), including several on secular themes.

The manuscript in question consists of ten paper leaves of musical score inside a paper wrapper, which Bach himself inscribed and signed ‘Dominica 13 post Trinitatis; | Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ | à | 4 Voci, | 2 Hautbois | 2 Violini | Viola | e | Continuo | di | Joh. Seb. Bach’ [the 13^th Sunday after Trinity, To Thee Alone, Lord Jesus Christ, for 4 voices, 2 oboes, 2 violins, viola, and continuo, Johann Sebastian Bach’]. This is not simply a ‘fair copy’ of the finished work, made for performance or safekeeping by posterity, but rather one of Bach’s characteristic composing scores, where the final working out of the original composition of all of the vocal and instrumental parts took place in simultaneous coordination. Thus, it includes several scribbled deletions, corrections, and out-of-place ‘do-overs’. No earlier sketches or drafts are known. In order to be performed, the individual parts had to be copied out by hand from this score, a task normally assigned to the composer’s students (including his sons), working under his supervision and editorial pen. The original performing parts for ‘Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ’ survive at the Bach-Archiv in Leipzig; they were sold by the composer’s widow, Anna Magdalena Bach, to the city of Leipzig shortly after 1750.

How did the Scheide Library’s manuscript come down to posterity? At Bach’s death in 1750 he left it to his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710–1784), along with many other scores and personal documents. Musically talented but eventually unable to support himself dependably as a more or less freelance musician, W. F. Bach is known to have sold some of his father’s scores in 1774. However, the fact that the next owner of the present manuscript was Carl Philipp Heinrich Pistor (1778–1847), the inventor of optical telegraphy, raises the near certainty that it was sold in the 1827 auction of Wilhelm Friedemann’s remaining property in Berlin, where Pistor was a heavy buyer. Pistor’s daughter Elisabeth ‘Betty’ Pistor was a good friend of the famous composer Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847), a great enthusiast for the revival of J. S. Bach’s works. It is probable that Mendelssohn saw and studied this manuscript, as he often did with others, at the Pistor residence. It is certain that it was seen by Mendelssohn’s teacher, Karl Friedrich Zelter, who used dark red ink to fill in the German text of the final chorale movement, which, since it was so well known to the original singers, Bach characteristically had indicated in highly abbreviated form.

Around 1835, Herr Pistor gave the score to his friend Julius Schubring (1806–1889), Pastor of St George in Dessau, whom Mendelssohn admired as a friend and a librettist. On 11 February 1836 Schubring wrote about the cantata in a letter he sent to Mendelssohn in Leipzig (in translation): ‘Another question concerns the Bachiana we discussed. […] What my little property consists of was given to me by Pistor, a manuscript of Bach’s own, Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, 13^th Sunday after Trinity. […] If you don’t have a copy, I can have one made for you’.¹ For purposes of identification, Schubring’s letter included a little handwritten transcription of the first measure of the Oboe I part:

Schubring eventually made the score available to the musicologist Wilhelm Rust, who was able to include an engraved transcription of the edited score in vol. 7 of the Bach-Gesellschaft edition of Bach’s complete works, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Werke (Leipzig, 1857). In 1889 the original score descended to the owner’s son, and eventually to his grandson, Dr Walther Schubring (1881–1969), who allowed the manuscript to be auctioned at J. A. Stargardt Autographenhandlung (Katalog 572), in Marburg, West Germany, on 14 May 1965.

There naturally was tremendous international interest in lot 452, one of the last complete original Bach manuscripts in private hands. No one was more committed to winning it than Bill Scheide, a noted musicologist, Bach specialist, and book collector. He conducted his bidding through Albi Rosenthal, co-proprietor of Otto Haas, London. The only question was, with bidding starting at DM 60,000, how far would he have to go? He knew that the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), which already owned 81 of  Bach’s surviving cantatas, would be the principal competition. On 12 May he received some crucial pre-auction intelligence from Rosenthal via a Western Union telegram:

         VERY HEAVY ARTILLERY MASSING FOR BACH BATTLE MAY HAVE TO EXCEED                   COMMITMENT BY ABOUT TEN PERCENT STOP WILL PROCEDE UNLESS YOU                   CABLE 125 [DM] IRREVOCABLE LIMIT STOP HOPE MY ASSESSMENT PESSIMISTIC           STOP BEST WISHES ALBI ROSENTHAL HOTEL ORTENBERG MARBURG

Doing some quick computations, Scheide agreed to Rosenthal’s suggested 10% increase beyond DM 125,000. In Marburg on 14 May, the bidding among German, Swiss, French, and British competitors quickly rose to DM 130,000 without Rosenthal having entered a bid. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation dropped out after DM 133,000, but an anonymous Swiss bidder kept going. Although Scheide’s maximum was DM 137,500, Rosenthal decided that he would throw in the entirety of his own commission (DM 10,000), if necessary. And some of it was necessary: the auctioneer’s hammer finally fell after his bid of DM 140,000 – the Bach score would be coming to America! In the end, seeing the beautiful manuscript, Scheide was happy that Rosenthal had exceeded his limit, and was pleased to reinstate his full commission. Scheide always made the score available to scholars, and upon his death in 2014, he bequeathed it along with his entire library of rare books and manuscripts to Princeton University Library.

The full digitization of Bach’s score of BWV 33 is available at: https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/9935097423506421

____________

¹ Briefwechsel zwischen Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und Julius Schubring, edited by Dr Julius Schubring II (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1892), pp. 105-06: ‘Eine andere Frage betrifft die besprochene Bachiana. […] Was mein kleines Eigenthum betrifft, so ists mir von Pistor geschenkt worden, ein eigenes Manuscript Bachs. Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, Dom. XIII p. trin. […] Wenn Dus nicht hast, kann ich Dirs abschreiben lassen’.

Statement of invoice prepared by Roger Payne for binding The Holy Bible containing the Old Testament and the New. Edinburgh: James Watson, 1715. (Ex) 5179.1715. Ms. stored apart from the book in Manuscript Collection C140, Box 37, folder “Payne.’

In rare book libraries, fine bindings made with great skill are often encountered simply on their own, with little sense of their maker other than a name.  Extraordinarily, on a rare occasion, one finds a description of the binder’s work in his own words.  Such is the case with the undated statement of billing from Roger Payne illustrated here.

Scheide Librarian, Eric White, has said of Payne: ‘Roger Payne (1738–1797), perhaps the most famous of all English bookbinders, was well known both for his exquisite gold tooling and his squalid lifestyle. He worked at Eton beginning in the late 1750s, then at London with the support of the bookseller Thomas Payne (no relation). There he served many illustrious patrons,’ including Dr. Benjamin Moseley, Michael Woodhull, C.M. Cracherode, and the second Earl Spencer.

A near contemporary of Payne, the Rev. Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776-1847) described Payne’s invoices as ‘original and diverting,’ ‘replete with the garrulous chit-chat of an old stager of four score; in parts resembles a Coach-maker’s account,’ and ‘loquacious and … original specimens of arithmetical compositions.’

Our reaction today is to treat the invoices more fair-mindedly as rare contemporary documentation showing what was regarded as valuable at that time.  In this and other statements (at least, another 13 are known and transcribed; see list below) Payne draws our attention to factors crucial to making the binding.  In this instance, he covers these factors starting from the outside of the book to the inside.  But for purposes of getting a sense of his process, the following comments cover from the inside of the book to the outside.

The first of these factors includes the time and effort taken to clean, unwrinkle, mend and otherwise prepare the pages of the text block: ‘Some few places had a little writing ink I took it out safe.’  Then, he draws our attention to the materials of the binding  ‘back lined with Russia Leather under the Blue Morocco cover very strong’  or ‘sew’d with silk on strong & neat bands.’  He’s stating these terms about materials because he knows that binders can choose cheaper components such as linen thread or lining the spine with paper. Lastly he sets forth details about the finishing of the binding ‘all the gold impressions  … worked first plain afterwards work’d in Gold & Double Gold used thro ye whole Work.’  He sums up the work, and in this case his summary occurs initially, with the words ‘Bound in the best manner’ or, in the example illustrated here, ‘finished in the Richest & most elegant Taste  Richer & more exact than any Book that I have ever Bound.’

At the left upper corner of the statement of billing is a diagram of the lettering on the spine. It appears in just this format on the book itself, an edition of the Authorized Bible printed at Edinburgh in 1715 (ESTC T91151). The binding has the initials ‘T P’ on the front cover.  These are those of publisher and antiquarian bookseller Thomas Payne, who served at Roger Payne’s guardian (supplying ‘regular pecuniary assistance’) during the physical decline of his later years.  The total cost for the binding is £ 2.1.6.

The Holy Bible containing the Old Testament and the New. Edinburgh: James Watson, 1715. Ex 5179.1715 Spine height: 19 cm. Larger image

Ownership history

1877 – Ellis & White, booksellers, London,  item 61* in catalogue 41: Catalogue of Valuable Books comprising Many Volumes of great Rarity and Curiosity, including Early Printed Books n English, Latin, German, Italian, & Flemish: Rare Old English Poetry; Some very Remarkable  Volumes Illustrated with Wood Engravings of an Early Date, &c. &c.’ Priced at £42

1890  – Sale of the books of Sir Edward Sullivan, at Sotheby’s, London, 19 & 27 May 1890, lot 770.  Sold to James Bain Ltd. for £62

1892  – William Lorings Andrews, Roger Payne and his art. A short account of his life and work as a binder.  (New York, 1892), p. 31 states that the book is the possession of a New York collector

1895 – Illustrated in Robert Hoe’s One hundred and seventy-six historic and artistic bookbindings dating from the fifteenth century to the present time pictured by etchings, artotypes, and lithographs after the originals selected from the library of Robert Hoe (New York, 1895)

1911 – Sale catalogue of the Library of Robert Hoe, April 24 and ff., lot 297.   Cyrus Hall McCormick (Princeton class of 1879) purchased the book at the sale for $900

1936 – C. H. McCormick dies in 1936 and the books pass to his widow, Alice Marie Holt McCormick.  She later remarries and becomes Alice H. Brown (Mrs. Marshall Ludington Brown.)

1948 – Alice H. Brown gifts the books of her first husband C. H. McCormick to the Princeton University Library.

List of other statements of invoice by Roger Payne
Dibdin records and transcribed the following bills in The Bibliographical Decameron, London, 1817, vol. II, p. 511 ff.:

1. Glasguae. MDCCXCV. (ESTC T86592): Dibdin, BD, II, p.512 (also transcribed in C. Davenport, Roger Payne [Chicago, 1929], p. 70, illustrated plate 31), undated original in the John Rylands Library. Invoice total £ 16.7.0
2. Petrarch, described in Spenceriana, vol. 4, p. 141-143: Dibdin, BD, II, p.512-513 (also transcribed in C. Davenport, Roger Payne [Chicago, 1929], p. 71). Undated. Invoice total £ 4.7.0
3. C[l]avis Astro[logiæ] Elimata, bound for Dr. Benjamin Moseley (ESTC R39993): Dibdin, BD, II, p.513. Undated. Invoice total £ 0.4.0
4. Harmony of the World by Heydon London 1662, bound for Dr. Benjamin  Moseley (ESTC R16451): Dibdin, BD, II, p.514. Dated ‘1796, 11^th’ Invoice total £ 0.10.6.  This book is held by the Scheide Library at Princeton and will be the subject of a future blog posting.
5. Soul of Astrology, by Salmon, London 1679, bound for Dr. Benjamin Moseley (ESTC R6301): Dibdin, BD, II, p.514. Undated. Invoice total £ 0.9.6
6. Vesalli Humani Corporis Fabrica, bill in possession of Edward V. Utterson: Dibdin, BD, II, p.514 (also transcribed in C. Davenport, Roger Payne [Chicago, 1929], p. 72). Undated. Invoice total £ 0.15.0
7. Sandys Travels MDC.X. Wheeler and Spons Travels M.DC.LXXV, bill in possession of Edward V. Utterson (ESTC S121765 [1615 ed. and many later ed.] and ESTC R9388 [1682 ed.]): Dibdin, BD, II, p.515. Dated ‘Dec. 1^st’ Invoice total £ 1.13.0

C. Davenport records the following bills in Roger Payne [Chicago, 1929], in addition to those noted above:

8. Cambridge 1694 (ESTC R24132): Davenport, RP, p. 69, illustrated plate 29, undated original in the British Library. Invoice total £ 4.9.0
9. Lilly’s Christian Astrology. London, 1695. Bound for Dr. Benjamin Moseley (ESTC R233955 [1647 ed. and several later ed.]): Davenport, RP, p. 73, (also transcribed in Sydney Glover, ‘A Famous Bookbinder …’, The Collector’s Magazine (London, 1905), p. 42) undated original in 1908 Sotheby’s auct. of the books of Lord Amherst of Hackney. Invoice total £ 1.3.6
10. The Faerie Queene … MDXCVI (ESTC S117748): Davenport, RP, p. 74, illustrated plate 30, undated original in the British Library. Invoice total £ 2.10.0
11. Mosaical Philosophy by Fludd. London, MDCLIX (ESTC R6980): Davenport, RP, p. 75, undated original in the British Library. Invoice total £ 1.13.6
12. Heydon, Elhavarevna. London, 1665. (ESTC R8694): Davenport, RP, p. 76, undated original in the British Library, shelf mark C.66.b.1. Invoice total £ 1.18.0
13. Plot (Robert). The Natural History of Staffordshire. Oxford, 1686. (ESTC R21986) Davenport, RP, plate 32, undated, original owned by booksellers John Tregaskis and Son, ca. 1929. Invoice total £ 4.14.6

Transcription of Payne’s statement of invoice

Letter’d in ye most exact Manner, exceeding rich small Tool Gilt Back of a new pattern studded in Compartments. The outsides finished in the Richest & most elegant Taste Richer, & more exact than any Book that I ever Bound.
The insides finished in a new Design exceeding elegant. Bound in the very best manner sew’d with silk on Strong & Neat Bands. The Back lined with Russia Leather under the Blue morrocco cover very strong & neat Boards.

The Finest Blue Morocco All The Gold Impressions except studds worked first Plain afterwards work’d in Gold & Double Gold used thro ^ye whole Work

Frontispiece was pasted very clumsy on another leaf I took it off & cleaned the paste off & mended 3 places. Title 1 piece

Psalms X. XXII. LXXXVI. CXXII. CXXXVIII. CXLII
Jeremiah III. Proverbs XIX. Saint Matthew VIII ) Mended and several placed ruled where the pieces was put on.
A hole in ye printing have endeavour’d to make perfect by another Holy Bible. I cleaned all the printing part from ye other side required great care & time & several Back margins mended which cannot now be seen. ___ Some few places had a little writing ink I took out quite safe.

Roger Payne in his workshop. 

By S. Harding. Frontispiece to C. Davenport, Roger Payne (Chicago, 1929).

Supplementing examples posted by Peter Kidd on his website ‘Manuscripts/Provenance,’ in the entry for Sir Thomas Phillipps http://www.manuscripts.org.uk/manuscripts/provenance/collectors/phillipps.htm

A. N. L. Munby writes in Phillipps Studies No. 4 (Cambridge, 1956), p. 165

In the 1820s Phillipps commissioned an armorial bookplate, which was however inserted very sparingly in books and manuscripts (fig. 1). Many of the early acquisitions bear a stencilled stamp of his crest, a lion rampant, applied rather crudely to the front paste-down or to the first leaf (fig. 2), and, on the paste-down, in the case of manuscripts, was inscribed the number allotted to the book in the Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum (fig. 3); in most instances this number was repeated on a tiny printed slip glued to the spine (fig. 4). Many thousands of manuscripts are identifiable at sight by their drab buff boards, Phillipps’s usual binding style. (fig. 5) A very large number of the printed books have no identification of ownership by Phillipps other than the small pencilled initials ‘MHC’ at the top of the front paste-down, denoting that the item in question had been entered, but not necessarily printed, in the Middle Hill Catalogue (fig. 6). Many books in the great residue of the library purchased in 1946 by Messrs Robinson have been provided with a discreet armorial label which identifies their provenance (fig. 7)

Figure 1 – Armorial bookplate

Figure 2 – Stencil

Figure 3 – Stencil with number

Figure 4 – Slip on spine

Figure 5 – Middle Hill Boards

Figure 6 – MHC (Middle Hill Catalogue)

Figure 7 – Bibliotheca Phillippica – W. H. Robinson Ltd.

Princeton is fortunate to own what are the only recorded marked-up proof pages from one of the most famous illustrated engraved books of eighteenth-century England, commonly known as Pine’s Horace published in London, 1733-1737.   [For full details about Pine’s Horace see “Engraved Throughout: Pine’s Horace (1733) as a Bibliographical Object,” the 2015 Lyell lecture given by Prof. Michael Suarez https://rarebookschool.org/first-lyell-lecture-available-to-view/]

The proofs are bound in early 20^th century brown polished goatskin and consist of the first 67 pages of volume one.  They were gifted to the Library in 1916 by Robert Patterson, Class of 1876, as yet another donated accession to the large collection of editions of Horace that he had first established by the academic year 1908-1909.

We have no idea how they came into Patterson’s hands because there are no marks of provenance within the book.  During the decades that the  proofs have inhabited the shelves, they seem to have been overlooked by scholars, because there is no mention of them in academic or library publications.

What follows is a glimpse of some of the salient features of the proofs, which taken together give some sense of the process by which this famous book came into being.

These features fall into two groups: on the one hand, the proof pages themselves independent of any correctors’ markings and, on the other hand, the annotations supplied by various correcting readers, which are quite numerous, occur on almost every page, and can be identified as tracing back to four separate readers.

First, the pages, themselves.  There are several points here:  1) the proofs are on the same paper as the finished book. laid paper watermarked with ‘Strasbourg Bend’; 2) the leaves are are a mixed set, that is, a few are proofs before letters (such as p. 67), but most are proofs with lettering; and 3) on page 31 the proof has a vignette of Prometheus being tortured by the raven whereas the finished book depicts Prometheus fashioning a human skeleton.

Second, the annotations:  There are 4 distinct sets of annotations, each in a different contemporary hand.

1. A red ink now much faded marking usually single variations from the copy text, such as noting that the copy text had a ‘J’ where Pine engraved an ‘I’
2. A closed up italic hand rendering several types of notes: 1) observations about the images ‘A large wolf would have been properer here. Or a Moor with a bow and quiver’ (p. 42) beside the full length figure of Hercules; 2) regarding typographic style ‘You have never before put a capital to a common noun  …’ (p. 28) or ‘This e should be of the small size …’ (p.20)
3. A larger looser italic responding to the notations rendered by 1 and 2 above; examples: ‘that y should not touch the l = I doubt its too late to put it back’ (p. 21);  ‘Put the admiration after ludo!’ (p. 4) [That is, put an exclamation mark after  … — ed.]
4. Pencil annotations correcting the Greek inscriptions in the illustration on page 40

Of the for 4 sets of annotations, set number 3 turns out to be of  particular interest. The writer of set number 3 pays especial attention to textual matters, orthography, and indentation relating to the layout of stanzas.   Those attentions suggest someone particularly interested in the text of Horace rather than the illustration.  To find a candidate for these annotations, I looked at the roster of names acknowledged in Pine’s preface.

In the front matter to the book, Pine acknowledges the following for their aid in the project.

• Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork (1694-1753); known as the ‘Architect Earl’
• Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke and 5th Earl of Montgomery (c. 1656-1733); collector of fine art and ancient coins
• Sir Andrew Fountaine (1676-1753); art collector
• Sir Richard Mead (1673-1754); eminent physician, collector
• Sir Thomas Sadler, Deputy Clerk of the Pells
• Thomas Bentley L.L.D. (1693-1742); classical scholar; onetime librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge; edited editions of Callimachus, Caesar, et al.

Of these 6, Pine especially notes Thomas Bentley as ‘eminent in learning’ and given that Bentley edited an edition of Horace in 1713, I suspected that the notes of set 3 might be his, but I needed to find examples of his handwriting.

One contemporary example is a 1731 letter written by Thomas Bentley to Zachary Pearce (1690-1774) preserved in the Turnbull Library at the National Library of New Zealand, Wellington.  The letter was reproduced in facsimile in the Turnbull Library Record, vol. xiv, issue 1, 1 May 1981.

The convergence of the hand of the set 3 annotations and the hand of the Turnbull letter is convincing, as in the example below  (Turnbull left; Princeton right)

Lastly, when you compare the corrections in the Princeton proofs with the finished book, it is clear that in a number of cases Pine made the requisite changes.  This brief description and analysis are by no means exhaustive.  There is still much more to learn from these proofs.

>>> Census of other copies of the proofs

1. Copy described by Maurice de Péreire in his article ‘Notes d’un amateur sur les livres illustrés du xviii siècle (suite 1) published in Bulletin de bibliophile et du bibliothécaire.  (Paris: Henri LeClerc, 1921) p. 197 to 200.  Present whereabouts not known.  De Péreire describes this copy has having the prospectus title page with date Feb. 24, 1730-31, followed by a list of subscribers, together with the first 67 engraved pages.
2. Bodleian, Oxford – Proofs of vol.1, pp.1-67. Preceded by a list headed Subscribers, with an additional list in MS. by J. Pine. Pasted in are Proposals for engraving by subscription. The date is erased]. Shelfmark: Pre-1701 Weston 590502835
3. Morgan Library, New York City — Prospectus volume for Pine’s edition of Horace, 1733, containing ‘Proposal’, printed list of subscribers, and early proof impressions of book I, pl. 1-67 of Odes.  Bound in contemporary calf.  Shelfmark: PML 65587 http://estc.bl.uk/N39784
4. Victoria and Albert — Library states that this copy is ‘assumed lost’  — 24, 1730-31. Proposals for engraving by subscription, on copperplates, the works of Horace … as the specimen annex’d. Shelfmark: Forster 12mo 6931  [Given the February date of the prospectus, it is assumed that this copy had proofs of vol. 1, pp. 1-67]
5. Princeton University Library. Shelfmark: PTT 2865.321.233