Add MS 74231

MATTHIAS LYNEN: Album amicorum, etc.; 1618-1669. Partly Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, Italian, German and Dutch. The album proper (ff. 16-52, 119-214v, passim) belongs almost entirely to the period between Sept. 1618 and May 1624, while the compiler was a student at Heidelberg and other universities in Germany and Switzerland. The sole exception is the final entry (f. 214v), which is dated 1638. Interspersed throughout the volume are miscellaneous notes and extracts, partly from printed sources, in Greek, Latin and various modern European languages, including English, some of which date from 1632, 1647-1658 and 1669. Lynen, giving (f. 2) his date of birth as 23 July 1598, describes himself as of Aachen (`Aquensis'), otherwise Aix-la Chapelle. He matriculated at the University of Heidelberg in March 1616, studying there for the Protestant ministry until about Sept. 1620, when many of the students fled the Palatine War (f. 201). He spent the next two years in Cologne and Basle, before moving to Geneva, where he settled for most of 1623 and the first half of 1624. In Jan. 1626 he enrolled as a reader at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and by July 1627 is found in London. For these and further details see Le Livre du Recteur de l'Académie de Genève, ed. Suzanne Stelling-Michaud, Geneva, 1975, vol. IV (`Notices biographiques des étudiants'), p. 386. A merchant of this name, with other former associates of the Guinea Company of Scotland, petitioned Cromwell circa 1657 concerning seizure of their ship, the Andrew of Edinburgh, by the Portuguese in 1637 (Cal. S. P., Colonial Series, 1574-1660, p. 462). Purchased at Sotheby's, 21 May 1998, lot 66.

Paper: ff. xi+214. 105 x 145 mm. Contemporary binding of vellum on boards, formerly gilt-stamped with panels and central ornament. Spine of three raised bands interspersed with four reversed fleurs-de-lys. Fore-edge decoration with floral motif. Watermark a crowned Imperial eagle. Several written leaves (see esp. ff. 57-78) excised and now represented by stubs. Belonged in May 1905 to Mrs Mackenzie of Dolphinton, co. E. Lanark., who submitted it for an opinion to the historian Lionel Cecil Jane whose letter and typewritten report are preserved separately as ff. iv-xi.

The principal contents are as follows:

A. ff. 16, 22, 27, 31, 40, 40v, 48, 52 and 115-208v. Album amicorum, comprising one hundred and twenty three signed entries dated from 21 Sept. 1618 (f. 189, 190), at Heidelberg, to 6 May 1624 (f. 119v), at Geneva, along with a single stray (f. 214v) of 1637/8. Partly Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, Italian, German and Dutch. Many incorporate watercolour drawings of coats of arms and crests, and others (ff. 123, 124, 125v, 126v, 130, 142-147 (rectos), 151v, 158, 159, 164, 167-169 (rectos)) painted figures of men and women of Nuremburg, Zurich, Geneva, Basle and Cologne, etc. A pencil sketch of Cologne (f. 203) is dated 20 Oct. 1621. Historical and mythical subjects include William Tell (f. 125v) and a trio of men (f.147) labelled 'Foederis Helvetici prima capita', representing the league formed by the cantons in 1307. Also included are a full-page painted allegorical landscape (f. 125), several emblematic designs (ff. 163, 170, 188v), and a calligraphic page (f. 185) in pen and ink incorporating the figure of a swan fashioned minutely from the German text of Psalm 103. Miscellaneous notes by Lynen interspersed throughout this section include (f. 124v) a jotting of 1632 relating to a loan of money to one of the contributors. At f. 134 occurs a pencil sketch of an Edinburgh dandy, circa early-mid 19th cent.

B. Miscellaneous notes and extracts, mostly from Lynen's reading, partly added 1632-1669. Partly Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, Italian, German and Dutch. Included are:

1. ff. i, 1, 1v, 6-10v, 16v, 21, 35v, 37, 79-88 passim, 115v. Proverbs and sayings, partly in verse, including a series (ff. 86-87) headed 'Sir H[oratio] V[ere]'. Partly Latin, French, Italian, German and Dutch.

2. ff. 2v, 3v. Notes of births and deaths in the Cullen, Wessell, Hochepied and Beck families, 1649-1669. Partly French and Dutch.

3. ff. 4-5, 12, 13, 14, 20, 20v, 30, 38-39v, 43v-45v, 84, 85, 116, 116v, 209v-211. Historical anecdotes and geographical or topographical gleanings, partly (f. 13) from Suidas and (f. 14) Heylyn, with anecdotes (ff. 38-39v) of Sir Thomas Roe at the court of the Great Moghul, circa 1621-1629. Partly Latin and Italian.

4. ff. 14v, 24, 37v, 38-39v, 41v-43, 83v, 84. Notes relating to religious matters, including (f. 24) Scots theology, 1647, the doctrines (f. 41) of Thomas Pierce or Peirse, the anti-Calvinist, and (ff. 42-43) the theory of predestination. Partly Latin.

5. ff. 31v-32, 53-56v, 78v, 89v-95. Medical and other notes and recipes, including instructions (ff. 32, 78v, 90-91) for erasure and for drawing on surfaces other than paper, and observations (ff. 53-54) rel. to arboriculture abstracted from Sir Francis Bacon. Partly Latin.

6. ff. 17v-22, 111v-114v. Lists of English sovereigns from William I to Elizabeth and of Holy Roman Emperors to Leopold I in 1658. Partly Latin.

7. ff. 35-37. Verses in English, including two by Sir Henry Wotton, namely (ff. 35, 35v) the hymn written in his sickness, beg. 'Oh thou great power, in whom I move', and (ff. 36-37) his elegy on Sir Albertus Morton (d. 1625), beg. 'Silence in truth, would speake my sorrow best'.

8. ff. 2, 3, 21v, 82v, 83. Verses in Latin, including (f. 2) a prefatory epigram written by Lynen at Heidelberg in 1618, (f. 3) Sanazzaro's hexastich on Venice, (f. 82v) an epigram of Scaliger and (f. 8, 83) several on Britain, some of them accompanied by English renderings.

9. f. 211v. Verse-epitaph, in German, for the military commander Albrecht Wentzel Eusebius von Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland, headed 'Epitaphium Wallensteinii Viennae Compositum'; circa Feb. 1634.