Add MS 73542

JOHN RUSSELL (d. 1687): Epigrammatum Libri VI; circa 1625. Latin. Autograph fair copy, with revisions and corrections. Russell, a Laudian who served as Rector of Chingford from 1634 until his death, with one break during the Interregnum, published an elegy in English on Gustavus Adolphus at Cambridge in 1632. The present work comprises seven hundred and three epigrams numbered in separate sequences within each Book. Two (Bks. I, 53, and III, 85: ff. 8v, 39) are addressed to the Fellows of Magdalene College, from which he matriculated as pensioner in Easter Term 1625, while the three last (Bk. VI, 116-118: ff. 79, 79v) date the compilation of the collection to an outbreak of the plague there, most probably in Aug.-Dec. 1625. Among the few contemporary events commemorated are James I's death in March 1625 (Bk. I, 77: f. 11) and the capture of Breda by Ambrosio Spinola in June of the same year (Bk. IV, 103: f. 53). Russell states that 'Londinum mihi mater erat' (Bk. VI, 51: f. 71v), several of the pieces being concerned with metropolitan life and buildings: one relates to the monument to William Camden who was buried in Westminster Abbey in Nov. 1623 (Bk. VI, 71: f. 73v). Other topics include the attire of West Indians (Bk. III, 3: f. 30) and American Indians (Bk. IV, 76: f. 50v). Some introductory elegiac couplets 'Ad Librum meum' (f. 1v) are followed (ff. 2, 2v) by three sets of commendatory verses, one of them a sequence of six pieces by 'Matthaeus Stoneham sen: Norwicensis Theologus, et Gymnasiarcha': a John Stoneham matriculated pensioner from Magdalen with Russell. The collection, which is almost entirely secular in content, is modelled on the work of John Owen, to which Russell twice pays direct tribute (Bk. I, 93 and 116: ff. 12v, 15v). Purchased at Christie's, 26 Nov. 1997, as part of lot 84.

Paper: ff. ii+84. 183 x 143mm. 19th-cent. binding of smooth brown morocco with compartment formed from double rules on the covers and ruled dentelles. Gilt garb crest of Milnes-Crewe family on front cover. Spine carries five false bands with red leather label, gilt tooled, reading 'johannis russelli epigrammata'. Watermark of crozier and horn in shield, similar in type to Heawood, nos. 1224, 1226 (but lacking letters). Pages ruled in ink along each edge, with compartment for running-titles. Contemporary pagination from 1 to 154 (ff. 3-79v). Marginal crosses in pencil by some epigrams in Book II. 'John (?) Lleweln -' jotted in 17th-cent. hand on verso of last leaf (f. 84v). Pasted inside front and back covers respectively are armorial bookplates (f. i) of Robert, Marquess of Crewe, and (f. ii) of David Lloyd, with arms as Lloyd of Dan-yr-allt, but motto 'Sic itur ad astra' (cf. no. 18460 in the Franks Collection, described as a 'Chippendale armorial shield on a mantle').