Add MS 57555

Largely autograph notebook of Sir Walter Ralegh (1554–1618), courtier, explorer and author. Comprising a glossary of geographical notes, thirteen annotated ink and watercolour maps, a list of around five hundred books in his possession, and a poem addressed to Queen Elizabeth I. Dating from Ralegh’s imprisonment in the Tower of London from December 1603, when he was at work on his History of the World (1614). Some pages are in the hands of two amanuenses.

ff. 1v-140v, 172r: Glossary of geographical notes on the Middle East and North Africa, arranged alphabetically by ancient place name. The rectos (ff. 2-142) of all but the two last gatherings in ink were headed seriatim with the letters of the Latin alphabet, though only around a quarter of the space has been used. The information, which incorporates historical notes, is derived from many sources, including the Bible as well as Latin and Greek writers, references being frequently noted in the margins. The section containing letters C and D is illustrated with maps (ff. 19v-23v) depicting the coast and hinterland of North Africa and Palestine, physical features and place-names being executed in ink, with watercolour washes overall. A later section, lettered from M to R, includes others (ff. 72r, 73r, 107r), along with a pencilled outline (f. 89v) of the coast of Palestine having place-names marked in ink.

ff. 140r, 141r, 158r-171r: A list of around five hundred printed books in Ralegh’s possession in the Tower of London. Partly Latin and French. Copied at various times in the hands of two amanuenses. The volumes, which are arranged here in shelf-order, largely by format, are identified by brief notes of author or title, the latest certainly identifiable imprint belonging to 1606, though several may be datable to 1608. The works are in Greek, Latin, French, Italian and Spanish, and mostly relate to history, chronology, cosmography and geography. The volumes are as follows:

• ff. 140r, 141r: Seventeen works (f. 140r), numbered as twenty-three volumes and all later deleted by a single stroke, headed ‘The 5t from ye ground’, along with five volumes (f. 141r) of a single work in ‘The fourth from ye ground’. Eleven of the titles can be traced in the lists later copied by the second scribe. On the intervening page (f. 140v) occur some bibliographical references in Ralegh’s hand.

• ff. 158r-161v Eighty-nine volumes in ‘classe 6a. l. 8o’ (ff. 158r-159v) along with one hundred and two headed ‘Libri 8o classe suprema’ (ff. 159v-161v).

• ff. 165v, 166v-171r Three hundred and thirty-two volumes of miscellaneous sizes, but mostly quartos, in ‘classe 5a’ (ff. 166v-171r). The first page (f. 165v) comprises thirty volumes, of which twenty-seven were later deleted and incorporated in the list that follows.

f. 172v: Autograph fair copy of a poem by Ralegh in eight quatrains beginning ‘Now we haue present made’. These verses form part of, or conclude, the ‘Cynthia’ cycle addressed to Elizabeth I.