Add MS 78344

EVELYN PAPERS. Vol. CLXXVII. Notes by and collected by Evelyn for `Elysium Britannicum', Sylva, the Royal Society and related projects; mostly late 17^th cent.

ff. 136. British Library arrangement. 395 x 255mm.

1. Notes, mostly intended for incorporation into the `Elysium Britannicum', a few with pen and ink diagrams, on sheets of different sizes, each annotated with a symbol of intersecting circles and the roman chapter numbers referring to the table of contents of Add. MS 78342 above. Some sheets are headed `Hortus', `HE', or `S'. The key to these abbreviations is now in Add. MS 15950, f. 80: `In this Bundle or Roll marked [same symbol of intersecting circles] is Containd the Excerpts and Collections, casualy gatherd out of several authors &c.'; according to the list which follows `S' indicates that the notes were for inclusion in the next edition of Sylva; `HE' that they were `To be inserted in what I begun and intended about Gardning & Horticulture, under the Title of Elysium or Paradise--Imperfect'. A few items are not in Evelyn's hand, but were acquired by him from other sources, and filed as part of his material; viz: - (a) ff. 1-4. Extensive additions (one leaf, two half leaves and one fragment) to `Elysium Britannicum', Book I, Ch. 10, pp. 24-25, on soil, etc.; - (b) ff. 5-95. Notes and drafts on various sizes of paper, for additions to several chapters of `Elysium Britannicum’, including: extensive notes for Book II, chapters 15 and 16, on fruit-trees and flower gardens, and to Book III, chapters 6 and 7, on `Hortulan Study' and `Hortulan Entertainment'; notes taken from Abraham Munting (ff. 7-8); notes in French from [Henry Oldenburg?] (f. 9); notes and lists concerning fruit-trees and North American plants by George London (ff. 11-15); a fragment, apparently relating to the garden at Sayes Court, headed, `Ever-greenes, and other rare plants in Cases and potts &c: 1660: 1661', with (on the verso) `The Several fruit Trees in the House-Ortchard, according to their Rowes and numbers', with a later note for its insertion into Book II, chapter 19 (f. 17); and a drawing of a bee-hive with a list of Latin, French and Italian letters to Evelyn's correspondents (see Add. MSS 78298-78299 above) on the verso (f. 66). Notes for insertion into Sylva, the `History of Staves', the history of religion, and `the Dignity of Man’ and `Pictura’ are mixed with these, according to the abbreviations set out in Add. MS 15950, f. 80.

2. ff. 96-103. Drafts by Evelyn in old age, apparently intended either for a further edition of Sylva, or for the `Elysium Britannicum', although in most cases the notes of chapters, pages, etc., in which they are to be inserted do not correspond to any of the existing manuscript or printed versions, viz: - (a) ff. 96-98. `Appendix', altered to `Cap II', `An Account of Exotic-Trees & other tender, Rare and Curious Shrubs, Perennial Greens', `for such of the Curious who [are] not satisfied with what our vulgar and ruder Forests aford us of plaine and ordinary & most Usefull Ti[m]ber-Trees', consisting of two leaves, containing a list of the plants in alphabetical order; -(b) ff. 99-100. Part of the text of `Ch. III', on the choice of a gardener, with heading, `Consider whether to bring in this either after the Cultures of Exoticks, evergreen, Curiositys, &c. Or after the Description of the Garden and Royal Seats in England, compared with those of Italy, France and other countrys'; -(c) ff. 101-103. Several other notes, some with page numbers for insertion, including (f. 103; formerly Evelyn MS 535) verses in the hand of Evelyn's grandson, beg. `A wood with sweet embraces five miles wide', also with a note by Evelyn with its place of insertion.

3. Material concerning Evelyn's translation of De La Quintinye's Compleat Gard'ner (1693), viz: (a) ff. 104-105. `A Praeliminary Discourse, shewing the Order, Method, & Designe of this Part, chiefly relating to Fruit-Trees', endorsed `I wrote this for Mr Wises Translation & Epitomy of La Quintiny in which it is printed'; - (b) f. 106. Copy of the London Gazette for 1692, containing an advertisement for the work, marked in pencil; - (c) f. 107. Autograph copy of the dedication endorsed `Epistle dedicatory I write for the Bookseller before the Translation of M: Quint[inie]'.

4. Papers relating to the Royal Society and to Sylva; 1659-1701, viz: (a) ff. 108-111. Proposal in a hand which suggests an origin in the Hartlib communication network for a Protestant college of arts and sciences to be set up in England for research, teaching of children and the promotion of Christian values; [1659?]. Latin. The college to have a council of eleven and various officers, including secretaries for various foreign countries (two for England), two librarians and two `Conservatores’; eleven departments covering medicine, mathematics, edication, trade, agriculture, building, music and the arts, etc. Salaries are specified and that there is to be no theological disputation; - (b) ff. 112-113. Evelyn’s drawings for a `college'; 1659. Reproduced and discussed in Michael Hunter, Establishing the New Science (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1989), pp. 181-184; - (c) f. 114. Pen and ink sketches and notes by Evelyn for arms and mottoes for the Royal Society; 1660 (endorsed date); - (d) f. 115. `Note of what Books are fit for the Library of the Royal Society', prepared by Evelyn for Sir Robert Moray; [1661]. Beal EvJ 46. Formerly Evelyn MS 541; - (e) ff. 116-120. Papers relating to Sylva, including the order of 15 Oct. 1662, for the printing of `Sylva' (f. 116); fragments by Evelyn for Sylva (ff. 117-120); pp. 312-328 of the 3^rd edition of Sylva, with a few MS corrections in the hands of Evelyn and his grandson (ff. 121-124); a letter from Thomas Franklin to – Waller about quick-setting and ditching, referring to `Mr Evelyn’s excellent book Silva', 6 Feb. 1701 (ff. 125-128).

5. ff. 129-135. `The Historie of Staves'; [1664-bef. 1670]. With `Joannis Evelyni . . . De Baculis'; [1670s?]. Partly Latin. Autograph. Imperfect. Evelyn began this some time before 1670 as an appendix to his Sylva; see his correspondence with Isaac Casaubon, Jan. 1670 (Diary and Correspondence, ed. Bray, III, pp. 220-225). It is included in his list of `Things I would write out faire and reforme if I had Leasure', and in Add. MS 15950, f. 80, as `On the History of Staves, Begun, intended, Imperfect'. The text seems never to have progressed beyond the beginning, but Evelyn continued to gather material for it as part of his commonplace collections. Beal EvJ 111 and 112. Formerly Evelyn MS 546 and 547.