Royal MS 17 D XVI

LIVRE contenant cinquante emblemes chrestiens premierement inuentez par la noble damoiselle Georgette de Montenay . . . escrits, tirez et tracez par la main et plume de moy Esther Inglis, l'an de mon aage cinquante et trois, a Lislebourg [Edinburgh] en Escosse, l'an 1624': drawings and verses copied by E. Inglis, al. Langlois, wife of Bartholomew Kello (see Dict. Nat. Biogr., s. n. Kello), from the 1619 edition of G. de Montenay's Emblemes ou devises chrestiennes (first publ. in 1470, with dedication to Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, in whose service the author was), in which reprint the original French verses attached to the woodcuts were supplemented by polyglott additions. Esther Inglis copies 51 out of the 100 emblem woodcuts, with the French verses and one set of the Latin ones attached to each, and the portrait of Georgette (with verses, f. 6), adds two more emblems, an 'epistle dedicatorie' to Prince Charles [afterwards Charles I], and her own portrait (f. 7, with Latin verses by A. M., R. R.. and I. I.), and affixes to each emblem a dedication to a living British prince, nobleman, or statesman. The two new emblems (ff. 9, 17) are those of Prince Charles and the Duke of Buckingham, and in that of Princess Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia (f. 10), her portrait has been substituted for that of the Queen of Navarre in the original. Many of the drawings are dated 1622-1624 and changes appear to have been made in the list as the work proceeded, e. g. it appears from the index (f. 62) that the original no. 3, Lord Cranfield, has been omitted to make way for the Duke of Buckingham, and possibly others (ff. 12, 18) have been altered.

Paper; ff. 63. 11 in. x 73/4 in. A. D. 1624. Calligraphically written by E. Inglis. Bound in crimson satin, embroidered (in the centre three ostrich plumes within a coronet) with gold and silver thread, gimp, spangles, &c., and a few pearls (see C. Davenport, Engl. Embroidered Bookbindings, 1899, pl. 37). Not in the old catalogues.