Auction Closed
December 10, 04:10 PM GMT
Estimate
3,000 - 4,000 GBP
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Description
BEDA. Ecclesiasticae historiae gentis Anglorum libri quinque diligenti studio a mendis, quibus hactenus scatebant, vindicati. Beda Anglosaxone authore. Antwerp: Joannes Gravius, 1550
A copy of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People with early English provenance, from the libraries of John Selden and the Bodleian.
Written in 731 AD, Bede’s history is the only substantial source of information about the Anglo-Saxon period and the conversion to Christianity that took place at this time. It was first printed in Strassburg in around 1475 and this is the first edition to contain the Continuatio Bedae, which continues the narrative in abbreviated form from 731 to 766, added as the final chapter of book V. The text concludes with a list of Bede’s works, his epitaph and his address to the reader, requesting their prayers as a reward for his efforts.
The chaining of the volume presumably took place when it arrived at the Bodleian Library.
Folio (283 x 180 mm). Roman type, 38 lines plus headline. collation: A4 B-Z6 a6: 142 leaves (A4 blank). Woodcut printer’s device on title-page and final verso (otherwise blank), woodcut initials. (A few small marginal wormholes, occasional light foxing or damp-staining.)
binding: Contemporary English blind-stamped calf over pasteboard (292 x 205 mm), roll-tooled border containing the Tudor rose, crown, fleur-de-lys, dog and portcullis (Oldham 761, London or Cambridge), central leafy stamp (added later?), plain edges, holes at upper corner of front cover from chaining staple, stubs from two pairs of ties, pastedowns from a fifteenth-century English manuscript in Latin. (Rebacked with new flyleaves, binding somewhat worn and rubbed, upper corners bumped, lower corners repaired, a few small wormholes.)
provenance: William Whitman (?), inscription on title-page dated 1582 — 15, inventory number written across fore-edge — John Selden (1584-1654), his library acquired by the Bodleian Library in 1659, with their shelfmark "B.1.15 Art Seld" on title-page, and later duplicate note "Dupl. B1.15.Art.Seld", sale of Bodleian duplicates, Sotheby & Wilkinson, 21 May 1862, lot 307 — Franciscan Friary, Olton (Warwicks, closed in 1981), library stamps on flyleaf and title-page — Richard Hatchwell (1927-2009), sale, Bonhams, 6 October 2009, lot 33. acquisition: Purchased in 2009 from Bernard Quaritch, London. references: USTC 400809