Property From The Collection of Robert S Pirie Volumes I & II: Books and Manuscripts

/

Lot 1
  • 1

Adamson, John

Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 USD
Log in to view results
bidding is closed

Description

  • Adamson, John
  • The Muses Welcome to the High and Mighty Prince James by the Grace of God King of Great Britaine France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. At his Majesties Happie Returne to his Olde and Native Kingdome of Scotland, after 14 Yeers Absence, in Anno 1617. Edinburgh, [Andro Hart], 1618.[bound with:]Planctus, & vota Musarum in Augustissimi Monarchae Jacobi Magnae Britanniae, Francia, et Hiberniae regis, &c. Edinburgh, Andro Hart, 1618.
  • Ink, paper and cow
Folio (11 3/8 x 7 3/8 in.; 290 x 189 mm). Complete with the portrait as frontispiece, title-page without printer's name, with pp. 109-112 cancelled bifolium printed in London by the Eliot's Court Press, text printed in a frame, numerous head- and tail-pieces, woodcut initials, ornaments and devices. Contemporary calf, gilt- and blind-tooled frames and gilt arms of James I. Joints rubbed, modern title-label, stains and cuts on the last cover.

Provenance

King James I (arms). acquisition: Rodgers

Literature

STC 140.5. and STC 142

Catalogue Note

First edition, issue printed by Andro Hart.

The Muses Welcome was printed twice. There are two known editions of this collection, both dated 1618: one is the work of the King’s printer for Scotland, Thomas Finlason, and the other is without an attribution for printer on the title page. Andro Hart’s device is on the verso of the second leaf. 


King James I's own copy.

On the 15th of May, 1617, King James VI & I landed at Port "Seatown" (now Seton) to begin what would be his only homecoming tour of Scotland. James left Scotland 14 years earlier to become the first King of Great Britain and Ireland. James stayed in Scotland until the beginning of August of that same year and, although resident in Edinburgh, he spent much of his time touring his northern kingdom. James visited Scotland under the pretense of celebrating his fiftieth year as King of Scotland; however, the political motives of James’s trip to his homeland are now clear in hindsight: his main objective was to try to align the Church of Scotland more to the Anglican Church, evident in his passing of the Five Articles of Perth in the year following this tour.

During James’s visitations to the cities, towns, villages and boroughs of Scotland many formal presentations of verse and addresses were given to the King. In 1618 a collection of these poems, addresses and a record of where the King and his entourage visited was printed in Edinburgh. The Muses Welcome is truly a treasure trove of early seventeenth-century poetry by some of Scotland’s premiere bards, and even includes unattributed dedications by Sir Francis Bacon, identified by his family’s motto “Mediocra Firma” found at the foot of his dedications (3rd leaf recto, pp. 115, 153, 168).