Suckling, Sir John

Contemporary scribal manuscript, mostly in the distinctive and ornate secretary hand of the Feathery Scribe, the final two pages in another hand, with title page, dedicatory epistle, engrossed capitals, red ruled margins, twenty-eight pages; bound together with three other tracts in different hands and on different paper stocks, comprising "The Scotts Reasons against the Service booke" and related letters, eighteen pages, dated 25 August 1637; "The lords Grace of Canterbury's opinion For the nullity betweenethe Earle of Essex; & his Lady Frances Howard," eight pages; "A Coppy of the Device for Alteration of Religion in the first yeere of Queen Elizabeth", fourteen pages; folio (290 x 205 mm), c.1640. Contemporary limp parchment, ink lettering on spine. Red folding-box and morocco-backed slipcase.

Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. (1906-1990; bookplate, Christie's, 12 June 1980, lot 482) — John Fleming (Christie's, New York, 18 November 1988, lot 334). acquisition: Purchased at the foregoing sale through Bernard Quaritch

CELM SuJ 143

Suckling's tract, which was a justification of Christian doctrine working from the principals of common sense, was written over a period of days during a trip to Bath in the company of John Davenant, Bishop of Salisbury. It enjoyed some circulation in manuscript before appearing in print in the posthumous collection Fragmenta Aurea (1646), and six scribal copies are recorded. This manuscript provides a fine example of the hand of the so-called Feathery Scribe, a prolific professional scribe who copied a huge range of state papers, tracts, and literary works from the mid-1620s to about 1640. The Feathery Scribe's output has been studied by Peter Beal, through which Beal has revealed the flourishing scribal culture of the 1630s (this manuscript is no. 24 in Beal's checklist of Feathery manuscripts in In Praise of Scribes [1998], p.227).