(Udall, Nicholas) — Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus

12mo (6 1/2 x 3 3/4 in.; 163 x 94 mm). Inscribed on the title in Udall's hand "Su[m] nicolai Vdalli. Magnes amoris modestia. 1524.", also inscribed in another hand with the name "Edoardi P" and "Codex Plam[undi ?]", sixteenth-century manuscript ink and pencil marginal annotations and underlining. Early but not original interleaving, lacking 2K8 with the Aldine device on verso, lacking **4 (blank),  some worming and light damp-staining, finger marks. Nineteenth-century calf; recently rebacked, extremities rubbed. 

Nicholas Udall (ownership inscription on title-page) — Prince Edward ? (ownership inscription on title-page) — Sotheby's, London, July 20, 1989, lot 13. acquisition: Purchased at the foregoing sale

Renouard p. 53

Nicholas Udall's copy with notes.

Nicholas Udall was a Latin professor at Eton College. After being tutored by Thomas Cromwell, he became tutor of Prince Edward, Henry VIII's son. This and the contemporary manuscript mention "Edoardi P" would suggest at least the possibility that the book was used by the young Prince Edward before he became king, at the age of nine years, in January 1546/7. Udall was also the author of Ralph Roister Doister, considered the first comedy written in English (written and presented to Queen Mary I around 1552/1553 but published in 1566/1567).

Examples of his handwriting are of the utmost rarity. The Index of English Literary Manuscripts, Volume I, part 2 (1980), pages 549-551, records the existence of one autograph letter by Udall (in the British Library), of one autograph literary manuscript (his verses for the coronation of Queen Anne Boleyn, also in the British Library) and two books with his inscriptions or annotations (a printed grammar of 1524 in the Folger Shakespeare Library and a Zurich Bible of 1543 in private ownership). The present volume is unrecorded.