1534. Opus de vera differentia regiae potestatis. Londini, T. Berthelet, 1534; measuring 8 by 5¼.
This volume is very like that at the Bodleian, already fully described on page 69. The centre stamp is the same, and so are the outer border and corners, but the handsome double border is wanting. The book has been badly repaired; in some cases stamps have been cut after the old patterns, but in others, as for instance the corners next to the oval label, they have been made in a modern arabesque pattern, not like the original. The book itself is a fine specimen of Berthelet’s printing on vellum. The heraldic centre stamp, bearing the dragon and greyhound supporters, is really an anachronism; properly the supporters should be a lion and a dragon; the stamp, however, was seldom used, so Berthelet, having it by him, did not trouble to cut another, as he should have done.
1536. A charming little specimen of Berthelet’s private binding is now in the Ryland’s Library at Manchester, and by the courtesy of the librarian, Mr. E. Gordon Duff, I am enabled to describe it.
It is a remarkably fine copy of the New Testament, Tyndale’s version, printed in London in 1536; there is an inscription inside which shows that in 1676 it belonged to Henry, Duke of Newcastle, and later to Dr. Charles Chauncey.
It is bound in brown calf, and has on each side a long upright panel within a border of ornamented circles of Italian design. The panel has on one side a unicorn in the centre, and on the other a talbot, the crest of the Heydon family. There are also some initials upon it, but these do not seem to throw any light upon its ownership. The badges are surrounded with scrolls made up of reversed curves, in Berthelet’s usual manner. At the outer corners of the border are large Italianate fleurons, and the gold lines are supported by others in blind, running parallel to them. There are the remains of two silk ties.
1536. An historically interesting volume has just been bequeathed to the British Museum by the late Baron Ferdinand Rothschild, formerly member of Parliament for Waddesdon, who left altogether a very valuable collection of jewels and manuscripts to the British nation.
This volume is very large, measuring about 19¼ by 13½; it is a manuscript translation in French of the Decameron of Boccaccio, by Laurent de Premierfait, made from a Latin version by Antoine de Aresche, in 1414. The manuscript itself, which is illuminated, was probably made late in the fifteenth century.
The binding is in very dark calf, and is tooled in gold, with a few blind lines; it was made for Edward Seymour, first Duke of Somerset, the Protector, who was beheaded on Tower Hill in 1552.
The duke’s motto, “FOY POVR DEBVOIR,” is contained within an ornamental cartouche in the centre of each cover. The cartouche is enclosed, at some distance, in a diamond stamped with a small roll pattern; near each of the outer sides of the diamond is an ornament made of two impressions of a cornucopia stamp. Along the edges of the boards is a broad Italianate arabesque border; the inner angles of the border are filled with either the stamp of Plato or that of Dido, already described, enclosed in arabesques, and the outer corners have small fleurons.
The volume has been rebacked and some of the gold-tooling restored. The stamps found upon it are generally such as were used by Berthelet early in his career; but as there is no other indication of the date, it must be remembered that my attribution of the work as having been made about 1536 is only conjectural.