“This is the earlier of the two bookplates used in the Cathedral Library. That at present in use, which is substantially the same design, has no embellishment and is not so well engraved.
“See a paper on ‘The Arms of Chichester Cathedral’ in Sussex Arch. Transactions, vol. xi., with illustrations from seals, now in the possession of the Bishop or the Dean and Chapter. The design is intended to represent our Lord as described by St. John the Divine in Revelation i.
The heralds of the seventeenth century mistook it for ‘Prester John,’ the mythical Emperor of Abyssinia in the Middle Ages, and it is sometimes so described in Heraldic Manuals. There is a difference of treatment as to tinctures. The ‘field’ is, I believe, uniformly blue, the throne gold, the figure usually gold, but occasionally white, which my friend Dr. Codrington maintains is correct. The earlier seals generally give a badge of the Holy Trinity, which is the Dedication of the Cathedral. The motto—‘Liber monumente coram eo’—is the Vulgate version of part of Malachi iii. 16.”
Of about this date, with a garland surrounding the shield and crest at a little distance, and two palm branches crossed, is the bookplate of the “Revᵈ. Manley Wood. Middle Temple.” The family is of North Taunton, Devon, and the arms, as given by Burke: Sable, three bars or; on a canton gules, a demi-woodman, holding a club over the dexter shoulder or. Crest a woodman proper, wreathed about the temples and loins vert, holding in the dexter hand an olive branch of the last. This bookplate of a Devon man is in a Devon book, and it is “down along” all over. It bears the inscription: “W. Beal ex dono authoris. Plymouth.” The book is “the Plain Truth: ... By John Agate M.A.... Exon: Printed by Jos. Bliss, and Sold by the Booksellers in Exon MDCCVIII.” I have only quoted about a twentieth part of the title-page, but must give a scrap or two from “To the Reader”: “Be it known, that supposing Mr. Wither had not (as ’tis shamefully notorious he has) first broken the Peace, by drawing me to the Press, yet his Harangue about Union and Moderation, is all Banter and Grimace: for how ridiculous is an everlasting Cant and Din about Peace and Union, from One who, ... if he does not Love, yet manifestly lives by Divisions!...”
The armorial bookplate with large margin of “The Rᵗ Honᵇˡᵉ The Earl of Suffolk, is in a splendid folio large-paper copy of The Book of Common Prayer.... Printed by Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel, printers to the Universitie of Cambridge. Anno Dom. 1638. The latter half of the volume is the Whole Book of Psalmes, Collected into English metre, by Th. Sternhold, John Hopkins, and others, ... with apt notes to sing them withall:”—the same printer and date. The whole volume being ruled in red lines in the very effective way used with special copies, and bound in fine