[¹] The author was Samuel Gott (1613–1671), see “The Authorship of Nova Solyma,” by Stephen K. Jones (1910), and B.M. Catalogue.
“The book contained three hundred and ninety-two pages, of which the last contained the errata and the printer’s short notice to the reader. There was no preface or introduction of any kind, and no notes. The only printed extra was this Latin motto in the middle of the blank page facing the title:
‘Cujus opus, studio cur tantum quaeris inani?’
‘Qui legis, et frueris, feceris esse tuum.’
which I turn thus:
(p. 5). “‘Whose is the book?’ do you ask. ‘Why start such a bootless enquiry?
If you but read and enjoy, you will have made it your own.’” (pp. 5–6). “... The next year the same book was published again—an evident attempt to utilise the unsold remainder, as there was no difference whatever, except a new title page with the old fly-leaf motto included in it and a page at the end containing the autocriticon. In the only copy I have seen, [St. John’s College, Cambridge], the title page runs as follows:
Novæ Solymæ Libri Sex; sive Institutio Christiani.
1. De Pueritia.
2. De Creatione Mundi.