SANDYS, George ~ Paraphrase upon the Divine Poems (1638). Exceptional copy inscribed by three early female readers or owners.

SANDYS, George,  Paraphrase upon the Divine Poems (1638)

“A second edition of the Psalmes appeared in 1638, which also included fine translations of the book of Job, Ecclesiastes, and Lamentations, and commendatory poems from brother-poets Henry King, Sidney Godolphin, Thomas Carew, and Edmund Waller. The mood of this second edition is more sombre: several of the poets, including Sandys himself, meditate upon the growing troubles of the kingdom. Musical settings of the Psalmes by Henry Lawes were also included, probably for performance by the Chapel Royal” – Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

George Sandys, poet, traveler, and colonial treasurer of the Virginia Company, includes a section of Psalms with a separate title page: “Set to new Tunes for private Devotion: And a thorow Base, for Voice, or Instrument, by Henry Lawes…

First published music by Henry Lawes, the leading English composer of the period of Charles I.  Lawes wrote the five songs for the staging of John Milton’s Masque, Comus four years before the publication of this book   

A unique copy inscribed with the signatures and inscriptions of three early female readers/owners including the poet Anne King.  

Beautifully bound in contemporary black Morocco, richly gilt. 

An article on this special copy was posted on the excellent ‘Early Modern Female Book Ownership’ project highlighting early modern female readers and owners – https://earlymodernfemalebookownership.wordpress.com/

The entry was written by Martine Van Elk, Professor of Early Modern English Literature at California State University, Long Beach; co-editor of Early Modern Women

Professor Van Elk’s description:

“George Sandys (1578–1644) is today best known for his travel writing (especially his Relation of a Journey, 1615) and for his translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (1632). In 1636, he first published his Paraphrase upon the Divine Poems, which included versions of the psalms and hymns of the bible. Paraphrases of psalms and other biblical texts were extremely popular in the early modern period. Women themselves engaged in this type of writing and seem to have been eager to read many different versions. Sandys was an Arminianist, and so reading, owning, and especially inscribing this particular version of the psalms with one’s name announces the reader’s own religious beliefs. This copy of Sandys’s A Paraphrase Upon the Divine Poems (1638) was obviously cherished by its owners, considering the beautiful black Morocco binding. The inside reveals evidence of male and female ownership: there are pen trials, a short Latin quotation, and a variety of signatures. Among the female signatures is one by An Selby, one by Elizabeth Bath, and one by Anne King, who apparently also copied down the imprint and date for the book. The Latin quotation is from Prosper of Aquitane: “Roma caput mundi / quisquid non possided / armis religione tenett” (Rome capital of the world what it doesn’t possess by arms it holds by religion).

The name Anne King is intriguing: the book contains a dedicatory poem by Henry King (1592–1669), churchman, poet, and acquaintance of Sandys, John Donne, and others. Henry’s sister was the poet Anne King, and even though much about her is uncertain, a possible date of birth is 1621. If this beautifully bound book was a presentation copy, it is possible that it was given to Henry or his sister. The other names, An Selby and John Howell, can potentially be traced to the Selby family in Kent, owners of the estate of Ightham Mote. This geneaology has an Ann Selby born in 1703 (died 1747), whose grandmother was Elizabeth Howell, daughter to John Howell (who died in 1682)…

Two bookplates indicate later ownership, by W. H. Corfield and classicist Thomas Gaisford, Dean of Christ Church, whose library was sold at auction in 1880.“

“when James Howell, historian and writer, came across some of Anne King’s original compositions, her words affected him so strongly that before the next morning he composed a poem asking the muses to admit her among their ranks………Anne King  leaned on her brother Henry King, a writer: she developed her own writing abilities through his literary circles and established herself among distinguished poets with whom Henry was closely connected, including Ben Jonson, John Donne, and Isaac Walton..”  – The Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen (Rutledge 2017):

The binding was elaborately described (item 66) in Bernard Quaritch’s catalogue of January, 1897: Samples of the Book-Binding.