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Ex Libris: Annotating Books from the William A. Clark Memorial Library

A Description the Importance of Preservation

This image is the title page of the Workes of John Boys and shows a multitude of males figures, which I presume would be John Boys throughout various stages of his life. The image was created by John Payne as seen in the bottom left corner, and shows many religious symbols such as the cross and what looks to be John Boys praying towards heaven. John Boys was a priest and the dean of Catenbury from 1619 to his death in 1625. It is only natural that the book would have religious symbols, but within each image of the male figure there reads latin words or phrases such as opportune importune and scriba doctus in regno coelorum. The first phrase can be roughly translated to timely season and the second is scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven. While John Boys did live in England, being a priest during this era of the late 1500s and early 1600s could have enticed him to learn latin in order to read the bible in old text. The image is quite detailed taking up the entirety of the page and was actually imprinted for Willaim Aspley, who was a publisher in London during the Elizabethan era and worked on much of the first and second folios for Shakespeare’s Plays. This book is truly a compilation of John Boys’ papers and essays throughout his life and was put together after his death, because the book was created after 1638.

On the right you can see that there is an image of a page from the book. The book does not have a heavy amount of written annotations, which leads me to believe that this book was read more leisurely and the owner wanted to keep it in a somewhat pristine quality. For the most part annotations within the book appear to be printed and most are footnotes explaining certain parts or adding additional information that the reader might have not known. The written annotations on the right show how the reader was engaging with the text as they continuously started their sentences with “note” followed by their ideas about the difference between multiple ideas and people. This book is heavily religious and provides John Boys’ thoughts on certain concepts and teaching of Christrianity. After looking through the book there appears to be hardly any wear or tear, so the owner was definitely digilent about keeping this book legible. The owner could’ve also come back to this book from time to time and read the annotations they had created as a guide to remember what they had read and their thoughts on the matter.

This following page is just one example of the many works that are within this book. This writing was created by John Boys and follows a very similar trend to the other title page/covers of his books. Many of his works have this fanciful artwork on the page, usually above the title, and there is always the fanciful first letter. The artwork consists of flowers and other plant life with the addition of a crown, presumably alluding to England and their long line of royalty. The artwork within the fanciful I consists of plant life as well, but there also appears to be mermaids. I don’t know the context as for why mermaids would be included within the image, and considering they are mythical creatures there could be some kind of connection between them and God. Once again all of the works that John Boys has created have been related to Christianity, and this follows that trend as well. As a priest he provides valuable insight on the ideas brought about by Christianity, and expressing his beliefs can help others see his perspective on religion and the impact that it has within someone's everyday life.

This is the first image that I found that actually has a full page of handwritten notes, while it is legible to a certain extent it is still difficult to read. This page was also the first one I discovered to be completely blank, which probably prompted the owner to actually write on the page. This is one of the most heavily written pages within the book. The personal owner of this was the Beaumont family, which during the 1400s had become synonymous with coal mining within England. The family had virtually made their fortune off of the mines that they had acquired, and their wealth had made them interested in art as well as other collections. This book was within their care, so this writing could very well be from a family member that took an interest in this book. At the top the title states Of the lawe and the gospell, and the overall writing within this short manuscript seems to be some old latin. The Beaumont family did an excellent job at preserving the text and the teaching of John Boyes and the annotations within it can now be seen and understood by many others today. It is also thanks to Henry Vaughan that this book was created in the first place as he had collected the writings of John Boys as he wrote them throughout his life and then compiled them into one book that would be easily accessible and read by many others.

Works Cited

Howe, E. M. “Coal, Art, and the Beaumonts .” Proquest. History Today; London. Vol. 24. https://bit.ly/3wy9o1m.

Richardson, William. 2004. Boys, John (Bap. 1571, d. 1625), Dean of Canterbury. Vol. 1.

Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/3144.

Yoshinaka, Takashi, and Mai Matsumoto. 2021. “Eschatological Alchemy in Henry Vaughan and Andrew Marvell.” The Seventeenth Century 36 (2): 213–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/0268117X.2020.1746925.

This page has paths:

Contents of this path:
3. Contextualizing Leviathan: A Behemoth in Many Regards
4. A Description the Importance of Preservation
5. Anglican Preeminence in 17th-Century England: Supremacy at the Expense of Britain's Catholic Subjects
6. A Paraphrase Upon the Song of Solomon Manuscript annotations by an unknown reader in a 1642 edition of A paraphrase upon the Song of Solomon. Annotations consist of underlining in red pencil, bracketing in pencil, and markings along margins and throughout text as well as a one ink correction, a note written in shorthand, a pencil note written sideways, and pencil notes supplying different translations. Condition: Bound in 19th or 20th century
8. Finding Gold in the Flowers: Rebellious Formatting As Well As Content
10. Pipe of indulgence

This page references:

The Workes of John Boys. Manuscript annotations in a copy of the Workes of John Boys, likely made by Henry Vaughan, a contemporary owner whose name is inscribed on the title page. Though a description by the Marchmont Bookshop laid in at the front of the volume asserts that the Henry Vaughan who owned this book was the poet Henry Vaughan the Silurist, that does not appear certain. Annotations consist of marginal notes, manicules and other notations, as well as several longer text passages on blank leaves and at the end of the volume. It is possible that more than 1 roughly contemporary hand is present. Condition: Bound in contemporary mottled calf.
A pipe of Tobacco
The Workes of John Boys Details Manuscript annotations in a copy of the Workes of John Boys, likely made by Henry Vaughan, a contemporary owner whose name is inscribed on the title page. This is page 650 of the book. Though a description by the Marchmont Bookshop laid in at the front of the volume asserts that the Henry Vaughan who owned this book was the poet Henry Vaughan the Silurist, that does not appear certain. Annotations consist of marginal notes, manicules and other notations, as well as several longer text passages on blank leaves and at the end of the volume. It is possible that more than 1 roughly contemporary hand is present. Condition: Bound in contemporary mottled calf.
The Workes of John Boys Details 2 Manuscript annotations in a copy of the Workes of John Boys, likely made by Henry Vaughan, a contemporary owner whose name is inscribed on the title page. Though a description by the Marchmont Bookshop laid in at the front of the volume asserts that the Henry Vaughan who owned this book was the poet Henry Vaughan the Silurist, that does not appear certain. Annotations consist of marginal notes, manicules and other notations, as well as several longer text passages on blank leaves and at the end of the volume. It is possible that more than 1 roughly contemporary hand is present. Condition: Bound in contemporary mottled calf.