Judging a Cover by Its Book

SOMETIME DURING THE 1540S, the London workshop of the immigrant goldsmith Hans van Antwerpen produced a ‘tablet’ or girdle-book for an unidentified customer. A small gold case that opened like a book and measured approximately 64 × 55 × 14 mm when closed, it had a ring attached to the top of each cover by which it could be suspended from a woman’s girdle, and was evidently intended to contain a miniature prayer-book. As shown in Fig. 1, each cover has a panel measuring about 52 × 34 mm, illustrated with a scene from the Bible in repoussé relief and coloured with black and pearl enamel. Around each panel in black enamel is the relevant quotation from the Bible,1 while the spine and the two clasps are chased and enamelled with arabesque patterns. Enamelled gold girdle prayer-book case by Hans van Antwerpen, London, early 1540s (British Museum no. 1894.0729.1). Reproduced (at approximately 95% actual size) by courtesy of The British Museum Images. It was presumably made to fit around an existing book, more probably manuscript than printed, but its original contents have not survived. As Hugh Tait first pointed out in 1962, the quotation on the upper cover cannot antedate the first publication of the English translation known as ‘the Great Bible’ (not on sale until November 1539, despite the ‘Apryll’ colophon), in which Moses is told to ‘make the a fyrie serpent, and set it vp for a sygne’.2 In 1977 Tait discovered what he believed to be the prototype of the Moses panel on a Flemish binding dated 1543, and convincingly explained how the London goldsmith variously ‘omitted’, ‘replaced’, ‘discarded’ or ‘repeated’ details from the Flemish source. Paradoxically, though, Tait continued to argue for a date ‘in 1540 or very soon afterwards’ for the London copy, speculating that Hans could have ‘obtained access to the original in Antwerp during his travels … in 1539 or … gained a knowledge of it from one of his “foreign” assistants’.3 But exactly when in the 1540s the case was made is of less importance in the present context than what happened to it in the 1570s, when someone chose to discard the original contents and replace them with something (or rather, with three things) Elizabethan. The book now inside the golden case contains 151 printed leaves that will be discussed in detail below. Bound at each end of them are several blank leaves which were not photographed when the text was filmed in 1993. According to Susan Felch, who was allowed to examine the booklet in or before 2007, On the inside of the front cover is a vellum pastedown, followed by one blank vellum and three blank paper pages; the volume concludes with another three paper pages, a repaired vellum leaf, and a vellum pastedown.4 The six paper ‘pages’ are presumably leaves, of which each trio probably includes one conjugate pair. Although nothing is mentioned about the booklet’s binding, if the outermost leaves of ‘vellum’ (or more probably parchment) are ‘pastedowns’, perhaps what they are pasted to is yet a third material. What the case contains therefore appears to be a bound codex in its own right. To insert that book into (or remove it from) the golden case, the case must be opened until flat (or beyond), and each of the booklet’s covers slipped into the turned-in gold edges of the appropriate cover.5 The book was taken out at least once in the 1980s so that the inside of the case could be photographed for Tait’s 1985 article in Jewellery Studies. It was removed again in 1993 so that the text could be microfilmed for the British Library, and again some years later for Felch to examine when she was editing the Tyrwhit text. But the importance and fragility of the case have led to a stricter policy, and the Museum authorities are now reluctant to allow it to be opened more than a few degrees, if at all. The first of the three items in the printed codex is what is now the only extant copy of the 1574 edition of a small printed book called ‘Morning and Euening prayer, with diuers Psalmes Himnes and Meditations’ (Fig. 3). The fourth word should certainly have been plural prayers, but there is as much space before the comma as after it, and no sign of damage to the surface of the paper.6 The next three lines report that the text was ‘¶Made by the Lady Elizabeth Tirwit’, and that as required by law it has been ‘Seene & allowed’. The inside of the gold case, with the printed book removed. Reproduced by courtesy of The British Museum Images. The book’s publisher, Christopher Barker, was made free of the Drapers’ Company in January 1560 after serving an apprenticeship with the book-selling draper John Petyt.7 Barker was therefore probably in his early thirties when he made his first appearance in the Stationers’ records. Not long after 22 July 1569 (in the eighth of the 204 ‘copy-entrances’ of 1569–70) he paid 8d for his licence to print ‘serten prayers of my Lady tyrwett’, and then another 4d to secure ‘serten prayers of mr bullion’.8 I suspect that ‘mr bullion’ was an error for Henry Bull, whose Christian Prayers and Holy Meditations was reprinted several times after the first known edition of 1568 (STC 4028), at which time it was owned by the printer Henry Middleton. Small-format books of private prayers were intended for regular use rather than occasional consultation. They were therefore unlikely to become shelved in the library of a scholar or a wealthy bibliophile, so the chance that any given edition would survive into the present century was not far above zero. Bull’s Christian Prayers and Holy Meditations far outstrips the norm for the decade of 1569–78, with five editions known from single copies (complete or nearly so) and a sixth from two copies.9 All were printed by Henry Middleton, so if ‘bullion’ had been an error, Barker probably conceded amicably—and it was Middleton who printed the only extant copy of Lady Tyrwhit’s prayers for him in 1574 (in 32o, a miniature format far less likely to survive than the 16o and 8o editions of Bull). If there had been any earlier Barker editions one of them could have caught the acquisitive eye of William Seres, who was seeking out books of private prayer that he could ensnare with the revised wording of his 1571 patent. In 1577, however, Barker would acquire a patent capable of trumping that of Seres, and there is evidence that relations between the two men were some-what strained during the second half of the 1570s. Middleton may in fact have contributed to Barker’s book in more ways than one, because the ‘briefe exhortation vnto prayer’ with which it begins is not by Tyrwhit, but taken (with slight modification) from the preliminaries of Bull’s Christian Prayers, and the same exhortation also appears in another Middleton prayer collection of 1574, A Godly Garden.10 Tyrwhit herself has to share the title-page credit with Barker and Middleton (both of whom are named again in the colophon on M6v), while four other pages contain only Barker’s device (Fig. 3), depicting a man stripping bark from logs (D8v, E4v, K4v, M7r).11 We can also subtract twelve pages for Bull’s ‘exhortation’ (A2r–7v), thirty-three for the Litany from The Book of Common Prayer (K6r–M6r),12 and six blanks (H3v, K5r–v, M7v–8v). Even if we include the woodcut of her father’s arms on the verso of the title,13 Tyrwhit’s own contribution is less than seventy-one percent of the book. But the ninety-six leaves of Barker’s first known publication are not nearly enough to fill van Antwerpen’s golden case. On the three outer edges of each cover the gold sheet is folded inwards to create a channel about five millimetres deep into which one cover of the bound booklet can be slid from the spine forwards (see Fig. 2) Unless the inserted book is the right thickness (within a very small range), the case will either not open or not close properly. And the volume that has resided in it since the 1570s contains substantially more than just the ninety-six leaves of the Tyrwhit book. The remaining fifty-five printed leaves come from two different books, each defective at both ends: forty leaves from one book and fifteen from another. The first published description of what follows Morning and Euening prayer was given in a letter of 15 January 1791 by William Herbert: The next article … has the following title in a border of metal flowers: “The Queene’s Prayers, or Meditations: wherein the Mynde is stirred to suffer all Afflictions here.” … the running title throughout is “The Queene’s Praiers;” even over that part of “The Letanye,” which remains.14 Herbert reports that he has an edition not much larger, resembling it in most respects, printed by William How in 1571 (now STC 3010 part 2, in 16o). This has the title ‘environed with a border of the same metal flowers’, so Herbert tentatively suggests that they may both be the work of the same printer.15 The STC revisers (followed by most subsequent commentators) assumed instead that the printer was Middleton, and numbered the book as 4826.6—although 3010.5 part 2 would have been more apposite. In June 1545 Thomas Berthelet, King’s Printer to Henry VIII, printed the first known edition of Prayers stirryng the mynd vnto heauenlye medytacions: collected oute of holy workes by the mooste vertuous and gracious princess Katherine quene of Englande, Fraunce, and Irelande (STC 4818). The next known edition appeared from the same press and with the same date, but with the title revised to read as follows: Prayers or meditacions, wherin the mynde is styrred paciently to suffre all afflictions here, to sette at nought the vayne prosperitie of this worlde, and alway to longe for the euerlastyng felicitie: collected out of certain holy woorkes by the same queen, who on this title-page is spelled Catharine. The enlarged title appears on all extant editions up to and including 1561—after which no separate editions are known before 1640.16 It is also material to note that all editions before 1568 have the one-word running-title ‘Prayers’ (variously spelled and capitalized) on both rectos and versos. Just over a year before printing the first edition, Berthelet had printed a selection of Latin psalms and prayers by St John Fisher (Psalmi seu precationes ex dated (STC A later on the he an English translation or prayers taken out of In 1568 Henry printed the third known edition of the the known edition of the English part English edition, however, had an The Psalmes or taken out of Holy called The Psalmes in Henry VIII, at whose the had been in and it was followed by a of book with a title or Meditations: wherein the is stirred to suffer all afflictions here, as in the with that title have verso running while on rectos read ‘Prayers’ (or both in as in the The printer of the girdle-book (Fig. however, was William How Henry The on the second is as the one in on of STC and in 1574 on of by Thomas Herbert the of this second prayer book as four first leaves are a in has only four leaves assumed that the first four leaves were an while Felch that they are the second half of an of the leaves are before the title leaf, as can be in Fig. therefore the as however, the of what leaves could have the wording of the title and the fact that it appears in that was certainly from an edition that with The The text that into a over pages pages in Henry 16o of the (STC and a few lines more than that in William of 1571 In each of editions The Psalmes so if reprinted one of them in we should his to fill between and and to in In all extant editions before The Prayers was printed as if a separate with its own from its title-page on If as the second half of the in which The Psalmes of its pages would have a But when his to the next pages of the copy, the he or they there would have In which case rather than would have made than appears at first contribution to the girdle-book also with four leaves of As after an from Bull’s Christian Prayers and Holy Meditations into the of Tyrwhit’s book of prayers, on Barker and Middleton also Litany from the prayer book. printed in in vnto Prayer (STC the Litany was in when The Book of the Common Prayer was first from both the first and second of the first edition, it was first in a to the third Elizabeth it for the Litany to be in of private prayers for of (STC of Prayers Bull’s Christian Prayers and Holy Meditations Christian Prayers and Meditations in English and the Godly A Godly A for the and A for It also appears at the end of each edition of prayers separate or to The in it begins on after the three lines of the of her In the separate 16o edition of The Prayers of (STC the Litany pages lines In 16o editions to The Psalmes it either pages of fifteen lines each or pages are and lines What would have of the Litany after would probably have more pages than the of a but would not have the pages of a We can therefore that the first four leaves of The Prayers were followed by out would have the of prayers its three but it a and a half of Litany as evidence that the booklet was a A of the Litany would have been less of an than the present between and what follows leaves and out twelve leaves, which were by fifteen from a third source. the second Litany been any in thickness could have been made up by one or two blank at either and the between the second and third could have been The Prayers and the of the second Litany are followed by a far more from a third printing It of just two A and printed in black and but with only a remaining of which was presumably the title (Fig. The of has the second half of the a of printed and then the relevant for each year from to a because while there would have been for one more there was not for The presumably so it would have only years I therefore suspect that while a edition of had a for this one was a of 1574 with years and the with the the to Morning and Prayers, Reproduced to about by courtesy of the British The Prayers, Reproduced to about by courtesy of the British The Prayers, and the and Reproduced to about by courtesy of the British The of that follows each two pages, and on only five extant The first of them contains the the of the followed by This begins with an that to Henry one of a of not On or begins with a a over mm in perhaps part of a but I have not any The and is followed by of which to an end the of the extant of the In the 1570s the printer Henry was the regular of the William Seres, and any book of private prayers printed by him would have at each end to have been by William In was a of the of William who as him a patent for of of private prayers called and taken and for in and small which and and to the of not survive into the of but Elizabeth in an patent that of of private prayers and called or taken for for the first also now or at and by and that the were no required to with The Book of Common years when (now was about to be to he and his yet another this time in and for of and of prayers and in and small in or just called but all books of private prayers and soon to the that one prayer-book after another or not a to another was his by of his so would be either or in between him and at least other that the of would it to and a the girdle-book was we can be that any prayer-book in printed by was printed for (or the for books of the 1570s in only four two of which are the two girdle-book items while another is an edition of the printed by John in (STC first the fourth a book dated 1574 whose colophon it as at London by William which has at the of the Litany on and whose leaves have the appropriate for The copy all before so there is no to it with an and the the of the actual volume whose survive in the girdle-book at all must be But what out all of an is the fact that both STC and are about the STC is not a but a whose leaves × 34 are only half the of of the This book of prayer in its gold case was first to by John in at which time it to ‘the of in that date, On a blank at the is this Book of Prayer was by the Lady to during her in the and the it by a to her and her it by will to one of her of her But the case was certainly to a is no date at which that could have been both a manuscript of Tyrwhit’s prayers and a to the of the least of all when Elizabeth was in the in Tyrwhit and her were of the of while the Lady Elizabeth but by they had become her at the between the two was not exactly The printed contents could not have been to before the which the was in the when the case into which they not fit was no more than Elizabeth a was in the book was given to her as an by her who was in it to it could have been part of the of and she in than one sale of was during the of and in both the at and the in the of London, the of what of the collection of and by the the the book into the of the while a was it was not even is no evidence to who the ‘tablet’ case in the 1570s, who and the printed or for however, some If this were to be a the golden case would be to the and the would to be from Lady Tyrwhit and as it the book only two As part 2 of The The Prayers no its and most of the Litany removed any colophon with the of Thomas and paid him to print the title-page and colophon of the third either William or Henry from named at either end of that In what only two Henry and Christopher Barker’s no than six It may be no more than that both Middleton and Barker were the of of the … by of in the and that both and were the was present at the in Stationers’ on June at which Barker that he had the of him the right to print the translation of the Bible in had his own right to print in of and by a (STC Printer in 1577, Barker by including the two from edition in his own STC of the Psalmes of The two men one on in and another in but Barker’s would In when the to be the of Printer in and Barker the of the of to whom the and of As a of was about to Thomas as second Barker a few about and the of the and by June he had made of several in his for the if he had by a book fit for a queen, the would have been a time to But can it be that the girdle-book as it was fit for a a collection of printed leaves of the required bound them had to the fact that they were a in both than the golden covers into which they had to The only that was was the very on which the Tyrwhit title was by a border of for its context (Fig. 3). The of that border therefore had to a or Not very much could be from the top the of The Prayers, two of which were and while only two were and was what happened at the the was to the spine with the that the of the booklet approximately two from spine to is made very by what of the of the of around the Tyrwhit also damage to the and of but the Tyrwhit leaves The also a from the few in the of the around the title of The Prayers (Fig. of the in the first four leaves in that booklet were as were a of each in while most of its all of its and part of its verso But perhaps to for the of title leaf, the two printed by have no more than a small part of the of As a of the girdle ‘tablet’ is but the book inside it is not up to the same I to the girdle-book I that the of its original contents with printed leaves had probably been Barker’s the of the perhaps he an for and for the Although Elizabeth had a was no and a would be in a few Barker therefore have the a to his was not to in the of with there was nothing to a from a at any time of however, have had to both a and a very But by his own Barker the of Printer by it from the man to whom Elizabeth had to it and that made that he had to his known to Not long a I in a of an which I now much more In the of and of the only two years later any but a and a whose Christopher would later become one of most from the and the end of will in July and in November one of her few to my my of with the As Hugh Tait explained and in some in books had been one could them in any and of at the English in the between and to have the for as a of a miniature book of in include the of but one can that most were both than could and If to her of in as she would have been to the open of a If she her on how to replace its contents with an he have mentioned that his the of the Christopher And while the girdle-book as it now cannot be to be fit for a queen, it would have for the of a second The paper codex in a golden case and to be and opened In 1993 it was removed and microfilmed for the British so have been by courtesy of the British from of in the printing of English books to what happened to the printed and I cannot to much about either the or the of I to the who to read and what I was the of this has from much

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.