The Queen’s College Library Insight

Issue 2, Trinity Term 2012

Inside this issue

MS 194 and Bishop Barlow's grudge against the episcopal bench Dan Paltzer

Nicholas , William Lancaster and the Queen’s College designs Eleonora Pistis

Heraldic manuscripts in the Library of The Queen’s College Nigel Ramsay

Pulsilogium to pulse watch Denis Gibbs

Modern swimming instruction begins in style: the contribution of the influential Everard Digby (ca. 1551-1605) Paul Ivanovic

Refurbishment of medieval manuscripts for Henry VII: Part two, Queen’s College MS 303 Jane Eagan

2 THE QUEEN'S COLLEGE LIBRARY NEWSLETTER

elcome to the second issue of Insight, the annual publication which seeks to highlight some of W the treasures of the Queen’s Library, both to members of the College and to a wider audience at home and further afield.

In this issue we again have a variety of articles on printed book and manuscript collections in the Library, both from regular readers of the collec- tions and from members of the Library team. These include an article on the Library’s large collection of heraldic manuscripts by Nigel Ramsay of University College London, and an Fig. 2: p. 125 and facing plate showing an illustration of account of Thomas Barlow’s grudge against the Queen’s Chapel, from Ackermann’s A history of the Episcopal bench by Dan Paltzer, who spent several University of , recently bequeathed to the Library by weeks in the Library last summer researching old member Mr J. A. Colmer. (Sel.c.200a) Barlow for his PhD thesis. Denis Gibbs, who has been visiting the Library to consult our early J. A. Colmer in late 2011, we received a bequest of medical collection since the 1960s, has written 23 early printed books. Many of the volumes are about Sir John Floyer, whose collection in the extremely rare including a copy of Anthony Library formed the basis of a successful catalogu- Wood’s 1674 Historia et antiquitates universitatis ing and conservation project funded by the Oxoniensis bound in two volumes interleaved with Wellcome Trust some years ago. Paul Ivanovic, Loggan’s 1675 Oxonia illustrate (fig. 1). Another our rare books cataloguer, has contributed an wonderful addition to our collection of antiquarian article about his favourite printed book in the material relating to Oxford is Ackermann’s 1814 Library, Everard Digby’s De arte natandi, while two volume History of the University of Oxford Jane Eagan, our head conservator, has written the (fig. 2) containing exquisite prints of College and second in her series on the refurbishment of our University buildings which, rather surprisingly, we Henrician medieval did not have in the collection previously. One of manuscripts. the most interesting parts of the collection are the five volumes of East India tracts including a Over the last year we number of items not held by the British Library have received several until Mr Colmer provided copies of some of them. visits from groups interested in our The collection as a whole is an extremely welcome fascinating collection of addition to the College Library and I am most original Hawksmoor grateful to Mr Colmer for remembering us in this propositions for the re- particularly generous way. building of the College in the early eighteenth As last year I am most grateful to all the contribu- century, and I am tors to this issue of Insight and in particular to particularly pleased to Lynette Dobson who has produced the Newsletter be able to include in for us. this issue an article Fig. 1: Frontispiece about Hawksmoor’s If you have ideas for future articles or indeed depicting Charles II, from designs for Queen’s by would like to contribute, please contact me at the first volume of Wood’s Eleonora Pistis of [email protected] Historia et antiquitates Worcester College, Universitatis Oxoniensis , recently bequeathed to the Oxford. Amanda Saville Library by old member Mr Librarian J. A. Colmer. The Sheldo- It is not often that we June 2012 nian Theatre can be seen in add to our historic the background. (Sel.b.281a) collections but this year, Cover image: Section of illustration of High

as a result of the sad Street, Oxford from Ackermann’s A history of the death of old member Mr University of Oxford. MS 194 and Bishop Barlow's grudge against the episcopal bench 3

MS 194 and Bishop Barlow's grudge would expect from an Anglican bishop. Shaftes- against the episcopal bench bury had delivered a speech to the House of Lords on 20 Oct 1675 in which he claimed the doctrine of the divine right of kings was the most dangerous and destructive doctrine there had ever been to Dan Paltzer English government and law. Furthermore, it was University of Minnesota a relatively new error introduced by the Laudian clergy. Barlow dismissed this idea on three counts. Divine right was neither new, nor danger- hen I came to the Library at ous, nor destructive. The doctrine had a strong Queen’s College last summer, I basis in Scripture, and had even been revealed to was searching for the answer to a pagans through the use of natural reason. There- deceptively simple question. Why fore, the King of England (and, by implication, all W other legitimate monarchs) held his crown by the would a seventeenth-century Anglican bishop write a pamphlet arguing that none of the bishops will of God, and not from the Pope, the people, or should be allowed to participate in the Earl of laws of England. Danby’s impeachment before the House of Lords? Such a pamphlet contradicts everything which one The dilemma which brought me to Queen’s was would expect of a bishop from that day. Yet this how to explain the position in the pamphlet was exactly the position that Thomas Barlow, the concerning bishops and cases of blood, because Bishop of Lincoln, took in his pamphlet A dis- this publication supported the political machina- course of the peerage & jurisdiction of the lords tions of a man whose ideology Barlow generally spiritual in Parliament (1679). This pamphlet was opposed. In the manuscript described above, as Barlow’s intervention in an ongoing debate about well as his other publications from the 1670s and whether the bishops could participate in the early 1680s, Barlow consistently supported the impeachment trial or attainder of Charles II’s chief political positions associated with the Tory side of minister. From the evidence he found in legal the Popish Plot and Exclusion Crisis. He re- records, Barlow concluded that the bishops were mained a steadfast proponent of the established, legally banned from such proceedings. episcopal Church of England and a firm supporter of the Stuart dynasty until just before the Glorious This was a very strange position for Barlow to Revolution. So what would cause a bishop to take, and one which seemingly violated his usual argue a position which would effectively weaken political convictions as a staunch royalist. Danby the political position of bishops by removing them was under attack by the Earl of Shaftesbury, who from important matters which came before the therefore wanted to prevent the bishops from House of Lords? voting to acquit Danby in this capital trial. Shaftesbury therefore unburied an old custom that As it turns out, Barlow’s position was conditioned had roots in canon law which prevented clergymen by ongoing disagreements between himself and from judging “cases of blood”. the rest of the episcopal bench. In The state of the controversy between the Rt. Revd John Ld Bishop Oddly enough, Barlow agreed with Shaftesbury of Oxon and ye Bishop of Lincolne about ordina- and argued that the bishops should withdraw from tion in Q. Coll. Chappell. 1676 (MS 194 - fig. 1 all cases of blood. I find this position odd, because overleaf), Barlow described his side of an argu- it contradicts the theological and political posi- ment between himself and John Fell, the afore- tions which Barlow defended in all of his other mentioned Bishop of Oxford. The conflict Barlow publications as well as most of the manuscript described was simultaneously based on his treatises he left in the Queen’s College Library. personal preference to remain in the congenial For the sake of comparison, consider De Jure habitations at Queen’s College and his ideological Regio Monarchiae Anglicanae (MS 194), where commitment to maintaining Oxford University Barlow proved himself to be a firm supporter of and its constituent colleges’ rights to autonomy. the divine right of kings. This short treatise was actually written to contradict Shaftesbury, even Barlow’s account of the spat focused primarily on though a few years later he would take the Earl’s the legality of his actions under English law, with side on the issue of bishops during capital trials. occasional claims that he did not act against This piece proclaimed an ideology which one Christian doctrine and insults for his opponent thrown in for good measure. The difficulties 4 THE QUEEN'S COLLEGE LIBRARY NEWSLETTER

outside of them but still within English society, such as Presbyterians or leaders of the political opposition to the Crown (such as Shaftesbury in the example above). The task of writing this defence against Fell combined both institutional allegiances and personal preference, and it therefore contrasted with the way he wrote in other pamphlets or treatises.

MS 194 reveals a different kind of conflict, because it was between different factions of institutional insiders. Barlow’s conflict with the other bishops stemmed from his refusal to leave Queen’s College and take up residence at Lincoln. This was a man who loved life at Queen’s College (and if the people Fig. 1: Title page for Barlow’s letter The state of the controversy at Queen’s in his day were half as friendly and between the Rt. Revd John Ld Bishop of Oxon and ye Bishop of helpful as the current library staff of Amanda, Lincolne about ordination in Q. Coll. Chappell. 1676. (MS 194) Lynette, Rory, and Tessa, I can’t really blame him for not wanting to go). Due to this affection, began when Fell sent Barlow a letter mere hours Barlow wanted to preserve the administrative before Barlow was scheduled to begin ordaining autonomy of the Oxford University colleges (and new clergymen for his diocese in the chapel of Queen’s in particular), because this autonomy Queen’s College. The letter asked Barlow not to allowed his college to continue to function in its proceed with the ordination, but Barlow saw no traditional modes. Legal documents such as reason why he could not go ahead with the Parliamentary statutes and royal charters were the ceremony. After the ordination, Barlow sent Fell a instruments establishing and protecting that letter explaining why these affairs were none of the autonomy, so Barlow fiercely defends the entire Bishop of Oxford’s business. The University of system which perpetuated these protections. Oxford, and all of its constituent colleges, had never really been under the episcopal authority of In practical terms, this defence required him to the local diocese. Ironically enough, until Henry protect the integrity of the common law from any VIII created a new bishopric in Oxford, the town outsiders (including the other bishops) who might was part of the diocese of Lincoln, which was try to interfere in college business. In order to Barlow’s see. However, Barlow claimed the make sure he could keep out anyone who wanted Bishops of Lincoln had never been allowed to to intrude where he thought they did not belong, exercise authority over the University of Oxford. Barlow needed to ensure the integrity of the The Provosts of the University and visitors of institutional elements responsible for protecting particular colleges administered colleges’ spiritual and enforcing English law. The House of Lords and administrative affairs without interference was one of these elements, insofar as certain types from the Bishops of Lincoln. The 1541 charter of cases were heard before that body. In all of his which created the new bishopric in Oxford publications, Barlow wished to maintain a particu- expressly preserved these rights and privileges. lar ideological understanding of how elements Fell had no jurisdiction over Queen’s College. within English society relied upon each other and Barlow had received permission from the proper ought not to overstep their bounds to transgress authorities at Queen’s, therefore he felt he had upon other institutions’ traditional functions. acted within the bounds of clerical and legal However, MS 194 showed that he had personal propriety. reasons for this as well. The conflict between himself and the other bishops made him suspi- The wonderful thing about MS 194 is that it cious that the other prelates were willing to humanizes an otherwise abstract vision of ideo- overstep such boundaries, which in turn explains logical allegiances in seventeenth-century Eng- why he could oppose Shaftesbury’s policies land. In broad terms, Barlow’s ideological posi- generally while also writing a pamphlet intended tions on matters such as divine right monarchy or to show that bishops should not judge Danby’s bishops’ spiritual powers reflected the official trial. policies of the Anglican Church. He defended these institutions from opponents who were Nicholas Hawksmoor, William Lancaster and the Queen’s College designs 5

Dan Paltzer is a PhD candidate of the Department The majority of these of History at the University of Minnesota-Twin designs have already Cities. Prior to arriving at Minnesota, he was a been published and Government major at Lawrence University in discussed in the Appleton, WI (BA) and a graduate student in the scholarly literature.6 Department of Political Science at Vanderbilt Within what Colvin University (MA) where he studied Political c a l l e d ‘ U n b u i l t Theory. His political theory background led him Oxford,’ Hawksmoor’s into an interest in early modern political thought propositions are and its place within broader intellectual trends of usually regarded as the time period running roughly from 1500- the ‘fiasco’7 of an 1800. His dissertation research involves the ‘expensive architect ways in which English pamphleteers interpreted with a penchant for history through ideological lenses during the adding extravagant 1680's. and functionally Fig. 1: William Lancaster unnecessary ges- (1650-1717) tures.’8 But was there a r e a s o n b e h i n d

Hawksmoor’s ‘extravagant’ solutions? Should his designs be considered a failure? The aim of this brief contribution is to analyse Hawksmoor’s Nicholas Hawksmoor, William Lancaster designs in the context of his relationship with his and the Queen’s College designs patron, in order to identify his main aims and reevaluate his achievements.

The designs for Queen’s mark the beginning of the Eleonora Pistis history which bound Hawksmoor to the city of Worcester College, Oxford Oxford for nearly three decades (ca. 1708–1736). They are addressed to William Lancaster, at that time the most powerful figure within the Univer- sity and a man with an interest in architecture – n 6th February 1710, coincident with potentially a perfect patron. Lancaster’s interest in Queen Anne’s birthday, the Vice- architecture is confirmed by the presence of his Chancellor of Oxford University name in a plate from the Vitruvius Britannicus O William Lancaster (1650–1717) laid the (1715) which illustrates a design by Colen Camp- foundation stone for a new Queen’s College, of bell for a church on Lincoln’s-Inn Fields, dated which he had been Provost since 1704 (fig. 1).1 In 17129; while his involvement in Oxford’s architec- 1714, John Ayliffe wrote that, when finished, the tural activities is confirmed by Thomas Hearne, new building would be ‘one of the most Majestick who, in reference to William Townesend, wrote: Pieces of Architecture in the whole Kingdom.’2 ‘a great many justly wonder that he should have As has already been pointed out, the final design been so much made use of by the University. But of Queen’s College’s cannot be regarded as the this, I believe, is owing in good measure to Dr. work of a single mind.3 It is usually ascribed to the of All Souls, as it was also to Dr. amateur architect Dr. George Clarke, with the Lancaster of Queen’s.’10 assistance of the master mason William Towne- send. Certain aspects of Hawksmoor’s drawings for Queen’s College confirm that the architect must During Lancaster’s Vice-Chancellorship (1706– have been aware of Lancaster’s potential as 1710) – and most likely between 1708 and 17094– architectural patron. Various annotations demon- another figure drew up different preliminary strate that this set of drawings was conceived as an designs: the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661– introductory portfolio addressed not simply to the 1736). Hawkmoor’s contribution amounts to Provost of the College, but to the Vice-Chancellor. twenty drawings, still kept in Queen’s Library, With a great deal of insistence, in fact, in more representing seven different projects which the than one drawing Hawskmoor craftily indicates architect entitled Propositions.5 the ‘Vice Chancellor’s lodgings’.11 6 THE QUEEN'S COLLEGE LIBRARY NEWSLETTER

The Queen’s designs can be distinguished within the whole corpus of Hawksmoor’s designs for Oxford12 based on three main characteristics. The first is the exceptionally large size of the sheets, which measure up to 0.52 by 1.385 metres. The second is the accuracy of the drawings. Although it is true that some are unfinished and several are by an assistant,13 the propositions which Hawksmoor labeled ‘A’ and ‘IV’ are particularly well-defined. The third, as we will see, is the propositions’ provocative character relative to the Oxford architectural tradition, in terms of both typology and language. If the first two characteristics are compatible with the intention of receiving the Queen’s’ commis- sion, the third reveals a broader and slightly different purpose. In the absence of any precise indications dictated by the prospective client,14 Hawksmoor demonstrated his ability to elaborate Fig. 2: Plan drawings of Hawksmoor’s propositions. Left to right, top to bottom: Queen’s 15 ; Proposition III ; Queen’s infinite typological solutions in plan and volume, 17 ; Proposition II ; Proposition A ; Proposition IV. using a language composed of an extraordinary wide range of sources. Hawksmoor’s main aim With the balance between the two quadrangles seems to have been to present himself to Lancaster abolished, Hawksmoor next concentrated on the as the right architect not only for Queen’s, but two vital nuclei of any college, the hall and chapel. potentially for any building, with skills that would These became the crux of the project. In PROPOSI- have distinguished himself from amateurs or TION I, the hall and chapel are along the High master masons. Street, whereas in almost all of the other proposals the hall and chapel, or the chapel alone, are Hawksmoor’s propositions reveal the architect’s instead positioned in the range that separates the strategy in front of his new client. Queen’s pre- two quadrangles. sented Hawksmoor with his first opportunity to consider how to shape a college from scratch, a The central position of the hall and chapel, subject to which he would return many times in provided an opportunity for Hawksmoor to design the next twenty-five years. He began by organizing various innovative solutions that transformed the the college around two regular quadrangles, as in transversal range into a complex organism, one Clarke’s contemporary masterplan for All Souls, that is moulded and expands to the point that in with a symmetry and regularity that was com- PROPOSITION III (fig. 2, top centre) it occupies pletely new to Oxford. There was, however, one much of the second quadrangle. Here the hall and crucial difference: at Queen’s College, the Old chapel are connected by a semicircular colonnade, Library and the newly built north range were with a couple of twin columns positioned in a already existing elements which Hawksmoor was radial perspective, interrupted by a telescopic obliged to incorporate into his project.15 This is the passageway that frames a peripteral temple reason why, in all of the propositions, the second against the north range. It is a solution reminis- quadrangle is always less prominent, while in cent of the screen of columns present in a prelimi- Clarke’s masterplan for All Souls it is the most nary design for . The most direct important element.16 With a radically different source, however, is Bernini’s St Peter’s Square, approach, Hawksmoor focused on the definition of depictions of which abounded in the libraries of the first quadrangle, which in PROPOSITION V, Oxford of the time. QUEEN’S 14 and 15 (fig. 2, top left), he expanded to occupy all of the available area. In designing the In other proposals the chapel is detached or semi- entrance of the latter, he employed an erudite detached at the centre of a large court. In PROPOSI- quotation: the vestibule of the Palazzo Farnese in TION VI and its variation QUEEN’S 17 (fig. 2, top Rome. right) it has an oval structure, which perhaps alludes to Bernini’s third design for the Louvre, which would have been familiar to Hawksmoor Nicholas Hawksmoor, William Lancaster and the Queen’s College designs 7

Fig. 4: Proposition IV, front quadrangle, east-west section showing the north side elevation.

Fig. 3: Proposition IV, High Street elevation. from the engravings in the Grand Marot and probably from the enthusiastic descriptions by , who appreciated models of the scheme when he visited Paris in 1665. In PROPOSI- TION II (fig. 2, bottom left), as in QUEEN’S 14, the chapel becomes a peripteral temple. By using a court layout with a church at the centre of the rear range, as in PROPOSITION A (fig. 2, Fig. 5: Proposition A, High Street elevation. bottom centre) Hawksmoor seems to refer in part to Solomon’s Temple, as designed by Villalpando arrive in the first quadrangle. The hall and the and reinterpreted in the Escorial and later also in chapel are en pendant in the north range and the Hôtel des Invalides.17 But this later reference is divided by a vestibule (fig. 2-4).19 The lateral sides only a part of a wider focus on French sources, of the façade clearly evoke the lateral facades of well known thanks to George Clarke’s print the court of the Curia Innocenziana in Rome, collections.18 Hawksmoor not only seems to refer whereas the fenestration, with large headed to Louis Le Vau’s designs for the Louvre windows set within deep concave recesses, recalls (PROPOSITION A), but in QUEEN’S 17 he also the niches of the drum of St Paul’s. The façade of designed the first quadrangle with a concave side the central vestibule is a tetrastyle pronaos that, as after the model of countless Parisian Hôtels. He in the Basilica Aemilia, ends in a terminal column also adopted the structure of the rusticated flanked by a pilaster, a device that had been gateway from the Palais du Luxembourg – see employed already in one of the preliminary PROPOSITION VI. projects for Greenwich Hospital and later at Blenheim. Onto the quadrangular vestibule is As Downes pointed out, PROPOSITIONS A and IV grafted a low octagonal drum flanked by cinerary are the only ones to have been developed entirely urns superimposed on sacrificial altars. On this and coherently. As we have seen, they are the most low drum is a second one, higher and articulated accurate and contain references to the Vice- by paired columns and by hefty buttresses that Chancellor Lancaster. frame wide openings: the model is Michelangelo’s PROPOSITION IV (fig. 2, bottom right) is illustrated drum at St Peter’s in the Vatican, mediated by the in five drawings. The gateway at the centre of the combination of pronaos and attic of the Sant’Ag- monumental High Street front is framed in a nese in Rome, whereas the buttresses are mod- stunning and out-of-scale manner by two huge elled on Borromini’s Sant’Ivo. This powerful composed Doric columns, sixty feet tall (fig. 3). structural system surprisingly supports a low- This astonishing entrance evokes the Gothic access tiered dome with steps based on the model of the towers of medieval cloisters, but interprets its Pantheon. vertical development in terms of archaic monu- PROPOSITION A (fig. 2, bottom centre), illustrated mentality, as that of the Pillars of Hercules. Going in four large designs, is based on the other pro- through the High Street entrance, one would jects: from PROPOSITION I it takes the position of 8 THE QUEEN'S COLLEGE LIBRARY NEWSLETTER

Fig. 7: Proposition A, front quadrangle, north-south section showing the west side elevation.

In sum, Hawksmoor drew up at least seven different innovative proposals for a new Queen’s College. By disrupting the traditional quadrangle Fig. 6: Proposition A, front quadrangle, east-west section structure, he concentrated on the hierarchic showing the north side elevation. coordination between the various parts, orches- the hall along the High Street; from PROPOSITION trating high and low elements and creating visual IV, at least in part, it takes the layout of the east axes and sudden vistas. He employed a vast and west ranges; from PROPOSITIONS VI it takes repertoire of architectonic sources taken from the idea of a central chapel with an interior dome, English tradition, but most of all from France and from PROPOSITION V the arrangement of the from ancient and modern Rome. Evocations of the Chapel. The façade of the college along High Street Pantheon, St Peter’s, Hellenistic and Imperial is characterized by a rusticated arcade surmounted architecture are combined together with refer- by a main floor with giant Corinthian pilasters and ences to Michelangelo, Palladio, Salomon de by an attic floor (fig. 5). The central section of the Brosse, Jones, Webb, Bernini, Borromini, Le Vau, façade is marked by a three bay recess, which Carlo Fontana, Hardouin-Mansart, Wren, and forms a sort of triumphal arch, as in Le Vau’s Vanburgh. design for the east façade of the Louvre (1664) . But here the central arch overruns the main floor Hawksmoor put on show his power of elaborating and becomes a podium with French ornamenta- almost infinite architectonic solutions, suggesting, tion that bears a female figure, perhaps Queen at the same time, the impossibility of an a priori Anne. Going through the entrance vestibule, one selection without further indications from the would enter the first quadrangle. The north range prospective client. Every final decision, in fact, (fig. 6) is dominated by the chapel orientated west would have involved deep reflection on the -east, the south façade of which is a hexastyle ultimate purposes of the building, and this was pronaos of the Corinthian order two bays deep, a evidently the task of Lancaster and his Fellows. solution that Hawksmoor would use again in St. The design that was finally approved demonstrates George’s in (1713–1715). The pronaos the reception of Hawksmoor’s suggestions.22 The is flanked on both sides by a single-storey rusti- position of chapel and hall are connected by a cated arcade that leads to two symmetrical staircases, which give access to two lofty towers. These elements, with screens of columns and broken-based pediments, are characterised by ancient-style features reminiscent of Roman baths, probably mediated through Palladio.20 The two side facades are composed of rusticated arcades, a main floor and attic (fig. 7). The ground -floor arcade is taken from the courtyard of Palazzo Thiene in Vicenza as illustrated in Pal- ladio’s Four Books.21 The monumental first floor is organised by raised bands, that evoke a trabeated system and frame double-level fenestration. The centre of the façade is marked with a curvilinear pediment free of any decoration.

Fig. 8: Queen’s today, front quadrangle, east side elevation. Nicholas Hawksmoor, William Lancaster and the Queen’s College designs 9 pronaos, as suggested in PROPOSITION IV;23 and 7K. Downes, Hawksmoor, cit., p. 107. the layout of the lateral facades reflects PROPOSI- 8R. White, Nicholas Hawksmoor…, cit., p. 16; see also H. TION A, published here for the first time24. Within Colvin, Unbuilt…, cit., p. 47. the old Oxford tradition, can this result be consid- 9C. Campbell, Vitruvius Britannicus… (London, 1715), pl. 3. ered a complete ‘fiasco’? The plate is inscribed to William Lancaster ‘Vicar of St Martin in the Field [...] Provost of Queens College Oxon’. Soon after creating the Queen’s ‘Propositions,’ 10Remarks and collections of Thomas Hearne, ed. by C. E. Hawksmoor was employed for the Clarendon Doble, 11 vols. (Oxford 1885-1921), VII, p. 247. Building project by the same William Lancaster 11See: Queen’s 3, 4, 12. and his colleagues, the Delegates of the Press.25 12This corpus includes designs for All Souls College, From that moment on, he played a central role in Clarendon Building, Radcliffe Library, Brasenose, Worces- ter, Magdalen College. planning an urban and architectural renewal of 13K. Downes, Hawksmoor, cit., p. 102. Oxford that would have changed the face of the 14 26 As already pointed out by Kerry Downes, Hawskmoor city forever. With the Queen’s designs, appears not to have had either an exact survey of the site or a Hawksmoor had wanted to make himself known to master plan to follow as he had, for example, in the case of the man who had more power than anyone else in the later design for the Clarendon building. Oxford to involve him in new projects. In the end, 15See footnote 1. the architect accomplished this goal. 16For Clarke’s All Souls master plan see H. Colvin, Unbuilt…, cit., p. 36. 17V. Hart, Nicholas Hawksmoor: rebuilding ancient wonders (New Haven and London, 2002), pp. 202-213, in Acknowledgements particular p. 204. 18T. Clayton, ‘The Print Collection of George Clarke at I would like to thank Amanda Saville for her kind Worcester College Oxford’, Print Quarterly, 9 (1992), pp. suggestion to write this brief contribution on 123-141. During the Opler Conference at Worcester College Hawksmoor’s Queen’s Designs. She and her staff (29th-31st March 2012) I gave a paper on Clarke’s library have given much valuable help for my research on entitled: Architecture and Oxford University in the early Oxford University architecture and its patronage Eighteenth Century: George Clarke’s ‘Accademia’ and his library-laboratory. between 1702 and 1736. 19For the arrangement of hall and chapel en pendant see K. Downes, Hawksmoor, cit., p. 104. 20 1 This initiative continued the late-seventeenth-century For Hawksmoor’s Palladian sources, see G. Worsley, enlargement of the medieval college, which had included the ‘Nicholas Hawksmoor…, cit. . creation of the Williamson Building on the northeast side 21See footnote 20. (1671–1672) and the Library on the northwest side (1692– 22See G. Worsley, ‘Nicholas Hawksmoor…’, cit., p. 61; R. 1696); followed in 1707 by a north range of which ‘one half of White, Nicholas Hawksmoor…, cit., p. 15. it’ was ‘at the sole charge of Dr Lancaster […] and the other 23See footnote 19. half at the common expense of the Society’. Thus, the new 24 building campaign of 1710 concerned the reconstruction of The only part of the College that can be regarded as the remaing southern parts of College, which would have Hawksmoor’s work is the main gateway on High Street, built faced on High Street. See J. Magrath, The Queen’s College, 2 by W. Townesend in 1733-36. vols. (Oxford, 1921), II, pp. 63-87; Victoria History of the 25K. Downes, Hawksmoor, cit., pp. 107-109; H. Colvin, County of Oxford, 16 vols., III, The University of Oxford Unbuilt…, cit., pp. 60-64; R. White, Nicholas Hawksmoor…, (London, 1954), pp. 138-142. cit., pp. 45-48; G. Tyack, ‘The Clarendon Building: Printing 2J. Ayliffe, The ancient and present state of the University of House and Propylaeum’, Record, 23 Oxford (London, 1714), p. 301. (2010), pp. 41-63. 26 3See H. Colvin, Unbuilt Oxford (New Haven and London, Hawksmoor and the Oxford renovatio urbis is the central 1983), p. 47; Nicholas Hawksmoor and the replanning of subject of my PhD thesis ‘The Seat of the Muses’. Nicholas Oxford, ed. by R. White (Oxford and London, 1997). Hawksmoor and Oxford (University IUAV of Venice, 2011) and of my current book-project. 4K. Downes, Hawksmoor (London [1959] 1979), p. 102.

5Six are numbered with roman numerals I-VI, and one labelled with the letter ‘A’. There are also three plans for Dr. Eleonora Pistis is Scott Opler Research Fellow alternative designs [Queen’s 14, 15, 17] and two High Street in Architectural History at Worcester College, front elevations [Queen’s 18-20]. In Queen’s Library there is Oxford. She has conducted various studies on a manuscript catalogue by Roger White. eighteenth-century European architecture, with 6K. Downes, Hawksmoor, cit., pp. 102-107; H. Colvin, particular attention to Italy, France and Eng- Unbuilt…, cit., pp. 47-53; G. Worsley, ‘Nicholas Hawksmoor: A Pioneer Neo-Palladian?’, Architectural History, vol. 33 land. Her current book-project concerns Nicholas (1990), pp. 60-74; R. White, Nicholas Hawksmoor…, cit., Hawksmoor, George Clarke and the renovatio pp. 15-24. urbis of Oxford. 10 THE QUEEN'S COLLEGE LIBRARY NEWSLETTER

Heraldic manuscripts in the Library of The Queen’s College

Nigel Ramsay University College London

any hundreds of heraldic manu- scripts of the Tudor and Stuart periods are extant today. Most are without much scholarly value as M Fig. 1: Drawing by Robert Glover of sealed attached to grant texts, being copies that were produced for sale to of the manor of Pesenhall to Roger Bigod, earl of Norfolk, by the numerous Englishmen who wished simply to Alexander, King of Scotland. (MS 166, folio 2 recto) be better informed about the heraldry and family relationships of their fellow countrymen. They were valued as reference books, rather like a The most capable heralds have always tended to Who’s Who today; and they were not the sort of be both writers and compilers themselves as well book that anyone would have expected to find in as collectors of the works of their predecessors. an Oxford or Cambridge college library. Heraldic Robert Glover, Somerset Herald, who died aged 44 manuscripts began to enter the colleges’ collec- in 1588, was regarded in his own day as the most tions only in the late seventeenth century, when scholarly and capable of all the officers of arms; the study of English history was itself starting to and he certainly was also the most prolific writer be seen as a suitable subject for study by the and transcriber of his age, as well as being a major colleges’ Fellows. collector of medieval and Tudor historical and heraldic manuscripts. Original heraldic compilations are much rarer, and in principle those that were produced in the The College of Arms was in a state of some course of their official duties by the officers of disarray in the 1580s, and Glover’s enormous arms (the three Kings of Arms, six Heralds of collection was divided and dispersed within a few Arms and four Pursuivants of Arms who together months of his death. A good many of his manu- comprise the College of Arms) became the prop- scripts ultimately passed into the collections of erty of their College. Almost all the original other heralds—including his nephew John Philipot records of the visitations of the different counties (these manuscripts later being acquired by the of England and Wales that were carried out College of Arms) and Elias Ashmole (by whom between the early sixteenth and late seventeenth they were bequeathed to the University of Oxford). centuries are today at the College of Arms; the A few were acquired by his near-contemporary most authoritative list of visitations and their Ralph Brooke (c. 1553-1625), Rouge Croix Pur- records is accordingly that of Sir Anthony Wagner, suivant from 1580 and York Herald from 1592. in his Records and collections of the College of Brooke was an acrimonious and litigious man, Arms (London, 1952). When heralds produced who frequently quarrelled with his fellow-officers other books, for use in the course of their profes- of arms, but he was undoubtedly very capable; and sional duties, there was a tendency for these his abilities extended to his collecting. He acquired compilations to be passed on, by gift or sale, to a considerable group of manuscripts that had been other officers of arms: open sales in the second- written by Glover, and several of these are today at hand market must have been much less common Queen’s. than private-treaty sales by, say, heralds’ widows to practising heralds. There was a professional For the medieval historian, the most remarkable wish to keep the heralds’ books out of the hands of of these manuscripts of Glover’s is MS 166 (fig. 1). the herald-painters and other interlopers who It is one of his books of miscellaneous notes, and posed a commercial threat to the heralds’ own was compiled in the mid to late 1570s. It is replete private practices. with excerpts and transcripts of medieval charters, Heraldic manuscripts in the Library of The Queen’s College 11

perhaps no more than a decade or two previously; it was also an opportunity for him to engage in original research, examining charters that might provide new material for some of his wider aims, such as his projected record of all the baronial families that there had ever been in England.

The route by which part of Ralph Brooke’s collec- tion came to Queen’s College is significant. The College’s heraldic manuscripts seem almost all to have formed part of the legacy of Sir Joseph Williamson in 1701 (fig. 2). Williamson was keeper of the State Paper Office (among many other public offices), and another part of his heraldic collection seems to have entered that Office (and so is today dispersed within the Public Record Office’s class SP 9, in the National Archives at Kew). Williamson was fortunate enough to acquire much or all of the collection of manuscripts of Sir Thomas Shirley (c. 1590-1654), a country gentle- man who is best known today as having been one of a group of four antiquaries—Sir Edward Dering, Fig. 2: Williamson family tree and pasted in coat of arms of Sir Christopher Hatton, William Dugdale and Joseph Williamson from Glover’s Visitation of Northamp- Shirley himself—who in 1638 agreed to pool their tonshire. (MS 112, folio 50 recto) documentary resources, putting all their antiquar- ian collections at each other’s disposal. For these interspersed with notes of heraldry seen in parish purposes, Shirley’s books were to be marked with churches (in Essex, especially), draft funeral his coat of arms, and this may in part explain why certificates (such as were written by heralds when his manuscripts that are at Queen’s are still they conducted public funerals that incorporated a identifiable in this way today. Comparatively little display of the deceased’s coat of arms) and is known of Shirley’s life. His letters and accounts excerpts from medieval texts, such as the names of appear not to survive, and his intended magnum benefactors listed in the Almoner’s book of St opus, entitled The Catholic armorial, remains in Alban’s Abbey. As always with such collections of unpublished obscurity within PRO, SP 9; but his notes and transcripts, the direct historical value acquisition of a substantial portion of Ralph lies partly in the presence of copies of documents Brooke’s library has indirectly ensured its survival that in their original form have since been lost— and may one day enable a re-assessment of some although discovering whether the originals may of Shirley’s own activities. No less importantly, survive is rarely easy. through Ralph Brooke, Sir Thomas Shirley and Sir Joseph Williamson, a significant group of Robert For both the Tudor historian and the armorist, Glover’s manuscripts has been kept together and there is obviously enormous value in MS 106, the preserved for scholarly use at Queen’s. record of Glover’s visitation of Staffordshire, 1583. This is the original manuscript, and lies behind all 1Not all, however; for instance, one of Brooke’s Glover other known copies; it is thus our primary author- manuscripts is now MS Harley 807 in the British Library. ity for the many genealogies that it provides. 2A.R. Wagner, A catalogue of English mediaeval rolls of Moreover, it is not just a collection of genealogical arms, Aspilogia I (Oxford, 1950), p. xxii. See also, more generally, R. Cust, ‘Catholicism, antiquarianism and gentry tables (authenticated by the signature of the head honour: the writings of Sir Thomas Shirley’, Midland of each armigerous Staffordshire family); like History, 23 (1998). Glover’s other books of visitation pedigrees, it is also replete with notes of the ‘proofs’ that he was Dr Nigel Ramsay is a Senior Research Associate shown: medieval charters and their seals, and engaged on the English Monastic Archives other records that he felt to be of value. For Project at University College London. He is Glover, a heraldic visitation was not just the shortly to publish an edition of the letters and occasion for making the official record of changes papers of Robert Glover. to a county’s families since the last visitation, of 12 THE QUEEN'S COLLEGE LIBRARY NEWSLETTER

Padua to the small provincial city of Lichfield, in the late 17th century. Pulsilogium to pulse watch The pulse watch used by Sir John Floyer was constructed in 1695 by Samuel Watson.2 Samuel Watson (c. 1635-1711) was born in , a city Denis Gibbs noted at the time for the expertise and skill of its watch and clock makers. Samuel Watson became n 1724, when he was aged 75, Sir John prominent among these as a result of which, at Floyer (1649-1734) gave a collection of least before 1689 when Watson moved to Long books and unpublished manuscripts to The Acre to continue his craft in London, Floyer had Queen’s College, Oxford, where he had easy access to one of the leading watch and clock I making masters of the age. Samuel Watson was matriculated some sixty years previously. Among these were a few books he used when he was a one of those who, with his more famous contem- student in Oxford, but the great majority he poraries such as Thomas Tompion (1639-1713) acquired during his long and distinguished career and Daniel Quare (1649-1724), contributed to as a physician in the cathedral city of Lichfield. On improvements which, for some decades, raised blank pages in many of the books and sometimes English horological craftsmanship and invention on printed pages, Floyer wrote comments, notes to a position of pre-eminence. When he moved to and prescriptions, as well as adding marginal London, Samuel Watson was appointed Mathema- annotations; his books were for use rather than for tician-in-Ordinary to King Charles II. He was show. Whereas some of the books were used by commissioned (but never paid) by the King to him in support of his practice as a physician, make a remarkable astronomical clock, now in others were acquired to assist him in his research ; he was subsequently referred to and writings on medical subjects. as “the curious contriver of the celestial orbi- 3,4 tary”. A special feature of the Floyer collection is that it not only reflects the working library of a busy Sir John Floyer’s extensive published writings on provincial physician of the period, but it also pulse timing with the many tables of data he contains much of the source material upon which compiled early in the 18th century, are well Floyer relied when writing his important medical known.5 He began by making simple observations works. In this respect, the collection provides a with his pulse watch and soon extended these to unique resource for the interpretation and under- explore possible relationships between pulse rates standing of Sir John Floyer's contributions, and other measurements, such as barometric offering continuing opportunities for the further pressure and ambient temperature, not to mention assessment of his place in the history of medicine, phases of the moon. Though he was sometimes as well as for more general studies on the nature of over ambitious and naïve, particularly when he the practice of an important provincial physician extrapolated fancifully from the data he collected, of the time. he did also make important and original discover- ies, such for instance as observing for the first time Sir John Floyer is acknowledged as an important an approximate ratio between pulse and respira- pioneer of pulse-timing. He was the first person to tion rates. make numerous observations on pulse rates by means of a specially constructed watch with a At a time when Floyer was starting in practice as a seconds hand1. Though Floyer used his pulse physician in 1675, after he had spent at least 11 watch within a system of clinical practice that was years at the University of Oxford, there was a still based substantially on Galenic beliefs, the crucial development in horological technology. watch was perhaps the first reasonably efficient The introduction of a spring balance was con- clinical instrument to merit application in prac- ceived by Robert Hooke (1635-1703), who did tice. My purpose in this paper is twofold: firstly, to experimental work on the subject as early as 1658. consider the pulse-watch used by Sir John Floyer But, it took another 17 years before Thomas in the context of developments in watch and clock Tompion, at Hooke’s behest, made a watch for making of the period; secondly, to draw attention Charles II in 1675, which was under the control of to the way in which concepts and inventions a spring balance. Though the watch was neither relevant to pulse timing were transmitted from very accurate nor reliable, for the first time in England, the construction of time-pieces to show Pulsilogium to pulse watch 13

accuracy and reliability were not attainable and, for some two centuries, watches were used for show as expensive articles of fashion and jewel- lery, rather than as useful time-keepers. It was only in the late 17th century that the first reasona- bly accurate watches could be made, following the invention and application of balance springs.

In his preface to the first volume of The physi- cian’s pulse-watch, published in 1707 (fig. 1), Floyer referred to the instruments he had used for timing the pulse. “I have for many years tried pulses by the minute in common watches, and pendulum clocks, when I was among my patients; after some time I met with the common sea- minute glass, which I used for my cold bathing, Fig. 1: Title page from Floyer’s The physician’s pulse-watch, and by that I made most of my experiments; but 1707. The copy is from Floyer’s library and contains his because this was not portable, I caused a pulse- handwritten notes. (Sel.f.19) watch to be made …” Floyer extended his observa- tions on the pulse and wrote a second volume of the passing of The physician’s pulse-watch which was published seconds as well as in 1710 (fig. 2). The physician’s pulse-watch was of hours and the only one of the many books he wrote, to be minutes, had translated into Italian and published in Venice in become techni- 1715.7 The publication of an Italian edition was an cally feasible.6 entirely fitting acknowledgement of the fact that Italy was the home of the first scientific applica- The importance tions of pulse-timing, whether by Galileo (1564- of the invention 1642), who discovered the isochronism of the of the balance simple pendulum by using his own pulse, or a little spring needs to be later, by Sanctorius (1561-1636), Professor of put briefly into Experimental Medicine in Padua, who extended perspective. The Galileo’s observations with the pulsilogium, as force of gravity well as proposing the use of other instruments for using a sus- measurement in medicine. pended weight was the driving Evidence has recently come to light that, in about force in long case 1684, Floyer acquired about twenty Renaissance clocks. Once texts for his own use, which included two books by Galileo (1564- Sanctorius. Forty years later, when Floyer was 1642) had worked aged 76, he donated them as part of his collection out that a pendu- of medical books, to the Library of The Queen’s Fig. 2: Diagram from the second lum linked to an College, Oxford. Recently, the significance of a volume to The physician’s pulse- watch. (Sel.f.20) escapement small monogram, AH, written on title pages of mechanism many of the Renaissance books has been discov- would be an ideal ered. The ownership device indicated that they timer at the heart of such a clock, and following had first belonged to Dr Anthony Hewett (c1603- the work of Christiaan Huygens (1639-1696) in 1684), who was Floyer’s predecessor as physician Holland who transformed theory into practice, in Lichfield. Very little was then known of Dr long case clocks with hour and minute hands Hewett, but evidence is now available that he became fairly precise timekeepers. But they were studied medicine at Cambridge and that he large and not readily portable. In the mid-fifteenth subsequently travelled to Padua, where he was century the force of a mainspring was introduced awarded MD in April 1638.8 When he returned as an alternative means of driving clockwork and from Padua, Hewett brought back books he had this, in turn, led to the birth of watches. Though bought while on his Continental travels, and at ingenious devices like the fusee were added, 14 THE QUEEN'S COLLEGE LIBRARY NEWSLETTER

least some of these were 9Santorio, Santorio (Sanctorius) Commentaria in primam later acquired by his fen primi libri Canonis Avicennae … Venetiis: Jacobus successor, Sir John Floyer. Sarcina 1626 Floyer’s fascination with measurement in medicine, Denis Gibbs is a medical historian and one of the especially with timing the foremost authorities on John Floyer. In his early pulse, was inspired by career he practiced medicine in Lichfield, Floyer’s Sanctorius, particularly hometown, and later at The Royal London from reading the relevant Hospital. He was educated at Keble College, parts of Sanctorius’s Oxford. Commentary on Avicenna (1626) (fig. 3), one of the Fig. 3: Title page from books he acquired from 9 Modern swimming instruction begins in Sanctorius’ Commen- Hewett. Here the many style : the contribution of the influential tary on Avicenna, 1626, different instruments and Everard Digby (ca. 1551-1605) showing Anthony Hew- apparatus devised by itt’s initials at the top of Sanctorius, including the page. (HS.b.545) several examples of pulsilogiums, were illus- Paul Ivanovic trated and discussed. Floyer may well have been as baffled as some The Queen’s College readers of the present day in trying to understand how several of Sanctorius’s instruments worked; some were probably prototypes rather than of verard Digby’s De arte natandi proven value, and most were probably designed (Sel.b.98) was published in 1587. It is with research rather than clinical practice in mind. justifiably credited with being the first Floyer took an important initiative by requesting scientific treatise on swimming, at least Samuel Watson to construct a pulse-watch with a E in the European sphere. One imagines Digby saw seconds hand, soon after the requisite technologi- his work as a useful guide to help prevent and cal advance had been achieved. Sanctorius of reduce the deaths of young men in swimming Padua was the pioneer. Floyer followed, seventy accidents in Cambridge, where he worked, and years later, as a disciple of Sanctorius, at a time at beyond. Although there are a few European the end of the 17th century, when easy and rea- antecedents, these are more in the form of literary sonably accurate timing of the pulse using a pocket essays celebrating swimming rather than instruc- watch first became feasible. tive texts. Outside of Europe, there remains the possibility of earlier texts in, for example, the Chinese, Indian or Japanese languages. Indeed, in 1Morton, Leslie (Garrison and Morton). A Medical bibliogra- Japan interscholastic swimming competitions phy. 3rd ed. London: Deutsch, 1970. 318, item 2670 have existed since 1603, suggesting that an early 2Gibbs, D.D. ‘The physician’s pulse watch.’ Medical History, Japanese instructional text may exist, although it 1971 15 p. 187-190 is possible that knowledge was passed down orally 3Lloyd, H. Alan. A collector’s dictionary of clocks. London: in this and the other traditions. Country Life, 1964. 4Jagger, C. ‘Royal Clocks.’ Clocks, April 1983 5 p. 35-39 Digby, an extrovert and perhaps slightly “oddball” 5Floyer, Sir John The physician’s pulse watch London: Cambridge scholar, provides a short (115 p.), Volume I 1707; Volume II 1710 coherent and informative narrative, which is 6Hayward J.F. English watches. Victoria and Albert divided into two books. Loosely, the treatise is Museum. London: HMSO, 1969. structured into a shorter first book with theory 7 Floyer, Sir John L’oriuolo da polso de medici, ovvero un and practical advice, and a longer second book saggio per ispiegare l’arte antica di tastare il polso, e per meglioraria coll’ajuto d’un oriuolo da polso. In tre parti … with illustrative woodcuts outlining swimming Venice: 1715 techniques. One presumes Digby provided the 8Gibbs, D.D. ‘Dr Anthony Hewett (c. 1603-1684) MD Padua printer with sketches, as it would be impossible to and Cambridge, Physician of Lichfield and Student of produce the illustrations from simply consulting Renaissance Medicine.’ Staffordshire Studies, in press. the text. Those of the 43 woodcut illustrations which show swimming techniques and activities in the water have been cleverly designed in two parts. Modern swimming instruction begins in style 15

such as how to carry objects (fig. 2) and keep them dry and also more eccentrically how to safely pare your nails in water. The swimming styles are described rather than named: “to swim like a dog”, foreshadowing the dog-paddle, and “to swim like a dolphin”. He essentially covers what we might recognize as nascent forms of the breaststroke (fig. 3), sidestroke, and backstroke, as well as the aforementioned dog-paddle. As the title suggests De arte natandi is in Latin, and in fact in an elaborate Renaissance Latin, which would have been accessible only to aristo- crats, clergy and scholars who could read Latin, Fig. 1: Illustration from De Fig. 2: Illustration from De thereby significantly limiting the possible audi- arte natandi showing how arte natandi showing how to ence. Digby deliberately chose to write in Latin to float in the water. carry items across water without getting them wet. because he wanted to give swimming a status and importance, which he felt it lacked. He might have There is an outer background frame – there are 5 felt, perhaps slightly humorously, that he was used in total – and a smaller changeable internal writing a seminal account of swimming as an “art” woodcut with a naked male swimmer demonstrat- similar to that of Virgil on agriculture or of ing the chosen activity in the water. It is possible Hippocrates and Galen on medicine. However, an that this rarely used illustrative technique was the abridged English translation, A short introduction result of necessity, with the cost of so many for to learne to swim by Thomas Middleton, completely separate full-page illustrations proving appeared in 1595. This reused the original plates, prohibitively expensive. The idea of a smaller although the background and central plates have changeable internal woodcut would therefore become mixed in certain cases, presumably as a make good sense. result of mistakes by the printer, and he hardly altered the description of the swimming styles. The first book details ideas about swimming; the This testifies to the accuracy of Digby’s account of health benefits and its nature as a pleasurable swimming during the period. Digby made no claim activity. Digby advises on the right time of year to to originality as a writer on swimming techniques. swim, as May to August, and about the best places to swim. He also wisely assumes that the value of Neither De arte natandi or Middleton’s transla- swimming to his readers will not be uncontested. tion were reprinted. Middleton’s work seems to For example, the only four clear references in the have fallen into obscurity and today there are only Bible and the many references in Shakespeare to three extant examples, and only one of these swimming are invariably negative in nature. copies, held at the British Library, is complete, Swimming was also principally engaged in by whereas there are more than 10 copies of De arte people associated with water such as seamen and natandi. It is unknown how many copies of either bargees, and was not an activity of the elite. One work were originally printed. could count hunting, tournaments and tennis as Digby’s contribution to the teaching of swimming elite activities in the 16th century. Nevertheless, continued to be influential with the Renaissance, and the rediscovery of the until the 18th century, as a classics, the status of swimming was improving result of two unacknowledged and it was no longer associated with only lower English translations. These class men. are The compleat swimmer The second book, which illuminates the actual (1658) by William Percey, techniques, may appear unintentionally humorous and The art of swimming to the modern reader. Digby covers getting into (1699) by Melchisedech the water (jumping and getting stuck in the mud Thevenot. In the case of could be life threatening), he provides instruction Thevenot, this was the on how one can swim in different styles, how to translation of his own French turn in the water and how to float (fig. 1). There work L’art de nager (1696) Fig. 3: Illustration of plagiarized from Digby. the breaststroke from are also a number of ecletic activities included De arte natandi. 16 THE QUEEN'S COLLEGE LIBRARY NEWSLETTER

Percey’s study is most notable for one of the first lose his position at St John’s College, Cambridge recorded uses of the word “stroke” to describe a over a minor financial dispute, although there swimming style, otherwise there is little new. were also unhelpful underlying religious differ- ences with his colleagues which also played a part. The swimming styles of today essentially evolved He was to support himself as a country clergyman in the late 19th century onwards and would for the rest of his life. He died in 1605, which was probably be unrecognizable to 17th century strangely the same year as a kinsman, Sir Everard swimmers. As we are saturated by images of Digby of Stoke Dry, was executed as one of the swimming from cinema and television, it is main conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot. As a difficult to imagine how different swimming styles final note, Nicholas Orme, a key writer on early might have been in earlier periods. Nevertheless, it English swimming, tried to have a commemorative is amusing to note the anachronistic swimming postage stamp issued in 1987 on the 400th one finds in historical films, especially in anniversary of the publication of De arte natandi, swashbucklers, though it is true that there is often but sadly he was unsuccessful. One imagines surprisingly little swimming in these films. In Sea Everard Digby’s image reflected in the surface, the devils, set in 1800, Rock Hudson stylishly swims mirror suddenly deforming and ripples travelling both a modern looking breaststroke and front outwards before a stillness returns. He remains crawl while fully dressed. In fact, most people another generally uncelebrated British first. would probably have swum in the nude at this time, costumes being gradually introduced in the All the English works cited above can be accessed 19th century. Another swashbuckler, The crimson as full text electronic facsimiles in Early English pirate, set in the late 18th century, is a comic Books Online at http://eebo.chadwyck.com. action film which might be considered an antece- dent of Pirates of the Caribbean. There is a scene in which an entire ship’s crew very competently Bibliography swims underwater from one vessel to another, which they intend to seize. It seems unlikely that Capwell Fox, Martha. Swimming. Thomson/Gale, 2003. all members of a ship’s crew could swim and Keil, Ian & Don Wix. ‘In the swim: the Amateur Swimming indeed swim very skilfully, and a possible opportu- Association from 1869 to 1994’. Swimming Times, 1996. nity for comedy is sadly missed. Indeed, for a very long time sailors thought it unlucky to learn to Love, Christopher. A social history of swimming in swim. It was not until 1879 that the Queen’s England, 1800-1918: splashing in the Serpentine. London : Regulations for the Royal Navy were amended, Routledge, 2008. and all seamen were required to take a swim test Orme, Nicholas. Early English swimming 55 BC-AD 1719. or to learn how to swim. In a historical quirk, the Exeter : University of Exeter , 1983. Queen’s Regulations for the British army were amended earlier in 1868, and swimming instruc- tion was made a “military duty” for all troops. Filmography Swimming instruction outside of the military The crimson pirate. Directed by Robert Siodmark and services was for a long time solely provided by starring Burt Lancaster, Nick Cravat and Eva Bartok. 1952. swimming clubs, and was often limited by the lack Pirates of the Caribbean: The curse of the black pearl. of swimming pools. In the 19th century, the Directed by Gore Verbinski, starring Johnny Depp, Geoffrey increasing number of swimming pools and the Rush and Keira Knightley. 2003. construction of the railway network provided Sea devils. Directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Rock opportunities for competition between different Hudson and Yvonne De Carlo. 1953. areas and greater access to the sea to swim. Nevertheless, it was not until 1890 that swimming instruction in London schools became more prevalent, with the allocation of education funds for this purpose. In the provinces, it was over a Paul Ivanovic is the Rare Books Cataloguer at decade later before swimming instruction in The Queen’s College Library. schools was to become established.

Returning to Everard Digby, his life was to change soon after he finished De arte natandi. He was to Refurbishment of medieval manuscripts for Henry VIII 17

Refurbishment of medieval manuscripts for Henry VIII Part two, Queen’s College MS 303

Jane Eagan Oxford Conservation Consortium

he Library contains seven medieval Fig. 1: MS 303 before treat- Fig. 2: The upper oak board manuscripts known to have been ment. clamped after adhering the altered/recovered in red and black velvet vertical split. T on entry into the royal collection at the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the reign of Henry VIII. In Issue 1 of Insight, I described two on the Psalms, written in England in the thir- projects funded by the National Manuscripts teenth century. The manuscript was in poor Conservation Trust to conserve and document this condition, with a vertical split through the wooden important collection, and outlined the conserva- upper board, a heavily pleated first leaf, and tion treatment of one of the manuscripts, Queen’s instability of the upper board in the joint area, due College MS 323 (pp. 15-19). In this issue, I will to removal of endleaf material (fig.1). To stabilise briefly describe the conservation of another this volume, the first step was to repair the split manuscript of this group, Queen’s College MS 303, board, by inserting with a fine brush, warm and also show how this manuscript was altered to gelatine adhesive, then clamping the board until make it suitable for the royal library. this was dry and reinforcing the split with parch- ment patches (fig. 2). To protect the first leaf, The corpus of surviving medieval monastic which was becoming pleated and abraded due to manuscripts altered or rebound and recovered in contact with the upper board, a new endleaf of calf velvet for Henry VIII is small; twenty-four manu- parchment was sewn in place, which incorporated scripts which have not undergone complete a linen/paper guard that could be used to rein- rebinding have been identified in seven library force the board attachment and pull the upper collections. This survival rate seems even smaller board back into position and secure it (fig. 3). when compared to documentary evidence of the Having done this, the next task was to humidify large number of books in the royal collection in the pleated area only of the first leaf with a thin 1547 described in variations of the following: ‘Item strip of damp blotter and Gore-Tex® membrane, a xxiiij bokes couered with purple veluet and garnysshed with siluer wherof xxj guylte’, or ‘Item foure bokes couered with crimson veluet and garnysshed with golde’, etc. An important source of information about the library of Henry VIII is the inventory made shortly after his death in 1547, which lists books and other possessions found in the royal palaces, with brief descriptions. The inventory gives some detail about the materials used in bindings and shows that, in some rooms, books were arranged by colour, implying that books may have been viewed as aesthetic objects, as well as sources for study and reference.

Conservation of Queen’s College MS 303 MS 303 is a copy of Peter Lombard’s Commentary Fig. 3: New parchment endleaf (upper). 18 THE QUEEN'S COLLEGE LIBRARY NEWSLETTER

technique which lets only mini- mal moisture through to the parchment in a very controllable way (fig. 4,5). The humidified area was then dried between Fig. 4: Pleating of fol. 1r, before treat- blotting paper ment under light weight. The presence of a new parchment endleaf will keep Fig. 6: Stitching in place the infill for large loss on the spine. the first leaf flat against the text- appear to have lifted/removed/excised existing block and stop it pastedowns and the original covering material, from floating up before recovering with velvet and pasting down when the board flyleaves or other matter to cover the inner board is opened and faces and traces of original material. Removal of b e c o m i n g endleaf material would explain why there is little pleated (this is evidence of earlier covering, turn ins, or lacing to called ‘suction be read from the altered endleaves. Another pleating’). There option open to the binders would have been to was a large loss recover the books without removing the original of textile mate- covering and pastedowns, but this has not been rial from the found in the Queen’s group. Fig. 5: Pleating of fol. 1r, after treat- spine, and the ment edges of the red velvet textile in Alterations to Queen’s College MS 303 this area were fraying and fragile. Textile conser- vator Maria Hayward infilled this area with two MS 303 retains its medieval sewing structure and weights of cotton cloth dyed to match and stitched board attachment, with four double thongs as this infill in place with long and short stitches sewing supports, laced into oak boards. On entry using a very fine silk thread (Fig. 6). into the royal library, this sturdy underlying structure was left largely unchanged, but some

elements were altered in order to recover the book Alterations for the royal library of Henry in velvet, to make a more luxurious binding VIII suitable for the king’s collection. In addition to conservation treatment, the work on The original external covering material would have the Henrician bindings has focussed on document- been an alum tawed skin (not a tanning process ing what can be observed and understood about but a different one based on aluminium salts), and the working practices of binders refurbishing this this was removed. The upper endleaves were also small group of manuscripts, and by extension removed, and a piece of parchment pasted to the other volumes taken into the royal library. The upper board. On the underside of this parchment extent to and means by which this material was leaf (removed during treatment of the split board) structurally altered to produce luxurious-looking was a sixteenth-century inscription, evidence that books for the royal collection is a subject that has this leaf did not belong to the original binding, and not been explored. was pasted down in the sixteenth century (or later). Removal of endleaves would have been Alterations were carried out to endleaves, text- necessary after the cover was taken off, as they block, and endbands, and metal furniture and would have been damaged by this process. covering materials were removed. The binders Ghosts in the Library 19

Ghosts in the Library: Apparitions of the dead in the collection of the Queen’s College, Oxford

A new exhibition in the Upper Library Spring - Winter 2012

his small exhibition illustrates the Fig. 7: Queen’s MS 303 after treatment. variety of opinions held about ghosts in English and European thought, with Metal furniture such as clasps and bosses was also works on display dating from the 15th to removed. Under the velvet covering of MS 303, at T 19th centuries. head and tail on the outer face of the upper board, there are recesses for non extant clasp straps with The topic of apparitions of the dead was a popular the nails still in position. The lower pastedown and controversial one in the late 16th and early shows rust marks where pins/catchplates for these 17th centuries, and reflecting our collection the straps were positioned, closing from the upper exhibition focuses particularly on ghosts as they onto the lower board. In addition, there is a set of appear in Reformation literature. rust marks which may have been caused by a parchment titling piece with protective horn cover Items on display include the 15th century manu- traditionally nailed onto the lower cover. It is script The Gast of Gy, a 1703 quarto edition of likely that this manuscript was originally in a Shakespeare’s The tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Romanesque binding. Denmark and a 19th century scientific treatise called Sketches of the philosophy of apparitions Having removed the original covering of MS 303 by Samuel Hibbert. and made alterations, Henry VIII’s binders began to refashion the stripped-down medieval binding. For the brave-hearted, alongside the exhibition In place of the original structural endbands laced you can also peruse the modern book Haunted in to reinforce the board attachment, they worked Oxford, which includes a tale of the Upper Li- a new decorative endband in a front crossover brary’s very own ghost. pattern over rolled tanned-skin cores with pink The exhibition is curated by our Technical Services and blue thread (dyed with woad or indigo), used Librarian, Lynette Dobson, and will be on display doubled on the needle and tied down into a few until Autumn 2012. quires, often only in three to four places and frequently missing the centres of the quires. These Non-members of the College (including members hasty non-structural endbands are typical and are of other Oxford colleges) need to make an appoint- found on five other Henrician textile bindings at ment before visiting – please email Queen’s. [email protected].

The binders worked quickly and used the luxuri- ous-looking velvet covering material economically, making use of selvedges where possible and cutting only where they had to. Neatness was a by- product, warp direction and alignment of the textile were disregarded, corners were fashioned The Queen’s College Library Insight quickly, and refashioned endleaves were liberally glued out with animal glue. The rich appearance of Published by The Library, The Queen’s College, these refurbished bindings is what mattered. Oxford, OX1 4AW Craftsmanship, integrity of structure, working properties, etc. were secondary (Fig. 7). Copyright The Queen’s College, Oxford, 2012

All rights reserved Jane Eagan is the Head Conservator at the Oxford Conservation Consortium. ISSN 2049-8349 Ghosts in the Library Apparitions of the dead in the collection of the Queen’s College, Oxford

April — September 2012

This small exhibition is located in the display cases in the Queen’s College Upper Library.

Non-members of the College, please contact us advance to arrange an appointment An exhibition of books in the Upper Library

The Queen’s College Library 01865 279130 [email protected]