Exhibitions

In this Year ... Anniversaries 2008

The year 2008 has seen several anniversaries concerning famous people. Among others, Elizabeth I ascended the throne of England in 1558, inaugurating a Golden Age; John Milton was born in 1608 – an event which has spawned numerous exhibitions and conferences – Oliver Cromwell died in 1658 and Robert Owen died in 1858.

Elizabeth I

The accession of Elizabeth I to the throne of England on 17 November 1558 was an occasion for great rejoicing. Her own comment upon learning of her accession to the throne, following considerable tribulation, was: ‘This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes’ (Psalm 118:23). Bonfires and street parties marked the event. Even after her death, her coronation day was celebrated, a reflection of the glory of the Elizabethan age. Thomas Heywood was later to end his description of Elizabeth’s youth triumphantly. ‘Thus passed she along to Westminster … and was there crowned, to the joy of all true-hearted Christians’ (Englands Elisabeth: her Life and Troubles, during her Minoritie, from the Cradle to the Crown (1632))

The books below commemorate the 450th anniversary of Elizabeth becoming Queen. They are editions of William Camden’s Annales, the first biography of Elizabeth I, which records the happenings of her reign as a chronicle, year by year. The work occupied its author for over seven years. It was not an easy task, especially as the treatment of Mary, Queen of Scots was politically sensitive and James I, Mary’s son, pressed Camden to persevere with the biography in the hope that Camden would portray Mary more positively than the French historian Jacques-Auguste de Thou had just done in the recently published parts of his Historia sui temporis (1604-09).

When writing, Camden was privileged to have access to the private papers of William Cecil, who in the 1590s had asked Camden to undertake the project, to the royal archives, and to the library of the antiquarian Sir Robert Cotton. The resulting work, with its reliance on primary sources, was a model of up-to-date historical writing which remained definitive for centuries. The first three books (Part I) were first published in Latin in 1615 and the fourth book (Part 2; finished in 1617) in 1625, two years after Camden’s death. English translations appeared in 1625 of Part I and of Part 2 in 1629. The work was an instant success. The seventeenth century saw two Latin and nine English editions published in England, while others appeared on the Continent: a fitting memorial to a monarch who ruled England at one of the great periods of her history.

Annales, or, The History of the Most Renowned and Victorious Princesse Elizabeth, Late Queen of England
William Camden
3rd edn
London: B. Fisher, 1635
(VI) Cc [Camden] fol. SR; [D.-L.L.] (VI) Cc [Camden] fol. SR

The English translator of this edition leaves no doubt of his views of Elizabeth, referring to: ‘the happy government of Queene Elizabeth of renouned memory … for what true Protestant throughout all Europe, doth not still retaine deepely imprinted in his remembrance, and with his best faculties acknowledge the happinesse of her times?’; he further states as the justification of his work: ‘because it may perhaps be not unpleasing to many to hear her praises again & again recorded, whom in their hearts they so much honoured’.
Senate House Library holds the edition in two copies: one as issued, and one rendered unique by a nineteenth-century owner having it bound in three volumes, interleaved with approximately 450 illustrations.

Annales Rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum Regnante Elizabetha
William Camden
Amsterdam: D. Elzevir, 1677
[Elzevier Collection] E.S.117

This octavo edition of Camden’s Annales is the third of three editions allegedly to have been published by the Elzevier publishing dynasty in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century: the others appeared in 1625 and 1639. According to Alphonse Willems, who compiled the major bibliography of the Elzevier output, the 1677 edition is in fact a German piracy of the one from 1639.

John Milton

John Milton (1608–1674) has frequently been considered to be the most significant author after William Shakespeare. His most famous work, Paradise Lost, has been described as: ‘one of the greatest works of the human imagination’ and ‘the supreme poetic achievement in the English language, fit to sit alongside the poems of Homer, Virgil, and Dante’ (Gordon Campbell, ‘Milton, John (1608–1674)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  The books displayed fall into two categories, (1) Paradise Lost, and (2) a variety of his other works.

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost: a Poem in Ten Books
John Milton
London: S. Simmons, 1669
[S.L.] I [Milton - 1669]

The first edition of Paradise Lost was published in 1667 in 1,300 copies. As the poem sold slowly, it was issued with six successive title–pages, of which this is the fifth, to encourage sales.  Milton subsequently revised the poem, dividing it into twelve books.
That this is a late copy of the first edition is evident from its inclusion of an ‘argument’, or summary, of each book.  This particular copy was once owned by Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode (1730–1799), an eminent book collector, most of whose books passed on his death to the British Museum (now British Library).

Paradise Lost: a Poem in Twelve Books
John Milton
4th edn
London: R. Bentley and J. Tonson, 1688
[S.L.] I [Milton - 1688] fol.

This is the first folio edition and the first illustrated edition of Paradise Lost. Its thirteen plates – an illustration for each of the twelve books into which the poem is divided and a frontispiece portrait of the author – are from paintings by Sir John Baptiste de Medina (1659–1710). The text contains emendations on the basis of the previous three editions and Milton’s manuscript, which Jacob Tonson the Elder (1655/6-1736) purchased together with the work’s copyright.

Paradise Lost: a Poem in Twelve Books
John Milton
15th edn
London: J. and R. Tonson et al., 1738
[S] YI M68L 738

The Jacob and Richard Tonson who were the primary publishers of this edition of Paradise Lost were the great-nephews of the Jacob Tonson involved in the publication of the 1688 folio of the work. The smallness and cheapness of the edition demonstrates that Milton had become part of a standard literary canon – in the words of its dedication, ‘generally known and esteem’d’. The various editions of the older Tonsons had done much to ensure Milton’s reputation.

Paradis perdu
John Milton; trans. by Jacques Delille
Paris: Giguet and Michaud, 1805
[S] YI M68L

Paradise Lost has been translated into all the major European languages and some minor ones, such as Icelandic, Welsh and Manx. The first French translation appeared in 1729. This version was translated in London by Jacques Delille (1738-1813), who was himself a poet and who had previously translated Virgil. The illustration shows the archangel Michael escorting Adam and Eve from Paradise.

Paradise Lost
John Milton; ill. by William Blake
Liverpool: Liverpool Booksellers’ Co., 1906
[Teach Coll.} YI M68L 906

Illustrators of Paradise Lost have included Gustave Doré (1832-1883), Sir John Baptiste de Medina (1659–1710), whose pictures appear in the 1688 folio edition (shown) and were reproduced in several editions published by the Tonsons; Richard Westall (1765–1836); Francis Hayman (1707/8–1776) and Henry Fuseli (1741–1825). William Blake (1757-1827), himself a poet, was fifty years old when he illustrated Paradise Lost in twelve water-colours, one for each book. Shown here are Satan, Sin and Death at the gates of Hell, from Book Two.

The Paradise Lost of Milton
John Milton; ill. by John Martin
London: C. Tilt, 1833
[S] YI M68L 833

The visionary Romantic artist John Martin (1789–1854) specialised in Biblical themes. He began his illustrations for Paradise Lost in 1824, commissioned by the publisher Septimus Prowett; Prowett sold the plates to Charles Titlt in 1832. The mezzotints are dark and dramatic, intended to convey a sense of warfare between light and darkness and of light shining in the darkness. The 24 pictures are spread unevenly over the poem, with between one and four illustrations per book. Shown here is one of the four engravings for Book Four, depicting Satan aroused.

Miscellaneous Milton

Paradise Regained: a Poem
John Milton
London: G. Stafford, 1800
[Porteus] YI M68P 800 (fol.)

ParadiseRegained was first published in 1671, inspired by Milton’s friend Thomas Elwood’s comment on the manuscript of Paradise Lost: ‘But what hast thou to say of Paradise Found?’. The poem tells the story of Jesus’s temptation in the desert (Matt. 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-11). Charles Dunster (1750–1816), a Church of England clergyman who wrote primarily theological works, first published his edition of the poem in 1795. The edition is copiously annotated – some pages contain just two lines of text and over 40 lines of annotations – with additional editorial matter at beginning and end and a large folded map of places mentioned in the poem.

Comus: A Mask
John Milton
[Newtown, Montgomeryshire]: Gregynog Press, 1931
[S.L.] III [Gregynog Press - 1931]

Comus is a masque to celebrate the inauguration of John Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater, as lord president of Wales. Milton wrote it by commission in 1634, and it was performed at Ludlow Castle in September of that year.  Publication followed anonymously in 1637. This copy is no. 14 of a limited edition of 250 copies published by the Gregynog Press, a private press which specialized in items with a Welsh connection. The designs are by Blair Hughes-Stanton.

Eikonoklastes: in Answer to a Book Intitl'd Eikon Basilike
John Milton
London: M. Simmons, 1649
[S.L.] I [Milton - 1649]

“Eikonoklastes” means “image-breaker”. Milton wrote the work on commission, as an official answer to the Eikon Basilike, and it was published in October 1649. Milton’s remit was to blunt sympathy for the recently executed Charles I. He showed little inclination for the task, writing in the preface: “To descant on the misfortunes of a Person fall’n from so high a dignity, who hath also payd his finall debt both to Nature and his Faults, is neither of itselfe a thing commendable, nor the intention of this discourse. … no man ever gain’d much honour by writing against a King … Nevertheless for their sakes who … admire [kings] and their doings, as if they breath’d not the same breath with other mortall men, I shall make no scruple … to take up this Gauntlet … in the behalfe of Libertie, and the Common-wealth”.

Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio
John Milton
London [i.e. Amsterdam]: Du Gardianis [i.e. L. Elzevir], 1651
[Elzevier Collection] W.1134

Like Eikonoklastes, Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio was commissioned by the council of the state to defend the Commonwealth: this time against Claude Saumaise’s Defensio regia pro Carolo I (1649), a defence of Charles I. The false imprint of Milton’s work (London: De Guardianis for Amsterdam: Louis Elzevir) indicates its contentious nature: English royalists condemned it, and it was burned publicly in Paris and Toulouse.

Accedence Commenc't Grammar
John Milton
London: S. Simmons, 1669
[Q.M.L.] Ab [Milton] SR

Milton was a schoolmaster 1639-1642, an experience possibly reflected in this work. Claiming that one-tenth of an average man’s life-span is taken up by learning Latin badly, Milton sets out in 65 duodecimo pages to make the task quicker and easier.  This is the first of two editions, both published in 1669.

Areopagitica
John Milton
London: A. Millar, 1738
[G.L.] 1738

Areopagitica was first published in 1644 and underwent five further editions in the seventeenth century; shown here is the first of five editions published in the eighteenth century. The text is Milton’s defence of the liberty of the press. While it failed to sway the parliament to which it was addressed, it has since been valued as an eloquent defence in English of the right to publish without prior censorship. The preface of this edition shows this clearly: “There is no need of a Preface to recommend this admirable defence of the best of human rights, to any one who has ever heard of the divine Milton: and it is impossible to produce better arguments, or to set them in a more convincing, awakening light.”

Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)

“No man who rises from a working farmer to head of state in twenty years is other than great”.

Thus the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography summarises the career of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1653 until his death in 1658 and king in all but name. Opinions about him were strong and varied. He was the third signatory to the death warrant of King Charles I. His achievements included raising England’s status to that of a leading European power, following its decline since the death of Elizabeth I; promoting religious tolerance; and advancing education. He was a skilled military general, instrumental in the Parliamentarian victory in the English Civil Wars.

Cromwell has been the subject of, or has featured prominently in, over 3,500 books, pamphlets and essays since 1643. This display to commemorate the 350th anniversary of Cromwell’s death shows works from the Elzevier Collection, which consists primarily of seventeenth-century Dutch imprints; the Eliot-Phelips Collection of Spanish imprints; the Bromhead Library of works pertaining to the history of London (a collection rich in Civil War tracts); and the Goldsmiths’ Library of Economic Literature.

Histoire d'Olivier Cromwel
François Raguenet
Utrecht: P. Elzevier, 1692
[Elzevier Collection] W.2167/1

Oliver Cromwell has been the subject of over 160 full-length biographies. This biography of Cromwell was published twice in 1691, and the Italian Gregorio Leti (1630-1701) incorporated translations of entire chapters in his own Historia, e memorie recondite sopra all vita di Oliviero Cromvele (1692). The author, a French priest whose other works include several theological treatises and a controversial comparison between French and Italian music, states as his motive for writing about Cromwell as the extraordinariness of Cromwell’s achievement in rising from mediocrity to sovereignty. He notes the contradictions in Cromwell’s character (e.g. arrogant and modest; inflexible and accommodating) which mark later biographies, to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in the twenty-first century.

Parangon de los Dos Cromueles de Inglaterra
Rodrigo Mendes Silva
Madrid: G. de Leon, 1657
[E.P.] MVLN CRO Men

This Spanish work deals with the Tudor statesman Thomas Cromwell (1485?-1540) and with Oliver Cromwell: the two Cromwells were in fact distantly related. Oliver Cromwell’s foreign activity included concluding an alliance with France against Spain, with whom he warred.

A New Conference between the Ghosts of King Charles and Oliver Cromwell
Adam Wood
London: R. Page, 1659
[B.L.] 1659 [New conference]

This pamphlet by an otherwise unknown writer appeared the year after Cromwell’s death. It expresses clear Royalist sympathies. In it the ghost of Oliver Cromwell admits to that of Charles I that he was a tyrant, and attributes the fever of which he died to a gnawing and tormenting conscience.
The pamphlet is relatively rare: this is one of only four copies in Britain recorded in ESTC, with another six copies known in North America. The copy shown formerly belonged to the politician and trade union leader John Burns (1858-1943), whose collection of rare and valuable books was sold at Sotheby’s in 1944.

An Accurate Pedigree of the Cromwell Family
[London: s.n., 1774]
[G.L.] Case II. 8

This family tree was published in the London Magazine in 1774. Oliver Cromwell appears in the sixth of the eleven generations portrayed. The eye is immediately drawn to his name as the entry for him is in larger print than for anybody else recorded. By stating his position, dates of birth and death, and the name and descent of his wife, the table provides more detail for Oliver Cromwell than for any of his relatives.

Robert Owen (1771-1858)

2008 marks the 150th anniversary of the death of the socialist and philanthropist Robert Owen. Owen was, according to the labour leader and politician John Burns (1858-1943), ‘the greatest Britisher of the century and the most powerful of formative influences of all times’ His memorial epitaph in Kensal Green Cemetery describes him as ‘one of the foremost Britons who taught men to aspire to a higher social state by reconciling the interests of capital and labour’. 

Robert Owen first gained a reputation as a young manager of a cotton spinning mill producing fine cotton. He was especially well known for managing a cotton spinning community in New Lanark, near Glasgow. Believing that environment is what shapes the human character, Owen set out to improve that environment by looking after the education and welfare of his workers: for example, by insisting on part-time schooling for children working in the mills; reducing the working day to twelve hours; and raising the minimum age from which children could work to ten. As living and working conditions rose, New Lanark became seen as a model, famous throughout Europe. Owen campaigned for wider factory reform both via leading politicians and directly through speeches and voluminous writings. He played a seminal role in founding British socialism, originated labour laws, and had a strong impact on the theory of the growing co-operative and trade union movements.

At Senate House Library, the Goldsmiths’ Library of Economic Literature, the John Burns Collection, and the Family Welfare Association Library, from which the items on display are taken, are all strong in material on Robert Owen. Topics in the Goldsmiths’ Library embrace trades and manufacture, social conditions (including trades unions) and socialism. The Goldsmiths’ Library also contains books formerly owned by Owen. John Burns, whose collection of over 5,000 items is especially strong in items relating to British labour and socialist movements and trade unions, was an avowed admirer of Owen, as evident both from the quotation above and from his instigation of a bibliography of Robert Owen’s writings compiled by the National Library of Wales. The Family Welfare Association Library, deposited in Senate House Library on permanent loan in 1963, includes material on Owen bequeathed by William Pare, assembled for a biography of Owen which was never completed.

A New View of Society
Robert Owen
London: Cadell and Davies, 1813
[G.L.] A.823

This work includes the earliest of Owen’s published works, The First Essay on the Principle of the Formation of Character. It is Owen’s best-known work and the clearest declaration of his principles. Owen’s belief that environment shapes character is enunciated in capital letters in the first essay, as is his view that the happiness of the individual depends on conduct which promotes the happiness of the community.

Robert Owen, Esq.
London: G. Sweeton, 1823
[G.L.] A.823

This six-page biography of Robert Owen was published as the nineteenth number of a twopenny series, ‘The unique: A Series of Portraits of Eminent Persons’. It is a eulogistic account, beginning by describing Owen as: “this truly excellent, enthusiastic, and active philanthropist”. Much of it is devoted to a description of Owen’s scheme at New Lanark, near Glasgow, which provided the workers at his mills there with favourable working and living conditions in a (successful) effort to reduce vice. This copy belonged to Herbert Somerton Foxwell (1849-1936), and is part of the Goldsmiths’ Library of Economic Literature.

The life of Robert Owen, Philanthropist and Social Reformer
Robert Evan Davies
London: R. Sutton, 1907
Burns 3126

This 57-page work from the early twentieth century does not approve Owen unreservedly, for example disliking his conversion to Spiritualism in about 1853. However, the overall verdict is high: “He was born to be great, and he achieved the natural tendency of his birth” (p. 54), and the author condemns the people of Newtown in Montgomeryshire, Owen’s birthplace, for not honouring him.

The life of Robert Owen, vol. 1
Robert Owen
London: Effingham Wilson, 1857
Burns 3125

Robert Owen rounded off his lengthy  list of published works – at least 160 in all – with the most substantial of them all, his autobiography, which appeared in two volumes, 1857-8. The copy shown is remarkable for having been given by Robert Owen to the writer Thomas Allsop (1795–1880), as recorded in: an inscription on the title page, and repeated in a note by John Burns. Letters from Owen to Thomas Allsop are extant in the British Library.

Scrapbook of material by and relating to Robert Owen, 1819-1871
Collected by William Pare
MS578

The compiler of this scrapbook is William Pare (1805-1873). Pare, a co-operative movement activist, was a disciple of Robert Owen and, after Owen’s death, his literary executor. The scrapbook contains various manuscript items pertaining to Robert Owen, such as copies of letters to or from Owen, holograph drafts of addresses by Owen, and a silhouette sketch of Owen by the renowned silhouette artist Augustin Gaspard Edouart, (1789-1861). Other items include newspaper cuttings, prints of New Lanark, the memorial card and order of Owen’s funeral procession, and the printed programme of the 100th anniversary of his birth.