A book presented to Ely Cathedral Library by Bishop Symon Patrick (1626-1707) during the 1690s as part of his drive to revive the Cathedral where he rebuilt the Bishop’s Palace and strengthened the holdings in the Cathedral library as well as supporting the Cambridge University Press and founding the S.P.C.K. On the last page of text Patrick has written a Latin address to future readers of the little volume (’Si quisquis in hunc libru[m]...’) but despite this compelling provenance the book was formally deacquisitioned in 1972 by order of the the cathedral’s Dean and Chapter and sold through Sotheby’s and now appears on the market once again.
The archetype of the latitudinarian clergyman and close to the Cambridge Platonists in philosophy it is fascinating to witness Neville’s passionately committed ownership of this historical account of Kett’s Rebellion which took place only 50 miles from his Bishopric in rural Norfolk in 1549, culminating in Kett’s execution, hung from the walls of Norwich Castle. Patrick had himself survived and even prospered after another still greater upheaval in the form of the English Civil War.
DESCRIPTION: Seventeenth century full sheep binding with a double blind fillet to the boards; old paper library numbers to the spine. Ely Cathedral Library’s bookplate, probably 1690s, marking the institutional gift of this book from the collection of Bishop Symon Patrick. This is overlaid with the deacquisition stamp ‘By Order of the Dean and Chapter’; a smaller book label from the library sits above this. Opposite there are 3 ink case marks and one written in pencil. Discoloured title page but a clean text The book collates complete as per STC 18479 which exists as a stand alone publication (and has been bound as such since the 17th century) but is also often found appended to Christopher Ockland’s Anglorum Praelia of 1582, STC 18773. Written upside down on the verso of the final leaf is Bishop Symon’s address to future readers: ‘Si quisquis in hunc libru[m] sua lumine... per me Sy Bishopp’.
