Roger Ascham

Prose

Expositiones in epistolam Divi Pauli ad Philemonem

Ascham's Latin translation of Oecumenius's collection of Greek commentaries on St Paul's Epistle to Philemon. First published in Apologia pro caena dominica, ed. E. Grant (London, 1577).

*AsR 1
Autograph fair copy, entitled Expositiones quaedam antiquae in Epistolam Divi Pauli ad Philemonem ex diversis Sanctorum Patrum graece scriptis commentariis opera et diligentia Oecumenii collectae et nunc primum latine versae; with a dedication to John Seton, and presented to him on 1 January 1542/3. 1543.

This MS recorded in Ryan, Roger Ascham, p. 301.

Facsimiles of the title-page and f. 6r in Alfred Fairbank and Berthold Wolpe, Renaissance Handwriting: An Anthology of Italic Scripts (London, 1960), plate 34. A transcript of the dedication to Seton made by Thomas Baker (1656-1740) is in Cambridge University Library, MS Mm. 1. 43, pp. 535-7.

Expositiones in epistolam Divi Pauli ad Titum

Ascham's Latin translation of Oecumenius's collection of Greek commentaries on St Paul's Epistle to Titus. First published in Apologia pro caena dominica, ed. E. Grant (London, 1577).

*AsR 2
Autograph fair copy, 44 quarto leaves (plus blanks), in a recycled vellum devotional text within modern black morocco.

In Ascham's calligraphic roman hand, with (f. 1r) a title-page, Expositiones antiquæ in Epistolam D. Pauli ad Titum, ex diuersis sanctorum Patrum græce scriptis commentarijs ab Oecumenio collectæ, et nunc primum latine uersae: Cantabrigiæ Anno D.M.D XLII, and (ff. 2r-5r) a dedication to Thomas Goodrich, Bishop of Ely.

1542.

Inscriptions including Frederick Tilney Non est mortale quod optat Fred. Tilney and Fredericus Tilneus Est Uerus huivs Libri Possessor.

This MS recorded in Ryan, Roger Ascham, p. 301. Facsimiles of ff. 4v-5r in A.J. Fairbank and R.W. Hunt, Humanistic Script of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (1960; reprinted Oxford, 1993), No. 19 (pp. 32-3), and in Petti, English Literary Hands (1977), No. 23.

The Schoolmaster

First published in London, 1570. Ed. Lawrence V. Ryan (Ithaca, NY, 1967).

AsR 3

Copy of an early version of the first book only, in a secretary and italic hand.

Fol. 47r inscribed (partly torn away) [ ]ams institution [ ] hys chylde and Lumley.

In: A folio composite volume of four treatises, in different hands, 162 leaves, in brown calf gilt.

Later in the library of John, first Baron Lumley (c.1533-1609), collector.

This MS described in George B. Parks, The First Draft of Ascham's Scholemaster, Huntington Library Quarterly, 1 (1937-8), 313-27. Discussed in Ryan, Roger Ascham, pp. 331-2.

AsR 3.1
Copy of An Abridgement of Roger Ascham's Schoolmaster, in the neat italic hand of John Ward, FRS (1678/9-1758), antiquary, biographer and Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College, 31 quarto leaves, in modern half brown morocco. Early-mid-18th century.
AsR 3.2

Extracts from an abridgement made by John Ward (1679?-1758).

In: A duodecimo commonplace book of extracts, in one cursive hand, written from both ends, 117 leaves (plus numerous blanks), in contemporary vellum boards gilt. c.1630.

Owned by William Drake, MP (1606-69), of Shardeloes, near Amersham, Buckinghamshire. Later in the library of Charles Kay Ogden (1889-1957), psychologist, linguist, and book collector.

Drake's commonplace books discussed in Stuart Clark, Wisdom Literature of the Seventeenth Century: A Guide to the Contents of the Bacon-Tottel Commonplace Books, Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 6, Part 5 (1976), 291-305; 7, Part 1 (1977), 46-73, and in Kevin Sharpe, Reading Revolutions (New Haven & London, 2000).

Toxophilus

See AsR 3.3-3.7.

Printed Books and Manuscripts Inscribed by Ascham

Ascham, Roger. Toxophilus (London, 1545)
*AsR 3.3
A printed exemplum with a presentation epistle (by Ascham?, now imperfect) to Thomas Wriothesley. 1545.
*AsR 3.4
An autograph presentation epistle by Ascham to William Parr, Earl of Essex, on three pages in an exemplum of the first printed edition of Toxophilus. 1545.

Later owned by Bertram Ashburnham (1797-1874), fourth Earl of Ashburnham, of Ashburnham Place, Sussex. Donated to the Folger in February 1947 by Dr A.S.W. Rosenbach (1876-1953), Philadelphia bookseller, collector and scholar, and by Lessing Julius Rosenwald (1891-1979), Pennsylvania businessman and collector.

AsR 3.5
A printed exemplum bound for Edward VI (as Prince of Wales). 1545.

Later in the Cope Library at Bramshill House, Hampshire.

AsR 3.6
Ascham's exemplum of the first printed edition of Toxophilus, presented to King Henry VIII. c.1545.

Formerly in the Royal Library.

AsR 3.7
An exemplum of the first printed edition of Toxophilus, with Ascham's presentation epistle to the Earl of Essex. c.1545.

Formerly owned by Frank Brewer Bemis (1861-1935), Boston banker and book collector.

Recorded in De Ricci, I (1935), 949.

Osorio da Fonseca, Jeronimo. De nobilitate civili (Florence, 1552)
*AsR 3.8
A printed exemplum, with Ascham's autograph inscription to Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of Durham. c.1552.

Facsimile of the inscription in Alfred Fairbank and Bruce Dickins, The Italic Hand in Tudor Cambridge, Cambridge Bibliographical Society, Monograph No.5 (London, 1962), Plate 7.

*AsR 3.9
A printed exemplum, with Ascham's autograph inscription to Cardinal Reginald Pole. 1552.
St Ambrose. De vocatione omnium gentium libri duo (Geneva, 1541)
*AsR 4
A printed exemplum with Ascham's autograph annotations. 1555/6.

This item discussed in Ryan, Roger Ascham, p. 211 et seq., 242.

Xenophon. Cyri paediae (Paris, 1538-9)
*AsR 5
A printed exemplum, with Ascham's autograph inscription on the title-page, in Latin and Greek, to Sir Walter Mildmay, dated 28 October 1564. 1564.

Facsimile of the inscribed title-page in British Literary Manuscripts, Series I. ed. Verlyn Klinkenborg et al. (New York, 1981), Plate 14.

Miscellaneous Extracts from Works by Ascham

Extracts
AsR 6

Extracts, headed Ascham.

In: A folio volume of verse and prose extracts, those on pp. 321-7 headed Observables of a Miscellaneous Nature, those on pp. 367-77 Witty Sentences, in a single cursive secretary hand, 377 pages (including numerous blanks), in reversed brown calf.

Among the family collection established by Christopher Mickleton (1612-69), Durham attorney, and by his eldest son James (1638-93), lawyer and antiquary, which was later incorporated in the collections of Gilbert Spearman (1675-1738), lawyer and antiquary.

1699-1711.