Wormsley Library

Autograph calligraphic MS, vi + 56 pages + 1 leaf (180 x 134 mm.).

A presentation MS to Catherine de Bourbon (1558-1604), sister of Henri IV, with a Dedication to her, in numerous styles of script, with ink and colour decoration and a self-portrait.

3 June 1601.

Once owned by Chevalier Thomas and his wife. Lawrence Feinberg's sale catalogue 1 [1977], item 1.

Scott-Elliot & Yeo, No. 18 (pp. 47-8), as in a Private collection, England. Facsimiles of pp. 42-3 and the portrait page in The Wormsley Library (Maggs Bros, London, & Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1999), No. 39 (pp. 102-3).

*InE 26: Esther Inglis, [Proverbs] Les Proverbes de Salomon. Lislebourg, Esther Anglois, 1601

Scott-Elliot & Yeo, No. 18 (pp. 47-8), as in a Private collection, England. Facsimiles of pp. 42-3 and the portrait page in The Wormsley Library (Maggs Bros, London, & Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1999), No. 39 (pp. 102-3).

A French translation of the Book of Proverbs in the Bible, with other verses in French and Latin including some to to Esther Inglis by Melville and Johnston.

Autograph calligraphic MS.

Presumably prepared as a New Year's Gift, and with a self-portrait.

1 January 1611/12.

Later owned by the Rev. Richard Farmer (1735-97), literary scholar (his sale May-June 1798, lot 8098); by James Bindley, FSA (1737-1818), book collector (his sale, Part II, January 1819, lot 2415), to the bookseller Thomas Rodd (1796-1849).

Scott-Elliot & Yeo, No. 38 (p. 69), as Untraced.

*InE 37: Esther Inglis, [Psalms] The Psalms of David, written by me, Esther Inglis at Willingale Spain, the 1st of January 1612

Scott-Elliot & Yeo, No. 38 (p. 69), as Untraced.

The Psalms in English.

Autograph calligraphic MS, in roman and italic scripts, with decoration and a self-portrait, ix leaves + 285 pages (84 x 62 mm.), in contemporary white velvet embroidered, dated 5 May 1624. 1624.

Sold by Quaritch, in 1948, to Major John Roland Abbey (1894-1969), collector. Sotheby's, 20 June 1978 (Abbey sale), lot 3000, with facsimile examples in the sale catalogue.

Scott-Elliot & Yeo, No. 55 (pp. 83-4).

*InE 39: Esther Inglis, [Psalms] The Booke of the Psalmes of Davide in prose written be Esther Inglis in the fiftie thre yeer of hir age at Edenbrugh the V. of May. [1]624

Scott-Elliot & Yeo, No. 55 (pp. 83-4).

The Psalms in English, with Latin verses to Esther Inglis by Melville, Rollock, and Johnston.

A printed exemplum containing copious annotations by Ben Jonson. 1617.

Once owned by the Dering family, baronets, of Surrenden, Kent. Puttick & Simpson's, 13 July 1865 (Dering sale, 3rd day), lot 754. Sold by Quaritch in 1980.

Extensively discussed and illustrated in James A. Riddell and Stanley Stewart, Jonson's Spenser: Evidence and Historical Criticism (Pittsburgh, 1995); and see also their Jonson Reads The Ruines of Time, SP, 87 (1990) 427-55. The Wormsley Library (Maggs Bros & Pierpont Morgan Library, 1999), No. 42.

SpE 95: Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queen [&c.] (London, 1617)

Extensively discussed and illustrated in James A. Riddell and Stanley Stewart, Jonson's Spenser: Evidence and Historical Criticism (Pittsburgh, 1995); and see also their Jonson Reads The Ruines of Time, SP, 87 (1990) 427-55. The Wormsley Library (Maggs Bros & Pierpont Morgan Library, 1999), No. 42.