Bur. 02627 – Ludivico
Pontico
Virunio - Pontici Virunni viri
doctissimi Britannicae historiae libri sex, magna et fide et diligentia
conscripti : ad Britannici codicis fidem correcti - Londini : Apud Edmundum Bollifantum, impensis Henrici
Denhami, & Radulphi Nuberij, 1585
This tiny book is among the books of Bishop Thomas
Burgess. For all you Welsh medievalists
out there it’s a Latin abridgement of a collection of histories of Britain,
including those of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Gerald of Wales. Virunio produced this abridgement in the
early sixteenth century for the Italian market, but this edition was printed in
1585 in London.

Looking beyond the text, the book’s binding dates from the early eighteenth century
and is particularly attractive. It’s
bound in quarter Calf, with a gilt patch label and boards covered in a lovely red
paste paper, decorated with swirly patterns.
This form of decorative paper was used widely in the seventeenth and
eighteenth century on library bindings and was made by mixing pigment with
wheat paste. The resulting coloured
paste was applied to the surface of the paper and then a tool or the maker’s
fingers, were moved through the wet paste to make the patterns. When dried the resulting decorative paper was hard wearing as well as rather beautiful.

As well as being an interesting work of history in an attractive
binding, the book has a fascinating provenance too. On the pastedown is the bookplate of the
library of Christ Church, Oxford. The engraved bookplate appears to be
eighteenth century and may well date from the time the book was rebound. At some point the book was withdrawn from the
Christ Church library stock, as the word ‘Duplicate’ is written on the
bookplate in a late eighteenth century hand.
On the title page of the book, to the right of the title, is
written in ink the name ‘Robertus Burton’, the date 1600 and a little cipher
that appears to be formed from a triangle of three lower case ‘r’s. The date 1600 and the monogram are repeated once
again beneath the title. On the
reverse of the final page of the book the inscription ‘Robertus Burton’ is
repeated again, along with the three ‘r’ cipher but also the date he acquired
the book: ‘martii primo 1600’ – March
the first 1600.


The owner identified by the inscription and cipher was the scholar Robert Burton (1577-1640) a prominent Oxford Polymath in the early years
of the seventeenth century. About 1700
books from his library remain and he used this signature and cipher in many of
them.
Burton bought this book in 1600 when he was twenty three and was still at the beginning
of his academic career, a career that would see him explore Philosophy, Theology,
History, Mathematics and Psychology. An
undergraduate at Brasenose, at the age of twenty two he had became a student
(fellow) at Christ Church and remained there for the rest of his life. From 1624 to 1640 he served as librarian of
Christ Church.

His tour de force was a book entitled
The Anatomy of Melancholy, which he
published under the pseudonym Democritus Junior.
Published in 1621, it was an extraordinary
and ground-breaking work of Psychology; a discussion of the symptoms, causes
and cure of the condition of Melancholy.
It was a hugely influential book in its time. We have a copy of the 1638 edition here in
Lampeter in the Phillips collection (Phi 01502) and the frontispiece is illustrated here, including the potrait of Burton labelled as
'Democritus Junior'. On his death in 1640 Burton was buried in Christ Church
Cathedral in his college, where
his monument can still be seen, with a portrait bust once again labelled
'Democritus Junior'. Burton's personal library of around 1700 titles
was split between the Bodleian and Christ Church, the Bodleian getting first
pick.
This is how his copy of
Virunio came to be in the library of Christ Church, although this book is not
recorded among his collection in the monograph on his library published in 1988
by Nicolas Kiessling.

We don't know quite how this book got from Christ Church library to Thomas
Burgess’ collection, but we can speculate. As stated earlier, the Christ Church bookplate has the word ‘Duplicate’
written on it. We know that the librarian at Christ Church was weeding the collection and disposing of duplicate books (including some of Burton’s) between 1789-91. Some were sold to a London bookseller called Thomas King who sold them on in 1793
Perhaps Thomas Burgess picked up the book in
that sale? Personally I think Burgess probably picked the book up earlier when he was resident in
Oxford. He was an undergraduate at Corpus Christi college from 1775 and was subsequently a fellow of the college, only leaving Oxford permanently in 1791
when he moved to Durham.
Corpus Christi College is just outside the back gate of Christ Church, close to Peckwater Quad and to Christ Church library, It would be nice to think of Burgess wandering through Christ Church sometime between 1789-91 and having a rumage through a library book sale and returning triumphant to his rooms with this wonderful prize.