WITH MANUSCRIPT GENEALOGICAL NOTES
Ducatus leodiensis: or, the topography Of the Ancient and Populous Town and Parish of leedes, And Parts Adjacent in the west-riding of the County of york. With Pedegrees of many of the Nobility and Gentry, and other Matters relating to those Parts; Extracted from Records, Original Evidences, and Manuscripts...
London.
Printed for Maurice Atkins, and Sold by Henry Clements, 1715.
First edition.
Folio.
iv, [2], v-xxii, 4, 5-6, 5-108, 109-114, 109-268, [3], 276-628pp, [12]. With an engraved portrait frontispiece, an engraved folding map, engraved folding prospect of Leeds, 10 further engraved plates (eight folding), and a list of subscribers. Contemporary gilt-tooled panelled calf, later rebacked and recornered preserving contemporary spine panel, later morocco lettering-piece. Boards rubbed and scored. Latter third of text-block browned. Inked ownership inscription of T. D. Whitaker and later armorial bookplate of Rector of Bingley, Yorkshire, Johnson Atkinson Busfield (1775-1849) to front pastedown, Busfield's ownership inscription (dated 1840) to recto of FFEP, with a single leaf of manuscript notes in his hand tipped-in, alongside a later Times newspaper clipping recording the Sunderland Library sale and the purchase of a copy of Ducatus by Quartich for £28, contemporary ownership inscription of William Brack to title page, numerous manuscript notes, presumably in Brack's hand.
A choice copy of the first edition of Ralph Thoresby's (1658-1725) magnum opus, owned by topographer and antiquary Thomas Dunham Whitaker (1759-1821), the editor of the enlarged second edition of 1816.
Though not the first topographical publication of importance about a provincial town, Ducatus was the first work of importance by a Yorkshire antiquary. Attached to the main body of the text is a catalogue of the Musaeum Thoresbyanum, a collection founded by Thoresby's father following the purchase of the cabinet of coins and library of Lord Fairfax. Thoresby greatly expanded the museum to include holdings of plants, shells, minerals, fossils, instruments of war and of mathematics, and a substantial archive of edition of the Bible.
The book was published by subscription and was dedicated to Peregrine Osborne, Marquess of Carmarthen and heir apparent to the Duke of Leeds, and to the mayor of Leeds and aldermen of Leeds. About 2000 copies were printed and sold for £3.
The comprehensive manuscript notes which have been added to this copy, extending the pedigrees and adding names to various family trees up to 1729, are likely in the hand of William Brack (d. 1747), a herald-painter based in York. The additions to the family trees would certainly have been pertinent to a man of that trade, and 1729 being the latest date would most probably exclude Whitaker as a candidate.
Though not the first topographical publication of importance about a provincial town, Ducatus was the first work of importance by a Yorkshire antiquary. Attached to the main body of the text is a catalogue of the Musaeum Thoresbyanum, a collection founded by Thoresby's father following the purchase of the cabinet of coins and library of Lord Fairfax. Thoresby greatly expanded the museum to include holdings of plants, shells, minerals, fossils, instruments of war and of mathematics, and a substantial archive of edition of the Bible.
The book was published by subscription and was dedicated to Peregrine Osborne, Marquess of Carmarthen and heir apparent to the Duke of Leeds, and to the mayor of Leeds and aldermen of Leeds. About 2000 copies were printed and sold for £3.
The comprehensive manuscript notes which have been added to this copy, extending the pedigrees and adding names to various family trees up to 1729, are likely in the hand of William Brack (d. 1747), a herald-painter based in York. The additions to the family trees would certainly have been pertinent to a man of that trade, and 1729 being the latest date would most probably exclude Whitaker as a candidate.
ESTC T139372.
£ 1,250.00
Antiquates Ref: 21088