THOMAS HENSHAW'S COPY, BOUGHT IN ROME
Rime piacevoli Di cesare caporali Con aggiunta d'alcuni Sonetti, e Capitolo del Coriandolo de medesimo, e coll'osservationi di carol caporali All'Illustiss. & Eccellentiss. Sig. duca della corgna.
In Perugia.
Nella Stampa Camerale Appresso Pietro Tomassi, 1642.
12mo.
[12], 413pp, [3]. Contemporary gilt- tooled green morocco backed marbled boards. Slightly rubbed, with a closed tear to Q10, without loss of text. Later bookplate of the Gaddesden library, with pencilled shelfmarks, to front endpapers. Thomas Henshaw's copy, with his pencilled inscription to verso of blank fly- leaf at front, opposite title, noting his acquisition in Rome in 1645. Very occasional pencilled highlighting to text, and a single word pencilled annotation in Henshaw's hand to R2r.
English courtier, diplomat and alchemist Thomas Henshaw's (1618- 1700) copy of the collected verse of Cesare Caporali (1531-1601), including the satirical 'Viaggio in Parnaso' and 'Avvisi di Parnaso', which inspired later similarly themed works on Parnassus by Cervantes and Boccalini, amongst others.
The remains of library as recently dispersed from the Gaddesden seat of his Halsey descendants suggest that Henshaw - somewhat of a polymath who studied briefly at University College, Oxford, and under the auspices of William Oughtred, before a brief stint in the Royalist army during the beginnings of the English Civil War, when he was captured and released on the condition he did not rejoin the King's cause - was an avid bibliophile. His later life was dominated by study, much of it alchemical in nature, and his library was used by Elias Ashmole.
In the winter of 1644-5 Henshaw accompanied his life-long friend and sometime tutee John Evelyn on a lengthy tour of Italy. As the note in this copy states, it was in Rome during that trip that he acquired this book. Evelyn's extensive diary recounts their activities in Rome, but omits any detail between a return visit to St. Peter's Basilica on December 12th, and the pageantry of a Roman Christmas Eve.
A January visit to the Vatican library is also noted by Evelyn. Several items in the sale of the Gaddesden library in 2021 bore his inscription, though it is likely that many others - including a good number bound in seventeenth-century Oxford bindings - were also once his. Of those recorded, apart from this book, at least two others bear notes of acquisition whilst travelling: a Du Ryer translation of the Koran acquired in Paris, 1647, and a collection of monumental inscriptions from Copenhagen acquired there in 1672.
First published in Parma (1582), this edition from Caporali's native Perugia is rare; OCLC locates just four copies worldwide (BNF, Oxford, NYPL, Wisconsin.
£ 950.00
Antiquates Ref: 26637
The remains of library as recently dispersed from the Gaddesden seat of his Halsey descendants suggest that Henshaw - somewhat of a polymath who studied briefly at University College, Oxford, and under the auspices of William Oughtred, before a brief stint in the Royalist army during the beginnings of the English Civil War, when he was captured and released on the condition he did not rejoin the King's cause - was an avid bibliophile. His later life was dominated by study, much of it alchemical in nature, and his library was used by Elias Ashmole.
In the winter of 1644-5 Henshaw accompanied his life-long friend and sometime tutee John Evelyn on a lengthy tour of Italy. As the note in this copy states, it was in Rome during that trip that he acquired this book. Evelyn's extensive diary recounts their activities in Rome, but omits any detail between a return visit to St. Peter's Basilica on December 12th, and the pageantry of a Roman Christmas Eve.
A January visit to the Vatican library is also noted by Evelyn. Several items in the sale of the Gaddesden library in 2021 bore his inscription, though it is likely that many others - including a good number bound in seventeenth-century Oxford bindings - were also once his. Of those recorded, apart from this book, at least two others bear notes of acquisition whilst travelling: a Du Ryer translation of the Koran acquired in Paris, 1647, and a collection of monumental inscriptions from Copenhagen acquired there in 1672.
First published in Parma (1582), this edition from Caporali's native Perugia is rare; OCLC locates just four copies worldwide (BNF, Oxford, NYPL, Wisconsin.
