Two Tracts: Affrican and Mensola: An Elizabethan Prose Version of ‘Il Ninfale Fiesolano’ by Giovanni Boccaccio and Newes and Strange Newes from St. Christophers by John Taylor the Water Poet.
Oxford: Printed for presentation to the members of the Roxburghe Club [by John Johnson], 1946. Title page and list of Roxburghe club members printed in black and red. Facsimile reproductions and woodcuts. Illustrated with twenty woodcuts; woodcut initials. Presented to the club by C.H. Wilkinson. A fine copy. Half red morocco over red cloth-covered boards, gilt spine, top edge gilt, other edges uncut. Presentation inscription in black ink on front flyleaf by C.H. Wilkinson to the distinguished scholar Douglas Grant. Printed presentation slip of C.H. Wilkinson laid in. Octavo. xxxi, [1, blank], [6], [80], [1, blank], [16], 13, [1, blank], [1, imprint] pp. Item #16376
“The two tracts reprinted in this volume are among the books left by George Clarke to the Library of Worcester College in 1736. They came to him from his father, Sir William Clarke, who was secretary to General Monck and Secretary at War. Neither has previously been reprinted and no other copy of the first is present recorded” (from the introduction). Seventy years later, there is one copy of the first at Worcester College and two copies of the second tract at Worcester College and the Huntington.
Price: $600.00