Maxims, Songs & Poems: Miscellaneous Notes in Renaissance Books
Read More![It was with a disillusioned eye that the Flemish diplomat, Philippe de Commynes, wrote his <i>Mémoires</i> concerning the reigns of two French kings, Louis XI and Charles VIII. Breaking from the established practice of straightforward glorification, Commynes' more objective treatment of kings exerted a general influence on late fifteenth-century historiography thanks to the translation of his writings into every major European language. <br><br>
On the blank endpaper of this copy has been inscribed two intriguing and otherwise unknown French songs. Both anti-Catholic and satirical, they present a cynical view of churchmen as fine connoisseurs of wine and good food. The first song conjures an image of canons and prelates as drunkards who, with the Pope’s approval, cheerily enjoy drinking. The second song starts, it seems, with a very pious verse, ‘I want to become a hermit’, but quickly degenerates into a contemplation of food and its pleasures. <br><br>
<b>Author:</b> Philippe de Commynes <br>
<b>Title:</b><i> The historie of Philip de Commines Knight, Lord of Argenton</i> [Translation of his <i>Mémoires</i>] (London, 1596) <br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> B.4.6 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21407566800003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Miscellaneous-Gallery/i-txHtP5q/0/6a7a8bfa/M/B-004-006-004-M.jpg)
It was with a disillusioned eye that the Flemish diplomat, Philippe de Commynes, wrote his Mémoires concerning the reigns of two French kings, Louis XI and Charles VIII. Breaking from the established practice of straightforward glorification, Commynes' more objective treatment of kings exerted a general influence on late fifteenth-century historiography thanks to the translation of his writings into every major European language.
On the blank endpaper of this copy has been inscribed two intriguing and otherwise unknown French songs. Both anti-Catholic and satirical, they present a cynical view of churchmen as fine connoisseurs of wine and good food. The first song conjures an image of canons and prelates as drunkards who, with the Pope’s approval, cheerily enjoy drinking. The second song starts, it seems, with a very pious verse, ‘I want to become a hermit’, but quickly degenerates into a contemplation of food and its pleasures.
Author: Philippe de Commynes
Title: The historie of Philip de Commines Knight, Lord of Argenton [Translation of his Mémoires] (London, 1596)
Shelfmark: B.4.6 (catalogue record)
![The volume bears the signature of two previous owners: on this page we see that of Johannes Goodluck, 'Joh[ann]es Goodluck est custos huius libri' (‘the keeper of this book’). Below this inscription, another hand has added a price and a very interesting poem in Latin entitled ‘De matre sua Edwardi’ (‘On Edward’s mother’). The following verses are indeed the epitaph of Queen Emma of Normandy (d. 1054), mother of Edward the Confessor. In early modern England, as well as providing material evidence for historians, epitaphs such as this bore devotional value as a means to relate to the dead.<br><br>
<br>
'Duxit Ethelredus __ ha[n]c, & postea Knutus.
Edwardum s[an]ct[u]m parit hoc atque Hardecanutu[m].
Quator hoc reges hec vidit sceptra fere[n]tes.
Angloru[m] regu[m] suit hec sic mater et uxor.'<br>
('She was first married to King Ethelred, and afterwards to King Canute. To the former she bore Edward, to the latter Hardincanute. She saw all these four kings wielding the royal sceptre; and thus was the wife and mother of English kings.' Translation from John Milner, <i>The History Civil and Ecclesiastical, & Suruey of the Antiquities</i>, Winchester, 1809.)<br><br>
'Si non sit auditor non est detractor.'<br>
'If one is not a listener, one is not a detractor.'
Saint Thomas Aquinas, <i>Exposition of the Psalms of David</i>, Psalm 14.
<br><br>
<b>Author:</b> Terence<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Publij Terentij Aphri comicorum latinorum principis Comediae</i> (Lyon, 1520)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> H.5.12<a href="https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21420890250003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Miscellaneous-Gallery/i-CQWsKKR/0/ccd9be93/Ti/H-005-012-046-Ti.jpg)
![Tucked inside the cover of this sixteenth-century Latin dictionary by Etienne Bellengard has been found an unknown seventeenth-century handwritten poem. Translated from its original Latin into English, it opens thus: ‘As soon as Charles had fled his native shores, every corner was filled with tears’. The Charles referred to is the future King Charles I (then Prince of Wales), whose clandestine visit to Spain to secure a marriage between him and the Infanta Maria Anna (an episode known as the Spanish Match) inspired these verses. <br><br>
The poem seems to have been the work of a student at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Forth Winthrop (1609–1630). The fifth line of the poem, ‘Telemacho salvo nunquam visendum Ulysses’, also appears in a letter written by Forth Winthrop to his brother John, in c. 1627–8. Forth Winthrop’s father was John Winthrop (1588–1649) who in 1630 led a large group of immigrants to the New World, becoming the founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and later its first governor. <br><br>
(First of two pages)
<br><br>
<b>Author:</b> Etienne Bellengard <br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Sententiarum volumen absolutissimum </i>[Complete volume of opinions] (Geneva, 1587)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> I.5.21 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21394400550003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Miscellaneous-Gallery/i-S2nqRJS/0/39cba86b/Ti/I-005-21-007-Ti.jpg)
![Manuscript poem (second of two pages).
<br><br>
<b>Author:</b> Etienne Bellengard <br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Sententiarum volumen absolutissimum </i>[Complete volume of opinions] (Geneva, 1587)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> I.5.21 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21394400550003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Miscellaneous-Gallery/i-tV6Z2MF/0/e571ec91/Ti/I-005-21-008-Ti.jpg)
![<b>Author:</b> Etienne Bellengard <br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Sententiarum volumen absolutissimum </i>[Complete volume of opinions] (Geneva, 1587)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> I.5.21 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21394400550003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Miscellaneous-Gallery/i-XdJD5N4/0/c80ebd6a/Ti/I-005-021-004-2-Ti.jpg)
![It was with a disillusioned eye that the Flemish diplomat, Philippe de Commynes, wrote his <i>Mémoires</i> concerning the reigns of two French kings, Louis XI and Charles VIII. Breaking from the established practice of straightforward glorification, Commynes' more objective treatment of kings exerted a general influence on late fifteenth-century historiography thanks to the translation of his writings into every major European language. <br><br>
On the blank endpaper of this copy has been inscribed two intriguing and otherwise unknown French songs. Both anti-Catholic and satirical, they present a cynical view of churchmen as fine connoisseurs of wine and good food. The first song conjures an image of canons and prelates as drunkards who, with the Pope’s approval, cheerily enjoy drinking. The second song starts, it seems, with a very pious verse, ‘I want to become a hermit’, but quickly degenerates into a contemplation of food and its pleasures. <br><br>
<b>Author:</b> Philippe de Commynes <br>
<b>Title:</b><i> The historie of Philip de Commines Knight, Lord of Argenton</i> [Translation of his <i>Mémoires</i>] (London, 1596) <br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> B.4.6 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21407566800003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Miscellaneous-Gallery/i-txHtP5q/0/6a7a8bfa/Ti/B-004-006-004-Ti.jpg)