In 1548, the prominent London printer and bookseller Reyner (or Reginald) Wolfe undertook the project to produce a universal history and cosmography i.e. description and maps of the world. Other publishers, on the continent, had already produced such works with great success like the Liber Cronicarum by Hartmann Schedel and printed by Anton Koberger in 1493. After Wolfe’s death in 1573, his assistant Raphael Holinshed took over the project. He hired more writers and cut back the scope of the work to the British Isles. The Chronicles were first published in 1577 in a two-volume folio edition ¹. As with other works of this type it was illustrated with numerous woodcuts making it a popular resource. After Holinshed’s death in 1580, Abraham Fleming published a significantly expanded and revised second edition in the years following 1587. This edition was produced in a large folio format, but this time without illustrations².

Holinshed’s Chronicles (1577) often referred to as just Holinshed is, in reality, a large collaborative work with content borrowed from many different authors. Its focus on describing England, Scotland, Ireland and their histories from their first inhabitation to the mid-16^th century. The work was a principal source for many literary writers of the Renaissance, including Marlowe, Spenser, Daniel and Shakespeare³. Our library has several resources related to Holinshed. The oldest item we find in our collection is a leaf from the first edition of Holinshed’s Chronicles (1577). This fragment contains an account of Kett’s Rebellion where the Earl of Warwick defeats the rebels in 1549. The leaf is pages 1669(r) and 1670(v). It is a great example of the format and typology of early modern text production in England, and includes a woodcut depicting the execution of a group of rebels.

Leaf from 1577 edition – pp. 1669-1670 viewing (r)

Woodcut from 1577 edition showing the execution of rebels.

The second resource is Holinshed’s Chronicle: As Used In Shakespeare’s Plays, a classic Everyman’s Library (#800) work edited by Allardyce and Josephine Nicoll. Included are selections from The Chronicles where Shakespeare drew inspiration for his plays or copied in full sections for his dialogues. They point out that Shakespeare used the Holinshed edition of 1587 “for certain phrases in the former were repeated by him almost verbatim in several of his plays”⁴. While there are other works with extensive scholarly apparatus, the Nicolls’ provide an accessible resource on Shakespeare’s authorities.

Holinshed’s Chronicle: As Used In Shakespeare’s Plays, 1955

The last resource for Holinshed’s Chronicle, that we will highlight here, is The Peaceable and Prosperous Regiment of blessed Queene Elisabeth: A Facsimile from Holinshed’s Chronicles (1587) edited by Cyndia Susan Clegg and Randall McLeod. This volume includes extensive research into the way in which Holinshed’s Chronicle were censored by Elizabethan authorities and where large “chunks” ⁵ of the text were modified for political, religious and social reasons. This research relies heavily on the Huntington Melton copy of the chronicles, which consists almost entirely of proof sheets as well as copies from the British Library and Cambridge University Library. Clegg and McLeod provide a detailed reconstruction of the “castrated sheets” and their place in the final text of the second edition⁶. This work is also notable in that it sheds light into the edition used by Shakespeare.

The Peaceable and Prosperous Regiment of blessed Queene Elisabeth, 2005

These works are central to a number of disciplines ranging from the History of England, early modern print culture, and Shakespeare studies. Our library is fortunate to have access to these resources.

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DLWA Call Number: DA130 .H73 1577

Worldcat: Link

• Title: The firste volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande :.
• Author: Raphael Holinshed
• Language: English History
• Setting: Englans, Scotland and Ireland

DLWA Call Number: PR2955 .H7N5 1955

Worldcat: Link

• Title: Holinshed’s Chronicle as used in Shakespeare’s plays..
• Author: Raphael Holinshed; Allardyce Nicoll; Josephine Calina; W G Boswell-Stone
• Language: English
• Setting: Shakespear Studies

DLWA Call Number: DA350 .H65 2005

Worldcat: Link

• • Title: Holinshed’s Chronicle as used in Shakespeare’s plays..
  • Author: Raphael Holinshed; Cyndia Susan Clegg; Randall MacLeod
  • Language: English
  • Setting: Shakespear Studies, English History

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1. The Oxford Handbook of Holinshed’s Chronicles. United Kingdom: OUP Oxford, 2013. pp. 5-12
2. ibid
3. ibid
4. Holinshed, Raphael, Nicoll, Allardyce, Calina, Josephine, and Boswell-Stone, W. G. 1955. Holinshed’s Chronicle as Used in Shakespeare’s Plays. London Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons, ltd. pp.vi.
5. Review of The Peaceable and Prosperous Regiment of blessed Queene Elisabeth: A Facsimile from Holinshed’s Chronicles (1587). Renaissance Quarterly 60, no. 2 (2007): 647-649. p. 647.
6. ibid

–DLW

One of the earliest studies of mining and mineralogy is the book “De re Metallica : On the Nature of Metals” by Georgius Agricola (1484-1555) . ¹ Agricola was born at a momentous time. Columbus returned from his exploration and the Renaissance was in its early stages. Just forty years earlier Gutenberg precipitated the printing revolution. With many close colleagues, like Erasmus, Agricola was one of the central players in the sixteenth century European Humanist milieu. He had lived in what is now the Czech Republic. Eventually he became a physician and soon thereafter the mayor of Kepmnicz in the eastern German Saxon states. These regions were some of the richest mineral producing areas of Europe and, even with his duties, he maintained a deep interest in the technology of mining.

“De re Metallica libri xii” was published in the year following Agricola’s death. Much of the delay was due to the large number of woodcut illustrations. Prior to its publication the only systematic study of mineralogy and mining was found in the writings of Roman classical writers, predominantly Pliney. Agricola wrote De re Metallica in Latin and in doing so he created many new terms in Latin where there had been no words existent to describe the process he was describing.

Our library if fortunate to have an illustrated page from Book X of a very early printing of this edition. Here Agricola illustrates a crane that is used to move the “dome” of a furnace. The text goes into great detail concerning the parts of the crane and the dimensions and use of each part. Combined with other text and illustrations, Book X focuses on the separation of silver and gold and lead from gold and silver.

“De re Metallica” became the most influential publication on these disciplines. Being published in Latin there was soon a need of translations into other languages. The first were in German and Italian. Of the German translation it is said:

The German translation was prepared by Philip Bechius, a Basel University Professor of Medicine and Philosophy. It is a wretched work, by one who knew nothing of the science, and who more especially had no appreciation of the peculiar Latin terms coined by Agricola, most of which he rendered literally. It is a sad commentary on his countrymen that no correct German translation exists. ²

There were plans for an English translation in the seventeenth century but there is no evidence that any was produced. It was not until the early 1900’s that another translation into English was undertaken. Starting in 1912 this translation was privately published and sold only through subscription by The Mining Magazine, London. Our library has the Dover Books reprint of this version.

The translators responsible for this version were Herbert Hoover and his wife Lou Henry Hoover, undertaking this commission while they were at Stanford University. Herbert Hoover was a mining engineer and Lou was a geologist as well as a Latin scholar. The Hoover translation is highly regarded. It was a masterful work that is undoubtedly the clearest rendition of Agricola’s text. It is also cited as a critical resource on the historical context of the progression of mineralogy and mining to the 1500’s. The Hoovers noted that the work was no longer useful for practical application as in the intervening time much progress had been made in the field of mining and mineralogy, but much of the value of this text is the accompanying scholarly research.

In the popular and simplified history of the United States, Herbert Hoover is often denigrated. It was his unfortunate responsibility to be President of the United States at the start of the Great Depression of the 19th century in 1929. He was also in the position to provide leadership in the aftermath of World War I. But in this book, there is one element of data to show that Herbert Hoover, along with Lou, had many more dimensions than they are given credit for. This is a cautionary tale – that we must not take popular opinion concerning a person and their work at face value. The Hoovers’ provided a valuable academic gift to the world on the study of ancient mineralogy and mining. What other valuable insights are we overlooking if we follow popular opinion, what might be found if, we, being careful to scrutinize our biases, learn what else they have to offer us.

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DLWA Call Number: TN617 .A25 1950

Worldcat: Link

• Title: Georgius Agricola De re metallica : tr. from the 1st Latin ed. of 1556, with biographical introduction, annotations and appendices upon the development of mining methods, metallurgical processes, geology, mineralogy & mining law, from the earliest times to the 16th century
• Language: English/Latin
• Setting: Book History

DLWA Call Number: AC1 TN617 .A25 1561

Worldcat: Link

• • Title: Georgii Agricolae De re metallica libri xii, qvibu officia, instrumenta, machinae, ac omnnia deniq[ue] ad metalicam spectantia, non modo lucluentissime describuntur, sed & per effigies, sius locis insertas, aduenctis latinis, germanicisq[ue] appelationibus ita ob oculos ponuntur, et clarius tradi non possint. Evisdem De aaimantibvs svbterraneis liber, ab autore recognitus: cum indicibus deuersis quicqiuid in opere tractatum est pulchré demonstrantibus.
  • Language: Latin
  • Setting: Book History

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• • 1. We have used the English translation by the Hoovers, listed above, as a source for this post.
    2. ibid p.xv-xvi

–DLW

Control of information has been a battle since a stylus was first placed to clay tablet, knowledge is seen as power and a way to control people. There are large areas of human endeavor that have been lost because of purposeful behavior or carelessness. Throughout the ages, censorship is one of these acts that has shaped what we see today in our heritage of printed texts. Our topic today focuses on the censorship of books and pamphlets in seventeenth century Great Britain where texts deemed to be seditious were burned.

Charles Ripley Gillett (1898-1926) was librarian of the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Through his work with the library collections and students he amassed a wealth of knowledge about the British book history. His two-volume set “Burned Books: neglected chapters in British history and literature”, catalogs hundreds of books that were condemned to be burnt at the demand of royal, parliamentary, ecclesiastical and local authorities. Gillett suggests, that, while there are many reasons for this censorship there are two circumstances where authorities resort to extreme measures to restrict the distribution of books and pamphlet.

Gillett’s first case was that when a, …civil government found its cornerstone threatened or its fundamental principles attacked, and, given the power, into the fire went either the rebel or his book. ¹ Second, Gillett noted that When an …ecclesiastical establishment found its practice or its tenants attacked in writing or in a printed book, and, lacking the convincing scriptural authority on which it claimed to be founded, it had recourse to the argument of force, and the offending book was burned. The fiery trial was quicker than the course of protracted debate, and in controversy there is always the danger of defeat. ²

Given these observations, even though Gillett gives similar weight to works that are political and theological, he tends to focus more on the political realm rather than theological examples. For some this is welcome given his statement that one has difficulty in appreciating the sense of fear and apprehension with which multitudes in England and Scotland regarded the Church of Rome. ³ He goes on to state that It was due in part to dread concerning the danger in which the reformed faith was believed to stand, and also to the apprehension as to the effects of political ascendancy guided by a foreign power, ⁴ which we take to be the Church of Rome, France and other European powers.

Gillett documents how the process played out once the decision had been made to prosecute the judgment of the authorities. Upon the confirmation of a proclamation the condemned books were gathered by the Usher of the House or by Wardens of the Stationers Company. Once they were gathered up, the books were given to the hangman of the local jurisdiction and a great fire was set. Official witnesses were assigned, and members of the crowd were often pressed into throwing the books into the fire. As a part of this ceremony the author was often present and forced to throw his books or pamphlets on the fire. Other times the author was locked in the pillory to experience his humiliation. But this was not always the end for the accused, many times the author was imprisoned or executed.

As to the effectiveness of the practice of burning books Gillett notes that the:

purpose to be achieved by burning an offending book was quite intelligible, though the procedure was far from intelligent. It was a lurid logic, but its premise was wrong and its conclusion was false. As an argument, fire has never been conclusive either in the case of a man or a book. ⁵

One interesting example, highlighted by Gillett, is the story of a pamphlet created, and published under a pseudonym, by Charles Blount (1654–1693) with the lengthily title of King William and Queen Mary, conquerors, or, A discourse endeavouring to prove that Their Majesties have on their side, against the late king, the principal reasons that make conquest a good title : shewing also how this is consistent with that declaration of Parliament, King James abdicated the government, &c. : written with an especial regard to such as have hitherto refused the oath, and yet incline to allow of the title of conquest, when consequent to a just war.. It was published in London and printed for Richard Baldwin in 1693.

Under the laws of the time the book was to be reviewed by the Licenser of the Press, a position that acted as a pre-publication censor. Edmund Bohun was a newly appoint “licenser” when he received this pamphlet for his scrutiny ⁶. Gillett suggests that this publication was a “trap for the licenser by a man who has a personal grudge to satisfy” ⁷. Using a purposeful sarcastic style, Blount argued in favor of William and Mary. Blount, was an English deist and a freethinking philosopher who was critical of the existing English order. His works were mostly credited to anonymous authors or written under a pseudonym Junius Brutus Philopatris.

Blount argued that William and Mary were, in fact, conquerors of England and the people should support them as their protectors. But it was written in a obscured manner thus it is no surprise that the pamphlet was licensed by Bohun. Nine days later there were more than 20 complaints ⁸ from the Commons and in 1695 Parliament undertook a sharp debate concerning the fate of the work and determined that it, too, should be burned by the common hangman. In the anticipated ironic twist, Bohun was fired from his new position.

Take a look at Gillett’s examination of book burning. This study will lay a foundation for an understanding of censorship in seventeenth century Britain but also pay attention to his pro Anglo-British and anti-European bias. In future posts we will explore other examples of research into censorship.

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DLWA Call Number: Z658.G7G54 1932

Worldcat: Link

• Title: Burned Books: neglected chapters in British history and literature
• Language: English
• Setting: Seventeenth Century British Censorship

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1. Charles Ripley Gillett : Burned Books: neglected chapters in British history and literature (Vol 1 4-9).
   Date – 1814
2. ibid
3. ibid
4. ibid
5. ibid
6. Charles Ripley Gillett : Burned Books: neglected chapters in British history and literature (Vol 2; pp. 549-559).
   Date – 1814
7. ibid p.550
8. ibid

–DLW