Month: November 2024

George Sandys’ 1632 publication Ovid’s Metamorphoses Englished, Mythologiz’d, and Represented in Figures was, at the time, only his most recent translation of Ovid’s epic. He first produced a shorter translation, only the first five books of Metamorphosis, in 1621 just before traveling to the Virginian colony of Jamestown (OED). Sandys was a prolific travel writer whose works were read by the likes of Francis Bacon, Michael Drayton, and John Milton, but perfecting his translations of Metamorphosis seemed to be a passion project for him.

Figure 1: George Sandys, courtesy of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

After the first illustrated translation of 1632, Sandys published a second illustrated version in 1640. John Legat published this edition in London as John Lichfield, the Oxford printer who published the 1632 edition, had passed away five years earlier in 1635 (OED Leonard Lichfield). The differences between the two illustrated editions are unclear, aside from a portrait accompanying the frontispiece (Figure 2). The latin inscriptions and Roman-style wreath on the subject’s head suggest the portrait depicts Ovid, the original author of Metamorphosis. Long after his death, various other versions of Sandys’ Metamorphosis translations would be published. Not all were expanded editions of the illustrated versions—many were different versions of his earlier English translations. This was likely an economic decision, as illustrated books were considerably more expensive to produce.

Figure 2: Portrait of Ovid alongside the frontispiece in the 1640 illustrated edition. Courtesy of Early English Books Online, scanned reproduction courtesy of The Huntington Library.

It is difficult to determine the true worth of a copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses Englished, Mythologiz’d, and Represented in Figures, such as the one held in the Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections. Dickinson’s copy has extreme wear on the back cover, which would diminish its worth. Another copy of the same 1632 illustrated edition is listed online for $3,500 by Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Manuscripts (LINK). The description provided by the seller indicates slightly less damage to the binding, but similar levels of preservation to the Dickinson copy. However, it would be difficult to determine if the books were truly of a similar condition and therefore of similar value without comparing them side by side. Interestingly, a copy of the 1640 second illustrated edition of the book is listed for $9,500 by Liber Antiques (LINK). This difference in price begs questioning, but it is unclear why the two editions are valued so differently. It could be due to the conditions of the individual copies, or perhaps the second illustrated edition had fewer copies printed and is therefore more rare, but there is no way to be certain without a professional appraisal. Whatever the factor is, it is unlikely that the illustrations themselves contribute to the value. Copies of Sandys’ 1626 translation—not illustrated—can be found online ranging in price from $7,800-$9,000. While surprising, this indicates that the illustrations have little, if any, bearing on the worth of the book.

Discerning the actual fate of the Dickinson College Archives’ copy before it arrived in Carlisle proves a more daunting task. There are not many physical clues as to who owned the book over the years and how it was used aside from a few inscriptions in ink on the title page (See Figure 3).

Figure 3: Title page with handwritten inscriptions at the top of the page.

The phrase “Thomas Chadwick’s Book” can be made out alongside the year “1780.” About an inch to the right, the year “1730” is written. Other marginalia on the page, clearly from another time given the variations in handwriting and ink color, is illegible. The writing tells us that a man named Thomas Chadwick once owned this book. Perhaps he acquired it in 1780, or that was just the year he chose to claim ownership of it in writing. No results come up for Thomas Chadwick in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, so it is probable that Mr. Chadwick was by all accounts a regular man who enjoyed classical literature. There are no other identifying marks indicative of other previous owners of the Dickinson copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

While there seems to be scant information on the physical copies of the 1632 illustrated edition Ovid’s Metamorphoses Englished, Mythologiz’d, and Represented in Figures and its subsequent editions, the text itself continues to enjoy longevity. Sandys’ edited translation of Metamorphosis is still printed and sold today. In 1970, the University of Nebraska Press reprinted the original text. That version can be found on eBay for a few hundred dollars. A 2010 reprint by Kessinger Publishing is currently on sale on Amazon, for $54.60 instead of $59.95 (LINK). The single rating on Amazon, titled “The best translation of Ovid’s Metamorphosis” indicates a very happy customer. Also in recent years, faculty at the University of Virginia have digitized the 1632 illustrated edition as an etext for free use. It includes each image with corresponding hyperlinks to the text of each individual book of Metamorphosis and The Aeneid (Sandys’ Ovid 1632 (Linked Table of Contents)–Ovid Illustrated, University of Virginia Electronic Text Center). English professor Daniel Kinney directed the project, which provides online versions of a multitude of different translations and editions of Metamorphosis over the centuries, not just Sandys’ various translations. It tracks the history of reproductions of Ovid’s work, starting in the medieval period before the invention of the printing press. Although nothing beats the holding the real thing in your hands, Kinney and his colleagues’ digitization of Ovid’s Metamorphoses Englished, Mythologiz’d, and Represented in Figures is a good stand-in to view Sandys’ magnificent, celebrated edition of one of history’s greatest epics.  

Works Consulted

Ellison, James. “Sandys, George (1578–1644), writer and traveller.” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  January 03, 2008. Oxford University Press. 

Frequently Asked Questions | ABAA. https://www.abaa.org/about-antiquarian-books/faq. 

Roberts, R. Julian. “Lichfield, Leonard (bap. 1604, d. 1657), printer.” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  September 23, 2004. Oxford University Press.

Sandys’ Ovid 1632 (Linked Table of Contents)–Ovid Illustrated, University of Virginia Electronic Text Center. https://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/sandys/contents.htm.

Additional Links

Listing of illustrated 1632 edition by Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Manuscripts:

https://www.pirages.com/pages/books/ST17496-030/mythology-ovid/ovids-metamorphosis-englished-mythologizd-and-represented-in-figures

Listing of 1640 illustrated edition by Liber Antiques:

https://www.liberantiquus.com/pages/books/4781/ovid-george-sandys-abraham-van-diepenbeeck-artist-publius-ovidius-naso-43-bce-17-ce/ovid-s-metamorphosis-englished-mythologiz-d-and-represented-in-figures-an-essay-to-the

Kessinger Publishing’s 2010 reprint on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Metamorphosis-Englished-Mythologized-Represented-Figures/dp/1169810470

Fig. 1 The spine

Isaiah Thomas’s book, The History of Printing in America with a Biography of Printers, and an Account of Newspapers which is prefixed with a concise view of The Discovery and Progress of the Art in Other Parts of the World, is a primary resource perfect for anyone interested the in the extensive history of publishing and printing from its origins in China to early America. The copy I will use has many signs of usage and wear, such as water and ink stains, dog-eared pages, and spine breakage. These marks and the worn appearance portray the book’s 214-year-old battle with time and the elements, encouraging me to observe and understand its physical features. 

FIg. 1 The cover

The book was printed in 1810 in Worcester Massachusetts by The Press of Isaiah Thomas and the printer, Isaac Sturtevant. There are 496 pages, and the copy has a length of 21.5 cm, a width of 13 cm, and a height of 4 cm. Tightly sewn together in a white thread—with snippets of thread seen between several of the pages—make opening the book to lay it flat on a table difficult without adding more breakage to the spine. A brown leather, made of calf, covers the spine and corners of the bookboard. Along the spine, there is simple gilded lettering of the shortened title, “The History of Printmaking,” in all capital letters and spaced out evenly along the spine with seven pairs of horizontal lines, and the number one signifying the book is only the first in its volume. Both the front and back bookboards are edge-worn and covered with marbled paper–the original color lost to aging and moisture, the marbling appears as brown drops with black and orange mixed in. The board remains straight and unbowed. The spine has a closed tear on the front bottom of the cover with a crease following the damage along the book’s spine. It’s difficult to hide the tears and damage the book has experienced within the past two hundred years.

Fig. 3 Front endpage

Opening the book to the first end page reveals the bookplate with the only piece of handwriting within the book, belonging to Charles Wesley Pitman, once a member of Congress, who gave the volumes to the Belles Lettres Literary Society, which hosts readings and workshops and is the oldest student organizations at Dickinson College, in 1837. The writing on the bookplate names a student and librarian at Dickinson College, Joseph Salkeld. The label and catalog number on the opposite side of the front cover hid the original handwriting, likely written before the addition of the bookplate since they both contain the same information, which is repeated once again on the next page. Besides the handwritten text, the once plain white endpaper is browned and wrinkled from moisture with a black sponge-like pattern reflected on both sides of the pages. Thomas dedicates History of Printmaking to “The President and other Officers and Members, Of the American Philosophical Society, in Pennsylvania:— and, the Presidents, Counselors and other Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, In Massachusetts.” (Thomas iii-iv) on the pages following the handwritten work.

The pages themselves are readable and remain stitched together. However, similar to the end paper, the whole text block is water-stained from the bottom of the pages to the middle–leaving a brown border between the water-damaged and undamaged sections of the paper. Aging also appears in the brown tint of the fore-edge. The pages surrounding one fold-out plate between pages 70 and 71, made of a different type of paper and written in Latin, imprinted a “ghost” text of its own words and the pages touching it—likely due to either the quality of the paper or ink. There is another stain, not from water, but from blue ink dropping and bleeding onto pages 136 through 162–luckily avoiding the text and landing within the margins. The text is in a Scotch Roman typeface, which notably has thicker vertical and diagonal lines mixed with a few thin vertical lines and curved

Fig. 3 Ink stain

serifs—a common typeface in 19th-century America. There is enough space in the margins and foot of the paper to take notes in—yet the margins only contain ink stains. Some signs of usage are the creases left behind from readers dog-earring the corners of the pages, the ink stain, and the spine breakage. At the head of the pages, there are page numbers and the title of the chapter completely in capital lettering. The pages felt rough almost as if they were a fine grade of sandpaper, and the grain went parallel with the spine, which is understandable considering it is easier to fold with the grain rather than against it. Flipping through the pages of the text is difficult with the stiffness of the paper. The moisture and the aged pages over the centuries created an interesting odor. Although the full-text block remains legible and in good shape for its age, the pages have a harsh texture and stains.

Fig. 4

My interest in Dickinson’s copy of The History of Printmaking started with the marbled cover and its subject. In high school, I enrolled in a class called Art of the Book and afterward continued with an independent study for the rest of the year, in which I learned to make different binding techniques and book forms. My growing interest in the process of making books drew me to the marbling of the paper used for the cover–not only is it aesthetically pleasing, but the simple process of dripping and manipulating colorful inks in water to create beautiful patterns is unlike other art mediums I have encountered. The title itself piqued my interest as well since I also, although not on the same level as my bookbinding, made prints. Despite my experience, I was never able to explore these arts through a historical perspective, understanding the context and culture behind books today, and I look forward to deepening my appreciation and understanding of books and prints with the help of Isaiah Thomas’s History of Printmaking.

The Token and Atlantic Souvenir, An Offering for Christmas and the New Year is a 19th-century illustrated gift book. Gift books were popular in the nineteenth century and contained illustrations, short essays, stories, and poems, most often given to women as gifts during the holidays. People typically looked at and displayed gift books, but they did not read them all the way through like a novel. This work is a first edition, published in 1842 by David H. Williams in Boston, Massachusetts. Different companies published new editions of this book annually, beginning in 1829. Originally, The Token and The Souvenir were separate books, but the publishers merged them in 1833 to become The Token and Atlantic Souvenir, which they published yearly until 1842.   

The elegant look, from the art on the covers to the gilded pages, drew me in. The book has a red leather cover with embossed artwork of a girl holding a painting of a soldier and a flag, sitting next to an eagle with grand architecture in the background. Around the border and spine, there are swirls with flowers and vines. The pages of the book are also gilded around the edges, with gold leaf lettering on the spine. Despite the book’s age, there is not much damage, only wear and tear from years of use. The fabric on the cover is torn at the spine and around the edges, revealing the boards used to build the covers. The binding is mostly intact, though the glue seems to be pulling apart, leaving a few pages loose from the spine. Overall, the book seems to be very well-crafted, with many years of use; this book was well-loved.   

Figure 1: The Spine

Figure 2: Front Cover

There are two title pages in this book. The first one, which is much more ornate, has two illustrations; one on the left page titled “The Bracelet” and one underneath the title, portraying a porch with a pot, flowers, a painting, and a lady walking up the stairs. The title on this page simply says, “The Token,” and the script is drawn, rather than written.   

Figure 3: The Bracelet

Figure 4: Illustrated Title Page

The second title page displays the full title, The Token and Atlantic Souvenir, An Offering for Christmas and the New Year. It contains information on the publisher of the book, including the years and location of the different companies.  

One interesting thing about this book is how it lists out the different companies that published the book, all located in different cities. David H. Williams, the publisher of this particular copy, was a notable publisher that established his own firm in the 1830s. Thomas Cowperthwaite & Co. was known for publishing educational and geographical materials, including atlases and schoolbooks; Henry Perkins worked on religious, educational, and illustrated works. Both publishers were located in Philadelphia, and it’s possible that they collaborated for regional distribution of the book. Collins, Keese & Co. was a New York-based publishing firm during the 19th century, which published a wide range of materials, from Bibles and schoolbooks to gift books and literary works. Cushing & Brothers was a publishing and bookselling firm based in Baltimore. The company was most known for producing religious, educational, and literary works. U.P. James Publishing was a notable publishing company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, which specialized in historical works, novels, educational materials, and popular literature, as well as early American editions of English works and reprints of popular literature. J.C. Dennies & Co. Publishing was a publishing firm based in St. Louis, which was emerging as an important regional hub for trade and culture during this period. Wiley & Putnam was a prominent Anglo-American publishing partnership formed between John Wiley (of New York) and George Palmer Putnam (of London), making them one of the first transatlantic publishing firms. Their focus was to bring British works to America and American works to Britain. Jules Renouard Publishing was a notable French publishing house based in Paris, most known for publishing scholarly works, literary collections, and historical materials. The various publishers were all located in vastly different cities, many of which were centers of culture and commerce; so many different companies all publishing the same book would have expanded its reach.  

Figure 5: Title Page

Following the title page, there is a preface, a table of contents, and an embellishments page. The preface discusses the authors and the publication details, describing the copyrighted works. The table of contents lists the poetry and stories by page, so readers can find specific texts. The embellishments page provides information on the authors and artists, crediting each to their specific work.   

Figure 6: Table of Contents

Figure 7: Embellishments

The book contains many black and white illustrations paired with the poems. There are ten pictures in the book, including the two on the title pages. Each illustration has a piece of tissue paper in front of it to protect it. Surrounding the other eight illustrations, the pages have stains of yellowing, most likely due to the oxidation of the chemicals in the ink of the pictures. Each picture accompanies a poem on the next page.   

Figure 8: The Capuchin Monk Illustration

Figure 9: The Capuchin Monk Prose

Many of the pages contain poems, so they have a title at the top, with the stanzas underneath. The poetry and prose are left-oriented. The typefaces used throughout the book were difficult to identify, but I was able to find close matches through the app What the Font. For the title in the top margins, the font is similar to Boston 1851; the titles of each poem look like Consort Trade; in the poems and other paragraphs, the font is most likely Scotch Roman, as the printer of this book, Samuel N. Dickinson, introduced this typeface in the U.S.  

Figure 10: The Sea Prose

When I hold the book, it feels very solid, as it is relatively heavy. The pages don’t stay open as I hold it, so I must hold them open when both hands or the book will fall shut. The pages do not fall open to any specific page. Due to the embossment on the front and back covers, they are textured and feel bumpy under my hands. I feel like I need to be more careful with it, as the fabric laid over the cover is cracking away where the book bends at the spine.  

I was also able to find information on many of the people that went into creating the book. The paper makers were J.M. and L. Hollingsworth, who were based in Massachusetts, and considered pioneers in the paper industry in the 19th century. The printer was Samuel N. Dickinson, who established the Dickinson Type Foundry. The binder was Benjamin Bradley, who was a renowned case cloth binder in New England. Lastly the engravers were Rawdon, Wright, Hatch, and Smillie, which was an engraving firm known for creating finely detailed illustrations. They helped set the standard for engraved works in the 19th century.  

 It is unusual for books to name those that built the book, as people often overlook these practices. As many people collected gift books, their appearance typically determined their value. Naming those that helped build the book may have emphasized the collaboration that went into making the book special, adding prestige to a collection.  

Figure 11: Bradley Binder Embossment

The inside end pages are pink paper and have clear signs of foxing. On the back endpaper, there is a pencil mark, though I was unable to make out what it says or means. It is possible that the marking is someone’s initials, as it seems to be two or three letters in cursive.   

Figure 12: Pencil marking on inside cover

Works Consulted 

“ HathiTrust Digital Library.” Hathitrust.org, 2024, catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?lookfor=%22Perkins%2C+Henry+1803-1889%22&type=author&inst=. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024. 

“Details For: The Token and Atlantic Souvenir, : An Offering for Christmas and the New Year. › Library Company of Philadelphia Catalog.” Kohacatalog.com, 2024, librarycompany.kohacatalog.com/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=277999. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024. 

“Essay on Our Benjamin Bradley Bindings – the Library Company of Philadelphia.” Librarycompany.org, 2024, librarycompany.org/2015/04/16/essay-on-our-benjamin-bradley-bindings/. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024. 

“Flash of the Comet: The Typographical Career of Samuel N. Dickinson on JSTOR.” Jstor.org, 2024, www.jstor.org/stable/40371675. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024. 

“G. P. Putnam and Sons Correspondence an Inventory of the Collection at Syracuse University.” Syracuse.edu, 2024, library.syracuse.edu/digital/guides/g/g_p_putnam.htm#d2e90. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024. 

“G. P. Putnam’s Sons (New York & London) | Organisations | RA Collection | Royal Academy of Arts.” Royalacademy.org.uk, 2024, www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/organisation/g-p-putnams-sons-new-york-and-london. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024. 

“Jules Renouard (1798-1854).” Data.bnf.fr, 2024, ark:/12148/cb153762313. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024. 

“Rare Gift Books.” Brandeis.edu, 2024, www.brandeis.edu/library/archives/essays/special-collections/rare-gift-book.html. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024. 

The. “Token Atlantic Souvenir by Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Stowe – AbeBooks.” Abebooks.com, 2024, www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/token-atlantic-souvenir/author/longfellow-henry-wadsworth-stowe/. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024. 

“The Token and Atlantic Souvenir : An Offering for Christmas and the New Year | WorldCat.org.” Worldcat.org, 2024, search.worldcat.org/title/33211632. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.