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Posted:
07 Feb 2018
(old shelfmark **A.52)
Author:Peter Calvert (d. 1788)
Language:English
Origin:England, Cambridge
Date:18th c., 1750
Material:Paper. Watermark; Britannia, with wheat sheaf, within palisade, motto PRO P[ATRIA] [. . . .] to right (ca. 90 x 95 mm). This watermark occurs in other Trinity Hall MSS and in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B.16.45
Physical Description:ii paper flyleaves + 217 folios (unfoliated) + ii paper flyleaves, 190 x 158 (ca. 185 x 150) mm, unruled, ca. 26 long lines
Rubric:The history of England. Book 1. From the first invasion of Britain by the Romans under Julius Cæsar, to the calling in of the Saxons, containing the space of ab[ou]t 500 years.
Incipit:Julius Cæsar, having now the Governorship of Gaul, resolves in the latter end of the summer 55 ant: Ch: to pass into Britain
2o folio:Empire, if he
Explicit:The King of Scots this year married the princess Ann of Denmark
Contents:Fols. 1r – 215r, A History of England, from 55 B.C. – 1589 A.D.
Script:Cursive mixed hand
Scribe:Peter Calvert (d.1788)
Decoration:Full-page miniature, pasted on to fol. i recto; shield of arms, (quarterly, 1 and 4 paly of 6 or and sable, on a bend engrailed countercharged an escallop between 2 annulets, quarters 2 and 3 blank, on an escutcheon of pretence azure and gules embattled, three suns in splendor or) above dexter a crest, (a tower with 2 pennons sable and or flying to the dexter side) sinister a wreath gules and or with no crest, below the motto ESSE QUAM VIDERI, all on a silver ground
Provenance:‘Peter Calvert Trin: Aul: Cantab: Ap[ril] 9 1750’ (Peter Calvert F.R.S., Fellow of Trinity Hall 1753 – 1777, Dean of the Court of Arches 1778- d.1788; inscription stuck to fol. ii recto); ‘Given me by Mrs Anne Calvert compild or composd by her Brother Dr. Calvert – Dean of the Arches & Judge of the Prerogative Court’, later 18th c. (inscription inside upper cover); arms (see Decoration), mid-later 18th c. (stuck to fol. i recto); armorial bookplate of Arthur Anstey, son of Anne Calvert and Christopher Anstey (d. 1805) (inside upper cover); Rev. George  Lee, (d. 1827) 5th Baronet Hartwell, Rector of Hartwell and Vicar of Stone, Bucks. (letter attached to lower cover); William Aldis Wright, (1831 – 1914) Vice-Master of Trinity College; his gift, 1906 (letter attached to lower cover)
Binding:18th c., (late) half marbled paper and brown leather over paste boards, pink endbands, edges speckled red; upper board detached
Notes:The quartered arms in the heraldic miniature are very similar to those of Sir George Calvert, Lord Baltimore (d. 1632), (paly or and sable, a bend countercharged) although at this stage no direct connection can be made between the Calverts of London and Baltimore and Dr Peter Calvert. Arthur Anstey was the son of Anne Calvert and Christopher Anstey, and grandson of Dr Christopher Anstey (d. 1751) and Mary Thompson, daughter and heir of Anthony Thompson, (d. 1722) squire of Trumpington, Cambs. It is therefore assumed that theescutcheon of pretence which appears on both the painted miniature and Arthur Anstey’s bookplate are the arms of Thompson of Trumpington.Arthur Anstey was the nephew of the author, although it is not clear whether he wrote the inscription inside the upper cover. In his letter to the Master, Edward Anthony Beck, (Vice-Chancellor of the University 1904-1906, d. 1916) Wright says that the MS had long been in the possession of Dr Lee, but provides no further provenance (Wright also confuses George Lee with his elder brother William. George was a graduate of St John’s College, Oxford, not (as Wright claims) Cambridge, although William (who had an army career) was a graduate St John’s, Cambridge.
Bibliography:Venn Pt. 1 vol. 1 p. 285; Venn Pt. 2 vol. 4, p.134
© Trinity Hall, Cambridge