[Rarebooks] FS: The Grandest Gravestone Study of All !

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, ABAA]

>From our new 'A GRAVE AFFAIR' catalog-
<http://www.a-grave-affair.com/Catalog_288.htm>


The Grandest of all Gravestone Studies-
(& another related, very rare book)

Weever, John. ANCIENT FUNERALL MONUMENTS WITHIN THE UNITED MONARCHIE OF
GREAT BRITAIN, IRELAND, AND THE ISLANDS ADJACENT, with the dissolved
Monastaries therein contained; their Founders, and what eminent Persons
have beene in the same interred... London; Thomas Harper: 1631.

      "As also the death and burial of certaine of the Bloud Royale; the
Nobilitie and Gentrie of these Kingdomes entombed in forraine
Nations... whereunto is prefixed a Discourse of Funerall
Monuments...". Despite its over-reaching title, Weever's study
covers the Diocese of London, Canterbury, Rochester and Norwich
-other volumes may have been planned, but this one took the author
30 years to research, and he died just a few months after it was
published. Although Weever's transcription skills have been
criticized, he also offers the only extant record of many stones and
monuments now obliterated, so this remains as an important (and
heavy) record.

      As a history of Medieval monuments and eminent personages, Weever
has been used as a reference source by many historians and writers,
amongst them the famous boy forger of Bristol, Thomas Chatterton.
Weever himself was a graduate of Queen's College and a most
interesting fellow- Ian Wright describes him in an essay on the
Queen's College website as "an extraordinarily interesting and
eccentric character - connoisseur of graveyards, tobacco-enthusiast,
sycophant, satirist, dwarf, penner of dirty ditties, egotist,
pugnacious Lancashire man and proud of it... (the book) testifies to
the breadth of his literary interests- it is packed with literary
allusions and quotations".

      Weever was in fact also a poet and traveled in literary circles; he
was an ardent admirer of Shakespeare, and wrote the earliest known
poem addressed to Shakespeare. In his essay Wright delves into the
Weever-Shakespeare connection at some length, making a good case not
only that the two were acquainted, but that Weever's own life and
works may throw new light on Shakespeare's "lost years", through a
connection with the prominent Houghton family, that ends up with
Shakespeare having been a tutor at Houghton Tower. He also points
out that Weever's "Faunus and Melliflora", written in 1600, "has a
section with close verbal echoes of the nunnery scene in Hamlet".
Now the date Hamlet was written remains controversial, but most
scholars have fixed it at 1601. That, however, is a year after
Weever's "Faunus". Wright continues- "Either - as I believe myself -
the experts are wrong about the date of Hamlet or it was Shakespeare
who borrowed from Weever, not vice versa!"

      But all of this has strayed quite far from the book at hand-
"Ancient Funerall Monuments" remains a fitting monument to the
memory of this incredibly interesting antiquary. The book was
handsomely printed with a variety of typefaces, ruled margins,
woodcuts and decorated initial letters.

      Hardcover. 8"x11.5", [viii] + [ii] + errata leaf + 871 + xiv pages;
portrait frontispiece and decorated title page, with 5 additional
full-page woodcuts and 15 woodcuts in the text; numerous decorated
initial letters. Contains the portrait frontispiece of the author,
the extra engraved title page, and the original index, some or all
of which are often lacking. Bound in 19th century polished calf with
gilt rules and corner emblems; gilt dentelles; marbled endpapers; a
fine and stately binding. Covers with light rubbing and a little
darkening; hinges cracked at the outer gutters and wobbly. Included
are two airmail letters from the mid 1950s concerning the book from
noted English bookseller David Low, to an American collector. The
first praises the copy as “spanking”, and offers to send it, which
he apparently did. The second expresses dismay that the hinges were
“broken” in transit, and offers to have them repaired. [09562]
$1,500.00

__________________________________


Roffe, Edwin. WALKS IN THE WAY OF OLD WEEVER! IN DIVERS SMALL BOOKS. 
London; Rochester Press: 1862. Limited to 16 copies. “Set-up, and
Imprinted, in Leisure-time, by Edwin Roffe”. A rather eccentric and
extraordinary epitaphic romp, set to the tune of John Weever’s 1631 book
"Ancient Funerall Monuments". It consists of no less than 7 short books,
issued together, recounting various travels through graveyards, by
graveyards, or just thinking about old friends who are in graveyards.
There are also two other booklets- “Sundry Slips of Yew, set to the Memory
of Divers Citizens of London. Inscriptions from Church-Yard Tombs”, and “A
Basket of Bright Berries from the Yew Trees of Paradise”, both of which
also have to do with epitaphs and tombstones.

      Roffe, an antiquarian and engraver, is not making fun of Weever, but
is obviously having fun while emulating the 17th century
“connoisseur of graveyards, tobacco-enthusiast, sycophant, satirist,
dwarf (and) penner of dirty ditties” (Ian Wright). It is not only
the text, but Roffe’s typographical style, flourishes and
enthusiasm, which seems to gently mock other, more serious Victorian
books of the period, and all one can say in the end is that the
entire production is an outstanding example of the potential
benefits, or dangers, of overdosing on high-test coffee.

      Hardcover. 6.75”x8.5”, 11 + 21 + 7 + 3 + 3 + 7 + 13 + 11 + 6 pages,
line illustrations; bound in period black cloth with a silk-water
pattern, with a leather spine and tips, with gilt spine title and
urns; covers with light wear, endpapers spotted, else a clean, nice
copy of a charming and unique book. [09617] $400.00

__________________________________


"A GRAVE AFFAIR", a catalog featuring 154 books and other items about
gravestones, epitaphs, cemeteries, funeral and mourning customs, how
Society deals with death, and related topics, is now posted on our 'A
GRAVE AFFAIR' website-

<http://www.a-grave-affair.com/Catalog_288.htm>

We've also updated the GRAVE AFFAIR website with a bibliography of 500+
entries for books and other materials on gravestones, epitaphs, funeral
and mourning customs and related topics, a links page, and some
surprises...

While you're there you can also sign up for our 'Grave Matters' email
list, where we announce website updates, and will be running
catalog-related specials this week.

<http://www.a-grave-affair.com>


JOSLIN HALL RARE BOOKS, ABAA
Fine books of the 16th-20th centuries
on the decorative and fine arts & design

Post Office Box 239
Northampton, Massachusetts 01060 USA
telephone (413) 247-5080

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