THE AUTOGRAPH OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. (From "Notes and Queries" of February 1st, 1879.) HILE lately taking notes for an Account and Catalogue of the small collection of old books in the library of the above school, the remnant of a bequest (about the year 1710) by Ralph Pilling, one of the head masters of the school, to his successors, I discovered an autograph of the eminent Archbishop Cranmer, which is noteworthy on many grounds. The fac-similes of the archbishop's signature, found in various books, display a pretty wide diversity both as regards the style of writing and the abbreviations or fulness of the two words composing it; and yet it is seen, on a close study, that a family likeness runs through all. Some are in the cramped German text or engrossing hand, as in the examples in Gorham's Gleanings (p. 12) and Nichols's Autographs, 1829 (Plate 11), which at a first glance have no apparent affinity with the Leigh autograph. But another class of Cranmer's autographs are in a running hand, and it is one of these (more cursive than that in Sims's Autographs, 1842) that occurs in the Leigh library. It is thus written: "Thomas Cantuarien"; and it is found on the top of a title-page of an 8vo. copy of a translation of the Book of Proverbs, with a comment, by "that great clerk" Philip Melancthon. The volume is dated 1525, and is thus entitled: "Solo| monis Sententiae, ver | sæ ad Hebraicam Veri | tatem à | Phil. | Melan. Haganoæ,per Iohan. | Secerium." There is a new title-page to the Annotations: "Paroi | miai sive proverbia Solomonis filii Davidis, | Cum Adnotationibus | Philippi Melan- cthonis. | Haganoæ, per Iohan | nem Secerium. | Cum Indice." Hagenoa, or Haguenau, now in France in the Department of Bas-Rhin, produced several books in the fifteenth century. John Secer de Lancha, the printer of Melancthon's book, was one of the successors there of the printer Anselme (Deschamps's Dict., 599-600). After considerable search I was enabled to identify the autograph with one fac-similed in the Catalogue of the Colfe Grammar School library at Lewisham, Kent, edited by W. H. Black, 1831. In this collection, it seems, there are two books with Cranmer's episcopal autograph on the title-pages, one of which books (Catal., p. 20) is Erasmus's Annotat. on the New Test., fol., Basle, 1527, and the other (p. 24) is Bucer On the Epistle to the Romans, fol., Strasburg, 1536, with a dedication to Cranmer himself, drted 8 Kal. April, 1536. It is the autograph in the latter folio which Mr. Black has fac-similed in his Catalogue, and it is the very same type of writing as that in the Leigh copy of Melancthon, the latter being proportionately smaller, and written, there is little doubt, about the same time, viz., about three years after Cranmer's accession to the see of Canterbury. I am not yet sure whether certain marks in the Melancthon are not those of the archbishop, who we know was in the habit of marking his books when reading them, for he seldom read without a pen in his hand. In what way the book got into this obscure corner of England can never perhaps be ascertained. It seems clear that a partial dispersion of the prelate's books took place. Todd (Life of Cranmer, ii. 525) says that a great part of Cranmer's MSS., as well as his collection of printed books, were either embezzled during his imprisonment, or fell into the hands of his enemies and were dispersed; and that Archbp. Parker recovered several of the former. Mr. Black could not explain how the two Colfe volumes escaped from Cranmer's library, which after his martyrdom, March 21, 1555-6, was forfeited to the Crown, then passed into the possession of Henry, Earl of Arundel, steward of Queen Mary's household, who bequeathed them, in 1579, to Lord Lumley's library, on whose death, in 1609, they were purchased by Henry, Prince of Wales. On the death of the latter, in 1612, many of his books were sold (Mr. R. E. Chester Waters's Genealogical Memoirs of Chester of Chicheley, ii. 385); but the bulk went into the royal library, and so came to the British Museum, the books being marked with the archbishop's initials at the foot of the binding. The pedigree of the Leigh volume may in part be traced by other autographs in it. Shortly after the death of Cranmer the book appears to have come to the hands of one" F. Smallwood"; next a friend of Pilling's "Johannes Birchenhead me jure possidet anno Dom'i 1677. pret 38."; still later, "Sum e Libris Radulphi Pilling Schola Mancuniensis alumni, A.D. 1699. Ex Donis Johannis Birchenhead." In a later hand is the autograph "Thomas Burson" (?) perhaps a scholar in Leigh School. In the ill-usuage of several generations of schoolboys the preservation of this volume is due to its excellent binding of beech boards, formerly secured by clasps. A fac-simile of Cranmer's autograph has been kindly made by Mr. J. P. Rylands, F.S.A., which is to be engraved for my Account of the library. The book itself is pregnant with associations of its first possessor, who acquired it, we may suppose, out of admiration of Melancthon's moderation and learning. The autograph recalls the hand-the calm hand-which left its mark on the English Liturgy, as also the hand which recanted-" this unworthy hand! And the volume directs the attention to the noble library of which it once formed part,--that collection which was always freely open to men of letters, to which Latimer resorted, and where Ascham met with authors which the two universities could not furnish. Strype relates (Memorials, Eccles. Hist. Soc., vol. iii. 376-7) that the library of the reverend and learned prelate, who himself spent about three parts of the day in study, included the ecclesiastical writers of all ages, and he particularly refers to one of the archbishop's books, containing probably the very same form of autograph as that now described : : "Another of his books I will mention, because it is now [1694] in possession of a reverend friend of mine near Canterbury: in which book the archbishop's name is yet to be seen, written thus with his own hand, Thomas Cantuariensis : and a remarkable book it is, which we may conclude the archbishop often perused, viz., Epistolæ et Historia Joannis Hus. Printed at Wittemberg, 1537" JOHN EGLINGTON BAILEY. Stretford, near Manchester. |