Scottish Text Society publications > Third series > Works of Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, 1490-1555 > Volume 4, 1936

BIBLIOGRAPHY
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possibility now of deciding whether Purfoote’s copies were made in
England or in Germany, but they were not new.
In using the blocks Pickering and Purfoote had no intention of
illustrating their text accurately. The block of Amos at the head of
The Monarche is there because it portrays a grave, wise man talking
to an attentive audience, the theme of Experience. The Machabeus
block is repeated seven times. It is a vigorous battle-scene, for use
anywhere. With the exception of Daniel in the Lion’s Den, the blocks
in Coverdale’s Bible of 1535 are identical with those of Beham. Cover-
dale’s Bible was, of course, printed in Germany. The Beham originals
are again used in the 1537 Bible, the Daniel block being as in Beham.
As one (No. 5) of the blocks belonged to a series owned by Pickering,
I presume that the whole of the blocks belonged to him. He seems to
have been interested in religious works. But as this volume contains
Purfoote’s device, it would look as though Purfoote were the actual
printer. Many of Pickering’s books were printed for him.
Copies Known :
1. B.M. C. 57. e. 3. The title-page is interesting for a reading evidently
corrected in later copies, ‘ . . . Hereunto are anexid certaine other
pithy posys of woorkes, . . .,’ first noted in Three Hundred Notable
Books, 29-30, as a variant, although this was the title recorded by
Hazlitt, Handbook, 363, and Watt, Bib. Brit. II. 6250. The words
To the bier of this booke are also omitted from above the verses on + 3a.
This copy was formerly owned by George Steevens, who gave it to
‘ Mr Parke ’ in exchange for a rare portrait of Hill the physiognomist.
A letter at the end records the circumstances :—
Hampstead Heath July 8. 1795
Sir,
You are perfectly welcome to make a country companion of the
Book. I shall leave this neighbourhood for about a month in the
course of September-October, and then return to my present quarters.
I shall be much obliged to you for the head of Master Hill, and will
not fail to offer you an equivalent. I have lately met with another
edition of his book that differs both from yours and my own ; but
there was no portrait in it.
When your convenience suits, I should be glad to have the head left
at the shop of Messieurs Leigh & Sotheby.
I remain. Sir,
Your very obliged & obed: Ser4
G. Steevens.
Sold at Bright’s sale (1845), No. 3556, and purchased by the British
Museum at the second Ashburnham sale, 1897. Steevens’s stamp is at
the foot of the title. The lower half of U2 has been torn away, but the
colophon is intact. The volume contains two MSS. leaves in Parke’s
hand, extracts on Lindsay from Heron’s History of Scotland, V. Pt. 1.
2. National Library of Scotland. H. 29. c. 19. Formerly in the
possession of Sir M. M. Sykes. The lower portion of the title has been
cut away, and leaves IP-TJ2 have been supplied in clever type facsimile,
almost amounting to ' fake,’ but the ‘ colophon ’ is erroneously in
Roman. See the National Library of Scotland’s copy of Ane Satyre,
1602.
3. National Library of Scotland. Rosebery Collection. The title is
in facsimile. Bound by Riviere. Scott sale. No. 1250.