Owned by an Irish and an English Jesuit
VIRGIL.
Publii Virgilii Maronis opera, variorum autorum annotationibus illustrata, editio nova emendatior: in qua filum narrationis (juniorum potissimum gratia) pausis frequentioribus debitisque periodis discriminatur. London, ‘typis E. Tyler et R. Holt pro Societate Stationariorum’, 1672.
8vo, pp. [14], 302, [3], [1 (blank)]; slightly toned, first quire projecting very slightly from textblock; a good copy in contemporary sprinkled sheep, marbled edges, later pastedown; some wear to spine and corners, foot of spine strengthened with old white paper; ownership inscriptions to front free endpaper ‘Ex libris Joannis Grene’ and ‘Domino Edvardo Scarisbrick hunc libru[m] donavit Joannes Grene, Anno Domini, 1680’, contemporary annotations to c. 65 pp.
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Publii Virgilii Maronis opera, variorum autorum annotationibus illustrata, editio nova emendatior: in qua filum narrationis (juniorum potissimum gratia) pausis frequentioribus debitisque periodis discriminatur.
Rare student edition of the works of Virgil, printed in London by Evan Tyler and Ralph Holt for the Stationers’ Company, owned and annotated by the Irish Jesuit John Grene and gifted by him to his pupil and fellow Jesuit Edward Scarisbrick.
John Grene of Kilkenny – no doubt a relation of the noted Jesuit brothers Martin and Christopher Grene (for whom see ODNB) – was engaged as a tutor to the Scarisbrick family of Lancashire, apparently serving in this capacity until the late 1680s. Grene’s annotations here, evidence of his attentive study of Virgil’s works, comprise textual corrections and explanatory notes on, for example, Anchises, Bacchus, Clytemnestra, Menelaus, Paris, Romulus, Juno, and Hercules.
Edward Scarisbrick alias Neville (1664–1735) – who was sixteen when Grene gifted him this book – spent part of his education at the Colleges of St Omer and Liège before joining the Jesuits at Watten in 1682. After a period of teaching at St Omer, he returned to England at the turn of the eighteenth century and served in the Derbyshire, Lancashire, and London Districts. His relative and namesake Edward Scarisbrick (1639–1709) was a royal preacher and one of the intended victims of Titus Oates.
Foley records another book given by Grene to Scarisbrick in 1680, and notes that Grene himself received gifts of books from the cavalier and topographer William Blundell (1620–1698), a relation of the Scarisbrick family.
ESTC records a single copy, at the BL (cropped and laminated); OCLC adds one in the US, at the Lilly Library. ESTC R187667. See H. Foley, Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus 7:2 (1883), p. 1409.