ONE OF 25 COPIES ON WRITING ROYAL, FROM THE LIBRARY OF RIPLEY CASTLE
 
SPARKE, Joseph. HISTORIAE ANGLICANAE SCRIPTORES VARII, E CODICIBUS MANUSCRIPTIS Bound With:
Historiae Coenobii Burgensis Scriptores Varii, E Codicibus Manuscriptis (Bowyer, 1723)
Vita Sancti Thomae Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi (Bowyer, 1723) London: William Bowyer, 1723.
 
First edition, one of 25 copies on ‘Writing Royal’. Folio (454x282mm). Three works in one volume. Bound in full contemporary calf, the spine rebacked. All edge edges red. 
 
A very good copy, the spine rebacked, and a portion of the upper cover repaired to style. Internally generally fresh, with some scattered foxing.
 
PROVENANCE: From the library of Ripley Castle, North Yorkshire, sold in July 1995.
 
The Ripley Castle copy of this important work on early English history, in the grandest format, being one of just 25 copies for “Patrons that subscribed for the 25 copies of the best Paper”.
 
The majority of the texts printed here, including Fitz-Stephen’s Life Of Thomas Beckett and The Chronicon Angliae Petroburgense, were here edited for the first time:
“Even today it is in these volumes alone that there is to be found a printed version of the Chronicle of Hugh Candidus... Sparke’s book must be regarded as filling a gap in English ecclesiastical history” (David Douglas, English Scholars, 1660-1730).
 
This is one of just 25 copies printed on Writing Royal, in the largest format and reserved for “Patrons that subscribed for the 25 copies of the best Paper”. There were additionally 352 copies on Genoa crown, and 125 on Holland royal.
 
This copy comes from the very impressive library built by the Ingilby family of Ripley Castle. It was dispersed across three major 20th century sales; at Sothebys in 1920 and 1970, and at Bonhams in 1995.
 
The present volume was sold by a British bookseller in a catalogue of July 1995 for £350.00, and the relevant catalogue clipping is loosely laid in.
 
ESTC T147331 and N66761