Collection ID: 0001 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Inventions or devises

Authors

• Bourne, William, approximately 1535-1582

Other related names

• Burghley, William Cecil, Baron, 1520-1598, dedicatee

Call number

LJS 345
(3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6206., University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 9958307223503681
• http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/811052071
• http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/medren/5830722

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania

Origin

Date

circa 1576

Place

Gravesend?, England

Summary

Descriptions of 133 devices for use in war on land and sea, including use in gunnery and navigation. Following a dedication (f. iv recto-iv verso) to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Lord High Treasurer to Elizabeth I, and a preface (f. 1r-6v), a table of contents (f. 7r-17r) lists the 133 devices. Numbers in the upper margin of the text correspond to the numbers in the table of contents. The manuscript predates the first printed edition by approximately 2 years, and has more devices than the printed edition, although it does not include all of the devices that appear in the printed edition. A later note refers to the use of the eighth or ninth device against the Spanish Armada (f. 25r).

Notes

• Ms. codex.
   
• Title for manuscript from dedication (f. iv verso).
   

Watermark

Urn inscribed TC, similar to Briquet 12814 (Silly, France, 1582).

Extent

127 leaves : 198 x 146 (170 x 115) mm. bound to 204 x 158 mm

Foliation

Paper, i (later paper) + 127 + i (later paper); [i-iv], 1-37, [i], 38-61, [i], 62-69, [i], 70-119, [120]; foliation in ink, lower right recto. References in this record are foliation in the manuscript.

Support

Paper

Binding

Speckled calf, rebacked.

Layout

Written in 21-25 long lines; text block outlined in ink.

Decoration

3 inserted drawings in ink, of a cannon (following f. 37), a walled city (following f. 61), and a simple plan of a fort (following f. 69); smaller illustrations in ink in the text, including ships under sail and a scale (f. 18v, 58v, 60v, 63v).

Script

Written in secretarial script, with dedication (f. iv recto-iv verso) and emendations in italic script in the hand of William Bourne.

Provenance

• Sold at auction at Christie's, 29 November 1999, lot 207.
   
• Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2012.
   

Subjects topical

• Inventions--Early works to 1800
• Military art and science--Early works to 1800
• Technology--Early works to 1800

Genres

• Codices
• Diagrams
• Drawings
• Tables (documents)
• Treatises
• Manuscripts, English--16th century
• Manuscripts, Renaissance

Keywords

• 16th century
• English
• England
• Diagrams
• Drawing
• Science
• Paper

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts LJS 345: Inventions or devises are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  Metadata is © and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License version 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. For a description of the terms of use see the Creative Commons Deed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Decorations

• fol. 18v — Drawing, f. 18v
• fol. 58v — Diagram, f. 58v
• fol. 60v — Diagram, f. 60v
• fol. 63v — Diagram, f. 63v
• fol. 78r — Table, f. 78r
• fol. 79v — Table, f. 79v
• fol. 80r — Table, f. 80r
• fol. 85r — Diagram, f. 85r
• fol. 88r — Diagram, f. 88r
• fol. 91v — Diagram, f. 91v
• fol. 110r — Table, f. 110r
• fol. 110v — Table, f. 110v
• fol. 112r — Table, f. 112r
• fol. 112v — Table, f. 112v