Rarities
Some of the rare books or documents in the collection, in no particular order.
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The eruption of Vesuvius 1779
Entitled Campi phlegræi, S.107.26 is a supplementary volume, illustrating an eruption of Vesuvius. It is so rare that only a handful of other libraries in the world are known to possess a copy. The Hathi trust have a copy online, digitised by McGill University, Canada.
The stencilled monogram AB on the flyleaf may relate to Countess Adelaide Brownlow.
Regicides - Wanted - Dead or Alive - 18th May 1660
An original list of those held responsible for the beheading of Charles I. A list of the 66 Regicides.
Upon complaint this day made by the Commons in Parliament, it is ordered by the Lords in Parliament assembled, that all these persons, viz. John Bradshaw ... who sate in judgement upon the late Kings Majesty when sentence of death was pronounced against him, and the estates both real and personal of all and every the said persons, ... who are fled, be forthwith seized and secured; and the respective sheriffs and other officers whom this may concern, are to take effectual order accordingly.
Perhaps sent to 'Old' Sir john Brownow at Belton as a former High Sheriff of Lincoln. There must have been relief that his younger brother, William, was not on the list. William had been a Parliamentarian and served in Cromwell's Barebone's Parliament of 1653 and possibly the Long Parliament.
The executioner holding the severed head of Charles I executed in 1649. In reality, the executioner wore a disguise and his identity is not certain, but probably Richard Brandon.
Henry Ireton, just below Oliver Cromwell on the wanted list, was his son-in-law and like Cromwell already dead. Nevertheless, Ireton's corpse was disinterred, hanged at Tyburn and beheaded. His body was thrown into a pit and the head placed on a spike at the end of Westminster Hall, facing the direction of the spot where Charles I had been executed.
Thomas Harrison, three below Ireton, was the first to be found guilty. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Charing Cross on 13 October 1660. He was a leader of the Fifth Monarchists who still posed a threat to the Restoration.
Annotation found in L.5.H2, a 1780 book refer to Richard Brandon's father, Gregory. Jack Ketch was Charles II's executioner.
L.46.A.5 An exact collection of all remonstrances, declarations, votes, orders, ordinances, proclamations, petitions, messages, answers, and other remarkable passages between the King's most excellent Majesty, and his high court of Parliament beginning at his Majesties return from Scotland, being in December 1641, and continued until March the 21, 1643
Published in 1643, this is a source book for the struggle between Charles I and Parliament.
The woodcut frontispiece shows the King sitting on the throne in the House of Lords, and bottom, the House of Commons in1643.
In 1643 Sir John Brownlow ('Old' Sir John) appears among others as representative for the County of Lincoln [sic].
The Lords and Commons now assembled in Parliament, being fully satisfied and resolved in their conscience, that they have lawfully taken up Arms ...
be it further Ordained by the said Lords and Commons, That, the Persons hereafter named, shall be Committees for the severall and respective Counties and places hereafter mentioned: That is to say; ...
Sir John Brownlow, Sir Thomas Trollop Baronets ...
The County of Lincoln with the City of Lincoln must pay the weekly sum of £812 10 s for the maintenance of the Army ruled by Parliament. Fighting had begun in August 1642, and so Brownlow was a Parliamentarian reluctant or otherwise despite receiving his baronetage from Charles I on 26 July 1641. He was the first and only Belton baronet as he died without progeny. Parliamentary levies against 'Old' Sir John were made in 1645-47 for demolishing forts and payment for Scots & Irish militias.
1st edition 1671
Has two pages of handwritten notes at the back, reproduced below, scribbler unknown.
John Milton was an English poet and polemicist, and a civil servant under Oliver Cromwell. Best known for his canonical epic poem, Paradise Lost.
In the spring of 1642, Milton rode to visit acquaintances in the Oxfordshire countryside, and came back a month later a married man. His bride was the 17-year-old Mary Powell, and the marriage was conspicuously not a success. After a few weeks of living with Milton, she left for a visit to her family and didn't come back.
Her mortified husband published a series of tracts arguing for a quite revolutionary change in the law: the right to divorce on the grounds not of physical infidelity but intellectual incompatibility. The Government sought suppress his wicked and atheistical views. In a pamphlet, Milton denounces censorship, and argues for toleration and the free expression of ideas. He imagines an enlightened commonwealth where all men can weigh the available evidence and come to informed decisions on important questions.
Annotations
Presumably a Brownlow has made extensive notes on Milton's work.
Delhi Durbar 1911
Library XVIII.1.33. Held to commemorate the coronation in Britain of King George V and Queen Mary. This seems a special edition from the usual version that has the additional title Official Directory with Maps. But the content looks the same. Sir Charles Cust is seen in attendance in the lower image. Printed and published by the Army and Navy Co-operative Society, Limited. Apparently the only other copies held are at the British Library and the Bodleian Library.
Collections for the History of the Town and Soke of Grantham 1809 - a book that has helped identify an image of Countess Caroline Cust (died 1824).
Anti Library press XII.F.9, is included here because it has been personalised by a Cust family member to become a unique scrap book. The book itself is readable online here. Left the hand coloured map frontispiece.
The scrapbook has original water colours and photographs glued within, some have been removed. It postdates the 1st Earl Brownlow's death as it has a photo of his marble memorial. The photographs of the Mansion and gardens predate the construction of the North Offices and Dutch garden.
Some of the prints are by lithographer Amelia Cust (1822-1870), the daughter of the 1st Earl. She or her sister, Caroline (1820-1898) may be the author(s). If so, the same distinctive hand has labelled their mother's, Caroline Fludyer's sketch folder (NT433916) & an album (NT433922).
No recognised image of Caroline Fludyer is known. This Cust book offers a likely image of Caroline Fludyer (1794-1824), second wife of John, Earl Brownlow. She died aged 30. The scrap book also corrects a false attribution of a bust held at Erddig as that of Charles Cust.
Below left, a print glued within of an 'anonymous' bust by Richard Westmacott. Belton has 30 copies of this in the archives. Clues that suggest she is Caroline Fludyer are 1. her appearance in her daughters' scrap book, 3. the CB monogram, 3. the book's distinctive handwriting is seen on Caroline's sketch collection (NT433916) and 4. the connection to Caroline's memorial in Belton Church, below right.
Since this article was written, an identical lithograph has been found at the British Museum. This confirms Caroline's identity.
Anonymous print of female head, date unknown, by Sir Richard Westmacott RA (NT433951) found in XII.F.9.
Detail of the monogram on print, an intertwined 'C' & 'B' with an earl's or countess's coronet. Consistent with Caroline Brownlow.
This face is from Caroline's memorial in St Peter & St Paul Church, Belton.
Let us use Amazon Rekognition to compare the various images to the likeness of Caroline on the church's memorial. Facial analysis checks to see if a face is identifiable and then draws a box around the face. Face recognition gives confidence scores expressed as the probability of a match; the recommended threshold is >=80%. It is important that the face not be obscured as when in profile. The images analysed here all have a >99% probability of being a face and an un-occluded face >99%.
The print, above, posited as Caroline gives a 96% probability of a match with Caroline's memorial face. Next let us look at the busts of an unknown woman at Belton & Amelia Sophia Hume.
Tagged as bust of an unknown woman, possibly Amelia Sophia Hume, Lady Brownlow (1787-1814) (NT436787). On its base is FLERE.ET.MEMINISSE, weep and remember.
A bust of Amelia Sophia Hume (NT436758).
The unknown woman bust matches to Caroline's memorial face with 98% similarity
Amelia's bust scores 12% similarity with Caroline's memorial, 16% with the unknown woman bust and 27% similarity with the print.
Two further sculpted faces unrelated to Caroline or Ameilia are included in the summary figure below to test robustness of this approach, Lady Marianne Alford NT436782 & Countess Adelaide Brownlow NT 436810. Neither individual matches Caroline or Amelia.
Of course we can use our own eyes to see that the hairstyles of the Caroline memorial face, print and unknown woman are very similar supporting our conclusion that we have genuine likenesses of Caroline Fudyer.
Amelia Sophia Hume's portrait (NT436172) matches her bust with 91% similarity. Similarity to Caroline's memorial face and the posited print of her are both 3%. With the unknown woman bust 4%.
The figure summarises the results. A similarity score of > 80% (green shaded area) supports that the faces compared are from the same individual.
East windows Manthorpe Church. St John the Evangelist was designed by architect George Gordon Place of Nottingham and built in 1847–48. It was built as an estate church by the Brownlow family to serve Belton Estate workers.
The book's owner provides a list of donors, mainly family, for various items in this church.
Countess Brownlow Territory. The cottage designed by Anthony Salvin for Countess Emma Brownlow on Villa Pond. Alas only ruins remain now.
Altar of Belton House Chapel. The descriptions state who gave the various items like candlesticks. The photo & water colour confirm marbleised wood.
The inside of St Peter & St Paul Church, Belton before the building of the north apse for Brownlow memorials. Signed, Amelia Cust delineator & lithographer. A version of this is held at Erddig.
Eustaces Seat Belton. Who Eustace was is unknown.
The garden that preceded the Dutch Garden
The Mansion before replacement of the cupola and attic window pediments by the 3rd Earl. The detail reveals the appearance of the north of the West Courtyard before building the North Offices from 1876.
The fencing on the east side comes off the northeast corner and not the southeast corner as now.
This bust left is labelled as of General the Honourable Edward Cust, MP for Grantham. But the real thing is at Erddig Wrexham and is described as plaster - of Captain, The. Hon. Charles Henry Cust (1813-1875) by Christopher Moore (1787-1863) (NT1151797.1).
Sir Edward Cust (1794-18978), younger brother of the 1st Earl Brownlow.
Charles Cust (1813-1875), son of the 1st Earl Brownlow.
Facial recognition matches Sir Edward to the bust with 84% probability. Charles' match is 8% probability. The author of the scrap book is correct this bust is of Sir Edward Cust on the balance of probability.
Histoire Naturelle
Library VI.D.10, a series of volumes from The Cabinet of Natural History (also called the Cabinet du Roi or Cabinet du Roy , depending on the spelling and the era). It was a building located in the Jardin des Plantes , in Paris , France. Demolished 1935.
As a cabinet of natural history, the "king's cabinet" included vast collections of insects, plants, fossils , concretions , skeletons of "monsters", feather costumes for use by "savages" or "Americans".
This 1749 volume included human dissection. From 1537, after Pope Clement VII accepted human dissection for anatomical studies.
Th books are produced by the Royal Print, L'Imprimerie Royale, and stamped with the French royal coat of arms.
Minerology Collection
Library V.F.1 a completely handwritten book with illustrations of the Hume family's geology collection. Unlikely that there is any other copy in the world!
Author: Jacques-Louis, Comte de Bournon FRS, FGS (21 January 1751 – 24 August 1825) was a French soldier and mineralogist who came to England after the French Revolution. He gained prominence in the scientific community, being elected a fellow of the Royal Society and was a founding member of the Geological Society before returning to France after the Bourbon Restoration.
What happened to the collection is unknown.
Anton Koberger, portrait as a copperplate engraving, 1745.
Woodcuts from from the Nuremberg Chronicle, an illustrated encyclopaedia printed by Anton Koberger circa 1493.
No images in the Belton Book, just decorated start letters.
Another view of the Belton New Testament.
This a 1487 version of the same. It appears more decorative.
Chrisitie's auctioned a 4 volume, 1493 version, for £16,250 in 2018.
The Koberger New Testament, Latin, 1493 Library XV
Biblia latina : [cum postillis Nicolai de Lyra et expositionibus Guillelmi Britonis in omnes prologos S. Hieronymi et additionibus Pauli Burgensis replicisque Matthiae Doering].
You can read a 1489 version that belonged to Peterborough Cathedral here.
Published: Nuremberge : impensisq[ue] Anthonij Kobergers M.ccccxciij. die duodecima Aprilis [1493]. Prohemium, the prelude, after the incipit, the opening words of a text of a medieval manuscript or early printed book. The text of the Vulgate bible is in the centre of each page, surrounded by commentaries by Nicholas de Lyra in two columns (see below). The Vulgate is a Latin version of the New testament written by St Jerome (Hieronymi) circa AD 383.
The 4 parts are bound together unlike another version mentioned below. It has the bookplates of Viscount Tyrconnel and the 1st Earl Brownlow and this inscription,
In the years following the appearance of Johannes Gutenberg’s Bible around 1455 (not later than 1456), printing spread through German-speaking regions and other parts of Europe. the beginning of printing in Nuremberg is traced to the decade of the 1470s. The first dated book (Franciscus de Retza’s Comestorium Vitiorum) appeared in 1470, a collaboration between Johann Sensenschmidt and Heinrich Keffer, who had been an assistant to Gutenberg.
Written in this book - a previous owner?
Among all printers active in Nuremberg in the final decades of the fifteenth century, clearly the one who operated the largest business and was most productive was Anton Koberger (c.1445-1513).
He has recently been called by one scholar of early printing “the quintessential merchant publisher.” Koberger was born into one of the city’s wealthiest families, and was the godson of Albrecht Dürer the elder; later he would become godfather to Dürer the younger.
His social standing meant that he would have had the financial means at his disposal to support a business venture, an important point in a speculative trade like printing. We do not know how he learned the craft, but he set up the second shop in the city and began work in 1470 or 1471. At first his output was small, but the business grew within a few years, and by the end of the century Koberger had printed over 200 books.
The scale of his operation was enormous, with perhaps 18 or more presses running when he was at his peak in the 1490s. Koberger functioned not only as a printer, but also as a publisher and bookseller. His business was international in scope, and he maintained connections across the continent, with offices in Italy, France, and other parts of Europe.
He paid close attention to his audience, and conservatively printed books that would sell. Koberger’s books bore certain traits: they were typically expensive, well-made, multi-volume works in Latin. Several examples from the 1480s, including two bibles, an edition of the Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend), and a devotional text called the Schatzbehalter, feature impressive woodcut illustrations. Below some marginalia.
Biography of Nicolas De Lyra
Nicolas De Lyra (ca 1270-1340) was a French exegete (a person who interprets scripture) in the Franciscan order. He was born in Lyne in Normandy and became a Doctor of Theology and teacher at the Sorbonne. He was noted for his extensive commentary on the Bible.
Martin Luther is claimed to have stated “Without Lyra we would understand neither the old or new testament.” De Lyra was the first printed biblical commentary. He was a scholar familiar with Hebrew and stressed the need to go to original sources for books of the Bible rather than rely on corrupted Latin versions prepared later.
He made use of the Talmud, other Jewish writings of rabbinical scholars, especially Rashi (Solomon Ben Isaac) of the 11th century, in order to understand the Jewish practices. Most of all Nicolas De Lyra always emphasized the literal meaning of the passages in the Bible rather than the mystical or allegorical explanations that had developed.