Lot 99
Adamson, John
The Muses Welcome to the High and Mighty Prince James
Estimate: £1,500 - £2,000
Auction: 19 September 2024 from 10:00 BST
Description
by the Grace of God King of Great Britaine France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc. At his Majesties Happie Returne to his Olde and Native Kingdome of Scotland, after 14 Yeeres Absence, in Anno 1617. Edinburgh: [Andro Hart], 1618. First edition, Hart's issue, folio (27.2 x 17.5cm), [6] 44 [2] 45-134 pp. 135-6 ff. 137-289 pp., 19th-century cross-grain green morocco gilt, bound with as often Planctus et vota Musarum in Augustissimi Monarchae (Edinburgh: Andreas Hart, 1618, 18 pp.), woodcut portrait frontispiece of James VI and I, various woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials throughout, joints rubbed, 2X1 damp-stained [STC 141]
Provenance
The Library of a Scottish Gentleman
Footnote
First edition of a highly important collection of Latin and English verse and addresses composed by the leading Scottish poets of the early 17th century in celebration of the return of James VI and I to his native Scotland in 1617, a work described by Samuel Johnson 150 years later as preserving ‘the abundance of learning in Scotland’ which he believed to have been long since lost through civil war and social upheaval. The purpose of James's visit was to cultivate support for his ecclesiastical reforms. In 1623 John Adamson was appointed principal of Edinburgh University, remaining in his prestigious role until his death some years 30 later. The Muses Welcome is very rare in commerce, with only a handful of copies traced in auction records. The edition comprised two issues, the other bearing the imprint of another Edinburgh printer Thomas Finlason on the title-page; the present issue is identifiable as Hart's work from the presence of his monogrammed device on the verso of the second leaf. Hart's issue itself contained two variants, one with line three of the title reading ‘To the High and', and ‘To the High and Mighty Prince’, of which this copy belongs to the second.
