Adamson, John
The Muses Welcome to the High and Mighty Prince James
£504
Auction: 05 February 2025 from 10:00 GMT
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. Folio (28.2 x 18.8cm), [8] 1-135 pp., 136-7 ff. 138-289 pp., signatures [pi1] [a4] A-2D2 2E-3D4, contemporary calf, woodcut portrait frontispiece of James VI and I (pi1), woodcut portrait frontispiece of James VI and I, various woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials throughout, bound with Planctus et vota Musarum in Augustissimi Monarchae (Edinburgh: Andreas Hart, 1618, 18 pp.) as often, loss of leather along edges, front inner hinge tender, damp-stain extending into text from top edges throughout, concomitant fraying to head of prelims including frontispiece and title-page, title-page slightly soiled, occasional damp-staining in fore margins, fraying to fore edge of quire 2H, lacking rear free endpaper [STC 141-2]
Provenance
From the library of the Murrays of Dollerie, Crieff, Perthshire. Ownership inscription of Anthony Murray to title-page. Early ownership inscriptions of one John Grahame to front free endpaper.
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, one of which sold in these rooms on 19 September 2024 (lot 99). 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.