Lot 163
Fergusson, David
Scottish Proverbs
Auction: 16 June 2026 from 10:00 BST
Description
gathered together. Edinburgh: printed by Robert Bryson, 1641. First edition, 4to (17.8 x 13cm), green crushed morocco by Riviere & Son c.1900, spine lettered in gilt, inner dentelles gilt, with extensive annotations in late 16th- or early 17th-century secretary hand, comprising additions to the proverbs listed, spine sunned, some dust-soiling, bottom edges of leaves untrimmed [Wing (2nd ed., 1996) F770; ESTC R177018]
Provenance
Ownership inscription on title page crossed out, a 20th-century pencil note by a former owner on an additional piece of paper inserted in the volume has suggested the inscription is by John Row (1568/9-1646), Church of Scotland minister of Carnock in Fife, who was the author's son-in-law and possibly the author of the preface to the work; however, the inscription could also be by Row's son, also John Row (d. 1672), schoolmaster, Church of Scotland minister and principal of King's College, Aberdeen, who published a Hebrew grammar and vocabulary in 1644; it is not clear if the annotations in the book are by the same person who wrote the ownership inscription.
Footnote
The first printed work on Scottish proverbs, the listing of 911 proverbs being published posthumously, the author David Fergus(s)on, Church of Scotland minister for Dunfermline, having died in 1598; the preface ‘From the Printer to the merrie, judicious and discreet Reader’ was later attributed to John Row of Carnock, a son-in-law of Fergusson; an expanded version of the text, Nine hundred & fourty Scottish proverbs, was published in Edinburgh in 1659.