Inventions or devises.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Bourne, William, approximately 1535-1582.

Contributor:

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

Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Inventions--Early works to 1800.

Inventions.

Military art and science--Early works to 1800.

Military art and science.

Technology--Early works to 1800.

Technology.

Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)

diagrams

drawings (visual works)

tables (documents)

treatises

Manuscripts, English.

Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Penn Provenance:

Sold at auction at Christie's, 29 November 1999, lot 207.

Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2012.

Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2019.

Physical Description:

127 leaves : paper, illustrations ; 198 x 146 (170 x 115) mm bound to 204 x 158 mm

Production:

[Gravesend?, England], [circa 1576]

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).

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.

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

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

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).

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

Binding: Speckled calf, rebacked.

Origin: Probably written in Gravesend (home of William Bourne), England, ca. 1576.

Local Notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 119 (LJS 345).

Cited as:

UPenn LJS 345.

OCLC:

811051569

Online:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page