Tarlton's News out of purgatory (1590) : a modern-spelling edition ...

21
surviving, and four incomplete ones. The Folger Shakespeare
Library owns one copy, which was purchased in 1904 from J.
Pearson & Co. of London, as part of a group of items for a
lot price. It is incomplete, lacking signatures A1-2 and
H1-2V . It has no manuscript notes, and the Library know
1 5
nothing of its former ownership.
The Houghton Library at Harvard University owns a copy,
1 6
which was acquired in 1940. This copy was previously owned
by W.A. White, who died in 1928, and appears in the catalogue
17
of his books. Ranson treats this copy as a separate item
from the Harvard one. The book was formerly in the possession
of William Horatio Crawford, whose plate is on the inside of
the front cover. It was sold with the rest of Crawford 's
library by Sotheby's on 12 March 1891, and was bought by
Quaritch, the booksellers, for £1. 8s. It is described in
the sale catalogue as,
3885 Tarlton (R) Newes out of Purgatory,
black letter, wanted title and cut in
headlines, with all faults, mor. ex. gt.
edge, 8vo.
It is lacking the leaves preceding B1 , and H1-H2V are damaged.
There are three copies of the edition in the Bodleian
Library, two of which are imperfect. The worst of all the
imperfect copies is [MS] Ashmole 1631, which is bound with a
collection of other pamphlets, and was bequeathed to the
Bodleian with the rest of Ashmole ! s library (1692). The copy
is very badly stained and torn, some leaves are missing
entirely, and parts of others are lacking. The text starts
on sig. C2 with '... the succession of the Papacie.. 1 , and
ends on sig. P4 with '... goe downe the..'. The figure M11 1