The Ferrar papers, 1590-1790, in Magdalene College ... - Microform

ound, and in 1980 A.W.Aspita1 catalogued them all in volume I11 of
the Cataloque of the Psys Libraryat Maqdal.ene Col leae. Cambr idae,
the loase prints appearing on pp.291-310, and the bound volume on
pp. 238-248.
The list of the prints here provided depends largely upon the
efforts of Mr Aspital, and the 561 loose prints have here been
given the numbers assigned to them in his catalogue. The bound
volume (previc~usly Pepys Library 2986.III.iii) now appears as item
562, and the volume has been photographed page by page, the modern
penc il led page-number appearing in the top left hand corner of even
numbered pages and in the top right hand corner of the odd. In the
present editor's opinion the print on p.73 is an intruder among the
Ferrar prints; it was in all likelihood published over twenty years
after John Ferrarls death in 1657.
The informat ion relating to the designer, engraver and
publisher of the prints replicates in almost every case the
information provided by Mr Aspital: only in a few cases has it been
possible to add a detail or two. More attention than in the
catalogue, however, has been paid to the inscriptions, and it has
thus proved possible to give more exactly, for example, the source
of the prints derived from Ovid's Metamorohoses. Biblical
quotations have been checked and, where sometimes necessary, their
sources corrected. Quotations from the Latin have been translated,
using contemporary Bibles to be found in the Old Library at
Magdalene. One certainly belonged to the Ferrars, the other could
have done so: The Holy Bible, printed by Robert Barker in 1640,
includes the New Testament with its awn titlepage of 1639, and has
a Ferrar signature and 18th-century bookplate; the Apocrypha, in
another volume, has no titlepage ccf its awn but is bound with a
1633 edition of the metrical Psalms.
In preparing this edition, I have received help from many. In
the earliest stages financial help was received from Virginia
Ransome. From 1390 the National Endowment for the Humanities
provided the bulk of the funding, and in 1331 a Faculty Development
Grant from the Rhode Island School of Design and my appointment as
a Mellon Research Fellow by the Virginia Historical Society both
helped to speed the project. I am grateful to a1 l these sponsors.
Between them they have made it possible to achieve publication in
less than four years since my first sighting the manuscripts.
At Magdalene College my task was eased by the support of Dr
Richard Luckett, Mrs Mary Coleman, and Mrs A~tde Fitisimon in
particular, and by the college staff in general, all of whom I
thank most warmly. The Record Offices of many counties enabled me
to trace details of the many members of the Ferrar clan and their
correspondents; I am grateful to the staffs at Chelmsford, Ipswich,
Leicester, Lichfield, Northampton, Norwich, Stafford, Warwick, and
especially Cambridge and Huntingdon. In Landon I have made use of
the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane, the General Registry
Office, the Greater London Record Office, the Corporation of London