by Tricia Seraphina Tham
Indago Monocerotis is a devotional book that reveals how books are not only read, but also collected, reinterpreted, and revalued. Initially valued for its spiritual content, its preservation through different forms of ownership highlights how accessibility to this book was shaped by privilege.
This copy of Indago Monocerotis was printed in 1658 by Charles University in Prague, a Jesuit institution in what is now the Czech Republic. The full title translates to “The Investigation of the Unicorn by the Human Nature of the Deity, the Most Sageful Hunter, Lovely Adorned by the Desires of the Five Senses: Finally, Under the Auspices of Mary the Living Diana, Full of Grace, and Called for Help by the Architect Gabriel, Has Been Followed”. The title reflects its religious content, aligning with Jesuit ideals and the Holy Roman Empire of that era and location. It presents the unicorn as a metaphor for the human pursuit of divine truth and references the Roman goddess Diana, associated with chastity, wild animals and the moon. Reflecting the Jesuit embrace of Renaissance humanism, Indago Monocerotis combines Christian and classical allegory in its didacticism, even in visual imagery (Appendix A).
A crossed-out handwritten inscription, “Ecclesiae Lichtenstadis” (Fig 1), suggests prior ownership by the Church of Liechtenstein. Below it, “Bibliotheca Slacoverdensis Scholarum Piarum” (Fig 1.2) indicates later ownership by a Piarist school library. These inscriptions present Indago Monocerotis’ shift from ecclesiastical to educational use, while maintaining its didactic religious value. However, the transmission of such religious knowledge was limited by class and literacy, as Latin texts were accessible only to those trained to interpret them.
In the 19th century, Indago Monocerotis entered the Oates family’s private collection. Bookplates, which are decorative labels indicative of ownership, identify Edward (Fig 2), William Edward (Fig 2.1), and Robert Washington Oates as successive owners (Fig 2.2). While we cannot ascertain the Oates’ engagement with this book’s religious value, the bookplates, generational preservation, and the 1897 posthumous insertion of William’s bookplate (Fig 2.1) after his 1896 demise, reflects how they eventually regarded the genealogical and historical value of it.
Stamps, and a printed label trace Indago Monocerotis’ movement from private to institutional hands, though it remained within the Oates family’s orbit. A book stamp from the Bibliotheca Oatesiana (Fig 3) presents its place in the family’s private library. A stamp (Fig 3.1) records this book’s presence in the Newton Library at Cambridge University’s Department of Zoology and a printed label (Fig 3.2) presents its agreed transfer by Robert Washington Oates to the Gilbert White Memorial Library, which he founded. Though a religious text, its symbolic unicorn aligns with Zoology’s interest in mythical animals, shifting its value from heirloom to academic. This book’s ownership through elite settings reflects how its accessibility and preservation depended on the Oates’ affluence and institutional ties to a leading university.
Though not present in this copy, this book’s provenance appears in Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers’ 2010 catalogue, valued at £400 (Appendix B). This highlights its academic and bibliographic significance to scholars, supporting its 2018 acquisition by NTU for The History of the Book class. Its price and current ownership in higher education reflect how Indago Monocerotis’ access remains shaped by institutional privilege.
Appendix A
Virgin Mary Surrounded by Symbolic Imagery
Supporting the merging of Christian and classical allegory, this early page from this edition of Indago Monocerotis visually depicts the Virgin Mary with radiant lines fanned out behind her, forming a halo of light. She is shown holding a unicorn, crowned with twelve stars, standing on a crescent moon, with two angels overhead and surrounded by wild animals and human figures. The crescent moon and animals symbolically evoke Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt and the moon, known for her chastity and connection to nature. At the same time, this imagery directly references Revelation 12 in the Bible, which describes a woman “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head” In Christian tradition, Revelation 12 reveals this apocalyptic vision, and is often interpreted as the Virgin Mary, representing divine motherhood, protection, and spiritual perseverance. The combination of these classical and biblical elements reflects the Jesuit strategy of aligning Christian morality with humanist ideals, reinforcing the book’s initial religious didactic function which would have appealed to learned readers familiar with both traditions.
Appendix B
Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers’ 2010 Sales Catalogue Cover Page and Listing for Indago Monocerotis
This catalogue page from Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers, a London-based dealer specialising in rare historical texts, documents a 2010 listing of Indago Monocerotis, priced at £400. Although the catalogue is not part of the book itself, it contributes to tracing its provenance. Founded in 1969, Jarndyce functions as an intermediary in the circulation and revaluation of antique books. The inclusion of Indago Monocerotis in such a listing reflects its reclassification from a spiritual or educational object to a collectible commodity—an artefact of academic and bibliographic significance appealing to collectors, scholars, or institutions with the financial and cultural capital to acquire it. This listing marks the last documented stop in the book’s provenance before its acquisition by NTU in 2018 for pedagogical use in The History of the Book class, reinforcing how systems of privilege continue to shape who can own, access, and collect books.