Category: Section 4: Owning and Collecting

by Ysabel

Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England: A Treatise in Five Parts (1743) is a book written by Charles Chauncy (1705-1787). Chauncy was a Congregationalist pastor in Boston, Massachusetts, who opposed the Great Awakening religious revival happening in Britain’s North American colonies during the 1720s to 1740s. His book was a reply to Jonathan Edward’s Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England (1742), which was sympathetic to the Great Awakening.

Originally published in Boston in 1743, this copy of the book has been owned by several Congregationalists in New England. The name “Henry M. Dexter” is signed on the title page of the book. The handwriting is similar to the signature of Henry Martyn Dexter (1821-1890), a Congregational pastor in Manchester, New Hampshire, and in Berkeley church in Boston. Dexter was also a lecturer of Congregationalism at the Andover Theological Seminary and often wrote about the subject. On another page of the book, the name “David B. Kempton” is also signed. While the exact identity of David B. Kempton cannot be identified, as there are many individuals named “David B. Kempton”, a prominent Kempton family was living in Old Dartmouth, Massachusetts, in New England. All the Kemptons were Congregationalists. Thus, this copy might have been passed around to different Congregationalists in New England, which highlights how influential Chauncy’s book was among Congregationalists in New England.

This copy of the book has a leather binding in the Cambridge Panel style. The defining features of the Cambridge Panel style are its three panels and the sprinkling of dye to create varying degrees of density for the leather. The blind tooling, which is the technique of impressing designs onto the book cover, consists of a double blind line (two parallel lines) for the panels, a decorative roll around the central rectangle, and corner tools (flower designs impressed onto the corners of the second panel). The spine of the book contains a single red leather title label and double blind lines at the head (top) and tail (bottom) of the spine, as well as on each side of the raised bands. This use of the Cambridge Panel style explains why the author, title, and year of publication are found on a single label on the spine of the book, instead of on separate labels, which is typical of leather-bound books. Moreover, the Cambridge Panel style originated in England in 1690, and became the predominant style for plain leather bindings in the early 18^th century. It was commonly used in 18^th Century Boston, which was still a British colony in the 18^th Century. This accounts for the use of the English bookbinding style for a book published in Boston in 1743.

Overall, this copy of Chauncy’s text reflects the religious and printing environment in New England during the 18^th Century to 19^th Century.

Works Cited

“Charles Chauncy.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 6 Feb. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Chauncy-American-clergyman-1705-1787. Accessed 2 April 2025.

“Cheney, Thomas.” McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia, https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/C/cheney-thomas.html. Accessed 1 April 2025.  

Cowlishaw, Nick. “The Cambridge Panel.” Skin Deep, vol. 36, 2013, pp. 2-10.

“Eighteenth Century: Elaboration and Simplicity.” Michigan State University Libraries, https://lib.msu.edu/exhibits/historyofbinding/18thcentury. Accessed 2 April 2025. 

“Great Awakening.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14 Mar. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Awakening. Accessed 2 April 2025.  

“Old Dartmouth Historical Stretch Number 21.” New Bedford Whaling Museum, https://www.whalingmuseum.org/old-dartmouth-historical-society-sketches/old-dartmouth-historical-sketch-no-21/. Accessed 2 April 2025.  

“Rev Thomas Cheney.” FamilySearch, https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/93JW-GHT/rev-thomas-cheney-1690-1747. Accessed 1 April 2025.

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. 1, New York, James T. White and Company, 1803. 

Wolcott, Renée. “Splintered: The History, Structure, and Conservation of American Scaleboard Bindings.” The Book and Paper Group Annual, vol. 32, 2013, pp. 56-79.

by Si Chen

The Dance of Death is a play written by Wystan Hugh Auden and directed and produced by Rupert Doone, making its debut as part of the Group Theatre’s first season to general audiences in the London Westminster Theatre in 1933. It is a musical propaganda play, depicting the psychological collapse and decay of the modern bourgeoisie, the social order made up of citizens in the middle class.

The term was coined by Karl Marx, the forefather of Marxism, whose ideas served as the basis of communism and socialism. Interestingly, at the end of the play, it is written that Karl Marx himself is a character who appears, to the tune of Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn, just to watch the main character (the dancer) abruptly pass away on the spot.

This copy of the book is a version bound in its original black cloth cover with gilded lettering on its spine, and based on observation, it was likely manually hand-printed with a press, as there are discrepancies such as smudges in the inked words.

Interestingly, there is a handwritten message behind the front cover quoting, “This copy was shown to Rupert Doone, the producer of the original, who declared that these annotations bore no relation to his original production.” This note is dated on 13 October 1958, and is signed by B. C. Bloomfield, which is a clue to one of this book’s previous owners.

Researching deeper on his name brings up that he authored A Directory of Rare and Special Collections in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland for the Rare Books Group of the Library Association of Ireland. It also further explains why he would have had access to this book and was able to communicate directly with the original producer, Doone, as well.

Other notes that allude to the book having passed through many owners are three more names signed in varying degrees of legibility, one that might be a John Harreis, G. F. Palmer, and lastly Geoffrey Tillotson. The book also shows annotations that could indicate the prices the owners paid to buy this book for their collections.

The pages of the play script are filled with numerous short annotations, seemingly director’s notes and edits on stage directions. Some examples include instructions indicating when different parts of the chorus (men, women, all) should sing (Fig 3), and he also cancelled off certain side characters and rewrote their lines for other casts.

A possible reason why this previous owner would have done this was because he could have been a play director with a limited cast, and further inspection of the top of the pages show an indent in the paper, most likely from being pressed by a pen’s clip. Seeing this, we can imagine a busy director running around the stage, instructing his cast members with a pen clipped onto his script for quick annotations and changes.

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.