Juliana Berners | The Gentlemans Academie, 1595, early modern female authorship and ownership

Dame Juliana Berners

The Gentlemans Academie: Or, The Booke of St. Albans. Containing three most exact and excellent Bookes; the first of Hawking, the second of all the proper termes of Hunting, and the last of Armorie: all compiled by Juliana Barnes, in the yere from the incarnation of Christ 1486. And now reduced into a better method, by G[ervase] M[Arkham]. London: [Valentine Simmes] for Humfrey Lownes, 1595

3 parts in one, 4to (186 x 130 mm), additional section titles to parts 2 and 3 but with continuous pagination and signatures, 116 woodcut coats-of-arms, contemporary paneled speckled calf with gilt morocco title label, housed in modern brown morocco pull-off case by Riviere, lacks final blank, A4 with loss to inner margin, gilt rubbed and with skillful restoration to ends and joints, minor loss at tail of spine

First edition of Gervase Markham's epitome of the 1486 edition by Dame Juliana Berners, sister of Lord Berners, and Prioress of the Nunnery of Sopwell, Hertfordshire. With separate titles to the "Treatise of Hunting," and "The Booke of Armorie," the work is scarce and much of the author's life remains a mystery.

The present edition was never reprinted and is listed by Collier in his "Rarest Books in the English Language."

The present copy is especially remarkable for its combination of early modern female book authorship and ownership: the autograph of the Marquess of Waterford appears on the title-page, alongside the purchase price and date. For another example of early modern female book ownership, see lot 4 (Berners).

PROVENANCE:

Mathew Pomeroy: scribbled out early modern ownership inscription at foot of title-page, with accompanying motto "Be it known until all men"; The Marquess of Waterford ("Beresford" written on title page, recording the purchase and price in London, 1696); John M. Schiff, sold Sotheby's New York, 21 July 2022, lot 1019

LITERATURE:

Schwerdt 2:12; STC 3314