The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700
Gentle Traveller
David Sturdy and Martin HeningAuthors of the curatorial catalogue
Brent NelsonEditor and transcription of numismatic section
Daniel KrahnTranscription checking
Meghan WitzelXML markup
Excerpts.
David Sturdy and Martin Henig, ed.Gentle Traveller:
John Bargrave, Canon of Canterbury, and his CollectionAbingdonAbbey
Press1983
[1] 
ITALY: ROMAN BRONZE FIGURES
(a) Seated 
child Harpocrates. H: 3 cms. An infant Romulus. . . digd out of
Quirinus his temple, on the Quirinal hill, when those ruins were removed to make way for the very
fine, pretty, rich church of Sta Maria della Vittoria . . . Left hand and foot
missing. B1.
(b) Priest with patera in right hand. H: 10.7 cms. One of two old Roman sacrificing priests . . .
Elaborate yewwood pedestal. B5i.
(c) Female devotee, patera in right hand. H: 9.6 cms. One of the old Roman sacrificing priests.
Right arm &c are 17th cent. repair. B5ii.
(d) Dancing lar (household god). H: 8.2 cms. a maymed Mercury, with one arm and one legg;
ancient, dugg out of his temple. Right lower arm and left leg missing. B7.
Authenticity not certain
(e) Aesculapius. H: 5.6 cms. . . . the medicinal god - in a long robe, with his baton or knotty staff in
his hand, with a snake round about it, dugg out of the ruins of his temple in the island of the river of
Tyber, where now standeth the hospital of St. Bartholomey. Right arm and left foot missing.
Wooden pedestal, H: 3.4 cms. B2.
(f) Hercules Mingens (drunk and urinating). H: 6 cms. including spike on left foot for fixing to
pedestal. . . . dugg out of his temple near the Tyber, at the foot of the Aventine Hill at Rome - still standing, almost all, and made a chappell. Wooden pedestal, H: 3.5 cms.
B3.
(g) Eagle looking to right with wings partly spread. H: 4 cms. A Roman aegleeagle, in brass;
modern. Base partly missing. B18.
[2] ITALY: ROMAN GEMS
(a) Almandine garnet, oval convex; bearded bust, perhaps of Jupiter, in profile to left, hair bound in
fillet, himation around shoulders. D: 19mm. Ano
1650. . ., I had the honour to conduct. . . Phillip Lord Stanhop
into Italy; and at Rome he presented me with this stone,
telling me that it was sold him not only for a Graecian head, but for Aristotle’s. I sett it in gold at Rome. . .. Set in a gold ring inscribed
and dated "I B RO/MA 1650". c.50 B.C.
B29.
(b) Cornelian, oval convex; Pegasus flying to left. L: 15mm. Set in a silver ring of antique form but probably 17th cent. Early 1st cent. A.D.
(c) Chalcedony, circular flat; recumbent Sphinx in profile to left. L: 11mm. Chip on stone. 1st
cent. A.D.
(d) Sard with black inclusions, oval convex; a dolphin, curled around an amphora. L: 15mm. 2nd cent. B.C.
(e) Bloodstone, oval flat; Eros bound to a column in profile to left. On column sits
Griffin of Nemesis (to punish Eros, the body, for tormenting Psyche, the soul). Inscribed in front ΔΙΚΑΙWϹ, "Justly". L: 15mm. 2nd or early 3rd cent. A.D.
(f) Cornelian, octagonal flat; an elephant standing on a cart pulled by two mice. Inscribed above: ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙ, "of Gregorios". L: 9mm. 2nd cent. A.D.
(g) Cornelian with agate banding, oval flat; bust resembling Empress Faustina I in profile to
left. L: 12mm. Broken. First half of 2nd cent. A.D.
(h) Cornelian with agate banding, oval flat; head of an Emperor, possibly Titus, in profile to left.
Fragment L: 7mm., head missing except for mouth and chin. 1st cent. A.D.
(i) Cornelian, oval flat; bust of young Hercules wearing lion skin, in profile to right. L: 9mm., broken
on upper left side. 1st cent. B.C. or A.D.
(j) Cornelian, oval flat; nude youth, presumably Silvanus, standing in profile to right and holding a
pruning-hook. L: 6mm, lower third missing. 1st cent. A.D.
(k) Garnet, oval convex; nude girl, possibly Methe (Inebriation), in profile to right with right arm
raised, her himation behind her. L: 5mm., lower third missing. 1st cent. A.D.
(l) Cornelian, flat; legs of man standing to left with altar-base or stand behind him. Fragment L: 4mm., upper three-quarters
missing.
(m) Dark opaque glass, oval convex; Philoctetes, his chlamys over right arm and supported on staff in
right hand, walks to left. L: 10mm. 1st cent. B.C.
(n) Dark sard, circular flat; an ear of corn between two cornucopiae. L: 12mm. 1st cent.
B.C.
(o) Pale blue-green glass cameo, oval; moulded Hands, clasped, "dextrarum iunctio". L: 24mm. 1st cent. B.C. or A.D.
[3] ITALY: OTHER ROMAN ANTIQUITIES
(a) Small bronze cabinet-key. L: 3 cms. A little key, dug out of the Temple of the Moon.
B12.
(b) Bronze double-headed snake in 14-15 tight coils. H: 8 cms. Item, a brass wreathed snake, in circles, having a head at both ends;
dedicated to Eternity. B13.
(c) Bronze knuckle-bone. L: 2.4 cms. . . . dugg out of the ruins, in brass, that sheweth the Romans used them in games called Ludi Talarii. B15.
(d) Bronze phallic pendant with large suspension-loop and two loops below. W: 5.7 cms. See below. B17i.
(e) Bronze phallic pendant with suspension loop. W: 3.8 cms.
Two Priapisms, in brass, being votes or offerings to that absurd
heathen deity - modern, from ancient. B17ii.
(f) Pottery lamp with unpierced handle, central hole and wide projecting light-hole. Upper part decorated with large dots, base
with palm-leaf or chevrons. L: 9.4 cms. Dr Bargrave’s Catalogue gives 3p. account of catacombs; original paper label
"very ancient / A lamp and / Lacrymatorio of earth from Roma Sotteranea. / an other Lachrimatorio of / glass frō the same
place". Bargrave gave another lamp and a long-necked pottery bottle to Dr Robert Plot, later the first Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, for the
cabinet of the Bodleian Library. B22i.
(g) Long-necked glass phial. H: 11 cms. Account as Lacrymatory and label as above. Part of lip missing. B22ii.
(h) Bronze stylus. L: 11 cms. Stylus Romanus. The antiquarian that sold it me avowed it to be truly ancient; but thousands may daily
be made. . .. B36.
[4] ITALY: FALSE ANTIQUITIES OF THE RENAISSANCE
(a) Bronze plaque of woman crowning ox with wreath. W: 5.3 cms. Original paper label "Frō Hercules
temple under / the Aventin hill at Rome / where he killed Cacus /
where now stands St Stevens Church / caled Sto Stefano del Cacco. / Hercules
with the bull". B4.
(b) Bronze figure of Hercules. H: 11 cms. Hercules Juvenis, with his club and
lion’s skin. . . supposed modern. Right foot has been sanded flat and left foot has hole for spike from pedestal.
B6i.
(c) Bronze figure of Hercules. H: 8.4 cms. . . . another of them. . .. Small wooden pedestal.
B6ii.
(d) Bronze dolphin. L: 6 cms. An ancient brass Dolphin, dedicated to Venus, and dug out of her
temple. Nam Venus orta mari. B8.
(e) Hollow lead bust of the Emperor Nero wearing breastplate, cloak and laurel-wreath. W:
6.7 cms. A handsome ancient busto (as called at Rome) of Augustus -
that is the head and shoulders - in brass. Badly cracked and left shoulder perished. B9.
(f) Bronze figure of Leda with swan. H: 8.3cms . . . supposed to be modern but cast from ancient. Brass
pedestal spiked and brazed on, H: 3.5 cms. B10.
(g) Bronze plaquette, five cupids playing with an actor’s mask. W: 8.8 cms. A flat brass piece, of several Cupidons scaring one
another with a vizard; being a bachanalia piece, dugg out of the Temple of Bacchus.
B11.
(h) Bronze plaque of a centaur seizing a Lapith woman. W: 4 cms. Item a flat piece of brass, with the rapture of Proserpine by a Centaure. B14.
(i) Coral relief of bearded River Tiber reclining. W: 4.5 cms. The River of
Tyber, carved on a piece of coral; ancient. B16.
[5] ITALY: ANTIQUARIAN STONE SAMPLES
(a) Polished heart-shaped plaque of green stone. L: 6 cms. In 1646
Bargrave knocked this off the fallen obelisk in the Circus of
Maxentius, later put up in the Piazza Navona, and had it cut and polished, as he tells in a
five-page account in his Catalogue. B19.
(b) Heart-shaped plaque of dark green stone. L: 2.8 cms. As above. B23.
(c) Two fragmentary sheets of spotted green opaque glass and two of purple glass. L: 13, 4, 10, & 4 cms. Paste
antiche Romane incognite, - several pieces of a flat ancient Roman paste . . . pict up
amongst the antiquarians . . .. B24.
(d) Small oval wooden box with worn female figure painted on lid containing stones. wrapped in original labels, no doubt somewhat
mixed, reading:
i "Of Constantines Arch / Triumphal at Rome / J Bargrave
1647"
ii "A peece of the ruines of Septimius / Severus his Arch Triumphall / at Rome
J Bargrave / 1647"
iii "A peece of Titus Vespas. / Arch Triumphall at Rome / for taking Jerusalē. J Bargrave
1647"
iv "This stone / I brought frō the Amphi / theatre or Colosseum at Rome / 1647
J Bargrave"
v "From the / Piscina mirabili / neere Naples"
vi "From the Cuman / Sybells Grotto neere / Puteoli or Puzzuolo / neere Naples"
and "Sybilla / Cumana"
vii "I brought this frō the grotta / del cane where anything / that is put in dyeth, and being / throughen in to a lake hard
by, it / reviveth. wch I saw by a dog. it is in the Kingdom of Naples" and "grotta /
del / cane"
viii "Of the Mosaik worke of / St.Marks Church in / Venice
1647 / J Bargrave" and "Venice" with 14 mosaic cubes, 10 yellow-glass with gold, 2 dark with gold, one white and one blue.
(e) Two small stones, a fossil shell and a fragmentary bone plaque wrapped in an original paper label "I brought these stones
frō the ruines / of the three tavernes spoken of / in Acts, where the brethren met / + Paul J Bargrave
1647".
(f) Small piece of white marble wrapped in original label "I brought this frō Cicero’s house at
Tusculan / 10 miles frō Rome, where Tullie / writ
his Tusculans question / 1647. J Bargrave".
(g) Four pieces of stone wrapped in original paper label "A / stone of Cicero / house where he / wrote
his epistles / neere Fondi in / the Kingdom of / Naples".
(h) Two fragments of granite and a chunk of cinder wrapped (wrongly) in an original paper label "Frō Milan / Marble of Milan of wch / many pillars of the Cathedral Church of St
Carlo, is made".
[6] ITALY: NATURAL OR GEOLOGICAL STONE SAMPLES
(a) Small cinders and pummy stones of Mont Aetna, . . . from my Lord Winchelsy
(B25) seem to be lost.
(b) Loose cinders and small oval wooden box with female figure painted on lid containing volcanic ash, with original label "Ashes
and materialls / of the burning Moun / taine of Vesuvius / neere Naples / John Bargrave". Several pieces of cinders, pummystone, and ashes of the Mount Vesuvius, near
Naples, which was 4 times the poynt of my reflection, - I facing about for England
from the topp, or crater, or voragine (as they term it) of that mountain; of which I have spoken at large in my Itinerario d’Italia. B26.
(c) Small oval box labelled Confetti di Tivoli containing Tiber gravel with original label "Confetti Di Tivoli / The sand of Teverone that Entereth in / to the Tiber not farr frō Rome / John Bargrave". . . . They seem to be so like sugar plums that they
will deceive any man. . .. B30.
(d) Lozenge-shaped chunk of gypsum, perhaps Some of the floore of brimstone from that horrid sulfurious mountain. . . called Sulfaterra, near Puteoly . . .. B31.
(e). . . Aetites, Lapis Aquilaris, or the eagle stone (a charm for pregnant women) bought of an Armenian at Rome seems to have been removed before the collection reached the Cathedral Library. B33. Missing.
[7] OTHER ITALIAN SOUVENIRS
(a) Item, a small gold Salerno ring. . . the goldsmiths of the place. . . make thousands of these rings,
and then have them touch that image which spake. And no marchant or stranger that cometh thither but buyeth of these rings for
presents and tokens. An English marchant gave me this at Naples . .
.. It was probably retained by Mrs Bargrave and never reached the Cathedral
Library. B28. Missing.
(b) Model of a human eye in 14 pieces, bought at Venice of a High
Dutch turner. . . B34.
(c) Pack of Italian playing-cards. B41.
(d) i A Venetian stiletto. B57.
ii A prohibited Venetian dark lanthorn . . . a murthering B56. Missing since mid 18th cent. or before.
(e) Devotional items sold to pilgrims at Loretto:
i Pale blue silk ribbon, 128 by 3.2 cms., with 9 gold foil and 12 silver shells.
ii Blue silk ribbon, 128 by 3 cms., with 9 gold and 12 silver shells.
iii Fine orange-brown silk ribbon, 216 by 2.1 cms., printed in black: ALTEZA DELLA.B.V.M.DI LORETO - ClNTA
DELLA. B.V. - CAPO.DELLA.B.V. - .DEL.BAMBINO. GIE5V.
iv Fragmentary cream ribbon, W: 2.4 cms., printed in red as above, but last phrase reads: AL TEZA DEL.
BAMBINO.GIE5V.
v Pale brown ribbon, 34 by 1.2 cms., perhaps not connected with the rest.
(f) Oval silver medal with suspension-loop, inscribed LORETO.
(g) Tiny pink silk pendant, embroidered in green silk IHS.
(h) i-ix Nine necklaces, presumably bought by Bargrave at Loretto as
examples of devotional wares, with beads of seed, wood, silver-wire, faceted jet &c., with two old paper wrappers,
uninscribed.
(i) Four tiny circular wooden boxes, two of them numbered "4" and "6", containing scraps of lint. These may be the survivors of 34
similar boxes and go with the old paper label, now lost but recorded in the 1860s, "For
curiosity, because sold in the shops at Rome, so that for 2s.6d. I had these 34 (pretended)
reliques of saints’ bones."
(j) Piece of wormy wood, wrapped in original paper label "Fro Rome
J Bargrave
1647 / Of the wood wth wch cloth is / made which
wn it is foule is / burned instead of washt to / make it clean".
(k) Original paper label "Frō Roma subterranea / where thousands of old / Christian
martyrs lay buried / 1647
J Bargrave", presumably the same as "A piece of Earth from Roma
Subterranea" in Dr Shuckford’s Catalogue of 1748. Contents lost.
(l) A small round wooden box, its lid inlaid with flower-decoration, containing:
[i] 7 fragments of antique gems, two of them joining, described above, Gems (g) to (m) on pages [ii] 4 and 5.
[iii] 2 blank gems, a nicolo or blue-surfaced onyx L: 10mm. and a cornelian L: 11mm., both probably 17th cent.
[iv] 10 beads of various materials.
[v] 4 semi-precious ring-stones, 1 onyx bezel, 2 other prepared bezels and a blue stone in a mount with a large spike.
[vi] 5 carved fragments of mother-of-pearl.
[vii] A right hand from a small coral crucifix.
[viii] 36 white stones of various forms.
[ix] 2 yellow stones.
[x] 27 brown stones of various forms.
[xi] 1 square purple stone.
[xii] 9 blue stones.
[xiii] 13 green stones.
[xiv] 4 black stones.
[xv] 1 fossil tooth.
(m) Small oval wooden box, marked "Peeces of stones" containing:
[i] 1 periwinkle shell.
[ii] 6 fragments of white fossil-shell, 4 of them with some red surface-colour.
[iii] 4 fragments of white chalk or mortar, 2 of them darkened on one face.
[iv] 3 fragments of crystal.
[v] 1 black-and-white pebble.
[vi] 1 bit of white stone with a red surface.
[vii] 2 tiny bits of red stone.
[viii] 19 scraps of blue-green paste or stone, perhaps including lapis, sapphire and turquoise.
(n) Scattered in various drawers of the three cabinets were:
[i] 3 sharks teeth.
[ii] 24 pastes or stones of assorted colours and forms.
[iii] Very many scraps of red glass or stone.
(o) Glass samples, perhaps bought by Bargrave in or near Venice, and found in several drawers:
[i] 2 blue glass rods, L: 247mm. D: 8mm. and L: 74mm. D: 7mm., ends broken.
[ii] 1 twisted brown glass rod, L: 47mm. W: 2mm.
[iii] 1 light blue glass tube, L: 36mm. D: 3mm.
[iv] 7 spherical glass eyes, D: about 10mm., one broken.
[v] 2 oval glass eyes, L: 14mm.
(p) Small round box covered with marbled paper, perhaps a souvenir of a visit paid by Bargrave,
but not recorded in his Catalogue, to a Venetian courtesan, containing:
[i] A bronze ring in the shape of a hand grasping a phallus.
[ii] A tiny red cloth pendant.
[iii] Two mildly lewd medals, of similar taste to the ring, were found by Dr Shuckford in Casaubon’s cabinet and attributed to him. But they may be Bargrave’s,
if we assume that the ring was. The medals, both from the same mould, portray an old man looking left on one face and a satyr’s
head looking left and covered in phalli in lieu of hair on the other.
(q) A large octagonal marble table, inlaid with scenes from Ovid.
Another similar table, probably ordered for Lord Stanhope when Bargrave, his tutor, had this made was presented or bequeathed
to the Library by Dr George Stanhope, Dean of Canterbury from 1704 until his death in 1748.
[8] ITALY: BOOKS, MANUSCRIPTS, PRINTS & PAINTINGS
(a) Archbishop Antonio Agostino, Dialoghi (treatise on ancient
coins), published in Rome by Filippo de Rossi, 1648. B62, now L-28-4.
(b) John Raymond, Il Mercurio Italico, an Itinerary contayning a Voyage
made through Italy in the yeare 1646, and 1647. Illustrated with divers figures of Antiquities. Never before Published.,
published in London by Humphrey Moseley, 1648. This first English guide to Italy seems to have been based on Bargrave’s manuscript journal, which is
lost, and was published under the name of his young nephew, who was one of the young men in his care on his first journey to Italy. The copy in the Cathedral Library at Canterbury was not
Bargrave’s own, but given by a later donor. G-20-14.
(c) Item, a manuscript in Italian, in folio, being the conclaves or intrigues of the elections
of 13 Popes. . . MDCV. Five of them are translated into English, in loose sheets of paper.
B64, missing.
(d) Italian manuscript, Instruttione del . . . Ambr. del
Re Christianissmo. . . . supposedly the French ambassador’s
instructions left for his successor, 1656. B66, now Lit.MS.E.15.
(e) Italian manuscript, Supplimenti d’alcuni Cardinali. B65, bound
with B66.
(f) J. de Rossi, Effigies Nomina et Cognomina S.D.N. Alexandri
Papae VII, Rome
1658. Portraits of the Pope and 66 Cardinals. Very heavily annotated, and indexed, by Dr Bargrave. B61, now Lit. MS.E.39a.
(g) Dr John Bargrave, Rara, Antiqua, et Numismata Bargraviana (MS
catalogue of 1676 now Y-8-26), printed by J. C.
Robertson in 1867 as pp.115-140 of Alexander VII and the College of Cardinals (Camden Society 92), which
contains the annotations to B61.
(h) Portraits of Cardinals, c.1621, a volume of 48 portraits of
various cardinals between the 13th and the early 17th
centuries, purchased by Bargrave in Rome in
1660. An index and some brief jottings are Bargrave’s. Not included in Dr Bargrave’s bequest to the Cathedral Library, but bought for 18/- in late Victorian or Edwardian times, now Lit.MS.E.39c.
(i) A volume of 216 engravings from 10 sets with 2 single examples, all bought by Bargrave on
his travels. Just over 100 of the engravings are from four mid 17th century sets by members
of the Rossi family, the Papal engravers and publishers also of the Effigies
above. There are 25 plates of fountains, 9 of obelisks and columns, 18 of antique sculpture and 49 of palaces. A much earlier set,
included in the volume, of 50 plates of ancient sites of Rome and elsewhere was published by
Sadeler in Prague in 1606. There
are 48 plates from 3 sets of late 16th century
Flemish designs, mostly at least, by Vredeman de Vries. The final 13 plates
are from an early 17th century
German series of idealised geometrical plans of fortified places. Bargrave mentions them in his will, which he himself wrote in 1670: "to our
Library of Canterbury. . . all the Cutts (in my trunks) Of all the Ancient Ruines, the Pallaces,
Statues, Fountaines, the Cardinalls, Souldiers, Phylosophers, &c", now L-8-16.
(j) Bargrave also bequeathed to the Library: "All my Large and lesser
Mapps of Italy, Ould Roome and New, in sheets at large very
fayre", but these, at least four large maps, may never have come to the Library and all seem to
be lost.
(k) MATTIO BOLOGNINI, three-quarter length portraits of the young Alexander
Chapman, John Bargrave, aged 37, and his nephew John
Raymond, aged about 17, consulting a map of Italy, with the Bargrave arms above. Painted while they were studying Italian at Siena in 1647. Oil on copper; W: 13.5 cms. B67.
(l) AN ASSISTANT OF GIOVANNI BATTISTA CANINI, oval half-length portrait of John Bargrave, aged 40, with the Bargrave arms on left. Painted while he was tutor
to Lord Stanhope in Rome in 1650. Oil on copper, H: 9.5 cms. B68.
[9] EUROPE NORTH OF THE ALPS
(a) John Bargrave’s silver signet ring, with letters IB, c.1640c.1650.
(b) Pack of French playing cards, called Jeu d’Armoire de I’Europe, invented to teach Geography
to Louis XIV when young, with original paper wrapping. B42.
(c) A camera lens of very long focus,
another optick glass, sowed into a piece of paceboard, to hang at a hole in a dark room. . .
B50. Bargrave’s catalogue lists seven optical gadgets, of which
this is the only survivor. Two viewing cylinders, B45-B46, a distorted picture, B47, two other camera
lenses, B48-B49, and a special lens-hood, B51, are all missing, much the greatest loss in the whole
collection.
(d) An escaping-handle, a small turned instrument of wood . . . for a prisoner to make his escape, by sliding down . . . on a cord
. . .. It was given me at Augsburg by a High-Dutch captain.
B63.
(e) Miniature padlock and key, A pretty little padlock and key of guilt mettle, . . . given me by a nunn, possibly in Lyons. B39i.
(f) ... a piece of coral, given me by a nunn. B39ii. Missing.
(g) Item, a pretty kind of nun’s work purse, made of greenish silk, and carved work mother of pearl shell, presented me likewise by
a nun. . . B40.
(h) Lodestone, an egg-shaped chunk of iron ore or meteoric iron, with steel insets projecting at each end, contained in cover of
string, rough paper or felt and red-and-yellow ribbon below and black silk above with broken leather straps at each end. L: 7.
5 cms. . . . which I hanging in my study upon a piece of silk. . . found that our cathedral. .
. doth not stand due east and west. . . B20i.
(i) Lodestone, another triangular, unequilateral, bumped up, large lodestone. . .. B20ii.
(j) Stone, perhaps silver ore from mines near Insbruck in the Tirol. L: 6 cms. . . . I had the curiosity
to be driven in a wheelbarrow almost 2 miles under ground . . . It was horrid to go thither. . . This stone is a piece of the one
they digg out of those mines. . .. B21.
(k) Original paper label (with 7 fragments of marble) "A piece of S. Hilarie / Church at Poitiers / J B
1646".
(l) ... the finger of a Frenchman, which I brought from Tholouse, the capital of Languedoc, in France. The occasion this: . . . The Franciscans, who showed Bargrave the well-preserved corpses in their vaults, offered him a baby as well. B44.
(m) A sea-horse tooth, specific against poison, perhaps Walrus, B37.
(n) Insect remains wrapped in original paper label "That wth in a silke worme / wth wch she maketh silke".
(o) Several pairs of horns of the wild mountain goats which the High Dutch call gemps, the Italians camuchi, the French shammois, from whence we have
that leather. . . (2 pairs and three odd horns). B55.
(p) A crystal bought in the Alps, . . . a very clear, handsome, elegant piece, something longer than my
middle finger, 4 or 5 inches compass. . .. This I met with among the Rhaetian Alps, , . . I remember
that the Montecolian man that sold it me told me that he ventured his life to clamber the rocks to gett it . . ., with original
label "A Cristall as it naturally / groweth sexangular, which / I met with on the Penine / Alps, On the
Sempronian / Mount, now Caled mount Samplon / John Bargrave".
B27i.
(q) Four other crystals. . . several rude pieces of mountain chrystall, as they grow sexanguler always among the Alps. . . B27ii.
(r) Lusus Naturae, a kind of periwinkle’s shell and divers other fashion stone shells, which I had out of the curiosities of art
and nature at Douay . . . 3 or 4 leagues off from Saulmur, on the river Loyre
. . . B38. These specimens may be confused with some from the next entry.
(s) ... some shells of the strange dieülle musell, bred in the heart of a stone. . . . from la
Rochelle, where some workmen splitting rocks told Bargrave that they were looking
for live mussels. B53.
(t) Original paper label (with piece of copper) "Water / turned to / stoane nere / Tours in
France" and "Water into stoane / at Guttiere neer / Tours in France / J Bar / 1646".
[10] AFRICA
(a) Dried chameleon, B43.
(b) Long red leather boots, a pair, B59i.
(c) Leather slippers, iron-shod, three pairs, B59ii.
(d) Portrait of Dey of Algiers, painted for Bargrave by an anonymous
Italian slave-painter while they were negotiating, B60.
[11]AMERICA
(a) Decorated porcupine-quill-work necklet, belt and armlets, a ceremonial set, probably from the Cree tribe on the south of Hudson’s Bay. These outstanding items must have been brought back on one of the English voyages of exploration of the early 17th century. They were
given to Dr Bargrave, as he tells us in his catalogue, in gratitude by one of the merchants he
rescued from Algiers. B58.
(b) Sample string of Virginian Indian wampum (currency beads), collected on the river Rappahanock in the 1650s by the Revd.
Alexander Cooke, then a colonist with Sir Thomas Lunsford and later Rector of Chislet near Canterbury. Original paper label.
(c) Nut, perhaps of Yecotl, Central or South American mountain palm.
[12] ASIA
(a) Persian agate bow-ring. B32.
(b) Stone mushroom, an example of the Fungia Coral perhaps from the Indian Ocean. B35.
(c) An Indian tobacco pipe of leather. . . with a wooden pipe at the end of it . . ..
B54.
(d) Two Chinese printed books, a present to Bargrave.
B52. Missing.(The Library has two early Chinese books, whose origin is not known, but which do not seem to have been Dr
Bargraves. They are (i) a Spanish-Chinese
MS word-list of drug-plants, written in 1553 and (ii) Section 4 of an early 18th cent. edition of a Herbal compiled by Wang Ang, whose preface
to the original edition is dated 1694. This must be at least 20 years too late for
Bargrave, who died in 1680.)
[13] MEDIEVAL & RENAISSANCE OBJECTS found in the cabinets, but not necessarily connected with Dr Bargrave or Dr Casaubon.
(a) Silver posy-ring with Hebrew inscription.
(b) Two small silver mounts or pendants with leaves pierced for attachment to something.
(c) Medieval bronze circular mount with shield and traces of green enamel.
(d) Circular bronze pendant with monogram P above E and horse.
(e) Bronze mount, satyr’s head.
(f) Bronze mount, standing saint or virgin with clasped hands.
(g) Bronze tobacco-stopper, figure in Jacobean dress.
(h) Gilt-bronze harness-bell or sheep-bell, corroded.
(i) Iron knob, terminal or sword-pommel with scenes of the four seasons.
(j) Two iron rings.
(k) Iron padlock, rusted.
(l) Jet ring, D.28mm.
(m) Carved ivory head, Christ on one side, a Death’s Head on the other.
(n) Tiny ivory compass.
(o) Three sherds of samian pottery.
(p) Dark wood roundel with Maltese cross and flower pattern.
(q) Nut in four sections, opening to reveal a miniature garden.
(r) Small mammal tooth.
[15] THE COINS AND MEDALS OF DR BARGRAVE & DR CASAUBON
The three ancient cabinets in the Cathedral Library contain about 1040 coins, medals and a few decorative
plaquettes. Rather less than a third, just over 300, belonged to Dr Meric Casaubon, Canon of Canterbury
from 1628 to 1671, a considerable scholar and
prolific writer on classical, theological and philosophical subjects. He had about 69 Roman
silver and 194 Roman bronze coins, an ancient British gold
coin, two dark-age gold coins and an AngloSaxon gold bracteate, and 7 medieval coins.
Dr Bargrave had fewer Roman coins, about 32 silver and 180
bronze; while Casaubon’s was strong in the 3rd century A.D.,
Bargrave’s collection was predominantly of the 1st
century. But he also had a substantial collection of about 420 coins of his own age, gold, silver and bronze, mostly
from the countries which he himself had visited, but with examples from elsewhere. His cousin, Robert
Bargrave the Levant merchant, may have given coins from Poland and Turkey, which he had visited.
Dr Bargrave also had some 70 medals, including true medals of silver and bronze, especially of
the Popes of his day, with large cast lead copies from various sets of worthies made for him by the medallists of Lyons. He also had satirically anti-papal medals, two mildly obscene medals, some devotional pendants and
several decorative plaquettes of the Judgement of Paris and similar scenes.
The two collections of antique coins were amalgamated into Casaubon’s cabinet in about 1748 by another Canon of Canterbury, Dr Samuel Shuckford, author of an
encyclopedic world history, who painstakingly distinguished and listed them. A high proportion of the individual coins can be
restored, on paper, to their original collections. But a draft manuscript list of some of his coins, made by Bargrave when they were in various separate batches as he had bought them, does include one or two marked by
Shuckford as Casaubon’s. This shows that some of the coins had been
confused already by the mid 18th century.
Dr Casaubon may have owned a large collection of antiquities. In 1634 he published engravings of Roman pots sent to him by a local vicar. But the
only objects known to have been his are a Roman bronze ring-key, two bronze spoons, one Roman and one, with pierced bowl, 17th century, and a
moulded pellet of medicinal earth, Terra Lemnia, with its original paper label.
[16] THE CABINETS
The earliest of the three cabinets in the Cathedral Library belonged to Dr Meric
Casaubon, who bequeathed his coins to Bargrave and then the Library. It was probably made for him in Canterbury during the 1630s, but might be as late as the 1660s. It has seven drawers
surrounding a taller eighth central drawer, which has a simple applied arch-decoration, and there are fourteen coin-trays below,
incised with the strange numerals I to IIIIX (one to fourteen). The doors, bolts and lock are original and complete in every
detail. There was formerly a hasp-and-padlock fitting across the front, for which one projecting iron ear survives on the right
side.
The smallest of the three cabinets belonged to Dr Bargrave and was probably made for him as a
copy of Casaubon’s by a Canterbury craftsman during the 1660s. It has eight drawers surrounding a taller ninth central drawer and thirteen coin-trays
numbered by Bargrave himself in ink from 1 to 13. While the cabinet seems very like Casaubon’s at first glance, there are many differences. The coin-trays are not all together; ten are,
like Casaubon’s, below the drawers, but three have been added above, perhaps as an afterthought while
it was being made. The tall central drawer has a lock, which Casaubon’s does not. The doors themselves,
very like Casaubon’s, are not very old and must have been added, perhaps c.1870.
This cabinet was meant to house only part of Dr Bargrave’s collection, such as the silk ribbons
or the playing cards. Most objects stood on the shelves to be admired and to be taken down and handed round. The little portraits
hung, or were intended to hang, from the cabinet itself and many of the medals were suspended on ribbons from the shelves.
The largest of the three cabinets was probably constructed for the Library to hold all of Dr Bargrave’s loose objects soon after his collection was handed over in 1685. All the drawers and trays stretch the full width of the cabinet, without the pattern of drawers of
the two earlier cabinets. Two medium drawers at the top are followed by a very deep drawer, for the largest specimens, and a very
shallow one. Below were four medal-trays, erroneously made too shallow, so that one must have been discarded while the medals were
being installed to allow room.
It is worth noting that four containers earlier than the cabinets survive from the 1640s or
‘50s, a blue-and-yellow knitted purse, two small leather purses and a leather bag.
ITALY: ROMAN BRONZE FIGURES
(a) Seated child Harpocrates. H: 3 cms. An infant Romulus. . . digd out of
Quirinus his temple, on the Quirinal hill, when those ruins were removed to make way for the very
fine, pretty, rich church of Sta Maria della Vittoria . . . Left hand and foot
missing. B1.
(b) Priest with patera in right hand. H: 10.7 cms. One of two old Roman sacrificing priests . . .
Elaborate yewwood pedestal. B5i.
(c) Female devotee, patera in right hand. H: 9.6 cms. One of the old Roman sacrificing priests.
Right arm &c are 17th cent. repair. B5ii.
(d) Dancing lar (household god). H: 8.2 cms. a maymed Mercury, with one arm and one legg;
ancient, dugg out of his temple. Right lower arm and left leg missing. B7.
Authenticity not certain
(e) Aesculapius. H: 5.6 cms. . . . the medicinal god - in a long robe, with his baton or knotty staff in
his hand, with a snake round about it, dugg out of the ruins of his temple in the island of the river of
Tyber, where now standeth the hospital of St. Bartholomey. Right arm and left foot missing.
Wooden pedestal, H: 3.4 cms. B2.
(f) Hercules Mingens (drunk and urinating). H: 6 cms. including spike on left foot for fixing to
pedestal. . . . dugg out of his temple near the Tyber, at the foot of the Aventine Hill at Rome - still standing, almost all, and made a chappell. Wooden pedestal, H: 3.5 cms.
B3.
(g) Eagle looking to right with wings partly spread. H: 4 cms. A Roman aegleeagle, in brass;
modern. Base partly missing. B18.
[2] ITALY: ROMAN GEMS
(a) Almandine garnet, oval convex; bearded bust, perhaps of Jupiter, in profile to left, hair bound in
fillet, himation around shoulders. D: 19mm. Ano
1650. . ., I had the honour to conduct. . . Phillip Lord Stanhop
into Italy; and at Rome he presented me with this stone,
telling me that it was sold him not only for a Graecian head, but for Aristotle’s. I sett it in gold at Rome. . .. Set in a gold ring inscribed
and dated "I B RO/MA 1650". c.50 B.C.
B29.
(b) Cornelian, oval convex; Pegasus flying to left. L: 15mm. Set in a silver ring of antique form but probably 17th cent. Early 1st cent. A.D.
(c) Chalcedony, circular flat; recumbent Sphinx in profile to left. L: 11mm. Chip on stone. 1st
cent. A.D.
(d) Sard with black inclusions, oval convex; a dolphin, curled around an amphora. L: 15mm. 2nd cent. B.C.
(e) Bloodstone, oval flat; Eros bound to a column in profile to left. On column sits
Griffin of Nemesis (to punish Eros, the body, for tormenting Psyche, the soul). Inscribed in front ΔΙΚΑΙWϹ, "Justly". L: 15mm. 2nd or early 3rd cent. A.D.
(f) Cornelian, octagonal flat; an elephant standing on a cart pulled by two mice. Inscribed above: ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙ, "of Gregorios". L: 9mm. 2nd cent. A.D.
(g) Cornelian with agate banding, oval flat; bust resembling Empress Faustina I in profile to
left. L: 12mm. Broken. First half of 2nd cent. A.D.
(h) Cornelian with agate banding, oval flat; head of an Emperor, possibly Titus, in profile to left.
Fragment L: 7mm., head missing except for mouth and chin. 1st cent. A.D.
(i) Cornelian, oval flat; bust of young Hercules wearing lion skin, in profile to right. L: 9mm., broken
on upper left side. 1st cent. B.C. or A.D.
(j) Cornelian, oval flat; nude youth, presumably Silvanus, standing in profile to right and holding a
pruning-hook. L: 6mm, lower third missing. 1st cent. A.D.
(k) Garnet, oval convex; nude girl, possibly Methe (Inebriation), in profile to right with right arm
raised, her himation behind her. L: 5mm., lower third missing. 1st cent. A.D.
(l) Cornelian, flat; legs of man standing to left with altar-base or stand behind him. Fragment L: 4mm., upper three-quarters
missing.
(m) Dark opaque glass, oval convex; Philoctetes, his chlamys over right arm and supported on staff in
right hand, walks to left. L: 10mm. 1st cent. B.C.
(n) Dark sard, circular flat; an ear of corn between two cornucopiae. L: 12mm. 1st cent.
B.C.
(o) Pale blue-green glass cameo, oval; moulded Hands, clasped, "dextrarum iunctio". L: 24mm. 1st cent. B.C. or A.D.
[3] ITALY: OTHER ROMAN ANTIQUITIES
(a) Small bronze cabinet-key. L: 3 cms. A little key, dug out of the Temple of the Moon.
B12.
(b) Bronze double-headed snake in 14-15 tight coils. H: 8 cms. Item, a brass wreathed snake, in circles, having a head at both ends;
dedicated to Eternity. B13.
(c) Bronze knuckle-bone. L: 2.4 cms. . . . dugg out of the ruins, in brass, that sheweth the Romans used them in games called Ludi Talarii. B15.
(d) Bronze phallic pendant with large suspension-loop and two loops below. W: 5.7 cms. See below. B17i.
(e) Bronze phallic pendant with suspension loop. W: 3.8 cms.
Two Priapisms, in brass, being votes or offerings to that absurd
heathen deity - modern, from ancient. B17ii.
(f) Pottery lamp with unpierced handle, central hole and wide projecting light-hole. Upper part decorated with large dots, base
with palm-leaf or chevrons. L: 9.4 cms. Dr Bargrave’s Catalogue gives 3p. account of catacombs; original paper label
"very ancient / A lamp and / Lacrymatorio of earth from Roma Sotteranea. / an other Lachrimatorio of / glass frō the same
place". Bargrave gave another lamp and a long-necked pottery bottle to Dr Robert Plot, later the first Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, for the
cabinet of the Bodleian Library. B22i.
(g) Long-necked glass phial. H: 11 cms. Account as Lacrymatory and label as above. Part of lip missing. B22ii.
(h) Bronze stylus. L: 11 cms. Stylus Romanus. The antiquarian that sold it me avowed it to be truly ancient; but thousands may daily
be made. . .. B36.
[4] ITALY: FALSE ANTIQUITIES OF THE RENAISSANCE
(a) Bronze plaque of woman crowning ox with wreath. W: 5.3 cms. Original paper label "Frō Hercules
temple under / the Aventin hill at Rome / where he killed Cacus /
where now stands St Stevens Church / caled Sto Stefano del Cacco. / Hercules
with the bull". B4.
(b) Bronze figure of Hercules. H: 11 cms. Hercules Juvenis, with his club and
lion’s skin. . . supposed modern. Right foot has been sanded flat and left foot has hole for spike from pedestal.
B6i.
(c) Bronze figure of Hercules. H: 8.4 cms. . . . another of them. . .. Small wooden pedestal.
B6ii.
(d) Bronze dolphin. L: 6 cms. An ancient brass Dolphin, dedicated to Venus, and dug out of her
temple. Nam Venus orta mari. B8.
(e) Hollow lead bust of the Emperor Nero wearing breastplate, cloak and laurel-wreath. W:
6.7 cms. A handsome ancient busto (as called at Rome) of Augustus -
that is the head and shoulders - in brass. Badly cracked and left shoulder perished. B9.
(f) Bronze figure of Leda with swan. H: 8.3cms . . . supposed to be modern but cast from ancient. Brass
pedestal spiked and brazed on, H: 3.5 cms. B10.
(g) Bronze plaquette, five cupids playing with an actor’s mask. W: 8.8 cms. A flat brass piece, of several Cupidons scaring one
another with a vizard; being a bachanalia piece, dugg out of the Temple of Bacchus.
B11.
(h) Bronze plaque of a centaur seizing a Lapith woman. W: 4 cms. Item a flat piece of brass, with the rapture of Proserpine by a Centaure. B14.
(i) Coral relief of bearded River Tiber reclining. W: 4.5 cms. The River of
Tyber, carved on a piece of coral; ancient. B16.
[5] ITALY: ANTIQUARIAN STONE SAMPLES
(a) Polished heart-shaped plaque of green stone. L: 6 cms. In 1646
Bargrave knocked this off the fallen obelisk in the Circus of
Maxentius, later put up in the Piazza Navona, and had it cut and polished, as he tells in a
five-page account in his Catalogue. B19.
(b) Heart-shaped plaque of dark green stone. L: 2.8 cms. As above. B23.
(c) Two fragmentary sheets of spotted green opaque glass and two of purple glass. L: 13, 4, 10, & 4 cms. Paste
antiche Romane incognite, - several pieces of a flat ancient Roman paste . . . pict up
amongst the antiquarians . . .. B24.
(d) Small oval wooden box with worn female figure painted on lid containing stones. wrapped in original labels, no doubt somewhat
mixed, reading:
i "Of Constantines Arch / Triumphal at Rome / J Bargrave
1647"
ii "A peece of the ruines of Septimius / Severus his Arch Triumphall / at Rome
J Bargrave / 1647"
iii "A peece of Titus Vespas. / Arch Triumphall at Rome / for taking Jerusalē. J Bargrave
1647"
iv "This stone / I brought frō the Amphi / theatre or Colosseum at Rome / 1647
J Bargrave"
v "From the / Piscina mirabili / neere Naples"
vi "From the Cuman / Sybells Grotto neere / Puteoli or Puzzuolo / neere Naples"
and "Sybilla / Cumana"
vii "I brought this frō the grotta / del cane where anything / that is put in dyeth, and being / throughen in to a lake hard
by, it / reviveth. wch I saw by a dog. it is in the Kingdom of Naples" and "grotta /
del / cane"
viii "Of the Mosaik worke of / St.Marks Church in / Venice
1647 / J Bargrave" and "Venice" with 14 mosaic cubes, 10 yellow-glass with gold, 2 dark with gold, one white and one blue.
(e) Two small stones, a fossil shell and a fragmentary bone plaque wrapped in an original paper label "I brought these stones
frō the ruines / of the three tavernes spoken of / in Acts, where the brethren met / + Paul J Bargrave
1647".
(f) Small piece of white marble wrapped in original label "I brought this frō Cicero’s house at
Tusculan / 10 miles frō Rome, where Tullie / writ
his Tusculans question / 1647. J Bargrave".
(g) Four pieces of stone wrapped in original paper label "A / stone of Cicero / house where he / wrote
his epistles / neere Fondi in / the Kingdom of / Naples".
(h) Two fragments of granite and a chunk of cinder wrapped (wrongly) in an original paper label "Frō Milan / Marble of Milan of wch / many pillars of the Cathedral Church of St
Carlo, is made".
[6] ITALY: NATURAL OR GEOLOGICAL STONE SAMPLES
(a) Small cinders and pummy stones of Mont Aetna, . . . from my Lord Winchelsy
(B25) seem to be lost.
(b) Loose cinders and small oval wooden box with female figure painted on lid containing volcanic ash, with original label "Ashes
and materialls / of the burning Moun / taine of Vesuvius / neere Naples / John Bargrave". Several pieces of cinders, pummystone, and ashes of the Mount Vesuvius, near
Naples, which was 4 times the poynt of my reflection, - I facing about for England
from the topp, or crater, or voragine (as they term it) of that mountain; of which I have spoken at large in my Itinerario d’Italia. B26.
(c) Small oval box labelled Confetti di Tivoli containing Tiber gravel with original label "Confetti Di Tivoli / The sand of Teverone that Entereth in / to the Tiber not farr frō Rome / John Bargrave". . . . They seem to be so like sugar plums that they
will deceive any man. . .. B30.
(d) Lozenge-shaped chunk of gypsum, perhaps Some of the floore of brimstone from that horrid sulfurious mountain. . . called Sulfaterra, near Puteoly . . .. B31.
(e). . . Aetites, Lapis Aquilaris, or the eagle stone (a charm for pregnant women) bought of an Armenian at Rome seems to have been removed before the collection reached the Cathedral Library. B33. Missing.
[7] OTHER ITALIAN SOUVENIRS
(a) Item, a small gold Salerno ring. . . the goldsmiths of the place. . . make thousands of these rings,
and then have them touch that image which spake. And no marchant or stranger that cometh thither but buyeth of these rings for
presents and tokens. An English marchant gave me this at Naples . .
.. It was probably retained by Mrs Bargrave and never reached the Cathedral
Library. B28. Missing.
(b) Model of a human eye in 14 pieces, bought at Venice of a High
Dutch turner. . . B34.
(c) Pack of Italian playing-cards. B41.
(d) i A Venetian stiletto. B57.
ii A prohibited Venetian dark lanthorn . . . a murthering B56. Missing since mid 18th cent. or before.
(e) Devotional items sold to pilgrims at Loretto:
i Pale blue silk ribbon, 128 by 3.2 cms., with 9 gold foil and 12 silver shells.
ii Blue silk ribbon, 128 by 3 cms., with 9 gold and 12 silver shells.
iii Fine orange-brown silk ribbon, 216 by 2.1 cms., printed in black: ALTEZA DELLA.B.V.M.DI LORETO - ClNTA
DELLA. B.V. - CAPO.DELLA.B.V. - .DEL.BAMBINO. GIE5V.
iv Fragmentary cream ribbon, W: 2.4 cms., printed in red as above, but last phrase reads: AL TEZA DEL.
BAMBINO.GIE5V.
v Pale brown ribbon, 34 by 1.2 cms., perhaps not connected with the rest.
(f) Oval silver medal with suspension-loop, inscribed LORETO.
(g) Tiny pink silk pendant, embroidered in green silk IHS.
(h) i-ix Nine necklaces, presumably bought by Bargrave at Loretto as
examples of devotional wares, with beads of seed, wood, silver-wire, faceted jet &c., with two old paper wrappers,
uninscribed.
(i) Four tiny circular wooden boxes, two of them numbered "4" and "6", containing scraps of lint. These may be the survivors of 34
similar boxes and go with the old paper label, now lost but recorded in the 1860s, "For
curiosity, because sold in the shops at Rome, so that for 2s.6d. I had these 34 (pretended)
reliques of saints’ bones."
(j) Piece of wormy wood, wrapped in original paper label "Fro Rome
J Bargrave
1647 / Of the wood wth wch cloth is / made which
wn it is foule is / burned instead of washt to / make it clean".
(k) Original paper label "Frō Roma subterranea / where thousands of old / Christian
martyrs lay buried / 1647
J Bargrave", presumably the same as "A piece of Earth from Roma
Subterranea" in Dr Shuckford’s Catalogue of 1748. Contents lost.
(l) A small round wooden box, its lid inlaid with flower-decoration, containing:
[i] 7 fragments of antique gems, two of them joining, described above, Gems (g) to (m) on pages [ii] 4 and 5.
[iii] 2 blank gems, a nicolo or blue-surfaced onyx L: 10mm. and a cornelian L: 11mm., both probably 17th cent.
[iv] 10 beads of various materials.
[v] 4 semi-precious ring-stones, 1 onyx bezel, 2 other prepared bezels and a blue stone in a mount with a large spike.
[vi] 5 carved fragments of mother-of-pearl.
[vii] A right hand from a small coral crucifix.
[viii] 36 white stones of various forms.
[ix] 2 yellow stones.
[x] 27 brown stones of various forms.
[xi] 1 square purple stone.
[xii] 9 blue stones.
[xiii] 13 green stones.
[xiv] 4 black stones.
[xv] 1 fossil tooth.
(m) Small oval wooden box, marked "Peeces of stones" containing:
[i] 1 periwinkle shell.
[ii] 6 fragments of white fossil-shell, 4 of them with some red surface-colour.
[iii] 4 fragments of white chalk or mortar, 2 of them darkened on one face.
[iv] 3 fragments of crystal.
[v] 1 black-and-white pebble.
[vi] 1 bit of white stone with a red surface.
[vii] 2 tiny bits of red stone.
[viii] 19 scraps of blue-green paste or stone, perhaps including lapis, sapphire and turquoise.
(n) Scattered in various drawers of the three cabinets were:
[i] 3 sharks teeth.
[ii] 24 pastes or stones of assorted colours and forms.
[iii] Very many scraps of red glass or stone.
(o) Glass samples, perhaps bought by Bargrave in or near Venice, and found in several drawers:
[i] 2 blue glass rods, L: 247mm. D: 8mm. and L: 74mm. D: 7mm., ends broken.
[ii] 1 twisted brown glass rod, L: 47mm. W: 2mm.
[iii] 1 light blue glass tube, L: 36mm. D: 3mm.
[iv] 7 spherical glass eyes, D: about 10mm., one broken.
[v] 2 oval glass eyes, L: 14mm.
(p) Small round box covered with marbled paper, perhaps a souvenir of a visit paid by Bargrave,
but not recorded in his Catalogue, to a Venetian courtesan, containing:
[i] A bronze ring in the shape of a hand grasping a phallus.
[ii] A tiny red cloth pendant.
[iii] Two mildly lewd medals, of similar taste to the ring, were found by Dr Shuckford in Casaubon’s cabinet and attributed to him. But they may be Bargrave’s,
if we assume that the ring was. The medals, both from the same mould, portray an old man looking left on one face and a satyr’s
head looking left and covered in phalli in lieu of hair on the other.
(q) A large octagonal marble table, inlaid with scenes from Ovid.
Another similar table, probably ordered for Lord Stanhope when Bargrave, his tutor, had this made was presented or bequeathed
to the Library by Dr George Stanhope, Dean of Canterbury from 1704 until his death in 1748.
[8] ITALY: BOOKS, MANUSCRIPTS, PRINTS & PAINTINGS
(a) Archbishop Antonio Agostino, Dialoghi (treatise on ancient
coins), published in Rome by Filippo de Rossi, 1648. B62, now L-28-4.
(b) John Raymond, Il Mercurio Italico, an Itinerary contayning a Voyage
made through Italy in the yeare 1646, and 1647. Illustrated with divers figures of Antiquities. Never before Published.,
published in London by Humphrey Moseley, 1648. This first English guide to Italy seems to have been based on Bargrave’s manuscript journal, which is
lost, and was published under the name of his young nephew, who was one of the young men in his care on his first journey to Italy. The copy in the Cathedral Library at Canterbury was not
Bargrave’s own, but given by a later donor. G-20-14.
(c) Item, a manuscript in Italian, in folio, being the conclaves or intrigues of the elections
of 13 Popes. . . MDCV. Five of them are translated into English, in loose sheets of paper.
B64, missing.
(d) Italian manuscript, Instruttione del . . . Ambr. del
Re Christianissmo. . . . supposedly the French ambassador’s
instructions left for his successor, 1656. B66, now Lit.MS.E.15.
(e) Italian manuscript, Supplimenti d’alcuni Cardinali. B65, bound
with B66.
(f) J. de Rossi, Effigies Nomina et Cognomina S.D.N. Alexandri
Papae VII, Rome
1658. Portraits of the Pope and 66 Cardinals. Very heavily annotated, and indexed, by Dr Bargrave. B61, now Lit. MS.E.39a.
(g) Dr John Bargrave, Rara, Antiqua, et Numismata Bargraviana (MS
catalogue of 1676 now Y-8-26), printed by J. C.
Robertson in 1867 as pp.115-140 of Alexander VII and the College of Cardinals (Camden Society 92), which
contains the annotations to B61.
(h) Portraits of Cardinals, c.1621, a volume of 48 portraits of
various cardinals between the 13th and the early 17th
centuries, purchased by Bargrave in Rome in
1660. An index and some brief jottings are Bargrave’s. Not included in Dr Bargrave’s bequest to the Cathedral Library, but bought for 18/- in late Victorian or Edwardian times, now Lit.MS.E.39c.
(i) A volume of 216 engravings from 10 sets with 2 single examples, all bought by Bargrave on
his travels. Just over 100 of the engravings are from four mid 17th century sets by members
of the Rossi family, the Papal engravers and publishers also of the Effigies
above. There are 25 plates of fountains, 9 of obelisks and columns, 18 of antique sculpture and 49 of palaces. A much earlier set,
included in the volume, of 50 plates of ancient sites of Rome and elsewhere was published by
Sadeler in Prague in 1606. There
are 48 plates from 3 sets of late 16th century
Flemish designs, mostly at least, by Vredeman de Vries. The final 13 plates
are from an early 17th century
German series of idealised geometrical plans of fortified places. Bargrave mentions them in his will, which he himself wrote in 1670: "to our
Library of Canterbury. . . all the Cutts (in my trunks) Of all the Ancient Ruines, the Pallaces,
Statues, Fountaines, the Cardinalls, Souldiers, Phylosophers, &c", now L-8-16.
(j) Bargrave also bequeathed to the Library: "All my Large and lesser
Mapps of Italy, Ould Roome and New, in sheets at large very
fayre", but these, at least four large maps, may never have come to the Library and all seem to
be lost.
(k) MATTIO BOLOGNINI, three-quarter length portraits of the young Alexander
Chapman, John Bargrave, aged 37, and his nephew John
Raymond, aged about 17, consulting a map of Italy, with the Bargrave arms above. Painted while they were studying Italian at Siena in 1647. Oil on copper; W: 13.5 cms. B67.
(l) AN ASSISTANT OF GIOVANNI BATTISTA CANINI, oval half-length portrait of John Bargrave, aged 40, with the Bargrave arms on left. Painted while he was tutor
to Lord Stanhope in Rome in 1650. Oil on copper, H: 9.5 cms. B68.
[9] EUROPE NORTH OF THE ALPS
(a) John Bargrave’s silver signet ring, with letters IB, c.1640c.1650.
(b) Pack of French playing cards, called Jeu d’Armoire de I’Europe, invented to teach Geography
to Louis XIV when young, with original paper wrapping. B42.
(c) A camera lens of very long focus,
another optick glass, sowed into a piece of paceboard, to hang at a hole in a dark room. . .
B50. Bargrave’s catalogue lists seven optical gadgets, of which
this is the only survivor. Two viewing cylinders, B45-B46, a distorted picture, B47, two other camera
lenses, B48-B49, and a special lens-hood, B51, are all missing, much the greatest loss in the whole
collection.
(d) An escaping-handle, a small turned instrument of wood . . . for a prisoner to make his escape, by sliding down . . . on a cord
. . .. It was given me at Augsburg by a High-Dutch captain.
B63.
(e) Miniature padlock and key, A pretty little padlock and key of guilt mettle, . . . given me by a nunn, possibly in Lyons. B39i.
(f) ... a piece of coral, given me by a nunn. B39ii. Missing.
(g) Item, a pretty kind of nun’s work purse, made of greenish silk, and carved work mother of pearl shell, presented me likewise by
a nun. . . B40.
(h) Lodestone, an egg-shaped chunk of iron ore or meteoric iron, with steel insets projecting at each end, contained in cover of
string, rough paper or felt and red-and-yellow ribbon below and black silk above with broken leather straps at each end. L: 7.
5 cms. . . . which I hanging in my study upon a piece of silk. . . found that our cathedral. .
. doth not stand due east and west. . . B20i.
(i) Lodestone, another triangular, unequilateral, bumped up, large lodestone. . .. B20ii.
(j) Stone, perhaps silver ore from mines near Insbruck in the Tirol. L: 6 cms. . . . I had the curiosity
to be driven in a wheelbarrow almost 2 miles under ground . . . It was horrid to go thither. . . This stone is a piece of the one
they digg out of those mines. . .. B21.
(k) Original paper label (with 7 fragments of marble) "A piece of S. Hilarie / Church at Poitiers / J B
1646".
(l) ... the finger of a Frenchman, which I brought from Tholouse, the capital of Languedoc, in France. The occasion this: . . . The Franciscans, who showed Bargrave the well-preserved corpses in their vaults, offered him a baby as well. B44.
(m) A sea-horse tooth, specific against poison, perhaps Walrus, B37.
(n) Insect remains wrapped in original paper label "That wth in a silke worme / wth wch she maketh silke".
(o) Several pairs of horns of the wild mountain goats which the High Dutch call gemps, the Italians camuchi, the French shammois, from whence we have
that leather. . . (2 pairs and three odd horns). B55.
(p) A crystal bought in the Alps, . . . a very clear, handsome, elegant piece, something longer than my
middle finger, 4 or 5 inches compass. . .. This I met with among the Rhaetian Alps, , . . I remember
that the Montecolian man that sold it me told me that he ventured his life to clamber the rocks to gett it . . ., with original
label "A Cristall as it naturally / groweth sexangular, which / I met with on the Penine / Alps, On the
Sempronian / Mount, now Caled mount Samplon / John Bargrave".
B27i.
(q) Four other crystals. . . several rude pieces of mountain chrystall, as they grow sexanguler always among the Alps. . . B27ii.
(r) Lusus Naturae, a kind of periwinkle’s shell and divers other fashion stone shells, which I had out of the curiosities of art
and nature at Douay . . . 3 or 4 leagues off from Saulmur, on the river Loyre
. . . B38. These specimens may be confused with some from the next entry.
(s) ... some shells of the strange dieülle musell, bred in the heart of a stone. . . . from la
Rochelle, where some workmen splitting rocks told Bargrave that they were looking
for live mussels. B53.
(t) Original paper label (with piece of copper) "Water / turned to / stoane nere / Tours in
France" and "Water into stoane / at Guttiere neer / Tours in France / J Bar / 1646".
[10] AFRICA
(a) Dried chameleon, B43.
(b) Long red leather boots, a pair, B59i.
(c) Leather slippers, iron-shod, three pairs, B59ii.
(d) Portrait of Dey of Algiers, painted for Bargrave by an anonymous
Italian slave-painter while they were negotiating, B60.
[11]
AMERICA
(a) Decorated porcupine-quill-work necklet, belt and armlets, a ceremonial set, probably from the Cree tribe on the south of Hudson’s Bay. These outstanding items must have been brought back on one of the English voyages of exploration of the early 17th century. They were
given to Dr Bargrave, as he tells us in his catalogue, in gratitude by one of the merchants he
rescued from Algiers. B58.
(b) Sample string of Virginian Indian wampum (currency beads), collected on the river Rappahanock in the 1650s by the Revd.
Alexander Cooke, then a colonist with Sir Thomas Lunsford and later Rector of Chislet near Canterbury. Original paper label.
(c) Nut, perhaps of Yecotl, Central or South American mountain palm.
[12] ASIA
(a) Persian agate bow-ring. B32.
(b) Stone mushroom, an example of the Fungia Coral perhaps from the Indian Ocean. B35.
(c) An Indian tobacco pipe of leather. . . with a wooden pipe at the end of it . . ..
B54.
(d) Two Chinese printed books, a present to Bargrave.
B52. Missing.(The Library has two early Chinese books, whose origin is not known, but which do not seem to have been Dr
Bargraves. They are (i) a Spanish-Chinese
MS word-list of drug-plants, written in 1553 and (ii) Section 4 of an early 18th cent. edition of a Herbal compiled by Wang Ang, whose preface
to the original edition is dated 1694. This must be at least 20 years too late for
Bargrave, who died in 1680.)
[13] MEDIEVAL & RENAISSANCE OBJECTS found in the cabinets, but not necessarily connected with Dr Bargrave or Dr Casaubon.
(a) Silver posy-ring with Hebrew inscription.
(b) Two small silver mounts or pendants with leaves pierced for attachment to something.
(c) Medieval bronze circular mount with shield and traces of green enamel.
(d) Circular bronze pendant with monogram P above E and horse.
(e) Bronze mount, satyr’s head.
(f) Bronze mount, standing saint or virgin with clasped hands.
(g) Bronze tobacco-stopper, figure in Jacobean dress.
(h) Gilt-bronze harness-bell or sheep-bell, corroded.
(i) Iron knob, terminal or sword-pommel with scenes of the four seasons.
(j) Two iron rings.
(k) Iron padlock, rusted.
(l) Jet ring, D.28mm.
(m) Carved ivory head, Christ on one side, a Death’s Head on the other.
(n) Tiny ivory compass.
(o) Three sherds of samian pottery.
(p) Dark wood roundel with Maltese cross and flower pattern.
(q) Nut in four sections, opening to reveal a miniature garden.
(r) Small mammal tooth.
[15] THE COINS AND MEDALS OF DR BARGRAVE & DR CASAUBON
The three ancient cabinets in the Cathedral Library contain about 1040 coins, medals and a few decorative
plaquettes. Rather less than a third, just over 300, belonged to Dr Meric Casaubon, Canon of Canterbury
from 1628 to 1671, a considerable scholar and
prolific writer on classical, theological and philosophical subjects. He had about 69 Roman
silver and 194 Roman bronze coins, an ancient British gold
coin, two dark-age gold coins and an AngloSaxon gold bracteate, and 7 medieval coins.
Dr Bargrave had fewer Roman coins, about 32 silver and 180
bronze; while Casaubon’s was strong in the 3rd century A.D.,
Bargrave’s collection was predominantly of the 1st
century. But he also had a substantial collection of about 420 coins of his own age, gold, silver and bronze, mostly
from the countries which he himself had visited, but with examples from elsewhere. His cousin, Robert
Bargrave the Levant merchant, may have given coins from Poland and Turkey, which he had visited.
Dr Bargrave also had some 70 medals, including true medals of silver and bronze, especially of
the Popes of his day, with large cast lead copies from various sets of worthies made for him by the medallists of Lyons. He also had satirically anti-papal medals, two mildly obscene medals, some devotional pendants and
several decorative plaquettes of the Judgement of Paris and similar scenes.
The two collections of antique coins were amalgamated into Casaubon’s cabinet in about 1748 by another Canon of Canterbury, Dr Samuel Shuckford, author of an
encyclopedic world history, who painstakingly distinguished and listed them. A high proportion of the individual coins can be
restored, on paper, to their original collections. But a draft manuscript list of some of his coins, made by Bargrave when they were in various separate batches as he had bought them, does include one or two marked by
Shuckford as Casaubon’s. This shows that some of the coins had been
confused already by the mid 18th century.
Dr Casaubon may have owned a large collection of antiquities. In 1634 he published engravings of Roman pots sent to him by a local vicar. But the
only objects known to have been his are a Roman bronze ring-key, two bronze spoons, one Roman and one, with pierced bowl, 17th century, and a
moulded pellet of medicinal earth, Terra Lemnia, with its original paper label.
[16] THE CABINETS
The earliest of the three cabinets in the Cathedral Library belonged to Dr Meric
Casaubon, who bequeathed his coins to Bargrave and then the Library. It was probably made for him in Canterbury during the 1630s, but might be as late as the 1660s. It has seven drawers
surrounding a taller eighth central drawer, which has a simple applied arch-decoration, and there are fourteen coin-trays below,
incised with the strange numerals I to IIIIX (one to fourteen). The doors, bolts and lock are original and complete in every
detail. There was formerly a hasp-and-padlock fitting across the front, for which one projecting iron ear survives on the right
side.
The smallest of the three cabinets belonged to Dr Bargrave and was probably made for him as a
copy of Casaubon’s by a Canterbury craftsman during the 1660s. It has eight drawers surrounding a taller ninth central drawer and thirteen coin-trays
numbered by Bargrave himself in ink from 1 to 13. While the cabinet seems very like Casaubon’s at first glance, there are many differences. The coin-trays are not all together; ten are,
like Casaubon’s, below the drawers, but three have been added above, perhaps as an afterthought while
it was being made. The tall central drawer has a lock, which Casaubon’s does not. The doors themselves,
very like Casaubon’s, are not very old and must have been added, perhaps c.1870.
This cabinet was meant to house only part of Dr Bargrave’s collection, such as the silk ribbons
or the playing cards. Most objects stood on the shelves to be admired and to be taken down and handed round. The little portraits
hung, or were intended to hang, from the cabinet itself and many of the medals were suspended on ribbons from the shelves.
The largest of the three cabinets was probably constructed for the Library to hold all of Dr Bargrave’s loose objects soon after his collection was handed over in 1685. All the drawers and trays stretch the full width of the cabinet, without the pattern of drawers of
the two earlier cabinets. Two medium drawers at the top are followed by a very deep drawer, for the largest specimens, and a very
shallow one. Below were four medal-trays, erroneously made too shallow, so that one must have been discarded while the medals were
being installed to allow room.
It is worth noting that four containers earlier than the cabinets survive from the 1640s or
‘50s, a blue-and-yellow knitted purse, two small leather purses and a leather bag.