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McDonald, James H.
The Poems and Prose Writings of Robert Southwell, S. J.
Publisher: Printed for Presentation to Members of The Roxburghe Club, Oxford;
Date of Publication: 1937
Stock Code: 10139
LIimited edition of 100 copies only, none of which were offered for sale. Folio, pp. xix, [1], 161. Illustrated with six facsimile plates depicting title-pages of Southwell’s works, as called for. Bound in brown half morocco and crimson buckram with title in gilt to spine. Top-edge gilt, others uncut. Morocco rubbed at joint with some surface cracking, leaf edges very lightly toned, some lightly pencilled scant annotation. A fresh and bright copy. Rare bibliographical work on the clandestine Jesuit priest, poet, and English Martyr, Robert Southwell (1561-1595). Produced for the exclusive Roxburghe Club, the oldest society of bibliophiles in the world.Membership is limited to 40 with each member being required to publish a “member’s book” for the group of which 100 copies are printed. With a letter regarding the production of this book from Harold Harmsworth (1897-1952) mounted to the front paste-down, regarding the death of his father, Sir Robert Leicester Harmsworth, Bt (1870-1937) and their joint responsibility in bringing this book to press. Sir Robert was perhaps the most prodigious book collector of his generation. His collection of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century books, recognised by the librarian Joseph Quincy Adams as ‘one of the most famous ever formed’, would become one of the foundational collections of the Folger Shakespeare Library. The Harmsworths made their fortune from newspapers, and both father and son were proprietors of the Daily Mirror and Daily Mail. The letter printed here, and signed by Harold, is an ephemeral document relating to the bookish activities of one of the world’s greatest bibliophile families. £480.00