St John's College S.38 (James 428)

Translations of classical authors. English and Latin, mid-seventeenth century.

 

Translations of drama, verse and prose by Terence, Sallust, and Ovid. Fols 1r-22v comprise a transcription of Richard Bernard's translation of Terence's Andria, as it appears in Bernard's Terence in English (Cambridge, 1598; repr. 1607, 1614, 1629, 1641). Fols 23r-37r comprise a Latin text, and then an original English rendering, of the first three-and-a-half chapters of Sallust's Conspiracy of Catiline. The translation is of a more literal bent than the two roughly contemporary printed translations of Thomas Heywood (London, 1609) and William Crosse (London, 1629). Fols 37v-65v comprise verse translations from Ovid's Tristia (fols 37v-51v) and Heroides 1-3 (fols 52r-57v), and a transcription (fols 58r-65v) of George Sandy's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses book 1 (London, 1621; repr. 1626, 1628, 1632, 1638 and 1656).

Manuscript extra information

145 x 96 mm. 66 fols (unfoliated). 'No. IX' on front cover. Pen flourishes inside front cover. An inscription on the flyleaf begins 'To[?] The', but has faded beyond recovery. According to Cowie, followed by James, the volume formerly belonged to Thomas Baker.

A single, broadly italic hand of the mid-seventeenth century; the Latin transcribed on fol. 66 appears to be in a second hand. The few corrections are those of a copyist or transcriber. Paper. Limp vellum binding, slightly wormed at front cover.