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•  On Gage, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XX, 353–55. Recent marbled paper over light boards. Second and third blank leaves pasted together. Some light soiling, and some chipping and tears without apparent loss of text. Rubber-stamps from a now-defunct library. The paper here is decidedly blue; the hand is very readable.

This recipe collection was perhaps originally part of a longer manuscript, and was very probably too useful for its own good to someone who kept it handy—at one point it was set alight, but made it through relatively unscathed.

•  Disbound, now in a Mylar folder; sewing of upper portion holding. Lower inner margin burned, touching first and last words of many lines. Spots of foxing and of discoloration; occasional pencil marks. Very readable despite damage, and not unattractive.

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            BIBLIOPHILE,  click here.

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Founded by Sara Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon, Girton was originally known as the Hitchin College for Women before its relocation and renaming in 1873. Although the women students were not granted the full rights of Cambridge degrees until 1948, “Girton girls” quickly achieved numerous academic successes, many of which are vividly commemorated in songs or verses present in this volume. One such piece—sung to the tune of “The British Grenadiers”—honors the Girton Pioneers, the first three women to sit the Tripos exams (these are the university’s honor examinations, and one of the first three Gifton champions was C. L. Maynard). Another entry, a rousing take-off on “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” celebrates the“Charge of the Five [Girton] Students” who nobly passed the “Little Go” in December, 1872: “Papers to right of them, Papers to left of them, Papers in front of them Rustled and threatened. Pelted with questions round, bravely they stood their ground . . .”

The controversy over women’s degrees was raging hotly at the time of this book’s creation, and is reflected in a number of the songs, with less political entries including “Auld Lang Syne,”“Gaudeamus,” “The Great God Cram,” and “Farewell, dear Friends, Farewell ye comrades dear.” There is much to smile at, much to think about, and much to admire, in this Victorian keepsake volume.

Provenance: Front cover gilt-stamped “A.E. Tuthill”; one page bears the ownership inscription of Katherine V. Woodward of New York.

•  Contemporary limp morocco, front cover gilt-stamped as above; extremities rubbed, with leather cracked and partially lost over spine. Several leaves partially excised or affixed deliberately to one another; some instances of light offsetting and a few instances of verses struck lightly through with pencil (we cannot venture why). Otherwise clean.

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Binding:  Bound in black niger goat with a tobacco-colored niger inlay on front cover of a blind-tooled reproduction of the drawing of Bede presenting his work to Bishop Acca that appears in item 11 of this catalogue. That inset is surrounded by a second one of red niger, serving as a frame.

•  Binding as above. Original wrappers bound in. A treasurable copy.  (22442)

•  Publisher's black cloth, with charcoal gray dust jacket. A very good copy.  (22235)

This is the original official document, signed by the chief Inquisitor of the Granada branch of the Holy Office, making Sr. Montero a familiar. It is written a clear ecclesiastical hand on the white side of the piece of vellum. The signature of the Inquisitor (Dr. Tomás Rodríguez de Monroy) is bold and attractive. On the verso, or the "yellow" side of the vellum, is the secretarial certification that all the appropriate officials have been notified. That ancillary document is written in a notarial hand with all of its difficulties.

In the border area of the document are illuminated and unilluminated miniatures as well as the symbol of the Dominican Order. The latter is found in the upper corners. Below the one on the left is an illuminated miniature of the Virgin. Below the one on the right is an illuminated miniature of King Philip IV. Below the Virgin is an illuminated rendering of the Montero coat of arms and that is repeated below the king’s image. At the center top of the document is the symbol of the Spanish Inquisition.

•  Folded once upon a time into four sections and old creases still present. Upper left corner with small loss of vellum. A very good example of this rare type of document.