Contents: 1) ‘An Insight to Geography’, 1 April 1637, 27 pages.
2) ‘A compendious Leading to Prophane History’, 30 September
1638, 26 pages. Ancient and modern political history, from Nimrod
to Ferdinand II. 3) ‘A Direction for the orderly readinge of
English History’, 33 pages. From Britain’s mythic past up to
the accession of Charles I. 4) ‘A view of Ecclesticall (sic)
Hystory’, ‘to this present 1638’, 89 pages. From Adam to Pope
Urban VIII, with the ‘Apostolicall Hierarchy’ in seven ranks,
from ‘Good Bishops’ via ‘Luxurious Sodomites’ to
‘Incureable Babylonians’. 5) ‘De Concilijs’, 1 May 1639, 19
pages in Latin. From the Jews before Captivity to the Council of
Trent. Presumably related to Prideaux’s Conciliorum synopsis
(1651). 6) ‘Heptades Juridicæ ad captum tyronum Accommodatæ’,
April 13 1640, 18 pages in Latin. 7) ‘Heptades Geographiæ’ 13
April 1641, 14 pages in Latin. Related to but not the same as ‘An
Insight’ above. Includes a section ‘De Utopia’, with a query
whether ‘Luna vel aliqua stella fuit habitabiles’. 8) ‘De
Cursu Philosophico’, 7 May 1641, 11 pages in Latin. 9)
‘Πνευμαλογια’, 14 May 1641, 9 pages in Latin. Of
God, angels, fallen angels, the soul, ancient gods, prophecy.
Description: Folio, c. 246 pages, in two contemporary hands (the
first ‘An Insight to Geography’ only), with additional blanks;
ruled in red (titles in red one in one text), with occasional
calligraphic flourishes; in contemporary calf, panelled gilt, with
a central gilt lozenge, morocco spine label lettered ‘Pridaux
Tironum Institutio’, slightly rubbed, spine repaired at head and
foot; apparently from the library of the Earls of Shaftesbury at St
Giles, Wimborne, Dorset, with a shelf mark but without clear marks
of provenance.
Provenance: Anthony Ashley Cooper (1621-1683), later 1st Earl of
Shaftesbury and Lord Chancellor, matriculated at Exeter College in
March 1637, where he studied under Prideaux until entering
Lincoln’s Inn in February 1638. The first portion of the present
manuscript, ‘An Insight to Geography’ dates from Ashley
Cooper’s time at Exeter and is in a different hand from the rest.
It is plausible that it was obtained by him at that time, and later
supplemented with other material at his request after his early
move to Lincoln’s Inn.
