Romans, Reformation Artists, and Willamette: The Travels of an Early Christian Text into the Hatfield Library Vault

Posted on December 11, 2025 at 4:01 pm.

By Doreen Simonsen
Humanities & Fine Arts Librarian, dsimonse@willamette.edu

any people have been involved with the creation, printing, illustrating, selling, and purchasing of this particular book over the centuries. The most recent owner this book was Dr. John M. Canse, President of the Kimball School of Theology, a part of Willamette University from 1906 to 1930. The book is called L. Coelii Lactantii Firmiani Diuinarum institutionum libri VII or The Divine Institutes, and the large initial M on the left is one of the illustrations by Hans Holbein the Younger inside this book. “Printed entirely in Latin…it shows the struggle between the ideas of Paganism and those of Christianity… and in 1926, Dr. J. M. Hitt, State Librarian of Washington State considered it to be the oldest book from moveable type found in the Northwest at that time.” ¹

On June 17, 1953, Dr. Canse gave this book to Willamette University, and inscribed it with the following:

“This author was the silver-tongued Christian of the 4^th century. This copy came from a German Monastery to Fort Wayne, Ind. Where I secured it in 1906. Perhaps the oldest book in Moveable type in the Northwest.”²

This silver-tongued Christian was Lactantius, who was born a citizen of the Roman Empire circa 250 C.E. in the northern African town of Cirta, where he taught Latin. Emperor Diocletian summoned him to his court in Nicomedia in Asia Minor (present day Turkey) to teach Latin Rhetoric to administrators of his empire. As a courtier, Lactantius met another follower of the Roman (Pagan) religion, the future emperor Constantine. Both eventually converted to Christianity, and Lactantius fled the region during Emperor Diocletian’s Great Persecution of Christians in 303 C.E.

While in exile, Lactantius wrote this work, The Divine Institutes, “a treatise which sought to commend the truth of Christianity to men of letters and thereby for the first time set out in Latin a systematic account of the Christian attitude to life.”⁵ “It is the earliest systematic account of Christian morality in Latin.” ⁶ His written command of the rhetoric of classical texts and “pagan” mythology created a rational argument for Christianity that led him to be called the Christian Cicero. Later he was also called a Christian Humanist and was widely read and published during the Renaissance.

The Dutch philosopher, Erasmus, was one of the many 15^th and 16^th century Humanistic authors who published an edition of Lactantius’ Divine Institutes. In 1521, the year that our copy of this book was published, Erasmus had settled in Basel, Switzerland, where he befriended the young artist, Hans Holbein the Younger, who painted this famous portrait of him. Erasmus introduced Holbein to his friend, Sir Thomas Moore of England, whose portrait he also painted, and through his connection with Moore, Holbein became the court artist of the Tudors, especially Henry VIII.

Cratander’s Printer’s Mark
by Holbein, 1525 ⁹

However, while living in Basel, Holbein also created designs for several woodcuts used by printers in that city,⁸ including Andreas Cratander, who printed our book in 1521. Besides the beautiful title page, Holbein designed Cratander’s Printer’s Mark. An earlier version can be seen on the bottom of the title page of our 1521 book, and the 1525 version is included the images of Printers’ Marks on the ceiling of the West Corridor. Library of Congress Thomas

Jefferson Building.¹¹ “Cratander repeatedly used as his mark the figure of Occasio, or Opportunity. Bald at the back, her hair blown before her, with winged feet she strides the world; in her hand she carries a razor to show how sharply is divided the fleeting present from the irrevocable past.”¹²

Basel was a major center for Renaissance Humanist and later Protestant publishing during the Reformation. On the title page, Holbein includes putti (cherubs) at the top and the bottom of the page, a classical Italianate frame around the text, and the images of two women on each side. On the left is Lucretia, a noblewoman of Ancient Rome, who committed suicide by stabbing herself under her breast after being raped by Tarquin, the king’s son. The other woman is Judith, a Israelite widow who beheads Holofernes, an Assyrian general, in order to protect her city. At the bottom are two more putti holding the printer’s mark of Cratander between two Roman medaillons in bottom corners. Cratander also used this same title page border later that year for a work by Johannes Oecolampadius, a German Protestant reformer, for whom he continued to publish Protestant works for several years.¹⁴

On top of the text of the title page is a stamp from the book’s next known destination, the Jesuit Monastery of Gorheim, in Sigmaringen, Southern Germany, which was in operation from 1852 – 1872. ¹⁵

This may be where the booksellers Simeon & Brother at 714 Calhoun Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana found and purchased our book. They were noted vendors of German and Theology books.¹⁷ And they were also listed in the International Adressbuch des Deutschen Buchhandels (Addressbook of German Bookstores) as the only only German bookstore in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1905.¹⁸ This is where Dr. Canse must have found and purchased this book in 1906.

Born in Orland, Indiana in 1869, Dr. Canse graduated with the class of 1899, at DePauw University (a Methodist University) in Greencastle, Indiana, where he later earned his Doctorate in Divinity in 1918. In 1907 he moved from Fort Wayne to the Pacific Northwest, where he served as a minister to several places in Oregon and Washington. He researched the early Methodists in the region and was also active in the Washington State Historical Society. In 1926 he was offered the position of President of Kimball School of Theology by Willamette University’s Board of Trustees, and he held this position until the school closed in 1930. ¹⁹ “He gave considerable attention to original research on the Indian Mission Period of Old Oregon. A text entitled, “Missionary Colonizers of the Pacific Northwest,” was written. It appeared first in the Pacific Christian Advocate,”²⁰ a newspaper founded in 1859 in Salem, Oregon by Alvan Waller, one of the founders of Willamette University.

In 1930 Canse published a biography of Jason Lee called Pilgrim and Pioneer: Dawn in the Northwest. His book includes chapters on “Red Tribes Seek the White Man’s Secret of Success, Indian Camp Meetings and War Clouds, and Indian Missions Fade into White Churches.” In 1932 a reviewer noted that work was “uncritical of Lee…Its chief value, and this is important, is its emphasis upon the religious devotion and zeal that animated Lee’s work.”²²

The terror of Diocletian’s Great Persecution of Christians in 303 C.E. forced Lactantius to flee Nicomedia and inspired him to write his arguments in favor of Christianity for educated Latin readers of the 4^th century. The printing whirlwind of 16^th century Basel produced religious tracts at the beginning of the Reformation, including our book which ended up at a Jesuit monastery in Germany. An American bookseller found it there and added it to his inventory in Indiana, where it fell into the hands of a scholar who celebrated the colonizing of the Northwest by Methodist missionaries. This text has traveled through centuries of religious convictions, conflict, and conversions. If you would like to see this book for yourself, please contact Doreen Simonsen, dsimonse@willamette.edu to make an appointment.

Endnotes:

1. “The Oldest Book of Northwest is Possession of Doctor Canse.” The Willamette Collegian. Vol. VI, No. 7, April 1895, p. 1.

2. Lactantius, Markos Mousouros, Andreas Cratander, and Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus. L. Coelii Lactantii Firmiani Diuinarum institutionum libri VII … Basileae: apud Andream Cratandrum, 1521. Mark O. Hatfield Library. https://orbiscascade-willamette.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01ALLIANCE_WU/2i92kk/alma9930454435201454

3. “Kimball to Close during 1930-31.” The Willamette Collegian. Vol. XLI, No. 18, February 20, 1930, p. 1.

4. “Fourth-century mural possibly depicting Lactantius (also possibly Apuleius). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lactantius.jpg

5. Edwards, Mark. “Lactantius.” In The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. : Oxford University Press, 2022. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199642465.001.0001/acref-9780199642465-e-4053.

6. Baldwin, Barry. “Lactantius.” In The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. : Oxford University Press, 1991. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001/acref-9780195046526-e-2984.

7. Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497/8 – 1543), Erasmus, 1523oil on wood, 73.6 × 51.4 cm. The National Gallery, London. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holbein-erasmus.jpg

8. Schmid, Heinrich Alfred. “Holbeins Thätigkeit für die Baseler Verleger.” Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen 20 (1899): 233–62. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25167403.

9. Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497/8 – 1543), Printer’s Mark of Andreas Cratander, 1525, Metalcut print on paper, 85 × 59 mm. The British Museum, London. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

10. Lactantius, Markos Mousouros, Andreas Cratander, and Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus. L. Coelii Lactantii Firmiani Diuinarum institutionum libri VII … Basileae: apud Andream Cratandrum, 1521.

11. Highsmith, Carol M, Photographer. Second Floor Corridor. Printers’ marks+Columns. Printer’s mark of Cratander in West Corridor. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C. , 2007. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2007684459/.

12. Willoughby, Edwin Eliott. “The Cover Design.” The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy 21, no. 2 (1951): 127–127. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4303991.

13. Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497/8 – 1543), Title-Border with Judith and Lucretia, 1521, Metalcut print on paper, 174 × 121 mm. The British Museum, London. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

14. Colombo, Matteo, Benjamin Manig, and Noemi Schürmann. 2024. “A Reformation in Progress: The Path toward the Reform of Johannes Oecolampadius” Religions 15, no. 9: 1147. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091147

15. “Kloster Gorheim.” https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_Gorheim

16. “Simeon & Bros. Bookstore.” Souvenir of Fort Wayne, Indiana. 1888, page 12. https://archive.org/details/souveniroffortwa00fort/page/n11/mode/2up

17. “Simeon & Brother.” The Bookmart: A Monthly Magazine of Literary and Library Intelligence, Vol.2, No. 4, September 1, 1884, page 391. https://books.google.com/books?id=Z1ADAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA391&dq=Siemon+%26+Brother.+Booksellers+Wayne&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi_lp225aL7AhWlCTQIHRQ5AEQQ6AF6BAgDEAI#v=onepage&q&f=false

18. “Fort Wayne (Indiana).” Adressbuch des Deutschen Buchhandels. 1905, V. Abteilung, Seite. 378. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044092543537&seq=940&q1=amerika&view=1up

19. John Canse Papers, 1884-1958. Finding Aid. https://wshs-collections.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Ms%20148%20Finding%20Aid.pdf

20.“Kimball Policy Yet Uncertain: President Canse Here: Newly Elected Administrator is Well Known Figure in Northwest Circles.” The Willamette Collegian. Vol. XXXiX, No. 1, September 29, 1926, p. 1.

21. Canse, John M. Pilgrim and Pioneer : Dawn in the Northwest. New York ; The Abingdon Press, 1930. https://archive.org/details/pilgrimpioneerda01cans/mode/2up

22. R. C. Clark, Pilgrim and Pioneer: Dawn in the Northwest. By John M. Canse and Jason Lee: Prophet of New Oregon. By Cornelius J. Brosnan, Journal of American History, Volume 19, Issue 3, December 1932, Pages 447–448, https://doi.org/10.2307/1892791

Two Booklovers and the Laws of War, Peace, and Tariffs

Posted on May 12, 2025 at 11:44 am.

Written by Doreen Simonsen

By Doreen Simonsen
Humanities & Fine Arts Librarian, dsimonse@willamette.edu

Four hundred years ago, in 1625, the first edition of De iure belli ac pacis (On the Law of War and Peace) by the Dutch jurist and theologian, Hugo Grotius was published. Recently, the Hatfield Library was contacted about our 1646 copy of this book¹, which led to some amazing discoveries about the man who owned our copy and his Willamette University connections to historical and current world events.

Jan Wagenaar. *Hugo de Groot vlugt uit de Loevesteinsche gevangenis 1621*. (*Hugo Grotius Escapes the Loevenstein Prison, 1621*.) Print, 1754.

Hugo Grotius, born in Delft, the Netherlands, (1583-1645) was an intellectual prodigy, who graduated from the University of Leiden at the age of fourteen. After holding various municipal posts, he was arrested for treason in 1618 and given a life sentence in Loevenstein Castle. Here he regularly received a large crate of books for him to read while imprisoned, and his love of books eventually led to his own freedom. In 1621, his wife and her maid managed to fit him [he was a small man] into one of these book crates and it was shipped out of the castle to France,² where Grotius spent the rest of his life in exile.

Title Page of *De Iure Belli ac Pacis*,
7th Ed., 1646.

Hugo Grotius is considered to be the father of International Law. While living in France Grotius penned his most famous work, De iure belli ac pacis (On the Law of War and Peace), which was published in 1625 during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). This work was Grotius’ response to “the ‘licentiousness’ of Europe’s Christian rulers in rushing to war for frivolous or imprudent reasons’… Grotius worked to lay a foundation of natural law on which the law of nations and its accompanying laws of war could be built.”³ The result is this three volume book.

An article from the November 20, 1897 issue of the Oregon Daily Statesman tells the story of how Willamette University received a copy of this work that now resides in the vault of the Mark O. Hatfield Library. A copy of this article was cut out and glued to the back inside cover of that book, and it shows the book owner’s bibliophilia:

“The Seventeenth Century Hands Down One of Its Literary Gems to a Prominent Salemite.”

“Perhaps it would not do to class President W.C. Hawley, of the Willamette University, a bibliomaniac, but that he is a bibliophile will scarcely be denied by any one cognizant of the professor’s love for books; the rarer the book the nearer he approaches the condition besetting the former devotee.

The last volume to cast the spell of its charm, born of antiquity and rare literary quality, upon this accomplished student, was one that crossed his path in Denver, Colorado, during his late visit there as a member of the head camp of the Woodmen of the World.

“Chain & Hardy’s
Parlor Book Store.”
1869-1879.
Denver Public Library. ⁴

Prof. Hawley was never known to go deliberately by an “old book” stand without stopping, and that he should bring up in front of Chain & Hardy’s stalls in that city, in one of his idle hours, needs no accounting for, but that he did so, is a matter of supreme gratification for him by reason thereof, he is the possessor of a copy of Hugo Grotius’ work on “International Law,” a treatise in Latin, that bears the same relation to the particular phase of jurisprudence that the first edition of Blackstone bore to English law. …

It is the star of his collection, and was aired here yesterday for the first time when he took it to his class in international law at the university, and unfolded its rare contents to the interested and delighted young people who have the good fortune to sit under him as pupils.”⁵

Bookplate in Mark O. Hatfield Library’s copy of
Hugo Grotius *De Iure Belli et Pacis* 1646.

The owner of this book was Willis C. Hawley, President of Willamette University from 1893-1902. In 1897 Hawley was a professor of Political History, Economics, and Political Science, and while at Willamette he studied Law, became a member of the Oregon State Bar and expert on tariff and tax law. The April 1895 edition of The Willamette Collegian describes how Hawley shared his expertise on tariffs with his students:

*The Willamette Collegian.* Vol. VI, No. 7, April 1895. ⁶

And the 1897 Willamette University catalog lists the textbooks that professors required for their courses.⁷ One of the texts that Professor Hawley frequently used in his courses was The Tariff History of the United States by Frank William Taussig. ⁸

“Willamette’s Representative in Congress.” *Weekly Willamette Collegian*, Vol. XVIII, No 16. Feb. 6, 1907. ⁹

In 1902, Hawley stepped down as President of Willamette University to prepare for a campaign to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He served in Washington, D.C. as the Representative Oregon’s 1^st Congressional District as a Republican from 1907 to 1933, and is best known for introducing legislation, along with Senator Reed Smoot of Utah, that called for raising tariffs. ¹⁰

Rep. W.C. Hawley, Reed Smoot, 4/11/29. , 1929 ¹¹

“The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was legislation that increased average import tariffs by approximately 20 percent in an attempt to protect American farmers and businesses from foreign competition during the agricultural crisis of the late 1920s…. Some historians believe that the tariff was so high that it elicited foreign economic retaliation against the United States and helped convert what would have been a normal economic downturn in the U.S. economy into a major worldwide depression.” ¹²

To learn more watch this short video: Trade Wars: A Look at the Smoot-Hawley Tariff ¹³

Both Hugo Grotius and Willis C. Hawley loved books, but they are best remembered for their political writings and activities. Currently the headlines are filled with news about wars challenging International Law and new Trade Wars created by tariffs, issues that Grotius’ and Hawley’s words and experiences could help us to find some solutions. That Hawley owned a rare copy of Grotius’ major work and then donated it to the Willamette University Library is a happy coincidence. If you would like to see this book for yourself, please contact Doreen Simonsen, dsimonse@willamette.edu to make an appointment

Endnotes:

1. Cleary, Matthew, Edward Jones Corredera, Pablo Nicolas Dufour, Jonathan Nathan, Emanuele Salerno, and Mark Somos. “Hugo Grotius’s De Iure Belli ac Pacis: A Report on the Worldwide Census of the Seventh Edition (1646).” Grotiana 44, no. 1 (2023): 154-180.

2. Kingma, Marja, “Two Women, a Lawyer and a Book Chest” British Library European Studies Blog. 19 April 2021. https://blogs.bl.uk/european/2021/04/two-women-a-lawyer-and-a-book-chest.html.

3. Devetak, Richard. “Grotius, Hugo.” In The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace. : Oxford University Press, 2010. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195334685.001.0001/acref-9780195334685-e-296.

4. Duhem Brothers. “Chain & Hardy’s Parlor Book Store, Books, Stationery, Pictures, and Fancy Goods, 414 Larimer Street, Denver, Col.” Denver Public Library Special Collections, x-18530, https://digital.denverlibrary.org/nodes/view/1059480

5.“The Seventeenth Century Hands Down One of Its Literary Gems to a Prominent Salemite.” Oregon Daily Statesman. Saturday, November 20, 1897.

6. Local and Personal” The Willamette Collegian. Vol. VI, No. 7, April 1895, p. 12.

7. Fifty-Fourth Year Book of the Willamette University for the Year 1897-8 with Announcement and Curricula for 1898-9: pp. 45-46.

8. Taussig, F. W. (Frank William). The Tariff History of the United States : A Series of Essays. New York ; G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1888.

9. “Willamette’s Representative in Congress: Hawley Leaves Willamette.” Weekly Willamette Collegian, Vol. XVIII, No 16. February 6, 1907.

10. Carlson, Luke. ” Willis Hawley (1864-1941).” The Oregon Encyclopedia. https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/hawley_willis/. Accessed May 2, 2025.

11. Rep. W.C. Hawley, Reed Smoot, 4/11/29. , 1929. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016843632/

12. “Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (1930).” In Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History, 2nd ed., edited by Thomas Riggs, 1219. Vol. 3. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2015. Gale In Context: U.S. History (accessed May 2, 2025). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3611000828/UHIC?u=s8887317&sid=summon&xid=b6439b7e.

13. “Trade Wars: A Look at the Smoot-Hawley Tariff,” posted on June 18, 2019, by CFR Education, YouTube, 4 min., 29 sec., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4CvLu8HA7I

Grotius, Hugo. The Rights of War and Peace. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, Incorporated, 2005. Accessed May 1, 2025. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Coronation Feasts in the Archives

Posted on May 5, 2023 at 2:31 pm.

Written by Doreen Simonsen

St. Edward’s Crown Worn
by James II & Elizabeth II

By Susan Irwin
University Archivist, smirwin@willamette.edu

Doreen Simonsen
Humanities & Fine Arts Librarian, dsimonse@willamette.edu

Kings and Queens of England have celebrated their coronations with grand feasts, some only for the nobility and some held for the public at large. In the Archives, we have evidence of two such feasts, separated by 268 years. The oldest is from the coronation of King James II in 1685 and our most recent is from the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

James II was the younger brother of King Charles II, the Merry Monarch, famous for restoring the theatre and other pleasures of life after many years of Puritan rule by Oliver Cromwell; Cromwell was the man who lead the movement to behead King Charles I, the father of Charles II and James II. When Charles II died without a legitimate child to inherit the crown, his brother James II became his heir.

Following the coronation of King James II and his second wife, Queen Mary of Modena, in Westminster Abbey on Thursday, April 23, 1685 there was a glorious Royal Feast in the adjacent Westminster Hall. The King and Queen sat at the south table facing the long hall, lined with six long tables. At the western tables sat Peers and Peeresses, namely seven Dukes, seven Duchesses, one Marchioness, forty-three Earls, twenty-nine Countesses, five Viscounts, three Viscountesses, thirty-eight Barons, and twenty-two Baronesses. At the eastern tables sat Archbishops, Bishops, Judges, etc.

Click on this link to see the full page chart of seating and of the positions of these dishes on the different tables.

These tables groaned with a total of 1,455 dishes, served both hot and cold, including: pistachio cream, anchovies, stags tongues, partridges, marinated sole, puddings, and much, much more.

Here is a link to the first of several pages that list all of the dishes served at their Majesties and the other tables.

You can see images and read about this feast in our copy of The History of the Coronation of the Most High Most Mighty and Most Excellent Monarch James II… by Francis Sandford and Gregory King, printed in 1687, which is part of our Special Collections. In this book, you will find large, beautiful lithographic images of the coronation ceremony, feast, and fireworks.

There is a wonderful high resolution image of this feast where you can see this entire feast in progress. (Click on the + sign to see all of the details)

The coronation of Queen Elizabeth took place on June 2, 1953 in Westminster Abbey. Food and recipes played a part beyond the coronation feast. The oil used to anoint the new monarchs contains oils of roses, cinnamon, orange, musk and ambergris (produced by sperm whales). Queen Elizabeth II revealed in a documentary interview that some crafty guests hid “strong drink and sandwiches” in their coronets to sustain them through the three-hour long ceremony. New recipes were created as in the case of Coronation Chicken. Created by Constance Spry, the recipe of cold chicken in a curry cream sauce with dressed salad of rice, green peas and mixed herbs was one of the dishes served to foreign guests after the coronation.

Following the coronation ceremony, the Queen and Prince Philip traveled a 7.2 kilometer route from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace. Designed so that the procession could be seen by as many of the people lining the streets as possible, the procession took two hours to complete.

Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation was the first to be televised, with an estimated twenty-seven million people in the U.K. turning in to watch. That did not stop thousands from lining the streets to catch a glimpse of the new Queen, some camping out the night before. Correspondence in the Stella Douglas archival collection (part of Willamette’s Archives) contains information on the availability of packed lunches, not for guests, but for people seated in the stands along the procession route.

Stella, a Salem born artist, lived in London at the time of the coronation and was one of the lucky few to receive a seat voucher from The British Travel and Holidays Association. The letter from the association explained how to exchange the voucher for a “seat ticket,” and included a brochure and order form for packed lunches. Due to the length of the ceremony and procession, refreshments were an important consideration as “…it will be necessary for you to be in your seat by 6.0 a.m. on Coronation Day, and it is unlikely that you be able to leave the special area until around 4.0 p.m.”

Buszards’ Limited supplied the packed lunches, offering three options.

It is not clear if Stella exchanged her voucher for a seat ticket, but she noted the historic event in a letter to her family, “And how the new Queen is loved! Her people love her and have faith in her– How young she is to inherit an empire- my age- and so untroubled by the world, yet so mature in character and devotion to her country.”

On May 6, 2023, King Charles III of England will have his coronation ceremony. On the following day, he and Queen Consort Camilla, have invited their subjects throughout the Commonwealth to celebrate by joining in the Coronation Big Lunch, which “aims to brings neighbours and communities together to celebrate the Coronation and share friendship, food and fun.” The King and Queen have shared a recipe that everyone can make to share at their own Coronation Lunch, namely The Coronation Quiche.

Bon Appetit!

Bibliography:

50 Facts About The Queen’s Coronation, https://www.royal.uk/50-facts-about-queens-coronation-0 Accessed 3 May 2023.

Coke, Hope. Peers told they are allowed to wear crimson robes and coronets for King Charles’ Coronation. Tatler. https://www.tatler.com/article/coronation-dress-code-no-coronets-robers-peers Accessed 3 May 2023.

“Francis Sandford (1630-94) – The History of the Coronation of the Most High, Most Mighty, and Most Excellent Monarch, James II … and of His Royal Consort Queen Mary, Solemnized in the Collegiate Church of St Peter … on 23rd April, … 1685 / By…” Accessed May 3, 2023. https://www.rct.uk/collection/1046687/the-history-of-the-coronation-of-the-most-high-most-mighty-and-most-excellent.

Sandford Francis and Gregory King. The History of the Coronation of the Most High Most Mighty and Most Excellent Monarch James II : By the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith &c. and of His Royal Consort Queen Mary : Solemnized in the Collegiate Church of St. Peter in the City of Westminster on Thursday the 23 of April Being the Festival of St. George in the Year of Our Lord 1685 : With an Exact Account of the Several Preparations in Order Thereunto Their Majesties Most Splendid Processions and Their Royal and Magnificent Feast in Westminster-Hall : The Whole Work Illustrated with Sculptures : By His Majesties Especial Command. Printed by T. Newcomb 1687. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102827304.

Stella Douglas papers, WUA111, Archives and Special Collections, Mark O. Hatfield Library, Willamette University.

“The Coronation Quiche.” https://www.royal.uk/the-coronation-quiche. Accessed 3 May 2023.

Wight, Colin. “Renaissance Festival Books: View 274 Historical Renaissance Books Online.” Text. The British Library. Accessed May 3, 2023. https://www.bl.uk/treasures/festivalbooks/pageview.aspx?strFest=0251&strPage=200.

Jane Austen, Royalty, and Works by Women Authors in our Vault

Posted on January 11, 2023 at 5:41 pm.

Written by Doreen Simonsen

By Doreen Simonsen
Humanities & Fine Arts Librarian, dsimonse@willamette.edu

Thanks to Shonda Rhimes’ hit Netflix series, Bridgerton, Queen Charlotte (1744-1818), wife of King Georges III of England (1738 – 1820), and her court have been given new life in the public imagination. In the library’s vault, we have three works by women authors who served in and wrote about this world, and inspired other authors and composers.

Fanny Burney (1784)
by Edward Francis Burney

Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) was born in Steventon, England in 1775 during the reign of King George III and his wife, Queen Charlotte. It was in the court of Queen Charlotte that one of Jane’s favorite authors, Fanny Burney (1752 – 1840), served from 1786 to 1790 as “Keeper of the Robes” for the queen. After leaving Queen Charlotte’s court, Burney decided to publish her third novel, Camilla, by subscription in 1796, and it is in this book that Jane Austen’s name appears in print for the first time. In our library’s copy of Camilla you can see “Miss J. Austen, Steventon” in the list of subscribers. Austen also mentions Camilla as one of the romantic novels, which the heroine of Austen’s first novel, Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland, reads for thrills and escapism.

Subscriber List in Hatfield Library’s copy of Fanny Burney’s *Camilla* *(1796)*
First ever appearance of Jane Austin’s name in print.

Sophie Cottin, Lithograph
by Pierre Langlumé

Fanny Burney’s stepsister, Elizabeth Meeke, (1761 – 1826), was also an author, — and a translator. (MacDonald. Mandel.) One of her translations that is in our collection is Elizabeth; or, the Exiles of Siberia, by the French author, Sophie Cottin. (1770 – 1807) Cottin’s family were supporters of the French monarchy, which forced them to flee to England during the French Revolution. Sophie returned to Paris in 1798, published six novels, of which Elizabeth (1806) was her last before she died of cancer in 1807. Elizabeth; or, the Exiles of Siberia was widely translated and published throughout the 19^th century. (Cutt) Our copy was published in New York in 1812. This book was so popular that Gaetano Donizetti based an opera in three acts upon it in 1820 and titled it Otto mesi in due ore ossia Gli esiliati in Siberia (Eight Months in Two Hours or the Exiles in Siberia).

Prince Regent George, son of
King George III, & future King George IV

Both Camilla and Elizabeth: or, the Exiles of Siberia were published during the reign of King George III, who suffered increasingly from mental illness. Eventually his reprobate son, Prince George, took on the role of Regent, which gave rise to the Regency Era that lasted from 1811 until the death of his father in 1820, when he became King George IV. Jane Austen was no fan of George IV, but he was a great fan of her novels. Recently a bill of sale from 1811 was found in the Royal Archives, which was “from a London bookseller, charging the Prince Regent 15 shillings for a copy of Sense and Sensibility, Austen’s first novel.” (Schuessler) To understand Austen’s distaste for the Prince Regent, one should look at a third book in our collection.

Lady Ann Hamilton, (1815)
by James Lonsdale

The Secret History of the Court of England from the Accession of George the Third until the Death of George the Fourth (1832), was allegedly written by Lady Anne Hamilton (1766 – 1846), who was a loyal Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Caroline of Brunswick, the unhappy wife of George IV. According to the Dictionary of National Biography: “A person who had gained the confidence of Lady Anne and obtained from her a variety of private information, published, without her knowledge and much to her regret and indignation, a volume purporting to be written by her, entitled Secret History of the Court of England from the Accession of George III to the Death of George IV.” The book created such a scandal that the publisher was forced to flee England.

In a letter from 1813, Jane Austen wrote of Queen Caroline: “Poor woman, I shall support her as long as I can, because she is a Woman and because I hate her Husband.” (Robins, p. 42). Two years later, Austen was invited to the Prince Regent’s library, where his “librarian, James Stanier Clarke, conveyed that the Prince Regent (who was not present) would not object if she dedicated her next book to him.” (Schuessler). Austen worked with the publisher to create this tepid dedication in her novel Emma: “To his Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, this work is, by His Royal Highness’s Permission, most Respectfully Dedicated by his Royal Highness’s Dutiful and Obedient Humble Servant, the Author.”

Just as the world is currently reading Spare, the memoir by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, to discover the secrets of the most recent royal family, disclosing royal secrets is nothing new. Having worked for the Royal families, both Fanny Burney and Lady Ann Hamilton, could have shared similar tales of scandal. Similarly Fanny Burney and Sophie Cottin created tales depicting the emotional ups and downs of Romanticism, that were wildly popular in the 19th century, but did not reflect life in the royal courts. You can read these books online by following the links in this article, but you are welcome to come see our copies of all of these works in the Hatfield Library. If you would like to look at them in person, please contact Doreen Simonsen, dsimonse@willamette.edu to make an appointment.

Bibliography

Austen, Jane, 1775-1817. Emma: A Novel : In Three Volumes. London: Printed for John Murray, 1816.

Burney, Fanny, and Thomas Payne. Camilla, or, A Picture of Youth. [First edition]. London: Printed for T. Payne, at the Mews Gate, and T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies successors to Mr. Cadell in the Strand, 1796.

Cottin, (Sophie), Evert Duyckinck, and James Oram. Elizabeth, or, The Exiles of Siberia. A Tale, Founded Upon Facts. New-York: Published by Evert Duyckinck, 1812.

Cutt, M Nancy. “Who Remembers ‘Elizabeth’?” Signal: Approaches to Children’s Books Vol. 39, (Sep 1, 1982): 153-162.

Hamilton, Anne. Secret History of the Court of England  f rom the Accession of George the Third to the Death of George the Fourth. London: Reynold’s Newspaper Office, 1832.

“Hamilton, Lady Ann.” The Dictionary of National Biography : from the Earliest Times to 1900. London: Oxford University Press, 1921. Vol. 8, p. 1019.

Harry. Spare. First US edition., Random House, 2023.

MacDonald, Simon. “Identifying Mrs Meeke: Another Burney Family Novelist.” The Review of English Studies (2013): 367-385.

Mandal, Anthony. “Mrs. Meeke and Minerva: The Mystery of the Marketplace.” Eighteenth-Century Life 42.2 (2018): 131-151.

Robins, Jane. Rebel Queen: How the Trial of Caroline Brought England to the Brink of Revolution. London: Pocket, 2007.

Schuessler, Jennifer. “Jane Austen Detested Her First Buyer, the Prince: [the Arts/Cultural Desk].” New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast) ed., Jul 25 2018, ProQuest. Web. 15 Dec. 2022.

By the Numbers: Limited Edition Fine Press Gems in the Vault

Posted on August 17, 2022 at 9:59 am.

Written by Doreen Simonsen

Limited Edition books are a melding of fine literature and the art of fine printing. Four books in our vault are lovely examples of an author’s and a publisher’s joint enthusiasm for a unique presentation of a text.

“A limited edition book is one where the number of copies in the print run has been strictly defined prior to its issue, and that number is substantially less than a standard print run, and then no further print runs are issued after the first printing has sold out… [These] books may also contain additional features such as better quality paper, extra illustrations, author signatures, different cover art, etc.” (“Limited Edition Books”).

“Gwilan’s Harp” is a story by Ursula Le Guin that was published by the Lord John Press in Northridge, California in 1981. In the back of this book, you will find a page with a limitation statement, which in this case states that this book is number 298 of 300 copies printed.

Details about the paper used for printing this book, what type font was used, who designed the book, who printed the book, and who published the book may be listed. In addition, the author’s autograph may be found on this page, too.
Herb Jellen of Boston, an avid collector of autographs and first editions, started the Lord John Press, which published Le Guin’s story. From 1976-2006 Jellen published limited editions in printing runs of 150 or 300 copies, that were signed by the authors. The name “Lord John Press” came from Jellen’s “love of [the] authors: John Barth, John Cheever, John Fowles, John Gardner, John Hawkes and John Updike. “Lord” is said to have come from his desire “to marry” Great Britain and America.”

Sometimes these texts travel widely before being published as a limited edition book, such as Place in Fiction, an essay by Eudora Welty. Originally, it was a lecture she presented at Cambridge University in 1954, and was then published in The Archive (Duke University) in April 1955, the South Atlantic Quarterly in January 1956, and elsewhere.

Mrs. Marguerite Cohn heard Miss Welty read the essay on the Poetry Series of the Young Man’s Hebrew Association in New York and asked the author for permission to publish her essay as a limited edition book by her company, the House of Books, in 1957. This is the edition that we have in our collection, which is number 63 of 300 copies printed.

In Dallas, Texas, Hank Coleman founded Pressworks, a small literary fine press publishing company. When Anne Dickson purchased Pressworks in 1981, she inherited short works and poetry by such famous authors as Robert Penn Warren, Joyce Carol Oates, and Donald Barthelme.

We own a copy of Barthelme’s work, Presents, (1980). Its text consists of numerous brief sketches, most of which involve two naked women, and has four plates of collages done by the author. Our copy is number 150 out of 350 copies printed for sale.

Finally, we have a book of poetry by Oregon’s former Poet Laureate, William Stafford. His book, You and Some Other Characters (1989) was illustrated by his daughter Barbara Stafford and published by Donnell Hunter of the Honeybrook Press. Hunter was a prolific and significant Mormon poet, who ran the Honeybrook Press in Rexburg, Idaho. Our copy of Stafford’s You and Some Other Characters, is one of 328 copies, but it is not numbered nor autographed by the author. What makes this book special is that it was “designed & printed letterpress on Lana Laid paper by Donnell Hunter with hand-set Deepdene type & hand-sewn in Fabriano covers.”
The loving workmanship of hand-set type on fine paper makes Hunter’s physical copy of Stafford’s poetry a tactile pleasure that complements Stafford’s words.

Limited Edition fine press books are works of art created jointly by the author and the publisher / printer. Although these four books are recent publications, their scarcity and / or artistic nature classifies them as rare books, worthy of being shelved next to Shakespeare’s Second Folio, Medieval Books of Hours, and other treasures in the vault at the Mark O. Hatfield Library. If you would like to see them for yourself, please contact Doreen Simonsen, dsimonse@willamette.edu

Bibliography

Barthelme, Donald. Presents. Pressworks, 1980.

Berryhill, Michael. “Booking Dallas.” D Magazine, January 1, 1982, https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1982/january/booking-dallas/.

Book of the Week — Turkeys and Trees | J. Willard Marriott Library Blog. 19 Nov. 2018, https://blog.lib.utah.edu/book-of-the-week-turkeys-and-trees/.

Davis, Mary Margaret. “Ex-El Pasoan Binds ‘Fine’ Books.” El Paso Times, 29 Aug. 1982, p. 71.

Dickson, Anne. “Letters.” D Magazine, March 1, 1982, https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1982/march/letters/.

Donnell Hunter | Mormon Literature & Creative Arts Database | HBLL. https://mormonarts.lib.byu.edu/people/donnell-hunter/.

It Came from Beyond Pulp. Ursula K. Le Guin Reads “Gwilan’s Harp.” 2021. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzqjHIEE_vI.

Le Guin, Ursula K. Gwilan’s Harp. Lord John Press, 1981.

“Limited Edition Books.” AbeBooks, 3 June 2021, https://www.abebooks.com/books/rarebooks/collecting-guide/what_books_collect/limited-editions.shtml

“Lord John Press.” Worlds Without End, https://www.worldswithoutend.com/publisher.asp?ID=535 .

Newman, Lisa. “Collector Established Lord John Press.” The Clarion-Ledger, 20 Jun. 2015. https://www.clarionledger.com/story/life/2015/06/20/collector-established-lord-john-press/29040303/.

Polk, Noel. “A Eudora Welty Checklist.” The Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 4, 1973, pp. 663–93.

Stafford, William. You and Some Other Characters: Poems. Honeybrook Press, 1987.

“The House-of-Books Edition of ‘Place in Fiction.’” Eudora Welty Newsletter, vol. 1, no. 1, 1977, pp. 5–5.

Welty, Eudora. Place in Fiction. House of Books, 1957.

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