An Unrecorded 1660 English Edition of Michael Scot's Physionomia

The Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Biblioteka Akademii Nauk—BAN) owns what appears to be the unique copy of a seventeenth-century English edition that has never been mentioned in proper printed bibliographical record.¹ The volume (call number 13489.o/50995.R) was found during the research on the personal library of Peter I's Scottish physician Robert Areskine (1677–1718).² It is mentioned in both main sources on the composition of Areskine's book collection: its inventory and the handwritten earliest surviving catalogue of the Academy's library.³ In the inventory, the book is entered twice: first,⁴ on fol. 6r as no. 192 in the alphabetical listing of books in English; secondly,⁵ on fol. 31r as no. 577 in the section 'Areskine Libri Medici and Physiologici in octavo et 12^o'. In the catalogue, the almost identical entry is to be found in its third volume (octavos and smaller books), on fol. 241r, countermarked with letter 'A', which signifies that the corresponding book came from Areskine's library. The catalogue, which often lists several copies of an edition with all the acquisition sources marked, mentions no other copies in this case. All that said, characteristic binding (which will be described below) is enough to attribute the only copy of the book in the library's holdings to Areskine.

I have been unable to find a record for the book with such title and imprint (see fig. 1) in any catalogue or bibliography. Ferguson, whose article

Fig. 1.

Michael Scot, Natures Chief Rarities (London, 1660), Russian Academy of Sciences, 13489.o/50995.R.

on Michael Scot is supported by a sizeable bibliography of its own, even states flatly that the work 'was never turned into English'.⁶ No mentions of any publications in English are to be found in the biographical accounts of Michael Scot.⁷ Finally, from two articles published in 1985, it seems that the only English translation of the text their authors were aware of was the unpublished 1977 translation by Jill Greenspan.⁸ I have not discovered any English translation of Physionomia made after that date.

However, three records of the edition can be found—one in a manuscript source, and two in printed lists which only marginally fit the idea of bibliography. A copy of the book was recorded in the register of the library of seventeenth century English merchant Samuel Jeake.⁹ Sarah Wheale from the Bodleian library in Oxford has informed me, after searching the Early English Books Online resource (which was unavailable to me at the time), that the book is listed for sale in the end of two books put out by London publisher Henry Marsh in 1661 and 1662.¹⁰ Finally, a record of a very similar title is entered in the register of the Stationers' Company, which will be spoken of below.

In the remaining part of this article, I shall describe the copy owned by BAN and compare its textual contexts to those of the Latin editio princeps. I will also mention two later editions which purport to be English translations of Physionomia and are, in fact, heavily dependent on the book in question.

Physical make-up of the volume

The book block measures 116 × 67 mm. It is made up of eleven quires with printed text, and flanked, at the beginning and end, by pairs of empty conjugate leaves not connected to the book covers (there being no pastedowns). The first eleven quires consist of twelve leaves, the last one six. Correspondingly, the collation formula is A–K¹² L⁶, with the title page being implied as A1. From the pattern of chain-lines, watermarks and bolts, the format can be identified as 'common duodecimo' in Gaskell's terminology.¹¹ The first quire is unpaginated. From B1 recto to L1 recto, pages are continuously numbered as 1–217. A further eleven unnumbered pages conclude the printed leaves.

External description and provenance of the volume¹²

The volume's...