LYDGATE, John

by John Lydgate

£5,750 · Offered by Sokol Books

Edward Palmer (c.1555 1624) was a gentleman with antiquarian interests from Gloucestershire, renowned for his extensive collections, notably of Roman coins: William Camden called him "a curious and diligent Antiquarie". He is best remembered however for his purchase of the then unnamed Garrett Island in the American colony of Virginia (present day Maryland), which he designated for the establishment of what would have been the first university in the English colonies. In 1622, Palmer received a patent for land from the Virginia Company of London. In his will made 22 November 1624, Palmer bequeathed his lands "in Virginia and New England" to his sons and nephew and declared that, should their issue fail, the land would be used for the founding of a university to be called, "Academia Virginiensis et Oxoniensis," Academy of the Virgin and Oxford. The project died with the embezzlement of Palmer's treasury after his death. In the same year that Palmer received his patent a youth named Christopher Calthorpe came with Lt. Parfrey Virginia. He was cousin to Nathaniel Bacon ("the Rebel") sometime President of the Virginia Council. Several members of his family were 'James' or 'Elizabeth' (they claimed kindred with the late queen) and we have not been able to identify particularly the ex-libris. Rare edition of this modernised verse paraphrase in six line stanzas, sometimes attributed to Thomas Heywood, of the Troy book of John Lydgate, which exercised an influence on Robert Henryson,

• Binding: Hardcover

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