Philip Morant’s Old Colchester: Part 1
As a historian and an avid enthusiast of old books, I love a good rummage around a second hand book shop. My children despair over the number of books in my house. We have bookcases upon bookcases.
đź“šđź“šđź“šđź“šđź“šBooks everywhere.
I’m a firm believer that you can’t have too many books. But, I must admit that I’m not a great lover of Kindle. I have a handful of books on Kindle – as I much prefer to hold a real book.
đź“– Books. The original hand-held device!đź“–
Although last week, I went against everything I’ve just said about Kindle. I purchased a book on my Kindle! My reasons being that the Kindle version was about a twentieth of the price of the “real thing”.
I would much rather own the real thing. Maybe one day when I win the lottery… However, until I win the lottery (not that I do it), I’ll have to make do with my Kindle version.
đź“–The book I purchased on Kindle was a facsimile edition of a Harvard University owned copy of the splendidly named:
“The History and Antiquities of the Most Ancient Town and Borough of Colchester in the County of Essex, in Three Books. Collected Chiefly from Manuscripts. With an Appendix of Records and Original Papers.”
✍️This important work was written in 1748 – nearly 300 years ago – and is the first “travelogue” and guide to an Essex town.
Written by Philip Morant, this book, along with his later 1760s book (covering the whole Essex), are arguably the most important works about Essex.
There is a great deal of information on the internet about Philip Morant – including the various Essex parishes and rectories where he was the rector. Although born on the island of Jersey, he was very much an important Essex man, and the first chronicler of our county.
He is still remembered today in the name of one of the secondary schools in Colchester – the Philip Morant school.
📖Back to his first published book… “The History and Antiquities of Colchester, in the County of Essex.”
đź“–On second-hand bookshop websites, copies of the Colchester book ranges in price from ÂŁ200 to ÂŁ800. Hence me purchasing my ÂŁ3 Kindle copy!…
📖The price-range of Morant’s books are so great (particularly First Editions) because he produced the most amazing plates of maps and engravings of Essex buildings.
These were all included in his books. Over the centuries these engravings have become – err-hmmm – detached from their original book and sold separately.
Two hundred copies of the Colchester book were printed in 1748 as the First Edition.
With such a scarce number of originals surviving, it is incredibly hard to work out how many engravings and plates the book should have. And what those engravings/plates should be!
From digging around the internet and reading various summaries, I’ve found that the Colchester book should have about 9 engravings/plates (can anyone confirm that?).
My Kindle copy (from no less the Harvard University!) has only 4 plates! Hmmmm…..
Exactly where did those missing plates go….? ✂️👩‍🎓👨🏼‍🎓👨🏼‍🎓
The image below is the book plate from Harvard University and the librarian’s date stamp showing that the book was last lent in 1974.
đź“–Below is an image of one of Philip Morant’s books that’s currently for sale on the internet – at the price of ÂŁ800. With such high price (others start at ÂŁ200), it must have all its plates and engravings intact.
đź’µMaybe I should just Crowdfund my blog and Facebook page – then I might have enough money to buy it. 💵
Can’t you just smell the book from this delicious photo!
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| Post published: May 2019 © Kate J Cole | Essex Voices Past™ 2012-2019 |
