Laurence Sterne—New Testament in Greek | Cambridge, 1632, with Sterne ownership inscription

[Laurence Sterne] Bible. New Testament. Greek

Η καινη διαθηκη. Novum testamentum. Cambridge: Thomas Buck, 1632

LAURENCE STERNE'S COPY WITH HIS OWNERSHIP INSCRIPTION, 8vo (185 x 112mm.), engraved title-page, text in Greek, woodcut initials and tailpieces, with final blank leaf, many verses marked with an ink cross in the margin, three pages of manuscript notes at the end, nineteenth-century burgundy morocco, gilt lettering on spine, gilt edges, blank section of leaves bound at end, lower corner of Aa4 torn with slight loss

[with, loosely inserted:] J.C.T. Oates, two letters to John Colville on the book's provenance and manuscript notes, with related photocopies, 1973-74

A GREEK NEW TESTAMENT FROM THE LIBRARIES OF ROBERT HARLEY, LAURENCE STERNE, AND LORD HOUGHTON. This book was purchased by Sterne early in his career. The book came from the exceptional library of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, which was then being offered for sale by the bookdealer Thomas Osborne. In 1744 (Sterne's date of 1743 will have dated the new year from Lady Day) Sterne had been vicar at Sutton on the Forest near York for more than years, and had recently married; he was a country clergyman who dabbled in political writing, and Tristram Shandy was many years ahead of him. The book contains three pages of Latin notes on the interpretation of Romans 13:1, on the nature of governing authority. These notes can be dated by internal evidence to after 1765, and the hand does not appear to be Sterne's. 

LITERATURE

Darlow & Moule 4678; ESTC S102351; STC 2796

PROVENANCE

Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford (see Thomas Osborne's 1743 catalogue of the Harleian Library, volume 1, no.345); Laurence Sterne ("Bought out of the Harleian Library 0l 15s 0d March 1 1743 [i.e. 1744]"); [almost certainly Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton, 1809-1885;] his son Robert Crewe-Milnes, Marquess of Crewe, 1863-1945 (armorial bookplate); by descent to Sir John ("Jock") Colville, 1915-1987