Heroides (Heroidum Epistolae)

Antwerp: Arnold van Brakel, 1649. Expurgated school edition, with the Jesuit IHS device on the title. Text in Latin. Contemporary calf, spine with raised bands, compartments gilt-tooled. [24mo / small 12mo]. Ownership inscriptions of Joan[nes] Leigh (several, with an ownership dispute in Latin on the title) and “Jacobus Frampton 1733”; two pen-and-ink caricature heads on a preliminary leaf. Spine worn to extremities, heavy wear on cover and text edges, numerous annotations and inscriptions, and chipping to covers. Still, a good copy of a nearly 400 year old text.

This miniature book of Ovid's Heroides is the letters of famous ancient Greek heroines like from [24mo / small 12moenelope to Ulysses (Odysseus), and from Helen to Paris. This edition is with the obscene passages dismissed. And contains significant provenance such as "Hunc sibi vindicat Joh[annes] Hendri[cus?] … quidem tibi vindicas, sed ego sum verus possessor” (“Johannes Hendricus claims this for himself … you may claim it, but I am the true owner”) and two caricature profile heads in ink, dating from the early 18th century. The device is IHS with a cross above and three nails below, inside a sunburst. Which is the emblem of the Society of Jesus with “in gratiam castae iuventutis” (“for chaste youth”).