Presented by the author to James I, with the king’s gilt supralibros Garter arms on the front cover. This is the first edition of one of the most extraordinary travelogues of the 17th century, written by “Odd Tom” Coryate, “writer, eccentric, wit, and one of the most tireless, inquisitive, and courageous of all English travellers” (Strachan, p. 1).
James I was a great bibliophile, declaring on a visit to the Bodleian that “there would be no greater pleasure than in being chained to the library” (cited in ODNB). By his late teens he “already had a substantial library, based partly on the remnants of Mary’s, and partly on the books his tutors bought for him … it was heavily classical, but also included history, political theory, theology, languages, geography, mathematics - and also, for lighter reading and for sport, romances, bows and arrows, golf clubs, and hunting gloves … His passion for scholarship was utterly natural and deep-rooted” (Jenny Wormald in ODNB). The University of Toronto’s database of British armorial bindings records 35 different examples of books with James’s stamps. There are two marginal annotations in a contemporary had, possibly Coryate’s: one at p. 577 and another at 581.
Prince Henry, Coryate’s patron and the book’s dedicatee, was the first to receive a copy from the author’s hand. Bound in crimson velvet, it was specially hand-coloured and had the errata carefully corrected in manuscript. This is now at the British Library, “its glories still undimmed” (Strachan, p. 130). Then it was the monarch’s turn: “The king was at Theobald’s his favourite residence near Royston, formerly Lord Burghley’s country house. Coryate next travelled thither, and on the morning of 2 April in the Presence Chamber he presented the book and made his oration. His Majesty may have been startled to hear himself described as ‘the refulgent Carbuncle of Christendom’”. The author then proceeded to distribute copies of his bulky book to other members of the royal family and various noblemen, Strachan describing how Coryate, with typical flair, delivered them: “he decided to carry them in a box set upon a donkey’s back, and he inscribed on the box in fair Roman capitals ‘Asinus portans mysteria’ - the ass carrying the mysteries”.
Thomas Coryate (1577?-1617) was educated at Winchester and Gloucester Hall, Oxford, leaving without a degree but with “a retentive memory, much learning, excellent knowledge of Greek and Latin texts, fondness for rhetoric, aptitude for histrionics, curiosity to see the world, and a thirst for personal fame” (ODNB). Through good family connections he joined the household of Henry, prince of Wales, James I’s eldest son, to whom he became an unofficial court jester. In May 1608 he sailed for Calais and made his way to Paris, then travelling, often on foot, to Venice, before returning to England in October, finally hanging up his shoes in the church at Odcombe in Somerset, the village in which he was born. His expedition had taken in France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands; Coryate was “one of very few Englishmen from this period who travelled overseas for reasons unconnected to diplomacy, religion, or trade” (Beirouti).
His narrative has many points of historical interest. His description of how Italians shielded themselves from the sun resulted in what is thought to be the first mention of "umbrella" in English literature. He acquired a table fork, almost unknown in England, and imitated the Italian fashion of eating. While in Switzerland he heard the story of William Tell, and his admirable rendering is cited as the earliest in English. The book is also celebrated for its selection of mock-panegyric verses by the most illustrious authors of the day, including Jonson, Chapman, Donne, Campion, Harington, Drayton and others. The “crudities” of the title is a punning reference to “half-digested food, awash in an alimentary soup” (Boehrer, p. 199), an expression employed by Coryate’s fellow Bankside wit Ben Jonson in his play Bartholomew Fair (1614).
Provenance: a) King James I; b) armorial bookplate to printed title verso of Robert Jocelyn, presumably first Viscount Jocelyn (1687/8-1756), lord chancellor of Ireland; c) bookplate of Boston banker-bibliophile Frank Brewer Bemis (1861-1935), engraved by Sidney Lawton Smith and dated 1925; d) morocco book label of Arthur A. Houghton (1906-1909), sale of his library, Christie’s, 13 June 1979, lot 139.