An account of Richard of Cirencester, Monk of Westminster, and of his Works

Full title: An account of Richard of Cirencester, Monk of Westminster, and of his Works: with his Antient Map of Roman Brittain; and the Itinerary therof. Read at the Antiquarian Society, March 18, 1756. By William Stukeley, M.D. Rector of Saint George, Queen-Square, Fellow of the College of Physicians, of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies

 

4to. ff. [3] (2 blank), pp. 94, ff. [2] of plates (1 folded), f. [1] (blank). Facsimile, map. Signatures: A-M⁴. Folded map signed: "Ricardi Tabulam Wm. Stukeley ad Normani Geographicā delin." The final leaf contains a facsimile of part of an original MS. Head- and tailpieces; initial.

 

A discussion of De situ Britanniae, regarded by the archaeological enthusiast Stukeley (1687-1765) as the genuine work of the 14^th-century monk Richard of Cirencester, but actually a literary forgery by Charles Julius Bertram (1723-1765). Stukeley published the work, a paper which he had read to the Society of Antiquaries, with a huge folding map, Stukeley’s own version of the (imaginary) one Bertram had sent him ‘from memory’. Two presentation copies: 1) Calf; inscribed ‘Museo Britannico D.D. Auctor’, but apparently never accessioned or released by the British Museum. Signature from 1866 on first blank; and 2) Mottled calf, inscribed by Stukeley to Thomas Clark; Macclesfield ‘North Library’ bookplate. See also W. Stukeley, Itinerarium curiosum; or, An account of the antiquities, and remarkable curiosities in nature or art, observed in travels through Great Britain. 2^nd ed., with large additions. London: Baker and Leigh, 1776 (Bib# 1031696/Fr# 700 in this collection).

 

Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.