Commonplace book of quotations from devotional and philosophical texts, written in the hand of Thomas Grocer. There is a calligraphic title page, signed by Thomas Grocer and dated 1657. In addition to sermons, Grocer includes extracts from The Purple Island (Phineas Fletcher), in addition to the poetry of Robert Herrick, George Herbert, John Godolphin, and Edward May.
Quarto. 215 pages, paginated irregularly, plus five preliminary leaves.
Increase Mather has signed his name several times on the opening flyleaves and on the title page (dating his signatures to 1680 and 1682). There is also the signature of one Elijah Warings, signed 1734. Nathaniel Mather's signature, dated 1683, appears on the title page. According to Peter Auger, 'it is possible that the book traveled to Ireland in 1682 or 1683' (Auger, p. 6).
Peter Auger, 'The Octonaire in Thomas Smith's Self-Portrait', Huntington Library Quarterly, 80 (2017), 1-19; Arthur F. Marotti, Manuscript, Print, and the English Renaissance Lyric (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1995), pp. 43-44; CELM; Hannah Yip.