![SOMNER, William (c.1598 or 1606-1669). The Antiquities of Canterbury. Or a Survay of that Ancient Citie, with the Suburbs, and Cathedrall. London: J. L[egat] for R. Thrale. 4° (209 x 157mm). Folding engraved plan and 2 folding plates (short repaired tears in the plan and one plate, lightly browned, a few spots and stains). 18th-century calf (rebacked, corners repaired). Provenance: THE AUTHOR'S OWN COPY, see below - Josiah Beckwith (armorial bookplate); F.W. Cock (bookplate).](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2007/CSK/2007_CSK_05138_0135_000(021631).jpg?w=1)
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SOMNER, William (c.1598 or 1606-1669). The Antiquities of Canterbury. Or a Survay of that Ancient Citie, with the Suburbs, and Cathedrall. London: J. L[egat] for R. Thrale. 4° (209 x 157mm). Folding engraved plan and 2 folding plates (short repaired tears in the plan and one plate, lightly browned, a few spots and stains). 18th-century calf (rebacked, corners repaired). Provenance: THE AUTHOR'S OWN COPY, see below - Josiah Beckwith (armorial bookplate); F.W. Cock (bookplate).
THE AUTHOR'S COPY OF HIS FIRST BOOK WITH APPROXIMATELY 160 CORRECTIONS IN HIS HAND. These range from simple corrections (but not literals and simple deletions which are legion and his own errata which he has also corrected) to quite lengthy interpolations and filling in spaces left blank in the text, leading to the supposition that Somner intended a second edition but died before it could be completed. A more fully corrected copy is in Somner's own collection of books and manuscripts bought after the author's death by the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury. Somner, a Canterbury man all his life, began his career as clerk to his father who held the office of registrar of the court of Canterbury under Sir Nathaniel Brent, and soon was advanced, by Laud, the dedicatee of the present work, to the registrarship of the ecclesiastical courts of the diocese. During the civil war and the Commonwealth he suffered severe financial hardship owing to his attachment to the royalist cause and was even imprisoned for a short time. At the Restoration he was rewarded with the mastership of St John's Hospital, Canterbury, and the office of auditor of Canterbury Cathedral, a post he held until his death. Included in the lot is a copy of his A Treatise of the Roman Ports and Forts in Kent (Oxford, 1693). (2)
THE AUTHOR'S COPY OF HIS FIRST BOOK WITH APPROXIMATELY 160 CORRECTIONS IN HIS HAND. These range from simple corrections (but not literals and simple deletions which are legion and his own errata which he has also corrected) to quite lengthy interpolations and filling in spaces left blank in the text, leading to the supposition that Somner intended a second edition but died before it could be completed. A more fully corrected copy is in Somner's own collection of books and manuscripts bought after the author's death by the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury. Somner, a Canterbury man all his life, began his career as clerk to his father who held the office of registrar of the court of Canterbury under Sir Nathaniel Brent, and soon was advanced, by Laud, the dedicatee of the present work, to the registrarship of the ecclesiastical courts of the diocese. During the civil war and the Commonwealth he suffered severe financial hardship owing to his attachment to the royalist cause and was even imprisoned for a short time. At the Restoration he was rewarded with the mastership of St John's Hospital, Canterbury, and the office of auditor of Canterbury Cathedral, a post he held until his death. Included in the lot is a copy of his A Treatise of the Roman Ports and Forts in Kent (Oxford, 1693). (2)
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