King James his Royall and Magnificent Entertainement through his Honorable Cittie of London (1604)

Item Details

London, Valentine Simmes and Edward Blount, 1604

B. Jon: His Part of King James his Royall and Magnificent Entertainement through his Honorable Cittie of London, Thursday the 15. March. 1603. London: V(alentine) S(immes and George Eld) for Edward Blount 1604. Small 4to, 175 x 125mm. (6 7/8 x 4 7/8in.)

Valentine Simmes also published the quarto of Shakespeare's Hamlet in 1604, and Edward Blount would later play the leading role in the syndicate of publishers that brought out the Shakespeare First Folio in 1623.

Ben Jonson gained a reputation for writing entertainments for the court of King James I. This volume contains various entertainments Jonson wrote as part of the festivities surrounding James’ ascension to the throne of England in 1603.

Titlepage in manuscript facsimile; collates A-E4, F2, with the full text of Part 1 but lacks Part 2, “A particular entertainment of the Queene and Prince their Highnesse to Althrope,” as does the Trinity College, Cambridge copy.

Very rare at auction. We suspect that the missing Part 2 was auctioned by Park-Bernet in 1946 and Christies in 1995.

References: STC (2nd ed.) 14756; ESTC S109180; Greg I 200-1(a); Pforzheimer 553.

Elaborate clam-shell case by Book Arts of Washington DC, with mocha full vegetable tanned kid goat, hand tooled in 22 karat gold and blind tool, "Cambridge" inspired double borders with decorative spine in 22 karat gold, title on leather label, mounted on spine of clamshell, stamped in 22 karat gold. Chemise in acid free natural Asahi cloth lined with archival soft white superfine stock. Walls of clamshell in marble suggesting stone pattern reminiscent of the seventeenth century. It features in the Book Arts online Gallery.