HOWELL, James.

A crisp copy of James Howell’s popular account of the history of London, complete with Hollar’s engraved illustration of the city with numbered key. Howell’s account is a rather spirited recasting of earlier descriptions of the city, chiefly Stow’s 1598 Survey. It is a wide-ranging discussion of the city’s history, geography, governance and size, with a final section comparing it to other great cities of the world. Significant focus is given to St Paul’s Church, London Bridge, the London Guilds, and each Ward of the city. The work includes a contents page and index, as well as a list of other works by the author and a dedicatory poem to London Bridge in both Latin and English. Howell was known as a talented linguist thanks to his time spent working in Europe, and enjoyed a varied career working in commerce and politics alongside his writing. Londinopolis has been called ‘his most popular publication of the [commonwealth] period’ (DNB X 112).

Several errors in pagination, including a gap between pages 124 and 301, might be explained by the collaborative printing effort of the book’s production. There appear to be two issues of this first edition, both dated 1657 but one without Thomas Dring’s name. The two engravings are from highly notable continental engravers. The portrait of Howell, leaning against an oak in a forest, is a collaboration between French engravers Claude Mellan (1598-1688) and Abraham Bosse (1602-1676); a first version was printed in the 1641 French edition of Howell’s Dendrologia. The illustration of London is the work of Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677), a Czech artist who produced a number of famous illustrations of the city. 

This copy was gifted to a “Jacob Bonnel” on the 9th June 1657 by a friend, likely the author himself, as noted in pencil on the front pastedown. Unfortunately the flyleaf to which the note refers, holding Howell’s autograph, has been removed. Jacob Bonnell served as Master of the Grocers Company for a short time in 1675 until his death on 6 May of that year; he is marked as becoming an Alderman in 1670. This book would be an apt gift for someone active in the London Guilds. A few annotations in a later C17 hand, mark an intriguingly sceptical engagement with the text of the book. Alongside correcting minor errors, his copious marginal notes to p.389 question Howell’s figures on London’s population and death rate: “According to this calculation, the inhabitants of London in 1657 were 150,000 […] the true number multiplying 12430 by 20, will be 250600”. Likewise his comment on the population figures stated on p.403: “In 1636 above 700,000. This must be a mistake”. The annotations display mathematical literacy as well as a certain interest in medical issues, mentioning “the great mortality which prevailed formerly from the filth [in] the town, infectious fevers, & small pox” as well as naming Lord Lumley as the founder of the Lumleian lectures, suggesting a reader with medical interests, and probably one writing after the Great Fire. A very intriguing copy.