The mystery of selfe-deceiuing, or, A discourse and discouery of the deceitfulnesse of mans heart / written by the late faithfull minister of Gods word Daniell Dyke, bachelour in diuinity ; published since his death by his brother I.D., minister of Gods word.

Mystery of self-deceiving

London : Printed by Edvvard Griffin for Ralph Mab, and are to be sold at the signe of the Greyhound in Pauls Church-yard, 1615.

1 volume ; 182 x 143 mm

This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.

Great Britain -- England -- London, -- publication place.

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From dealer's description: "A NEWLY DISCOVERED BOOK FROM THE PERSONAL LIBRARY OF CATHERINE TOLLEMACHE WITH A MANUSCRIPT RECIPE IN HER HAND DYKE (Daniel). The Mystery of Selfe-Deceiving. or a Discoure and discovery of the deceitfulnesse of Mans Heart. Second Edition. Small 4to (182 x 143mm). A few small rust spots in places and with a few amendments to the text in an early hand but otherwise very clean, closed tear to the fore-corner of O5 (touching a couple of words on recto and verso but not obscuring the text) and a small chip to the blank fore-margin of the final leaf (Ff3). Contemporary limp vellum, substantial remains of two pairs of ties, old manuscript ink and chalk numbers to the fore-edge of the book block, later manuscript title to the spine (book block beginning to neatly detach from the binding, front pastedown unstuck, bookplate removed from inside of the upper cover, vellum slightly shrunken but otherwise a remarkably well preserved and unsophisticated copy). London: by Edward Griffin for Ralph Mab, 1615 £15,000 STC 7399. First published (posthumously by Dyke’s brother Jeremiah) the previous year and multiple times up to 1634. Dedicated to Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford. A hitherto unknown book from the personal working library of Catherine Tollemache of Helmingham Hall in Suffolk. Catherine clearly had a great interest in plants, both for their medicinal and culinary uses, and the present volume contains a manuscript recipe by her on the front flyleaf. We know from her memorial stone in the church at Helmingham that she was famed for her, “Pitie toward ye poore, & charitie in releeving (throvgh her skill and singvlar experience in chyrvrgerie,) ye sick & sore wovnded” Books from her own library are rare - a single example survives at Folger (a copy of John Partridge’s The treasurie of hidden secrets (1600) - only identified in 2006) alongside the famous Tollemache Book of Secrets - a fifteenth century manuscript miscellany of recipes and practical household instruction (owned by the present Lord Tollemache) and a printed prayer book also at Helmingham. Signed on the rear pastedown: “Catheren Tallemach / o[w]eth this Boocke”, and with a manuscript recipe on the front pastedown in Catherine’s characteristic phonetic spelling: "Take broocklime water creses malos the yelkes of to nue Layed Egges to spunful of vinegar Lest of your broocke Lime moste of the water cre[-] ses & most of all your malowes boyle them all to gether verye tender pres out the water cleane them beat them smale & mickes the vinegar & eggs all to gether & aplie it" Catherine (or Katherine) Tollemache (nee Cromwell, 1557-1621) married Lionel Tollemache of Helmingham Hall, Suffolk on 18th February 1580. Catherine lived at Helmingham for over thirty years and was clearly interested in the plants and flowers that grew in the surrounding countryside as well as matters related to domestic life at Helmingham such as cooking, preserving, baking and other aspects of household management. The Tollemache Book of Secrets (a facsimile of which was produced by Lord Tollemache for presentation to the Roxburghe Club in 2002) contains a strikingly similar ownership inscription by Catherine on the inside of the upper cover. The Tollemache library at Helmingham was one of the finest private libraries in the country but was sold across a series of sales (although the Book of Secrets was later returned to Helmingham.) Despite the well-known nature of the Tollemache books very little has been written specifically about Catherine’s own personal library and the extent to which it was distinct from the rest of the house. Books from her library are very rare - there may have only been a few, but confusion may also have arisen due to her idiosyncratic spelling (including the spelling of her own name.) Nevertheless, the present book is an important new discovery, particularly as it suggests Catherine’s all-consuming passion for the natural world as she here uses the blank available space in an otherwise unrelated book (a theological work) to make a note of a recipe. Moira Coleman in her study of the Tollemache Book of Secrets reproduces many of the recipes in detail and traces many of the ingredients to the gardens and countryside around Catherine’s home (see Fruitful Endeavours, the 16th-Century Household Secrets of Catherine Tollemache at Helmingham Hall (2012)) A number of the ingredients mentioned by Catherine is the recipe copied here do not appear in Coleman’s book such as brooklime (a bitter herb that grows in marshy land that was thought to cure scurvy) which appears fairly frequently in 17th-century printed medical guides as a cure for not only scurvy but bruises and aches and the treatment of pleurisy. Rebecca Laroche announced in Notes & Queries in June 2006: "Correct identification of a seventeenth-century inscription in a rare book in the Folger Shakespeare Library offers an opportunity to begin reconstructing patterns of women’s reading and book ownership. Because of idiosyncrasies in the hand, the Folger catalogue (now corrected) had misidentified the name written in John Partridge’s The treasurie of hidden secrets (1600) from the book’s purchase in 1955...This inscription correctly identified tells us that the Folger volume once had a place in the famous Tollemache library of seventeenth-century England. What is more, the existence of this inscription modifies our conception of the extensive collection, which once also contained manuscripts of the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and Philip Sidney. With its two previously known sister inscriptions - one in the early Tudor Books of Secrets , the other in a print prayerbook existing in the family library at Helmingham - this third signature suggests a subset of texts, those to which Catherine Tollemache claimed ownership, within the larger Tollemache library. Not only may this discovery indicate that Catherine was a collector in her own right, it may also show us the ways in which she was a consumer with particular interests...As Jeremy Griffiths has demonstrated, Catherine Tollemache was ‘known for her skill in medicine’, and a concentrated search for more examples of her inscription may uncover the private library of an early modern female practitioner" (p.158) The discovery of the present book from Catherine’s library is highly important not least because it also contains a manuscript recipe for a medical treatment. It seems highlight likely that other books belonging to Catherine will come to light in the future. The discovery and identification of the book at Folger (after fifty years) has provided a good basis for recognising Catherine’s signature and the present volume will also be helpful. Possible clues exist which may point towards other books belonging to her, in the Sotheby’s sale of the 1950’s and 1960’s extensive details are provided of the male Tollemache provenances (particularly the gilt arms block found on many volumes which is easily recognisable) but mention of Catherine is entirely absent. A quick glance at one of the sale catalogues though (14th June 1965) records a manuscript Statutes of England (first quarter of the 15th century) which is said to contain, on a flyleaf, "in a sixteenth-century hand...a recipe for a laxative beginning ‘Take poshote [i.e. posset] ale...’ (the other ingredients are dandelion, violet and sorrel). Later Provenance: Sold at Swann in 2017 “Contemporary ownership inscription of Catheren Fallemach on rear pastedown, recipe for a poultice(?) in her hand on front endleaf”, bought by a US book dealer and sold to Maggs in 2024 (still with the owner identified as Fallemach but with the price significantly increased due to “evidence of female ownership.” Ordered from Maggs, D9744, 2024-07-01, email quote.

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