Main Content
Summary
Author: Loggan, David (engraver)
Title: Oxonia illustrata, sive omnium celeberrimae istius universitatis collegiorum, aularum, bibliothecae Bodleianae, scholarum publicarum, theatri Sheldoniani ; nec non urbis totius scenographia.
Publication: Oxford, at the Sheldonian Theatre 1675.
Price: £8,250
Reference: 01225
Full Description
Large folio. Engr privilege leaf, engr title leaf, engr dedication leaf, engr leaf with address to reader, engr leaf with list of plates, 40 double-page engr plates (of which one is larger and folding, and printed on two sheets of paper). Narcissus Luttrell’s copy, with ownership inscription “Nar. Luttrell his book 1686” on preliminary bank leaf, and with the 19th cent armorial bookplate of E.W. Wynne Pendarves, inheritor of part of Luttrell’s library. The book is in its original unrestored late 17th century full red morocco binding, with delicate gilt panelled tooling on upper and lower covers. A few of the plates show slight traces of offsetting, and an old repair to a tear in one blank margin, but the condition of the volume is generally very good. Preserved in cloth box.
A good copy, in a fine binding and with a significant provenance, of one of the great English engraved books of the later 17th century. Loggan, a Dane from Dantzig who settled in Oxfordshire in the mid 1660s, was appointed engraver to the University of Oxford in 1669, and over the following few years produced the series of forty engravings for the present volume. These illustrate the Bodleian Library, the University Schools, the newly built Sheldonian Theatre, the University Church, and the University’s various colleges and halls. The volume is completed by panoramic views of the city from a distance, an excellent plan of the city in birds’ eye perspective, a plate illustrating the various varieties of academic dress, a plan of the University Botanic Garden and an engraved view of Winchester College (the public school linked to New College, Oxford). The engravings are justly famous for their combination of accuracy and visual attractiveness, and they challenge comparison with the best contemporary engravings of buildings in French and Italian cities. They are also an excellent historical record of the buildings of the University in the 1670s, portraying not just the principal courtyards of the colleges but all the structures on each college site ; thus, the engraving of Christ Church records both the larger buildings that stood on the present sites of Peckwater and Canterbury Quadrangles, and also the various residential and service buildings hidden behind. Loggan’s engravings are also a reliable record of college gardens, and of the seven independent halls that then existed alongside the colleges proper.