William Ree: Commonplace book

Autograph commonplace book containing entries on a wide range of subjects arranged under headings with an index at the end. 550 numbered pages, including blanks, some later entries, a few leaves removed, nineteenth-century bookplate of Arthur Evans S. T. P., contemporary vellum wrappers (later spine title), folio.
Ree inscribed the top of the first page: "Admissus fui in Collegium Sti Johannis die [blank] Maij 1621 Gulielmus Ree". Venn, Alumni Cantabrigiensis, records Ree's graduation at St. John's in 1624-5 and that he proceeded M. A. in 1628. He probably matriculated as a sizar from St. John's in 1621 and was perhaps rector of Stratton-on-the-Fosse in Somerset from 1631 to 1663.
The volume affords an insight into the reading and interests of a Cambridge undergraduate in the early 1620s. Among books noted as having been referred to the following may be mentioned: Sir Walter Ralegh, History of the World; St. Augustine, Confessions, and commentaries on them; Stow, Chronicle; Bacon, Essays; Lithgow, Travels; George Sandys, Relation; Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy; Camden, Polydor Virgil, Plutarch; Archbishop George Abbot, Description of the World; and Dr. Clerke, Sermons.
A list of epigrams is to be found on pp. 37-38. Ree also wrote Philip Sidney's name at the head of the first page.

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Sotheby's, 6 July 1977, Lot 124

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Microfilm available