Reliquiæ Sacræ Carolinæ

The oldest book of my father's collection was a tatty  book with no cover. It was printed in 1649, which I thought was amazing. I didn't particularly like history at school and didn't feel any great connection to the past, but holding this old book did seem to do that. Even better was the inscription on page 2:

"Mary her booke 1682"

Now that's history.

Inside, the title page announced "The Pourtaicture of His Sacred Majesty", although this page did seem out of place, a more modern typeface compared with the rest of the book, and an altogether newer feel.

I searched the internet for the title and found it to be related to Charles I. Also known as the "Eikon Basilike" (often written in Greek capitals ΕΙΚΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ), it was supposedly written by Charles while he was imprisoned just before his execution. Was this book therefore a copy of this "Eikon Basilike"? What was strange was that the book contained a number of embedded title pages, as if it was a collection of separate parts, and one of these appeared to be the "Eikon Basilike" itself:

Confusing.

On the fly leaf, now the front of the book because of the missing cover, was a hand-written note that was rather difficult to read and took me some time to decipher.

Eventually I worked out that it said this:

"(?) This copy has a recently included printed title page which however is incorrect! The book is a copy of the Reliquiæ Sacræ Carolinæ printed by Samuel Browne at The Hague in 1650".

This was a definite step forward. I now had a good idea (if the note was to be believed) what the book was, but without the cover or correct title page I couldn't be at all certain. What I needed was to find a another copy of the book to compare it with. From searching the internet I discovered that the National Trust had a copy of the Reliquiæ, so I sent them an enquiry, and received a very helpful reply from their Libraries Curator. She explained:

The Reliquiae or 'works' of Charles I usually included the 'Pourtraicture ... (usually known as the Eikon Basilike) which purported to be written by Charles I, although is now thought to be by John Gauden.  The bibliography of the Eikon Basilike is extremely complicated, as there were lots of different editions produced around the same time, many with false imprints (including the edition which may be yours, which was actually published in London).

The bibliography of the Eikon Basilike and related Reliquiæ have, the curator explained, been the subject of at least two studies. She said:

There are published bibliographies of the work and its variants, including E. Almack's Bibliography of the King’s book and F.F. Madan's New bibliography of the Eikon basilike.

I found an online copy of Almack's Bibliography of the King’s Book, and was able to discover that his edition number 31 matched my copy precisely - the page numbering, font style, the textual description and page contents, and the image of the Eikon title page itself were all identical. The description of the title page ends with "HAGUE, printed by Samuel Browne. 1650". All this seemed to confirm that the note written on the fly leaf of my copy was correct.

There was one detail (two transposed pages) for which I wanted to check with the newer Madan work, but I could find no copy of this on the internet. Again the helpful NT lady suggested I contact Cambridge University Library, as they were considered the authority on the subject and held Madan's own collection of the books. This time I really hit the jackpot, as the person who replied to my email took a particular interest in the Eikon, and was able to answer my outstanding question and confirm that my book was definitely the Almack 31/Madan 61 edition of the Reliquiæ. He was also able to advise me what the missing title page and illustration page would have looked like if I wanted to add them to the book when rebound.

I eventually obtained proper images from the British Library who had a matching copy of the book and also a copying service that could provide images. The images that I received needed a great deal of cleaning up using an image editor, as I didn't want personal scribblings from someone else's book in mine - it didn't seem right to include something that definitely didn't belong, even though the whole idea of tidying up books and inserting missing pages is a real no-no for book conservationists.

Bibliography

The Eikon Basilike, or Pourtaicture, known as the King's Book, is a sort of spiritual diary written by Charles I in the period leading up to his execution, or at least was originally believed to be so. This was disputed by John Gauden, the Bishop of Exeter, who after the Restoration claimed that he had written it. Evidence from witnesses one way or the other was influenced by where their allegiances lay. Current thinking is that it was probably authored by Gauden using at least some of the king's writings, but the truth will never be known. It was first published just after the Charles's execution in 1649 as a pro-royalist publication and to elicit sympathy for the (now ex-) king.

The Reliquiæ Sacræ Carolinæ, sometimes called the King's Works, is a collective work of, as the title page announces, the civil and sacred writings of the king, that was first published in 1650. It incorporates the Eikon (the "sacred") as well as speeches and letters by the king (the "civil") during the rise of Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians.

The Eikon (and by extension, the Reliquiae), was very popular and ran to many editions over the succeeding years. Its publication was banned by the Protestant Parliament, and to avoid punishment, the publishers claimed it to be printed in the Hague when in reality it was printed in London.

References

Samuel Browne - Wikisource

Reliquiae Sacrae Carolinae  - Wikipedia