Friday 10 July 1668

Up, and to attend the Council, but all in vain, the Council spending all the morning upon a business about the printing of the Critickes, a dispute between the first Printer, one Bee that is dead, and the Abstractor, who would now print his Abstract, one Poole. So home to dinner, and thence to Haward’s to look upon an Espinette, and I did come near the buying one, but broke off. I have a mind to have one. So to Cooper’s; and there find my wife and W. Hewer and Deb., sitting, and painting; and here he do work finely, though I fear it will not be so like as I expected: but now I understand his great skill in musick, his playing and setting to the French lute most excellently; and speaks French, and indeed is an excellent man. Thence, in the evening, with my people in a glass hackney-coach to the park, but was ashamed to be seen. So to the lodge, and drank milk, and so home to supper and to bed.

20 Annotations

First Reading

LKvM  •  Link

It is indeed a foreign age when a man-about-town goes out in the evening to drink milk.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"a dispute between the first Printer, one Bee that is dead, and the Abstractor, who would now print his Abstract, one Poole."

L&M note Poole argued that, Bee (who did not die in fact until 1672) was not an author of what he had anthologized, so had no rights to it; and anyway his (Poole's) work included matter the *Critici Sacri* didn't. At today's meeting, the disputants were given a fortnight to come to an agreement; the Council later ruled in Poole's favor; his *Synopsis Criticorum* was published in 5 vols in 1669-70 and was often reissued.

The Poole Project -- incl. various publications that can be downloaded: http://libguides.calvin.edu/conte…

Harvard Library's huge collection of those and even more of Poole's publications (most recent first): http://goo.gl/wskPE

***
A side note: years ago I examined a Harvard copy of an early ed. of Poole's *Annotations upon the Holy Bible: wherein the sacred text is inserted...* -- accurately describing pages on which tiny blocks of Scripture were surrounded by fields of annotations.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Thence, in the evening, with my people...."

And, LKvM , the man-about-town took his entourage out to drink milk at a bistro.

Mary  •  Link

The Daily Telegraph reports today that a 'priceless' 1614 sculpted and painted bust of Dr. Peter Turner, which was looted from St. Olave's Church on April 17th 1941, has been recovered and is to be reinstalled in the nave of the church.

Peter Turner was a renowned botanist in the late 16th/early 17th centuries and this bust would, of course, have been well known to Pepys. It was apparently rediscovered together with papers showing its history down to the time of the London blitz.

Georgiana Wickham  •  Link

"in a glass hackney-coach to the park, but was ashamed to be seen." Why was he ashamed to be seen? Because he had his "entourage" with him?

Mary  •  Link

Probably because he was in a hackney (common) rather than a better class of vehicle.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

The case brought by Cornelius Bee

Firstly, it sheds light on "the way in which law was practised in the mid 17th century. Secondly it sheds light on the costs involved in the printing industry; the sums Mr Bee discusses are simply enormous for this period, which presumably explains why he brought his case against Mr Poole (a rough estimate would suggest £1000 in 1660 would be worth about £76,000 today). Thirdly, the case highlights the destruction wreaked by the fire in 1666, and the subsequent implications for businessmen like Mr Bee."

http://www.shakespearesengland.co…

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

The link to Matthew Poole leads to the Wikipedia article about him, and this:

The work with which his name is principally associated is the Synopsis criticorum biblicorum (5 vols fol., 1669-1676), in which he summarizes the views of one hundred and fifty biblical critics. On the suggestion of William Lloyd, Poole undertook the Synopsis as a digest of biblical commentators, from 1666. It took ten years, with relaxation often at Henry Ashurst's house. The prospectus of Poole's work mustered of eight bishops and five continental scholars. A patent for the work was obtained on 14 October 1667, and the first volume was ready for the press, when difficulties were raised by Cornelius Bee, publisher of the Critici Sacri (1660); the matter was decided in Poole's favour. Rabbinical sources and Roman Catholic commentators are included; little is taken from John Calvin, nothing from Martin Luther.[2] The book was written in Latin and is currently being translated into English by the Matthew Poole Project.[3] http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

The Matthew Poole Project (current link)
https://matthewpoole.net/

LKvM  •  Link

"So to Cooper’s; and there find my wife and W. Hewer and Deb., sitting, and painting; and here he do work finely, though I fear it will not be so like as I expected: but now I understand his great skill in musick, his playing and setting to the French lute most excellently; and speaks French, and indeed is an excellent man."
In spite of the fact that Sam fears his wife's likeness "will not be so like as I expected," he is so distracted by Cooper's skill in music, the French lute, and the French language that he uncharacteristically overlooks the primary fact that he engaged Cooper for a portrait for which Cooper may be incapable of meeting his expectations.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

On 10 July, 1668 Henry Morgan attacked and sacked the city of Porto Bello and held the city ransom for weeks until the Governor of Panama agreed to pay the buccaneers an enormous ransom.

Despite it being a dull backwater most of the time, Porto Bello had excellent defenses because of the presence of great wealth awaiting the infrequent treasure fleets. There were three castles to contend with.
At the entrance to the Bay stood the castle of San Felipe, with 12 cannons and a garrison of 100 men.
On one side of Portobello Harbor was Santiago Castle, with 200 men and 32 guns covering the harbor and the road into the city.
On the other side of the harbor was the unfinished fortress of San Gerónimo. These fortifications would be manned although the treasure fleet was not expected for another year or so.

Such were the defenses on paper, anyway. Because of the castles, the people of Portobello had known years of peace and were not ready for an attack in July of 1668. The castles were seriously undermanned: there were 50 men out of 100 in San Felipe, 75 men out of 200 in Santiago, and only eight in the unfinished castle of San Gerónimo. There were a handful of soldiers in town as well on the night of July 10.
Although the soldiers had good small arms including pistols and muskets, the cannons in the castles were in bad repair and there was a shortage of grenades. There were also insufficient gunners to man the cannons if needed.

Henry Morgan knew the city was going to be surprised, but he did not know the castles were so undermanned.
He decided on a land assault. He took his fleet down the coast and unloaded his men - some 500 in all - using long canoes he had brought along for that purpose.
The men paddled the canoes for four days, sneaking past the fortress of San Lorenzo at night. One ship remained with them, a little further out to sea. This escort ship was eventually spotted by the Spanish, but caused no alarm: what damage could one ship do?

Henry Morgan's buccaneers made a lucky capture: a local fisherman was pressured into guiding them. On the night of July 10, they were at Orange Island, ready to begin the assault.

For what happened next, see
https://goldenageofpiracy.org/his…

Harry R  •  Link

Probably not the right place to ask , but can someone explain why some annotators names appear in black print and some in blue? I notice today that LKvM's 2011 note has his name in black and his 2021 note in blue. I can see that the blue printed names provide a direct link to their other notes but the "black" names don't (so his 2011 note isn't listed with his other contributions). Also what is the significance of the black asterisks against annotators names which appear from time to time?

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The black asterisk means it's new since you logged on the last time. Your highlighted names question I'll leave to Phil Gyford to answer.

Harry R  •  Link

Thanks Sarah. Much appreciated. Sam's entries have been paltry of late for a number of possible reasons - eyesight, pressure of work - hence my tangential query.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

To make life more interesting for you and those who follow, Harry, how about taking on a project? One that suggests itself to me is that I would love to know what Minette was writing to Charles II all these years. I bet many answers about what the French were up to would be answered by her. Plus she did have quite a racy life after marrying Monsieur. I believe a book was published with their correspondence a few years ago, and you could probably get a copy cheap ...???

Or a couple of years back, Terry and I copied quite a few letters from Ambassadors about what was going on ... as I recall the Venetian Ambassador to Spain was very chatty. Perhaps they can tell us what happened recently to upset the Prince of Monaco and Charles II? And was a British Envoy to North Africa killed recently or not?

Perhaps you have a quest you'd rather follow?

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The book I remembered: “My dearest Minette: Letters between Charles II and his sister, the Duchesse d’Orléans” by Ruth Norrington.

Harry R  •  Link

I'm no scholar Sarah. I give Sam & company 20/30 minutes at the start of each day but I have other pursuits that more than take up the rest of it. So much so that since I began reading the diary I've accumulated a small library of books on and around the Restoration period but not made much headway with them. One day hopefully. I'll take this opportunity to thank you for your considerable contribution to my daily indulgence.

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