Verse
Correctio: Vixisti: Viuis: viues (‘Vixisti viuis, viues fine fine beatus’)
Six lines in Latin. Unpublished.
FrA 1
Copy, subscribed ‘Abrah: Frances’, following an unascribed six-line poem in Latin ‘In obitu Henrici Sydney militis’ (beginning ‘Regia Sydney facies dulceque lepores’).
In: A quarto miscellany of verse and some prose, in at least seven secretary and italic hands, 118 leaves (plus some blanks), currently disbound. Possibly compiled by one or more persons connected with the Inns of Court. c.1600-1620s.
Later in the library of the Rev. Richard Farmer, FSA (1735-97), Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, literary scholar. Lot 8055 in the sale of his library by Thomas King, 7 May to 16 June 1798. Probably owned afterwards by James Crossley (1800-83), author and book collector. Formerly Chetham's MS 8012.
The volume edited by Alexander B. Grosart as The Dr. Farmer Chetham MS. being a Commonplace Book in the Chetham Library, Manchester, temp. Elizabeth, James I, and Charles I, Chetham Society, vols 89 and 90 (Manchester, 1873).
Prose
A bryef and general comparison of Ramus his Logike with that of Aristotle
FrA 2
Copy in: A folio volume comprising three works by Abraham Fraunce, in two hands, 36 leaves, in contemporary vellum. With (f. 2r) a general title-page ‘The Sheapheards Logike: conteyning the præcepts of that art put downe by Ramus; examples set owt of the Sheapheards Kalender; notes and expositions collected owt of Beurhusius, Piscator, Mr. Chatterton and diuers others. Together with twooe general discourses, the one touchinge the prayse and ryghte vse of Logike, the other concernynge the comparison of Ramus his Logike with that of Aristotle’, subscribed ‘To the Ryght worshipful mr Edwarde Dyer’ and followed (ff. 2v) by a fourteen-line verse dedication to Dyer (beginning ‘Some arts wee bynde to some one kynde of subject generallye’) and subscribed in an italic hand ‘Abraham franse’, the main text (ff. 3r-36r) in a neat secretary hand. c.1580-5.
Bookplate of James Bindley, FSA (1737-1818), book collector, dated 1811. Bindley sale, part 3, 1819, lot 1665, bought by Triphook for George Watson Taylor, MP (1771-1841), collector (his sale 1823, part 2, lot 38). Then owned by Richard Heber (1774-1833), book collector (Heber sale, part 11, 1836, lot 800); and by Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), collector of books and manuscripts. Sotheby's, 19-22 June 1893 (Phillipps sale), lot 232.
Emblemata varia, ad principes Europae et rem historicam spectantia, calamo bene depicta, et versibus latinis illustrata
*FrA 3
Comprising pen and ink drawings by Fraunce of forty imprese, with Latin verse and prose captions beneath, copied from Paulo Giovio's Dialogo dell' imprese (1555; but probably from the illustrated edition published in 1574).
In: A folio presentation volume containing two neatly written autograph works by Abraham Fraunce in Latin verse and prose, 56 leaves (plus a few blanks), in contemporaty vellum bearing gilt and coloured pictorial imprese. Prepared by Fraunce probably as a leaving present for Philip Sidney before departing from Cambridge in February 1582. [1582].
Later inscribed (f. iir) by Edward Umfreville (1775-1858), collector of legal manuscripts, and (f. iiiv) ‘Richard Munn his booke the gift of the right honourable the lord Viscount Chaworth’.
Discussed in Katherine Duncan-Jones, ‘Two Elizabethan Versions of Giovio's Treatise on Imprese’, English Studies, 52 (1971), 118-23.
This MS discussed in Katherine Duncan-Jones, ‘Two Elizabethan Versions of Giovio's Treatise on Imprese’, English Studies, 52 (1971), 118-23.
Insignium, armorum, emblematum, hieroglyphicorum, et symbolorum, quae in Italia imprese nominantur, explicatio: quae symbolicae philosophicae postrema pars est
First published in London, 1588.
See Symbolicae philosophiae liber quartus et ultimus: FrA 6.
The Lawiers Logike, exemplifying the preecepts of Logike by the Practise of the Common Lawe
First published in London, 1588.
See The Sheapheards Logike: FrA 5.
Of the nature and vse of Logike
The Sheapheards Logike
A treatise, partly an earlier version of Fraunce's The Lawiers Logike, exemplifying the præcepts of Logike by the Practise of the Common Lawe which was published in London, 1588.
FrA 5
Copy, in two books, with numerous quotations from Edmund Spenser's Shepheardes Calender (1579)
In: the MS described under FrA 2. c.1580-5.
A facsimile of this MS published by the Scolar Press (Menston, 1969), which is the first publication of the work itself.
Symbolicae philosophiae liber quartus et ultimus
Basically an addendum to Fraunce's Insignium, armorum, emblematum, hieroglyphicorum, et symbolorum, quae in Italia imprese nominantur, explicatio: quae symbolicae philosophicae postrema pars est which was published in London, 1588.
*FrA 6
A formal presentation copy, in a small secretary hand, with a title-page bearing a dedication to Sir Robert Sidney (‘Ad illustriss: D Dominu Robertum Sydneyu’, signed at the end by Fraunce ‘Abrahamus Fransus’, 24 small quarto leaves, in contemporary vellum, with remains of green silk ties. c.1586-93.
Among papers of the Sidney family, Viscounts De L'Isle, of Penshurst Place, Ashford, Kent.
Tractatus de usu dialectices
Dramatic Works
Victoria
First published, edited by G.C. Moore Smith (Louvain, 1906).
*FrA 8
Autograph? presentation copy to Sir Philip Sidney, in a secretary hand, with dedication ‘Heroi Nobilissimo, Domino illustrissimo Mæcenati optimo Philippo Sidneio S P D:’, followed by eight Latin verses beginning ‘Meus erat immenso, nuper confecta Idore’ subscribed ‘Abrahamus Fransus’, the page of Personæ (p. 5) headed ‘Victoria’, v + 91 folio pages, in contemporary vellum, with remains of green silk ties. c.1570s-80s.
Among papers of the Sidney family, Viscounts De L'Isle, of Penshurst Place, Ashford, Kent.
Facsimile of the dedication to Sidney in DLB, vol. 236, British Rhetoricians and Logicians, 1500-1660. First Series, ed. Edward A. Malone (Detroit, 2001), p. 142.