Roger Ascham, Toxophilus (1545)

Roger Ascham (1514/15–1568) was a humanist scholar and writer who served as tutor to the young Princess Elizabeth (future Queen Elizabeth I) and Latin secretary to Mary I and Elizabeth I. Toxophilus (1545) was Ascham’s first vernacular treatise, a Ciceronian dialogue between two characters: a skilled archer, Toxophilus (lover of the bow, i.e. Ascham), and his friend, Philologus (lover of study, possibly Sir John Cheke (1514–1557)). Toxophilus also bears the distinction of being the first learned defence of a pastime in England; in this case, the military art of archery.

Toxophilus was first published by Edward Whitchurch, the King’s Printer, in 1545, coinciding with King Henry VIII’s victorious return from France. Most unusually, a woodcut leaf takes the place of a title page. The woodcut displays the royal arms on a shield with a crown at the top. An accompanying verse inscribed on a tablet supporting the shield proclaims that ‘The Scot, the Frencheman, the Pope, and heresie’ had been overthrown, and that all enemies would henceforth be overcome ‘[t]hrough Christ, King Henry, the Boke [i.e. the Bible] and the Bowe’. Both ‘Boke’ and ‘Bowe’ appear on either side of the shield, labelled with the words ‘VERITAS’ and ‘VINCIT’, both Latin words together meaning ‘truth prevails’. Ascham’s efforts were rewarded with a royal annuity of £10 and election to the office of Public Orator at Cambridge.

The copy displayed here is of interest as the woodcut title page features pen trials by an early modern reader. The beginning of the alphabet is featured upside-down at the bottom of the title page, while the beginning of a draft of a letter or short note is inscribed at the edge of the page (‘Cossen (i.e. ‘Cousin’) I pray you remember me as concerning …’). The annotator was most likely Clement Holyocke, whose name is inscribed in two places within the text itself. There is very little existing archival material connected to Holyocke other than a letter dated 25 June 1610, addressed to William Mountagu, son of the judge Sir Edward Montagu (1480s–1557). From the letter, we learn that Holyocke was writing from Coleraine, Ireland, and had been appointed woodward of Tyrone. Holyocke used the remaining leaves in his copy of Toxophilus as scrap paper to practise other drafts of letters. He writes ‘My good Brother’ on the verso of sig. B.iii., while ‘Memorandum’ is inscribed on the final page (displayed above) several times. He also takes the opportunity to practise his italic hand by copying the words ‘In ædibus’ found in the colophon.

Several copies of Toxophilus enjoyed a noteworthy bibliographic afterlife in the early nineteenth century. Three copies held today at the British Library were made up by the Reverend James William Dodd (1761–1818), usher at Westminster School, in 1807–1808. Dodd’s calligraphic skills were such that not only did he complete the text of the damaged parts faithfully in black letter, roman, and italic, but he was also able to copy the woodcut.¹