Problemata

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Arms Three birds [pigeons?]The owner of this stamp is wrongly identified by Cyril Davenport in English Heraldic Book-stamps as Benjamin Heath (1704-1766). Henry Clements owned a book with this stamp from this library with the initials J P and the ownership inscription "John Price his booke 1656", and believed that the birds were Cornish choughs, and that the arms were those of Price. Unfortunately, it is clear that the inscription and the initials are later than the armorial stamp, as more than one book exists with this stamp and the ownership inscription of Edward Gwynn, who died about 1645. D. Macarthur of St Andrews University Library, noted that that library owns no less than fifteen books from this collection, and believed that the owner might be Matthew Gwynn [Gwinne] M.D. (1558?-1627). The principal feature of the books in the collection is the preponderance of medical works. The birds resemble Gesner's pigeons, and as his work was the principal source for avian iconography in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century, it seems probable that the birds are doves or pigeons. There is a number of families that bear three doves. Papworth gives Magill and Rathbone (argent three doves azure); Crule (azure three doves argent; and azure three doves or); Hodby (azure three doves proper); Ayer (gules three doves close argent); and Columbell and Tunsted (sable three doves argent). The best hope of identifying the owner of this library depends on some mark of identification being found in the books. All that we can be sure of is that this is a medical library put together before 1624. The most likely candidate is Matthew Gwinne [Gwynne], a medical doctor, who died in 1627, and therefore fits into the time period of the imprints, the latest one being 1624. He was educated at St John's College Oxford. "In his younger days he was much admired for his skill and dexterity in poetry and philosophical disputes, in humane and profane learning, but above all for modern languages". He was medical professor at Gresham College. In addition to several plays, he also authored Epicedium in obitum illustrissimi herois Henrici comitis Derbiensis (Oxford, 1593). Other sources list: Hathey (3 birds argent membered gules) [Burke’s General armory]; Pennystone [British Library Additional manuscript 30983. Arms of Kentish families]; and Sir Richard Mompesson (d. 1627) (argent 3 pigeons azure) [Parker, James. A glossary of terms used in heraldry]