Compositional draft of five devotional poems by Ralph Knevet, on the verso of a copy of the Ortelius map of the Kingdom of Prester John

The poems entitled 'Prayer', 'Sicknes', 'The world', 'Preaching' and 'Memory', together approximately 123 lines of verse in two columns, on the blank verso of:

[Abraham ORTELIUS (1527-1598)]. Prebisteri Iohannis, sive, Abissinorum Imperii Descriptio. [Antwerp: 1572 or later].

Double-page hand-coloured engraved map of Africa and the Arabian peninsula, 17-line dedication to the Biblical King David to top-left surrounded by floral strap-like ornamentation, with arms of Prester John above, title within cartouche in Indian Ocean, Latin text on verso, 370 x 435mm (plate mark), 422 x 550mm (sheet).

The five poems on the verso of this map are apparently the earliest extant versions of numbers 71-75 from A Gallery to the Temple: Lyrical Poems Upon Sacred Occasions (ed. Goliardica,1954) and contain various corrections and false-starts, while the poem entitled ‘Memory’ appears here with the addition of an entire 6-line stanza not present in the fair copy (British Library Add. MS 27447).

The use of the verso of a coloured Ortelius map for poetic composition whilst unusual, can be seen in at least two other examples (BC MS Lt q 37 at Leeds and the other in a private collection). This suggests that Knevet may have drafted his entire series of devotional poems on the blank leaves of an atlas.