St John’s College Aa.3 (part) (James 496)

John Thomas Ambrose, Epitome of Beausobré on the New Testament. English, 1816

John Thomas Ambrose, of St John’s College, Cambridge (1798-1881): ‘An Epitomy of Beausobré for Lectures to Mr Jephson [?Thomas Jephson, 1784-1864, Fellow of St John’s College] Xmas examinations 1816’ (front cover). Presumably this is based on A new version of the Gospel according to St Matthew, with a literal commentary on all the difficult passages, to which is prefixed an introduction to the reading of the Holy Scriptures, intended chiefly for young students in divinity written originally in French by Messieurs [Isaac] De Beausobré and Lenfant (Cambridge, 1790). The text is laid out as facing questions and answers. The work is incomplete, but substantial: there are 672 questions, with answers to the first 602. At the end of the vol. (fos 85r-86v) are the drafts of some verses addressed to Emily Strutt, Ambrose’s sweetheart, dated Cambridge, Jan. 1816. These were originally sealed together by the author, and were probably separated again, slightly damaging the paper, after his death. At the end of the vol. are some pen flourishes and a short extract from Pope’s Homer.

Manuscript extra information

200x160 mm. 87 fos (modern foliation). College bookplate (nineteenth century) inside front cover. No record of acquisition, but the vol. may have come to the College after Ambrose’s death.

Autograph. Paper: a commercial ruled account book, watermarked 1813. Original binding: vellum on card. The title written on the cover, now somewhat worn.