George Wythe's bookplate
Based on a family coat-of-arms[1], the bookplate for George Wythe's personal library features a coat of arms with a griffin (a mythical beast with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion) segreant on the crest and three griffins passant on the escutcheon. In heraldry, the griffin denotes strength, intelligence, courage and leadership. Coincidentally, the College of William and Mary chose the griffin as its mascot in 2010.
It is likely Wythe designed the bookplate himself, having a set made for him by an engraver, probably in London. A family of Wythes from Suffolk, England, had a family coat of arms described as "Azure 3 Griffins in pale passant or."[2]
The motto "Secondis Dubiisque Rectus" translates as "Upright in Prosperity and in Perils."[3] This was also the motto chosen by Sir William Blackstone for the commemorative rings given to the King, Lord Chancellor, and close friends and family to mark the occasion when he was called to the Coif: "I was called a Serjeant; the motto on my rings being, Secundis, dubiisque, rectus."[4]
Bookplates
Wythe's bookplate in volume 6 of The Reports of Sir Edward Coke (1738), George Wythe Collection, The Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.
Wythe's bookplate in volume 7 of The Reports of Sir Edward Coke (1738), Special Collections, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.
References
- ↑ Alonso Thomas Dill, George Wythe: Teacher of Liberty (Williamsburg, Virginia: Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission, 1979), 3.
- ↑ W.J. Corbett and T. Tindal Methold, "The Rise and Devolution of the Manors in Hepworth, Suffolk," Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural History X (1900), 135.
- ↑ Dill, 3.
- ↑ Reports of Cases Determined in the Several Courts of Westminster-Hall, from 1746 to 1779 (London: S. Sweet, et al., 2nd ed., 1828), 681.
