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Algernon Sidney (1622-1683) (facing left)
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Algernon Sidney (1622-1683) (facing right)
[higher resolution image 3.8
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Thomas Hollis's Library of Liberty
This is part of an ongoing series which
will examine the imagery created by the English publisher Thomas Hollis (1720-1774)
to embellish and advertise his reissue of classic works by 17th century republicans
and radicals who
were active during the English Revolution and its aftermath. He called this
series his "Library of Liberty" and volumes began to appear in the 1760s and
were sent to libraries and individuals in Europe and the American colonies.
The volumes were beautifully bound in red leather and had liberty symbols embossed
on them (such as the phrygian or liberty cap and a dagger (in reference to
Brutus' slaying of the tyrant Julius Caesar)). It was Hollis' intention to
make these books, which he thought were so important to the understanding
of liberty, catch the attention of the eye as well as the mind. As he said
in a letter in June 1765:
The bindings of Books are little regarded by me for my own proper library;
but by long experience I have found it necessary to attend to them for
other libraries; having thereby often drawn notice, with preservation,
on many excellent books or curious, which it is probable, would else have
passed unheeded or neglected.
The library included works by his favourite John Milton, Andrew
Marvell,
Marchamont Nedham,
Edmund Ludlow, John Locke, Algernon Sidney, and others. As a frontispiece for
each book Hollis included an image of the author, designed under his direction
by Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727-1785), surrounded by a wreath and with
a phrygian cap and suitable quotation below.
Algernon Sidney (1622-1683)
Born to an aristocratic family, Algernon Sidney became one of the leading
republican theorists of the late 17th century whose works exerted a considerable
influence on 18th century America. He served in the army during the 1640s and
1650s, sat in Parliament where he voted against the execution of the king,
lived in exile in Holland and France for much of the Restoration (of the Stuart
monarchy after 1660), and in the late 1670s and early 1680s became iinvolved
in various plots against the Crown which led to arrest and execution for high
treason. His major and best known work is his Discourses concerning Government (written
1679-1683, published 1698) which Sidney wrote to refute Sir Robert Filmer’s
(1588-1653) patriarchal theory of the monarchy, Patriarcha, or the Natural
Power of Kings, which had appeared in 1680. Filmer’s work also prompted
John Locke to write part of the Two Treatises of Government so it
is be doubly famous for having prompted into being two classics of the republican
commonwealthman tradition which was to so influence the 18th century, especially
those in America who were challenging the right of the British king to rule
over them. Sidney’s criticisms of the arbitrary and despotic powers of the
restored Stuart monarchy so inflamed their supporters that Sidney was singled
out for persecution and its was with delight that they found in his rooms an
unpublished manuscript of his Discourses which they used as evidence
of treason against him, the judge arguing that “scribere est agere” (to write
is to act - i.e that writing in favour of an act is the same as carrying out
that act). Sidney lost the case and was duly beheaded, but was spared the indignity
of having his body drawn and quartered. The Discourses were published
soon after his execution (1698) and again by Thomas Hollis in 1762. Copies
of Sidney's work were widely circulated and read in the American colonies thus
making it one of the key texts for understanding the thinking of the American
revolutionaries.
Further Reading:
Algernon Sidney (facing left)
Description: There are two laurel branches tied at the top
not the bottom, with a single stem at each end and a neatly tied ribbon in
bow. Beneath there is a phrygian cap and a bar which partly intrude into the
text. The long-haired Sidney (spelt "Sydney"
here) carries a banner over his shoulder which reads "Sanctus amor patriae
dat. animum" ("The sacred love of the fatherland inspires").
The text reads:
Algernon Sydney second son of Robert Earl
of Leicester. Colonel of a regiment of horse. One of the Council of State
and Commissioner to mediate a peace between Sweden and Denmark. Beheaded
afterwards unjustly for high treason Dec. VII MDCLXXXIII.
Drawn and etched
MDCCLX by I.B. Cipriani a Florentine from a proof impression of a seal ingraved
by Thomas Simon in the possession of Thomas Hollis of Lincoln's Inn F.R.
(Fellow of the Royal Society) and A. SS (Member of the Society of Antiquaries).
At the time when Mr. Algernon Sidney was ambassador at the court
of Denmark Monsieur Terlon the French ambassador had the confidence to tear
out of the book of mottoes in the king's library this verse which Mr. Sydney
according to the liberty allowed to all noble strangers had written in it
"manus haec inimica
tyrannis, ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem".
Though Monsieur
Terlon understood not a word of Latin he was told by others the meaning of
that sentence which he considered as a libel upon the French government and
upon such as was then setting up in Denmarck by French assistance or example.
Lord Molesworth's preface to his account of Denmark.
Col. Sydney bore this
only motto without figure on the parliament side during the civil wars.
Commentary: The "left facing" Sidney image is
different from the "right facing" image in three respects: the direction Sidney
is facing; the length of the written information below the image; and the line
of text at the bottom which explains the meaning of the banner Sidney is holding
over his shoulder. The "left facing" Sidney has two additional paragraphs of
text (the top two) which provide a brief bio of Sidney and a description of
the origin of the image and the name of the artist. The "left facing" image
was probably used as a stand alone picture postcard which was sent to friends
of the publisher Thomas Hollis, possibly in the hope that the recipients might
buy his edition of Sidney's Works (1762). The extra text had to be inserted
after the image was drawn, thus intruding slightly into the text. The "right
facing" image was used as the frontispiece of this edtion and so had no use
for the top two paragraphs of texts as this information was contained elsewhere
in the book. The motto Sidney wrote for the King of Denmark can be translated as "this
hand, hostile to tyrants, seeks with the sword a quiet peace under liberty".
The motto was adopted by the State of Massachusstts as its official motto.
The anecdote comes from Molesworth's An Account of Denmark, as it was in
the Year 1692. The Third Edition Corrected. (London: Timothy Goodwin,
1694). Preface, pp. xxxiv-xxxv.
Algernon Sydney (facing right)
This image was designed by Thomas Hollis and appeared as the frontispiece
of his 1762 edition of Algernon Sidney's Discourses concerning Government (1698)
which was one of the most important works on republicanism to appear in the
17th century and which had a profound effect on the thinking of the American
colonists during the American Revolution. It shows a long-haired, rather
aristocratic Sidney dressed in the army uniform he wore during the 1640s.
Over his shoulder he carries a banner with the Latin motto "Sanctus
amor patriae dat animum" (the sacred love of the fatherland inspires).
He turned against the revolution after Oliver Cromwell was appointed Lord
Protector and went into self-imposed exile when the Stuart monarchy was restored
in 1660. While he was Ambassador to Denmark in 1659 he wrote a provocative
Latin motto in the King's visitors book which is included in the text above: "manus
haec inimica tyrannis, ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem" which
can be translated as "this hand, hostile to tyrants, seeks with the
sword a quiet peace under liberty". This motto was adopted by
the State of Massachusetts in 1775 as its official motto in recognition
of the important role Sidney's ideas played in the formation of the American
republic.
Description: There are two laurel branches tied at the top
not the bottom, with a single stem at each end and a neatly tied ribbon in
bow. Beneath there is a phrygian cap and a bar. The long-haired Sidney (spelt "Sydney"
here) carries a banner over his shoulder which reads "Sanctus amor patriae
dat. animum" ("The sacred love of the fatherland inspires").
The text reads:
At the time when Mr. Algernon Sidney was ambassador at the court of Denmark
Monsieur Terlon the French ambassador had the confidence to tear out of the
book of mottoes in the king's library this verse which Mr. Sydney according
to the liberty allowed to all noble strangers had written in it
"manus haec inimica tyrannis, ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem".
Though Monsieur Terlon understood not a word of Latin he was told by others
the meaning of that sentence which he considered as a libel upon the French
government and upon such as was then setting up in Denmarck by French assistance
or example. Lord Molesworth's preface to his account of Denmark.
Commentary: This image appeared as the frontispiece
to the Thomas Hollis' edition of Sidney's Discourses concerning Government (London,
1762). The motto Sidney wrote for the King of Denmark can be translated as "this
hand, hostile to tyrants, seeks with the sword a quiet peace under liberty".
The motto was adopted by the State of Massachusetts as its official motto
in 1775. The anecdote comes from Molesworth's An Account of Denmark, as
it was in the Year 1692. The Third Edition Corrected. (London: Timothy
Goodwin, 1694). Preface, pp. xxxiv-xxxv.
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Motto and Seal of the State of Massachusetts (1775/1780)
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Images of Liberty 
