Verse and sketch by Joseph Jenoure (fl. 1711)
It is not clear exactly who Joseph Jenoure might be, although several members of a family bearing this name and hailing from Bigods in Essex are to be found attending the University in the 17th and 18th centuries. This English translation of Alessandro Giraffi's , however, bears several of his signatures, together with the date 1711, on the front fly-leaves, another mark of ownership on the bottom edge of the textblock, and this rather lively verse and sketch on the rear fly-leaves. Doodles appear fairly regularly in the books in the Old Library, from simple pen-flourishes, through buxom mermaids, to portraits of people.
The verse reads:
This book my name shall ever have
Till I am dead & in my grave,
The gredy worms my body eat
Then you may reat my name compleatJoseph Jenoure is my name
England is my nation
Bigwoods is my dwelling place
& Christ is my salvation
Bequest of .
