Beneath the famous anchor and dolphin device that denotes a product of the Aldine presses in Venice, the final leaf of a 1516 edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses below bears an inscription that reveals the reason this little work in its later vellum binding sold at £6000.

Extracted from Antiques Trade Gazette | Ian McKay

Offered in Edinburgh on June 19 by Lyon & Turnbull (25/20% buyer’s premium), it is inscribed to the colophon leaf “Francis Throckmorton his book”.

In December 1583 Throckmorton acted as a go-between and informer as part of the Spanish ambassador’s plans to promote an invasion of England, depose Elizabeth I and place Mary Queen of Scots on the throne.

He was caught and later executed, but what came to be known as the Throckmorton Plot, together with the Babington Plot of 1587, were among those events that led up to Mary’s 1587 execution at Elizabeth’s orders.