“Ex libris Zeph Stewart,” by Liam Warner

“Ex libris Zeph Stewart,” by Liam Warner

The only rare book I have ever owned is a copy of the Aeneid VII–XII, the third of a three-volume set of Virgil’s works, bound in vellum and printed by Abraham Wolfgang in Amsterdam in 1680. Before me in its chain of custody was Zeph Stewart, a classics professor at Harvard and the younger brother of Justice Potter Stewart of the U.S. Supreme Court. The book did not come to me because Professor Stewart had named me in his will; in fact, he died …