- From Small Notes, the blog of UVA's special collections library, David Whitesell reports a reunion between long-separated fragments of a Jefferson manuscript (a ~1769 draft of rules changes for the House of Burgesses).
- The AAS has acquired an unrecorded 1812 New York edition of Aristotle's Masterpiece.
- From Heather Wolfe at The Collation, a fascinating look at handwriting instruction during the early modern period.
- Over at the Ticknor Society's blog, an overview of the books George Ticknor was borrowing from the Boston Athenaeum.
- From the BBC, a look inside the UK's last remaining carbon paper factory. [via Brycchan Carey]
- An important collection of Philip Mazzei manuscripts has been given to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
- Quite a good exploration of early Bible leaves used as paper wrappers on the Cambridge Incunabula Project blog.
- The OED appeal I mentioned last week still stands, and got some attention this week from Rachel Maddow, among others.
- A 1939 journal by W.H. Auden, thought lost, has been found and will be sold at Christie's in June.
- From Medieval Fragments, a tour of one of the last intact chained libraries, at the Church of St. Walburga in Zutphen.
- At Salon, Andrew Leonard reports on a dark side of Wikipedia (its potential to draw vindictive sock-puppetry, &c.).
- Gordon Rugg on why the Voynich Manuscript matters.
- At Notabilia, a look at the distinctive shelf-mark of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland.
- Sarah Faragher posted this week about a fantastic find at an antique shop: a copy of the 1773 edition of Johnson's Dictionary at what sounds like an extremely good price indeed.
- Always interesting: a step-by-step look at conservation on a 17th-century book from the Senate House collections. [via @john_overholt]
- In the TLS, Mark Davies explores a possible real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Mad Hatter.
Reviews
- John Taliaferro's All the Great Prizes; review by Thomas Mallon in the NYTimes.
- Dan Brown's Inferno; review by Jake Kerridge in the Telegraph.
- Marcia Coyle's The Roberts Court; review by Jeffrey Rosen in the WaPo.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Links & Reviews
- NPR reported this week on the Field Museum's ongoing financial difficulties, which may result in further deaccessioning of rare books and museum collections.
- Officials at the Vatican report that a 2006 restoration of a Pinturicchio fresco in the Room of the Mysteries revealed what they believe could well be the first European images of American Indians. The fresco was originally painted between 1492 and 1494, and the pope at the time (Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia) was quite interested in Columbus' findings.
- At the Eton College Library blog, a post on some M.R. James artifacts in the Eton collections. And speaking of James, BBC4 is currently streaming some of his stories adapted for radio (just a few days left to listen).
- New on the scene: Just Teach One, an effort to make available some "neglected or forgotten texts" for scholars of early American studies to use in the classroom (hosted by AAS and Common-place). Joe Adelman offers some thoughts from a historical and book-historical perspective over at The Junto.
- At the Incunabula Project blog, two participants in David Pearson's recent Masterclass at Cambridge on "Discovering Provenance in Book History" share their experiences.
- The Smithsonian's Design Decoded blog explores the phonetic alphabet of Benjamin Franklin. [h/t @john_overholt]
- The joys (and amusements) of pen facsimiles at The Collation.
- New: DPLA StackLife, a way to visualize DPLA collections (useful as an example of a new "front end" for the DPLA collections and how they can be "mashed up" with other resources).
Reviews
- Rick Gekoski's Lost, Stolen or Shredded; review by Pradeep Sebastian in The Hindu.
- Edward Rutherfurd's Paris; review by Rodney Welch in the WaPo.
- Nathaniel Philbrick's Bunker Hill; review by Scott Martelle in the LATimes.
- Jill Lepore's The Story of America; review by Amanda Foreman in the TLS.
- Two recent volumes on Samuel Johnson; review by Kate Chisholm in the TLS.
- Officials at the Vatican report that a 2006 restoration of a Pinturicchio fresco in the Room of the Mysteries revealed what they believe could well be the first European images of American Indians. The fresco was originally painted between 1492 and 1494, and the pope at the time (Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia) was quite interested in Columbus' findings.
- At the Eton College Library blog, a post on some M.R. James artifacts in the Eton collections. And speaking of James, BBC4 is currently streaming some of his stories adapted for radio (just a few days left to listen).
- New on the scene: Just Teach One, an effort to make available some "neglected or forgotten texts" for scholars of early American studies to use in the classroom (hosted by AAS and Common-place). Joe Adelman offers some thoughts from a historical and book-historical perspective over at The Junto.
- At the Incunabula Project blog, two participants in David Pearson's recent Masterclass at Cambridge on "Discovering Provenance in Book History" share their experiences.
- The Smithsonian's Design Decoded blog explores the phonetic alphabet of Benjamin Franklin. [h/t @john_overholt]
- The joys (and amusements) of pen facsimiles at The Collation.
- New: DPLA StackLife, a way to visualize DPLA collections (useful as an example of a new "front end" for the DPLA collections and how they can be "mashed up" with other resources).
Reviews
- Rick Gekoski's Lost, Stolen or Shredded; review by Pradeep Sebastian in The Hindu.
- Edward Rutherfurd's Paris; review by Rodney Welch in the WaPo.
- Nathaniel Philbrick's Bunker Hill; review by Scott Martelle in the LATimes.
- Jill Lepore's The Story of America; review by Amanda Foreman in the TLS.
- Two recent volumes on Samuel Johnson; review by Kate Chisholm in the TLS.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Auction Report: April & May
Recent and upcoming auction doings:
- 10 April was a pretty amazing day for Christie's New York. The sale of the first part of the Collection of Arthur & Charlotte Vershbow on 10 April can only be described as spectacular. The sale realized a grand total of $15,842,145, with Goya's Tauromaquia leading the way at $1,915,750. Another Goya lot, Los Caprichos, sold for $843,750. And in their single-item sale on the same day, Christie's sold Dr. Francis Crick's "secret of life" letter to his son for an eye-popping $6,059,750.
- Bloomsbury sold Books on Horology, Science, and Medicine on 11 April; results here.
- At Swann on 11 April, Fine Books Including Incunabula and Writing Manuals, in 148 lots. The Noble Fragment Gutenberg leaf sold for $55,200, and the first edition of Audubon's Quadrupeds made $288,000. The (only?) presentation copy of Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield fetched $16,800, and early printing did especially well.
- Swann sold Printed & Manuscript Americana on 16 April. A collection of Civil War diaries and letters by two friends in a California regiment sold for $31,200, while an archive of material by natural historian William Cooper and his son James Graham Cooper made $40,800 (over estimates of just $1,500-2,500). An extreme Theodore Roosevelt rarity, a memorial volume to his wife and mother, sold for $38,400.
- Bloomsbury held a Bibliophile Sale on 18 April, in 655 lots. Results here.
- Christie's London sold Travel, Science, and Natural History items on 24 London, realizing £1,658,075. The manuscript speech by Wilbur Wright sold for £61,875, while the egg of an extinct elephant bird fetched £66,675.
- PBA Galleries sold Travel & Exploration, Cartography & Americana from the Library of Glen McLaughlin (with additions) on 25 April. Their website was having issues when I wrote this, so I don't have results information at present.
- Christie's Paris' sale of Importants Lives Anciens, Livres d'artistes et Manuscrits on 29 April brought in 2,407,762 Euros, with Hugo, Balzac and Proust manuscript lots taking top honors.
- At Sotheby's Paris on 29-30 April, the first part of the Bibliothèque des ducs de Luynes, Château de Dampierre was sold, for a total of 2,354,715 Euros. The grand folio volume with Blondel watercolors produced to mark the wedding of the dauphin in 1745 sold for 301,500 Euros, but it was a manuscript map noting action involving Lafayette during the American Revolution which took the top price, fetching 373,500 Euros (over estimates of just 60,000-80,000 Euros).
- Bloomsbury sold The Library of a Continental Gentleman: Natural History Books on 9 May, in 288 lots. Results here. A copy of Ventenat's Description des Plantes Nouvelles et peu Connues (1800-1802) sold for £13,000.
- Swann sold Art, Press & Illustrated Books, including inventory from the stock of Irving Oaklander on 9 May. See the summer Fine Books & Collection for an overview of this sale.
- Sotheby's London sells Travel, Atlases, Maps & Natural History on 14 May, in 219 lots. An early 18th-century illustrated manuscript of Piri Reis' Kitab-i Bahriye once in the Phillipps collection could fetch £100,000-150,000.
- At Bloomsbury on 16 May, a Bibliophile Sale, in 406 lots.
- Sotheby's London holds a sale of First Editions, Second Thoughts on 21 May. This sale includes 50 contemporary first editions, annotated by their authors, to benefit the charity English PEN. Browse the available lots here.
- On 29 May at Sotheby's Paris, Livres et Manuscrits, in 149 lots. An archive of Rousseau letters is estimated at 250,000-350,000 Euros.
- PBA Galleries sells South Sea: The Library of Richard Topel, Part II on 30 May, in 349 lots.
- Also on 30 May, Bloomsbury holds a 30th Anniversary Sale of Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper, in 424 lots.
- 10 April was a pretty amazing day for Christie's New York. The sale of the first part of the Collection of Arthur & Charlotte Vershbow on 10 April can only be described as spectacular. The sale realized a grand total of $15,842,145, with Goya's Tauromaquia leading the way at $1,915,750. Another Goya lot, Los Caprichos, sold for $843,750. And in their single-item sale on the same day, Christie's sold Dr. Francis Crick's "secret of life" letter to his son for an eye-popping $6,059,750.
- Bloomsbury sold Books on Horology, Science, and Medicine on 11 April; results here.
- At Swann on 11 April, Fine Books Including Incunabula and Writing Manuals, in 148 lots. The Noble Fragment Gutenberg leaf sold for $55,200, and the first edition of Audubon's Quadrupeds made $288,000. The (only?) presentation copy of Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield fetched $16,800, and early printing did especially well.
- Swann sold Printed & Manuscript Americana on 16 April. A collection of Civil War diaries and letters by two friends in a California regiment sold for $31,200, while an archive of material by natural historian William Cooper and his son James Graham Cooper made $40,800 (over estimates of just $1,500-2,500). An extreme Theodore Roosevelt rarity, a memorial volume to his wife and mother, sold for $38,400.
- Bloomsbury held a Bibliophile Sale on 18 April, in 655 lots. Results here.
- Christie's London sold Travel, Science, and Natural History items on 24 London, realizing £1,658,075. The manuscript speech by Wilbur Wright sold for £61,875, while the egg of an extinct elephant bird fetched £66,675.
- PBA Galleries sold Travel & Exploration, Cartography & Americana from the Library of Glen McLaughlin (with additions) on 25 April. Their website was having issues when I wrote this, so I don't have results information at present.
- Christie's Paris' sale of Importants Lives Anciens, Livres d'artistes et Manuscrits on 29 April brought in 2,407,762 Euros, with Hugo, Balzac and Proust manuscript lots taking top honors.
- At Sotheby's Paris on 29-30 April, the first part of the Bibliothèque des ducs de Luynes, Château de Dampierre was sold, for a total of 2,354,715 Euros. The grand folio volume with Blondel watercolors produced to mark the wedding of the dauphin in 1745 sold for 301,500 Euros, but it was a manuscript map noting action involving Lafayette during the American Revolution which took the top price, fetching 373,500 Euros (over estimates of just 60,000-80,000 Euros).
- Bloomsbury sold The Library of a Continental Gentleman: Natural History Books on 9 May, in 288 lots. Results here. A copy of Ventenat's Description des Plantes Nouvelles et peu Connues (1800-1802) sold for £13,000.
- Swann sold Art, Press & Illustrated Books, including inventory from the stock of Irving Oaklander on 9 May. See the summer Fine Books & Collection for an overview of this sale.
- Sotheby's London sells Travel, Atlases, Maps & Natural History on 14 May, in 219 lots. An early 18th-century illustrated manuscript of Piri Reis' Kitab-i Bahriye once in the Phillipps collection could fetch £100,000-150,000.
- At Bloomsbury on 16 May, a Bibliophile Sale, in 406 lots.
- Sotheby's London holds a sale of First Editions, Second Thoughts on 21 May. This sale includes 50 contemporary first editions, annotated by their authors, to benefit the charity English PEN. Browse the available lots here.
- On 29 May at Sotheby's Paris, Livres et Manuscrits, in 149 lots. An archive of Rousseau letters is estimated at 250,000-350,000 Euros.
- PBA Galleries sells South Sea: The Library of Richard Topel, Part II on 30 May, in 349 lots.
- Also on 30 May, Bloomsbury holds a 30th Anniversary Sale of Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper, in 424 lots.
Sunday, May 05, 2013
Links & Reviews
- Your must-read piece this week is John Overholt's "Five Theses on the Future of Special Collections," which will appear in a forthcoming issue of RBM but is available now via Harvard's OA DASH repository. It is an excellent, timely, and provocative essay which I hope will receive the large audience it very much deserves.
- The editors of the OED have issued a public appeal for help in identifying a book cited in the dictionary but which doesn't seem to be held in any libraries and is only found mentioned in a few places (so far). Quite a fun rabbit-hole to lose yourself down, as I've discovered. Let's help them find this book!
- At The Collation, Erin Blake explores "Two disciplines separated by a common language" - that is, "print culture" as either pertaining to printed pictures or printed words.
- Jennifer Howard profiles Bethany Nowviskie of UVA's Scholars Lab for The Chronicle.
- The Bodleian Library has acquired a manuscript of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem "Binsey Poplars" for £50,000.
- In today's New York Times, a look at how the sequester budget cuts are affecting the Library of Congress.
- The National Library of Wales announced this week that they will no longer be claiming copyright over digitized copies of items from its collections.
- From the medievalfragments blog, a summary of a recent (and very awesome) find: 132 medieval notes and fragments found in the binding of a 1577 book.
- Sarah Werner expands on her recent Collation post on digitized copies of the First Folio at Wynken de Worde, asking just what it is that we should want as users of such digital surrogates (and not just of the First Folio, but of such things generally).
- New from the Massachusetts Historical Society, a digital presentation of the wonderfully interesting Harbottle Dorr annotated newspapers. See the blog post announcing the launch.
- David Rubenstein has lent a copy of the Stone Declaration of Independence to the State Department and will fund reproductions of the broadside to be displayed in every U.S. embassy.
- Over at EMOB, Anna Battigelli summarizes a recent Beinecke Library conference on digital archiving, Beyond the Text: Library Archives in the 21st Century.
- From Cultural Compass, the blog of the Harry Ransom Center, a post about the process used to create a digital version of the Center's Blaeu "great wall map."
- At Boston 1775 this week, J.L. Bell talked to Nat Philbrick about Philbrick's new book on the Battle of Bunker Hill: Part I, Part II.
- The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists announced the launch of their new journal this week: J19: The Journal of Nineteenth-Century Americanists.
- Over at Brown's curio blog, a look at a first edition Great Gatsby inscribed to T.S. Eliot by Fitzgerald (who spelled Eliot's name wrong) with Eliot's pencilled marginal notes throughout.
- I'm not sure if this is new or not, but it's new to me so I wanted to mention it: The Morgan Library & Museum has posted a piece on the provenance of their copy of the Gutenberg Bible.
Reviews
- Randall Woods' Shadow Warrior; review by Evan Thomas in the NYTimes.
- Steve Vogel's Through the Perilous Fight; review by Joyce Appleby in the WaPo.
- The editors of the OED have issued a public appeal for help in identifying a book cited in the dictionary but which doesn't seem to be held in any libraries and is only found mentioned in a few places (so far). Quite a fun rabbit-hole to lose yourself down, as I've discovered. Let's help them find this book!
- At The Collation, Erin Blake explores "Two disciplines separated by a common language" - that is, "print culture" as either pertaining to printed pictures or printed words.
- Jennifer Howard profiles Bethany Nowviskie of UVA's Scholars Lab for The Chronicle.
- The Bodleian Library has acquired a manuscript of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem "Binsey Poplars" for £50,000.
- In today's New York Times, a look at how the sequester budget cuts are affecting the Library of Congress.
- The National Library of Wales announced this week that they will no longer be claiming copyright over digitized copies of items from its collections.
- From the medievalfragments blog, a summary of a recent (and very awesome) find: 132 medieval notes and fragments found in the binding of a 1577 book.
- Sarah Werner expands on her recent Collation post on digitized copies of the First Folio at Wynken de Worde, asking just what it is that we should want as users of such digital surrogates (and not just of the First Folio, but of such things generally).
- New from the Massachusetts Historical Society, a digital presentation of the wonderfully interesting Harbottle Dorr annotated newspapers. See the blog post announcing the launch.
- David Rubenstein has lent a copy of the Stone Declaration of Independence to the State Department and will fund reproductions of the broadside to be displayed in every U.S. embassy.
- Over at EMOB, Anna Battigelli summarizes a recent Beinecke Library conference on digital archiving, Beyond the Text: Library Archives in the 21st Century.
- From Cultural Compass, the blog of the Harry Ransom Center, a post about the process used to create a digital version of the Center's Blaeu "great wall map."
- At Boston 1775 this week, J.L. Bell talked to Nat Philbrick about Philbrick's new book on the Battle of Bunker Hill: Part I, Part II.
- The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists announced the launch of their new journal this week: J19: The Journal of Nineteenth-Century Americanists.
- Over at Brown's curio blog, a look at a first edition Great Gatsby inscribed to T.S. Eliot by Fitzgerald (who spelled Eliot's name wrong) with Eliot's pencilled marginal notes throughout.
- I'm not sure if this is new or not, but it's new to me so I wanted to mention it: The Morgan Library & Museum has posted a piece on the provenance of their copy of the Gutenberg Bible.
Reviews
- Randall Woods' Shadow Warrior; review by Evan Thomas in the NYTimes.
- Steve Vogel's Through the Perilous Fight; review by Joyce Appleby in the WaPo.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Links & Reviews
- Over at The Collation, Sarah Werner rounds up all the available online facsimiles of the First Folio (there are eight, by her count).
- A fire at the National Library of Wales this week led to water damage throughout the part of the building where the fire occurred (which houses office space and new acquisitions, not the bulk of the library's collections).
- In an Italian court this week, Marino Massimo de Caro and thirteen others were indicted for criminal conspiracy and will go to trial in early June (this is on top of the previously-handed-down sentence of seven years in prison for theft).
- Micah Vandegrift explores the DPLA and what it may mean in the long run for libraries.
- I mentioned the recent recovery of a bunch of books stolen from the Lambeth Palace library two weeks ago; new on that front is a BBC Magazine story on the case with some new and interesting details. The employee/thief is described as a "low-level employee" and that he had defaced many of the stolen books to remove provenance markings, suggesting that he probably intended to try and sell them (some of the stolen books have not been recovered, and may have been sold).
- On the occasion of the anniversary of her birthday, Gary Kelly proposes that we might think of Mary Wollstonecraft as the "first modern woman."
- Adam Hooks at Anchora profiles the leaf book A Noble Fragment.
- From Tablet, a profile of historian and book/document thief Zosa Szajkowski.
- From The Bibliophile's Lair, Rick Ring notes his recent acquisition of a cuneiform tablet (an itty-bitty one!) for the collections at Trinity's Watkinson Library.
- At Selling Enlightenment, the first major article drawing on the big French Book Trade in the Enlightenment project: Mark Curran's "Beyond the Forbidden Best-Sellers of Revolutionary France," which looks quite interesting indeed.
- In The New Yorker, Sally McGrane highlights a recent article in the German newspaper Die Zeit, a diary of the "Hitler Diaries" hoax by one of the editors of Stern at the time of the diaries debacle.
Reviews
- Mary Roach's Gulp; review by Jon Ronson in the NYTimes.
- Nathaniel Philbrick's Bunker Hill; review by Walter Isaacson in the WaPo.
- Michael Pollan's Cooked; review by Bee Wilson in the NYTimes.
- Denise Kiernan's The Girls of Atomic City; review by Scott Martelle in the WaPo.
- Elizabeth Strout's The Burgess Boys; review by Sylvia Brownrigg in the NYTimes.
- The Selected Letters of Willa Cather; review by Tom Perrota in the NYTimes.
- A fire at the National Library of Wales this week led to water damage throughout the part of the building where the fire occurred (which houses office space and new acquisitions, not the bulk of the library's collections).
- In an Italian court this week, Marino Massimo de Caro and thirteen others were indicted for criminal conspiracy and will go to trial in early June (this is on top of the previously-handed-down sentence of seven years in prison for theft).
- Micah Vandegrift explores the DPLA and what it may mean in the long run for libraries.
- I mentioned the recent recovery of a bunch of books stolen from the Lambeth Palace library two weeks ago; new on that front is a BBC Magazine story on the case with some new and interesting details. The employee/thief is described as a "low-level employee" and that he had defaced many of the stolen books to remove provenance markings, suggesting that he probably intended to try and sell them (some of the stolen books have not been recovered, and may have been sold).
- On the occasion of the anniversary of her birthday, Gary Kelly proposes that we might think of Mary Wollstonecraft as the "first modern woman."
- Adam Hooks at Anchora profiles the leaf book A Noble Fragment.
- From Tablet, a profile of historian and book/document thief Zosa Szajkowski.
- From The Bibliophile's Lair, Rick Ring notes his recent acquisition of a cuneiform tablet (an itty-bitty one!) for the collections at Trinity's Watkinson Library.
- At Selling Enlightenment, the first major article drawing on the big French Book Trade in the Enlightenment project: Mark Curran's "Beyond the Forbidden Best-Sellers of Revolutionary France," which looks quite interesting indeed.
- In The New Yorker, Sally McGrane highlights a recent article in the German newspaper Die Zeit, a diary of the "Hitler Diaries" hoax by one of the editors of Stern at the time of the diaries debacle.
Reviews
- Mary Roach's Gulp; review by Jon Ronson in the NYTimes.
- Nathaniel Philbrick's Bunker Hill; review by Walter Isaacson in the WaPo.
- Michael Pollan's Cooked; review by Bee Wilson in the NYTimes.
- Denise Kiernan's The Girls of Atomic City; review by Scott Martelle in the WaPo.
- Elizabeth Strout's The Burgess Boys; review by Sylvia Brownrigg in the NYTimes.
- The Selected Letters of Willa Cather; review by Tom Perrota in the NYTimes.
An MP's Account of the Ireland Forgeries
I recently stumbled across another example of a contemporary diary account of the William Henry Ireland Shakespeare forgeries (previous installments: William Godwin, George Canning, John Quincy Adams, Joseph Farington), this one coming from MP Charles Abbot, later Lord Colchester (The Diary and Correspondence of Charles Abbot, Lord Colchester, Speaker of the House of Commons 1802-1817, ed. Charles, Lord Colchester. London: John Murray, 1861).
22 January 1796: Went to Mr. Ireland's, in Norfolk Street in the Strand, by appointment of Sir Philip Gibbes, to meet the Portuguese Ambassabor D'Almeida, and see the newly produced manuscripts of Shakspeare. We saw the MS. play of Lear, and an entire new play of Vortigern and Rowena. Also his profession of faith, letters, to and from him, accounts, receipts, and deeds, &c., innumerable; besides his supposed library of books, to the number of seventy volumes at least, such as Spenser, and various chronicles and pamphlets of the time he lived in, interspersed with his marginal observations. A love-letter to his mistress, Ann Hathaway, whom he afterwards married, and a lock of his hair enclosed. Sir Isaac Heard, who was present, and had often seen these articles before, was firmly persuaded of their authenticity. I am not; doubtless the number of pieces produced makes the supposition of a forgery more difficult; but my opinion, as far as any can be formed on such an inspection, and hearing the accompanying narrative, is against their authenticity: 1. Because there is no great variety of Shakspeare's MSS. extant by which the authenticity of this specimen of handwriting can be judged of. 2. Because the paper appears to be artificially stained or darkened; and especially upon the printed books in those places only where the handwriting is inserted. 3. Because I do not think any of the compositions which I saw surpass the merit of many daily imitations in the newspapers. 4. Because if the internal evidence fails, or is inconclusive, the external evidence is of all others the most suspicious, and nearly destructive of their being true originals; for Ireland refuses to say where or from whom he procured them, and even denies that he knows it; they being delivered, as he says, by his son to him, and received by his son from some gentleman who will not suffer himself to be named. His story is even further the more suspicious, because Shakspeare's reputation has now for so many years been celebrated, and yet no one fair or entire copy of any one of his numerous plays has ever been found; and here is only one a whole fair copy of the long play of Lear, but two new entire plays, also pretended to be entirely in his handwriting, whose titles never before were known, viz. Vortigern and Rowena, and King Henry II. It is to be noted also, that a deed of trust from Shakespeare to Hemmings, the player, speaks of a play entitled Henry III., but even that deed does not mention Henry II.
I remember also, in a conversation with Mr. Malone, hearing him instance the following circumstances to prove the imposture:—1. That Lord Southampton's handwriting, produced by Ireland, is quite unlike all the specimens in the British Museum. 2. That Hampton Court, called Hamtown by Queen Elizabeth, in a supposed letter under her hand, never was so called without the addition of "Court" in her time. 3. That the words "derangement" and "acceded to" are modernisms, and unknown in Shakespeare's time, &c., &c.
If the whole be a forgery, as I think it must be,—at least till these two new plays are submitted to the public eye and judgment, for their contents to be ascertained and appreciated,—it is certainly a very elaborate forgery, and an unprecedented attempt to impose on the literary judgment of the public. Chatterton's were comparatively few and soon detected.
2 April 1796: I dined at Montagu's, and went afterwards with him to the representation of Vortigern, a pretended play of Shakspeare, but in truth a miserable cento and parody, patched up principally from Macbeth, with a character of Queen Katherine, and a scene or two imitated from As You Like It. Nothing for which an original character or idea might not be found in Shakspeare, and nothing not expressed in the worst taste. The play was heard with patience into the third act, then it was laughed at, and hissed and laughed at to the end, and then not suffered to be given out again.
22 January 1796: Went to Mr. Ireland's, in Norfolk Street in the Strand, by appointment of Sir Philip Gibbes, to meet the Portuguese Ambassabor D'Almeida, and see the newly produced manuscripts of Shakspeare. We saw the MS. play of Lear, and an entire new play of Vortigern and Rowena. Also his profession of faith, letters, to and from him, accounts, receipts, and deeds, &c., innumerable; besides his supposed library of books, to the number of seventy volumes at least, such as Spenser, and various chronicles and pamphlets of the time he lived in, interspersed with his marginal observations. A love-letter to his mistress, Ann Hathaway, whom he afterwards married, and a lock of his hair enclosed. Sir Isaac Heard, who was present, and had often seen these articles before, was firmly persuaded of their authenticity. I am not; doubtless the number of pieces produced makes the supposition of a forgery more difficult; but my opinion, as far as any can be formed on such an inspection, and hearing the accompanying narrative, is against their authenticity: 1. Because there is no great variety of Shakspeare's MSS. extant by which the authenticity of this specimen of handwriting can be judged of. 2. Because the paper appears to be artificially stained or darkened; and especially upon the printed books in those places only where the handwriting is inserted. 3. Because I do not think any of the compositions which I saw surpass the merit of many daily imitations in the newspapers. 4. Because if the internal evidence fails, or is inconclusive, the external evidence is of all others the most suspicious, and nearly destructive of their being true originals; for Ireland refuses to say where or from whom he procured them, and even denies that he knows it; they being delivered, as he says, by his son to him, and received by his son from some gentleman who will not suffer himself to be named. His story is even further the more suspicious, because Shakspeare's reputation has now for so many years been celebrated, and yet no one fair or entire copy of any one of his numerous plays has ever been found; and here is only one a whole fair copy of the long play of Lear, but two new entire plays, also pretended to be entirely in his handwriting, whose titles never before were known, viz. Vortigern and Rowena, and King Henry II. It is to be noted also, that a deed of trust from Shakespeare to Hemmings, the player, speaks of a play entitled Henry III., but even that deed does not mention Henry II.
I remember also, in a conversation with Mr. Malone, hearing him instance the following circumstances to prove the imposture:—1. That Lord Southampton's handwriting, produced by Ireland, is quite unlike all the specimens in the British Museum. 2. That Hampton Court, called Hamtown by Queen Elizabeth, in a supposed letter under her hand, never was so called without the addition of "Court" in her time. 3. That the words "derangement" and "acceded to" are modernisms, and unknown in Shakespeare's time, &c., &c.
If the whole be a forgery, as I think it must be,—at least till these two new plays are submitted to the public eye and judgment, for their contents to be ascertained and appreciated,—it is certainly a very elaborate forgery, and an unprecedented attempt to impose on the literary judgment of the public. Chatterton's were comparatively few and soon detected.
2 April 1796: I dined at Montagu's, and went afterwards with him to the representation of Vortigern, a pretended play of Shakspeare, but in truth a miserable cento and parody, patched up principally from Macbeth, with a character of Queen Katherine, and a scene or two imitated from As You Like It. Nothing for which an original character or idea might not be found in Shakspeare, and nothing not expressed in the worst taste. The play was heard with patience into the third act, then it was laughed at, and hissed and laughed at to the end, and then not suffered to be given out again.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Links & Reviews
Well that was one heck of a week, to put it politely. I'm relieved that it's over, and so very glad (and proud) that the city I know and love has shown such resilience and defiance in the face of Monday's tragedy. All credit to the those who gave of themselves this week, from the medical personnel to the tremendously efficient law enforcement officials to the responsible reporters who kept us up to speed all week long. My thoughts are with all those who lost loved ones this week and all those still recovering, and I look forward to walking down Boylston Street again soon.
- Some big news from the the Philadelphia library world this week: the Rosenbach Museum and Library and the Free Library of Philadelphia announced on Wednesday that they intend to merge and form The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation. The Pew Charitable Trust will be providing some of the funding for the merger. Peter Dobrin reported on this for the Inquirer as well.
- From the Fine Books Blog "Bright Young Things" series, an excellent interview with Joe Fay, the manager of the rare books department for Heritage Auctions in Texas.
- At Public Domain Review, Marri Lynn writes on Vesalius' use of metaphor in his De humani corporis fabrica. And don't forget to support PDR before 1 May (I have done so, and hope others will too).
- Over at The Junto, Michael Hattem reflects on the year he worked on the Benjamin Franklin papers project at Yale.
- Whitney Trettien has a fascinating guest post at The Collation this week, on a particularly interesting interleaved Book of Common Prayer.
- At the Princeton Graphic Acts blog, Julie Mellby posts about an 1813 Old Bailey trial for book theft.
- A copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer was appraised on the Cincinnati "Antiques Roadshow" episode recently, and William and Sylvia Peterson, authors of the Kelmscott Chaucer census, would like to contact the owner so that they can document the copy.
- From Tablet, Batya Ungar-Sargon profiles the Voynich Manuscript and the quest to decipher it.
- And now for something completely ridiculous: CNBC's show "Treasure Detectives" aired a clip of "art forgery expert" Curtis Dowling on the supposedly widespread practice of forgers "faking" old books (including references to using walnut oil to fake smells and handling patterns, as well as something about painting bindings). At Bibliodeviant, Adrian Harrington's Jonathan Kearns calls this segment what it is: utter nonsense. Read the whole thing.
Reviews
- Clive James' new review of Dante's Divine Comedy; review by Joseph Luzzi in the NYTimes.
- Megan Marshall's Margaret Fuller; review by Kathryn Harrison in the NYTimes.
- Philip Gura's Truth's Ragged Edge; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
- Some big news from the the Philadelphia library world this week: the Rosenbach Museum and Library and the Free Library of Philadelphia announced on Wednesday that they intend to merge and form The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation. The Pew Charitable Trust will be providing some of the funding for the merger. Peter Dobrin reported on this for the Inquirer as well.
- From the Fine Books Blog "Bright Young Things" series, an excellent interview with Joe Fay, the manager of the rare books department for Heritage Auctions in Texas.
- At Public Domain Review, Marri Lynn writes on Vesalius' use of metaphor in his De humani corporis fabrica. And don't forget to support PDR before 1 May (I have done so, and hope others will too).
- Over at The Junto, Michael Hattem reflects on the year he worked on the Benjamin Franklin papers project at Yale.
- Whitney Trettien has a fascinating guest post at The Collation this week, on a particularly interesting interleaved Book of Common Prayer.
- At the Princeton Graphic Acts blog, Julie Mellby posts about an 1813 Old Bailey trial for book theft.
- A copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer was appraised on the Cincinnati "Antiques Roadshow" episode recently, and William and Sylvia Peterson, authors of the Kelmscott Chaucer census, would like to contact the owner so that they can document the copy.
- From Tablet, Batya Ungar-Sargon profiles the Voynich Manuscript and the quest to decipher it.
- And now for something completely ridiculous: CNBC's show "Treasure Detectives" aired a clip of "art forgery expert" Curtis Dowling on the supposedly widespread practice of forgers "faking" old books (including references to using walnut oil to fake smells and handling patterns, as well as something about painting bindings). At Bibliodeviant, Adrian Harrington's Jonathan Kearns calls this segment what it is: utter nonsense. Read the whole thing.
Reviews
- Clive James' new review of Dante's Divine Comedy; review by Joseph Luzzi in the NYTimes.
- Megan Marshall's Margaret Fuller; review by Kathryn Harrison in the NYTimes.
- Philip Gura's Truth's Ragged Edge; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Links & Reviews
- Your must-read of the week is Eric Naiman's "When Dickens met Dostoesvky" in the TLS, an absolutely riveting account of what appears to be a long-running, complex and widespread series of academic hoaxes (the fruits of which have ended up in several major Charles Dickens biographies, among other publications).
- The Chicago Tribune reported on Tuesday that the city's Field Museum is mulling the sale of its rare book collection, after a "committee of scientists and executives tasked with evaluating the museum's financial situation suggested in a report to the president" that the books "could fetch up to $50 million." The Museum has since 1970 been home to what is often called the finest copy in existence of Audubon's Birds of America, among other rarities.
- Stephen Enniss has been named the new director of the Harry Ransom Center, and will succeed Thomas Staley at the end of August. Enniss is currently head librarian at the Folger, and was previously at Emory.
- Another don't-miss: Sarah Werner's post at The Collation this week on mourning pages and what they can show us.
- A trove of books and other items stolen from the Lambeth Palace library prior to 1975 have been recovered; the thief, apparently repentant, left along with his will a sealed letter containing a confession and instructions on how the books could be retrieved. The article identifies the thief only as "an individual who had once been associated with the library."
- As part of their illustrations series, Echoes from the Vault explores the amazing images in Athansius Kircher's Musurgia Universalis (1650 edition).
- The "Roman de Gillion de Trazegnies," a 15th-century Flemish illuminated manuscript purchased by the Getty Museum in December for £3.8 million, has been placed under an export embargo by the British government so that authorities can attempt to raise funds to keep the manuscript in the UK.
- A collection of 28 letters from J.D. Salinger to the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York and its leaders between 1967 and 2006 have been donated by the center to the Morgan Library.
- Over on the Tavistock Books blog, a profile of Shakespeare scholar (and prankster) George Steevens.
- The Princeton Graphic Arts blog posted this week that Henry Morris has announced that the most recent Bird & Bull Press publication, Busby's Street Scenes, will be the last.
- Classicist Giovanna Ceserani's Mapping the Grand Tour project is highlighted by James Kierstead in the Stanford Report.
- John Overholt passed along on Twitter this week a really remarkable "correction" which appears in the 13 April issue of The Lancet. It concerns the journal's treatment of John Snow, of cholera map fame, in both their 1858 obituary and an 1855 editorial, of which: "The Editor would also like to add that comments such as 'In riding his hobby very hard, he has fallen down through a gully-hole and has never since been able to get out again' and 'Has he any facts to show in proof? No!', published in an Editorial on Dr Snow's theories in 1855, were perhaps somewhat overly negative in tone."
- The BBC is going to adapt Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell as a miniseries. Dave Itzkoff's NYT ArtsBeat post on this contains the wonderful line "No casting was immediately announced for Jonathan Strange, Mr. Norrell or the footnotes ...".
- Amanda Katz has a playful takeoff on André Aciman's new novel Harvard Square, imagining the novels named for other squares in the Boston area.
Review
- Rick Gekoski's Lost, Stolen or Shredded; review by Stuart Kelly in The Scotsman.
- The Chicago Tribune reported on Tuesday that the city's Field Museum is mulling the sale of its rare book collection, after a "committee of scientists and executives tasked with evaluating the museum's financial situation suggested in a report to the president" that the books "could fetch up to $50 million." The Museum has since 1970 been home to what is often called the finest copy in existence of Audubon's Birds of America, among other rarities.
- Stephen Enniss has been named the new director of the Harry Ransom Center, and will succeed Thomas Staley at the end of August. Enniss is currently head librarian at the Folger, and was previously at Emory.
- Another don't-miss: Sarah Werner's post at The Collation this week on mourning pages and what they can show us.
- A trove of books and other items stolen from the Lambeth Palace library prior to 1975 have been recovered; the thief, apparently repentant, left along with his will a sealed letter containing a confession and instructions on how the books could be retrieved. The article identifies the thief only as "an individual who had once been associated with the library."
- As part of their illustrations series, Echoes from the Vault explores the amazing images in Athansius Kircher's Musurgia Universalis (1650 edition).
- The "Roman de Gillion de Trazegnies," a 15th-century Flemish illuminated manuscript purchased by the Getty Museum in December for £3.8 million, has been placed under an export embargo by the British government so that authorities can attempt to raise funds to keep the manuscript in the UK.
- A collection of 28 letters from J.D. Salinger to the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York and its leaders between 1967 and 2006 have been donated by the center to the Morgan Library.
- Over on the Tavistock Books blog, a profile of Shakespeare scholar (and prankster) George Steevens.
- The Princeton Graphic Arts blog posted this week that Henry Morris has announced that the most recent Bird & Bull Press publication, Busby's Street Scenes, will be the last.
- Classicist Giovanna Ceserani's Mapping the Grand Tour project is highlighted by James Kierstead in the Stanford Report.
- John Overholt passed along on Twitter this week a really remarkable "correction" which appears in the 13 April issue of The Lancet. It concerns the journal's treatment of John Snow, of cholera map fame, in both their 1858 obituary and an 1855 editorial, of which: "The Editor would also like to add that comments such as 'In riding his hobby very hard, he has fallen down through a gully-hole and has never since been able to get out again' and 'Has he any facts to show in proof? No!', published in an Editorial on Dr Snow's theories in 1855, were perhaps somewhat overly negative in tone."
- The BBC is going to adapt Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell as a miniseries. Dave Itzkoff's NYT ArtsBeat post on this contains the wonderful line "No casting was immediately announced for Jonathan Strange, Mr. Norrell or the footnotes ...".
- Amanda Katz has a playful takeoff on André Aciman's new novel Harvard Square, imagining the novels named for other squares in the Boston area.
Review
- Rick Gekoski's Lost, Stolen or Shredded; review by Stuart Kelly in The Scotsman.
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