from Martha Repp
The first in the seventeenth annual series of Oxford Seminars on the History of the Book, convened by Professor I.W.F. Maclean, was given at All Souls College, Oxford, on 20 January, 2012, by Dr. William Poole of New College, Oxford, on the subject of “John Fell’s New Year Books”.
Dr. John Fell, 1625-1686, was one of the dominant figures in the intellectual life of Oxford in the mid to late 17th century. He was elected Dean of Christ Church in 1660 at the age of 35, served as Vice-Chancellor of the University from 1666 to 1669, and, in 1676, became Bishop of Oxford, while still serving as Dean of Christ Church, continuing to hold both offices, as well as a number of other official and ecclesiastical positions, until his death in 1686. He was also an important figure in the development of printing in Oxford. He was one of the partners leasing the University press, and arranged for the use of the Sheldonian Theatre for printing purposes, as well as setting up a type foundry in Oxford and encouraging the Wolvercote paper mill.
Fell’s scholarly output includes sermons, biographical works, and numerous editions of classical and patristic texts, but Dr Poole’s paper focused on one particular aspect of this; the series of small format editions published in Oxford at Fell’s expense between 1666 and 1686, and known as the New Year Books because they were intended to be given by Fell as New Year gifts to his students.
The tradition of exchanging gifts at New Year was an old one, and it is not surprising that within academic communities these gifts should have come to take the form of texts. There is evidence of works having been printed in England as New Year gifts as early as the 16th century, most of which are attempts on the part of the author to attract the attention of wealthy and influential patrons rather than serious intellectual undertakings. In University settings, this exchange of gifts generally seems to have taken the form of students presenting their latest work to their tutors. Fell acknowledges this tradition in the 1669 edition of Clement of Rome, in which he states that part of his motivation for producing the series of New Year Books is that he frequently received New Year gifts of texts from his students, and that he felt it was, as he puts it, “turpissimum” for him to have nothing to give them in exchange. In addition to this practical motivation, Fell also seems to have had a general interest in producing a series of cheap editions of teaching texts for students long before he actually started the New Years Books. But he had to be careful not to upset the London Stationers, who monopolised the textbook market.
Fell’s New Year Books are generally small format (octavo or duodecimo) editions of texts by classical and patristic authors. They are distinguished by austerity and plainness, both in production and in editorial style, which demonstrates Fell’s preference for text over commentary and collation over exegesis. In most cases, the texts and versions presented were not new, and Fell seems to have done comparatively little work on them. It has been stated that the New Year Books are primarily patristic in nature, and this is certainly true after 1679 (possibly because at this point Fell was also working on his edition of Cyprian). Before 1679, however, there is generally a fairly equal balance between Christian and pagan authors. In general, the choice of authors and texts shows a preference for early Christian authors who warn of the dangers of schism, and who propound an episcopal, but definitely not papal, form of church government. Despite this inherent conservatism, it should not be assumed that the authors and texts chosen were always neutral, or that the texts were always read and received in a friendly manner; the choice of Nemesius as the New Year Book for 1671 appears, from the tone of the annotations in some surviving copies, notably Thomas Barlow’s, to have been particularly controversial.
Fell’s editorial practice appears to have depended heavily on collation; in most cases, the texts provided are collated from around four manuscripts. Although the manuscripts used are sometimes clearly identified, Fell tends to be less clear about which specific readings have been taken from which manuscript, making it hard to trace the collation process in any detail. It has been suggested that Fell used the New Year Books as an annual exercise for his students in preparing and editing a text, but the evidence for this is patchy. Fell does seem to have had some help in preparing these editions, certainly from Thomas Spark, who edited the 1679 edition of Zosimus and the 1678 edition of Herodian which may have been the New Year Book for that year and is certainly affiliated to the series, and probably from Edward Bernard, who Madan associates with the preparation of the 1666 edition of Pachymeres. Bernard also presented a copy of the 1686 edition of Origen to Friedrich Spanheim, and appears to have borrowed manuscripts from New College library on Fell’s behalf. However, Fell rarely if ever appears to have conceded overall editorial control to anyone else.
The final question considered was how these works were circulated, and to whom. Fortunately, as many of the books were acquired by Oxford college libraries, a large number of them have survived, in many cases in series which can be traced to particular academic owners. The majority of copies do appear to have been given as gifts, with several surviving copies having ex dono inscriptions recording the gift. These gifts were widely circulated within Christ Church, and less widely circulated outside, although this is more difficult to trace. Fell appears to have given copies to his academic peers and contemporaries, as well as to his students. Fell certainly had some copies bound for him by the Oxford binder Henry Ingram, but since these constitute relatively few copies, it is probable that he gave away unbound copies as well. Copies were passed on from one academic to another, and were certainly still being used as live academic texts in the eighteenth century. There is little evidence of the works having been circulated outside England. Although the nature of the works as gifts is always insisted on, and they are only rarely referred to in the Term Catalogues, there is also evidence of a commercial element to their production; they were produced in print runs of up to a thousand, more than could have realistically been given away, and there is also evidence of Fell having used copies of the books as capital within Oxford.
A stimulating final discussion considered many of the issues raised in the paper in more detail, such as whether there is evidence of the works having been given to a particular type of student, and whether the production of this kind of “teaching text” allowed for the publication of texts without the level of scholarly editorial work that would be required for a full-scale critical edition.
The Lister copperplates – update
This time last year, Anna Marie Roos wrote about the copperplates made by the daughters of Martin Lister (1639-1712) to illustrate his work, Historiae Conchyliorum. The story was taken up by Nature online. Now her article on the copperplates made by the teenage daughters of Martin Lister in the 1690s, to illustrate his Historiae Conchyliorum, has appeared in Notes and Records of the Royal Society. The copperplates were bequeathed to the University of Oxford in 1712 and form part of the Bodleian Libraries Special Collections.
“The Art of science: a ‘rediscovery’ of the Lister Copperplates,” has been published online, at http://rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.org/, in advance of print publication in March 2012.
We look forward to the display of the copperplates and related items exploring the illustration of science books,curated by Dr Roos, in the Old Library proscholium during September 2012.
Learn more about Martin Lister in the context of early modern scholarship, at the Cultures of Knowledge site.
Bibliography Room in the Story Museum
Printer Paul Nash at the opening of the Bibliography Room in the Story Museum, Oxford
Courses and classes for students, families and members of the public have already begun, and the programme for 2012 will soon be available on the Story Museum website (www.storymuseum.org).
Sebastiaan Verweij: ‘The eye of any deliberate reader’: John Donne and the Early Printed Book
Using the collator to compare books.
25 October 2011
from Edmund Christie White, Merton College
Speaking in the Breakfast Room of Merton College, Sebastiaan Verweij (Lincoln) described his work as a Research Associate for the Oxford Edition of the Sermons of John Donne.
A bibliographical specialist, Dr Verweij’s principal role in this project is in collating the many printed variants of Donne’s sermons, ranging from quartos published whilst the author was still alive, to posthumous collected editions. With no autograph manuscripts of these works known to remain, this vital work contributes to the efforts of the project’s editors to get as close as possible to the sermons as they were when delivered from the pulpit.
Donne himself had a somewhat mixed relationship with his printers. Dr Verweij highlighted the paratextual elements of some of these editions, such as errata pages, in which it appears that the author directly appealed to his readers to amend their copies in order to undo the printer’s mistakes.
After the talk, there was a chance to see at first hand some of the books in Merton’s collection that were examined by Dr Verweij. He also demonstrated how to use a ‘Hailey’s Comet’ optical collator. This device uses angled mirrors so that the user can simultaneously see two different versions of the same page in a book; by way of stereoscopic vision, any variations in the printing then seem to jump off the page in 3D.
Oxford’s other treasures: from Mill to Milligan
from Owen McKnight, Jesus College Library
The Bodleian Libraries are currently celebrating their long history of collecting with an exhibition of ‘Treasures’. Venerable as it is, the Bodleian was not the first library in Oxford: at least a quarter of the 44 colleges and halls had established libraries by the time the Bodleian opened in November 1602.
The college libraries have a continuous tradition of serving their members. They provide textbooks for today’s undergraduates at the same time as preserving and interpreting the historic books and manuscripts which have now become ‘special’ collections. The Committee of College Librarians has now published a new guide to the special collections in the care of Oxford’s colleges. [8 pages, PDF format].
Brasenose and Lincoln Colleges drawn by John Bereblock in 1566 (Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 13)
Previously, the only guide to such material in college libraries was the late Paul Morgan’s compilation Oxford libraries outside the Bodleian. This has long been out of print, but it remains a valuable reference for its detailed survey of early printed books, manuscripts, and archives. The new document is intended as an accessible and up-to-date complement.
Among many diverse holdings, the guide reveals collections of Civil War tracts across Oxford, in Christ Church, Lady Margaret Hall, Lincoln, and Worcester. Somerville has the library of John Stuart Mill – and St John’s has the papers of Spike Milligan. Many Old Members have presented their literary papers, and other donations have created collections of books and manuscripts predating colleges’ foundations.
Each of the colleges and halls remains independent, both of the University and of one another. There is, nonetheless, close collaboration, notably in 2008 when the Bodleian mounted an exhibition under the title Beyond the Work of One: Oxford College Libraries and Their Benefactors , still available to visit online.
Researchers who wish to explore these collections are welcome on application in advance.
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The classes are convened by Professor Richard Sharpe (History Faculty) and Martin Kauffmann (Bodleian Library). See the current calendar of classes.
Literary manuscripts 2011: Dealing meaning, 17 October
The Business of Archives: handling the remains of Shelley and Larkin
The first class in the series “Dealing meaning” was given by Joan Winterkorn (Bernard Quaritch Ltd). How to keep a literary archive together, and why this was important, were the themes of her talk, and she drew examples of how literary archives endured or were dispersed by means of encounters between authors, families, and collectors; estates and auctioneers; and dealers and libraries.
Considering the impact for scholarship of the Abinger Shelley Papers, Winterkorn pointed to individual items of significance for literary studies (the drafts of Frankenstein that showed Percy Shelley’s interventions) and those providing insights into the personal histories of the writers (such as the journals of Percy and Mary Shelley’s sometimes tempestuous times together).
Participants examine items from the collections at the masterclass.
Winterkorn referred to two collections that had come to the Bodleian Library in recent years:
The Abinger Collection of material from the Godwin and Shelley families [Bought by the library in 2004; since then the Bodleian has put further effort into a catalogue, linked here, and displaying the material, with items from the NYPL's Pforzheimer Collection, in the exhibition Shelley's Ghost.]
Philip Larkin’s letters to Monica Jones, a selection of which have been published as Letters to Monica in the volume edited by Anthony Thwaite, and complementing the Larkin Estate Collection at the University of Hull.
A display of the full surviving draft manuscript of Frankenstein can be seen in a Turning the Pages display here:
http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/podcasts
See more masterclasses this term on the CSB calendar.
Selden Map of China
http://seldenmap.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog
See the link above for a report of research and conservation work on the Selden Map of China, now on display (until December 2011) in the exhibition, Treasures of the Bodleian
Adventures in Provenance : the Gough Missals card index
from Sarah Stewart
As part of my SCONUL graduate library traineeship, I spent a week in Rare Books and Special Collections at the Bodleian Library, gaining a basic experience and understanding of rare and antiquarian book acquisitions, cataloguing and provenance. One of my projects during this week involved investigating provenance and cataloguing of a collection of missals held in the Bodleian Special Collections. These missals (dating between 15th-16th centuries, mostly pre-Reformation) were collected by the antiquarian and topographer Richard Gough (1735-1809). Although Gough is primarily known for his collection of antiquarian maps and topographical manuscripts, in addition to his work on the sepulchral monuments of Great Britain, Gough also contributed 200 early printed service books from the English Churches (primarily York and Sarum), including some illuminated Books of Hours, Missals, breviaries, psalters and hymnals.
The card catalogue of provenance evidence in missals collected by Richard Gough
Former antiquarian books librarian David M. Rogers (1917-1995) had created a card catalogue with notes on the annotations and provenances of these missals. When presented with this card catalogue, housed in a brass tin, the ominous categories “No Clue” in addition to “Not Yet Seen” presented themselves. My task was to order some of the missals in the Gough collection from the stacks, and determine what some of the rather cryptic notes on these cards might indicate. If of use, the information would then be added to the library catalogue record, if not already included. Some of the information contained on the index cards had already been recorded and noted, but others, such as the cryptic “pencil” were rather mysterious.
Along with Antiquarian books librarian Dr Alan Coates, I examined several of Gough’s missals at the Special Collections reading room (currently in the Radcliffe Science Library). One of these missals, Gough Missal 129, presented us with an interesting puzzle. On the index card, “anon. bookplate” had been written. This anonymous bookplate turned out to be a coat of arms, but it did not include a name. The coat of arms depicted a single white rose and chief in ermine on a red shield, surmounted by a rampant Pegasus crest. We are currently in the process of investigating this crest, which will aid in determining who might have owned this missal before it became part of the Gough collection.
http://www.cerl.org/web/en/resources/provenance/main CERL’s page for finding and exchanging provenance information.
Anthony Sampson archive open
– from Chrissie Webb
The Library’s one year project to catalogue the papers of Anthony Sampson (1926-2004), writer and journalist, is now complete.
Sampson read English at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating in 1950. Undecided on a career, he went to South Africa in 1951 as business manager for the black magazine, African Drum. Within weeks he was promoted to editor despite having no journalistic experience. He became immersed in black culture at an exciting time in Johannesburg, and made many friends including Trevor Huddleston, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Nadine Gordimer. He returned to England after four years but maintained a lifelong interest in South Africa, and in the anti-apartheid struggle. On his return he worked for the Observer as a journalist, under David Astor’s editorship. He reported on Harold Macmillan’s tour of Africa in 1960 and heard the ‘Wind of Change’ speech which disassociated Britain from the policy of apartheid. He was in South Africa at the end of the trial of Nelson Mandela and others in 1964, and advised Mandela on his defence speech. Many years later, after Mandela’s release, he wrote the authorised biography, Mandela (London, 1999).
He wrote over 20 books, mainly investigative journalism, but his major best-seller was the Anatomy of Britain (London, 1962), ‘a book about the workings of Britain – who runs it and how, how they got there, and how they are changing’. It was hugely popular, and five updates were published between 1965 and 2004.
In 1979-80 Sampson was editorial adviser to the ‘Brandt Commission’ on international development issues, working closely with Ted Heath, who later became a neighbour in Wiltshire. A few years later he was closely involved in the founding of the Social Democratic Party with friend and former fellow journalist, Shirley Williams.
Sampson’s correspondence and working papers provide intelligent writing, vivid insights, and first-hand experience of some key events of the 20th century, reflecting his wide-ranging interests throughout a full and varied career, The archive will be of interest to anyone studying late 20th century British politics; the workings of power through public institutions, private business and government; the politics of South Africa under the apartheid regime and after; and contemporary journalism and the history of journalism.
The papers can be consulted in the Bodleian’s Special Collections Reading Room and the catalogue can be viewed online:
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/modern/sampson/sampson.html
