eBLJ 2016

The Journal is published continuously throughout the year, with one volume per year. Articles undergo production as soon as they are ready, to ensure minimal delays in publication.

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English

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'Handsomely bound in cloth': UK Book Cover Designs 1840-1880
(2016)
King, Edmund M. B.
A review of the many varied cover designs made for cloth trade bindings, with reference to signed cover designs, together with a review of online resources for the further study of these.
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The Catholicon Anglicum (British Library, Add. MS. 89074): An Analysis of the Physical Evidence of its Production and Binding
(2016)
Freeman, James
On 27 February 2014, the British Library acquired the only known complete surviving copy of the Catholicon Anglicum, one of the earliest Middle English-Latin dictionaries, and thereby secured for the nation a key source for the study of English language and lexicography. The manuscript had been in the possession of the Monson family of Burton Hall, Lincolnshire, since the nineteenth century. Edited in 1882 by Sidney H. R. Herrtage – one-time contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary – but not seen publicly since, this fifteenth-century dictionary has so far been accessible solely in modern printed form. This article presents the results of the first detailed codicological analysis of the complete Catholicon manuscript (now Add. MS. 89074). The likely sources of the paper have been identified, as well as the way in which the paper quires were assembled. During binding, parchment sewing guards were inserted around the back and at the centre of each of the sixteen quires. These hitherto unrecorded scraps contain fragments of text that enable the identification of some of their sources: among them, two wills, a memorandum and a charter, all from the fifteenth century. The composition of the Catholicon has traditionally been assigned to north Yorkshire on linguistic and dialect evidence. However, the documents used to make some of the sewing guards yield place-names in the locality of Lincoln (where the manuscript was later owned in 1520), indicating that the binding, at least, may have been made further south.
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The Annotated Amleth: Belleforest in the British Library
(2016)
Casson, John
The account of Amleth in Franà§ois de Belleforest’s Le Cinquiesme Livre des Histoires Tragiques is a recognized source for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The British Library copy of the Lyon 1576 edition (C.8.a.5) bears various manuscript annotations which reveal an early reader’s approach to Belleforest’s text: one possible author of these annotations is Shakespeare himself.
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'I Who Speak Always Unpremeditately': The Earl of Mulgrave's Speeches Against Corruption and in Defence of His Honour, 1692 and 1695
(2016)
Eagles, Robin
In December 1692 John Sheffield, 3rd earl of Mulgrave, intervened in the House of Lords to speak in favour of the Place Bill – a measure aimed at limiting the numbers of MPs permitted to hold offices in the armed forces and central government. At one point Mulgrave equated the practice to that of a farce, with the MPs standing for actors indulging in dialogues with themselves, first in one tone and then another. Later in the speech, he reflected on the happy condition of England and the enslaved quality of the French, who were, he posited, envious of England's traditional liberties. Just over two years later, Mulgrave was himself in the spotlight when he came under investigation for accepting douceurs from the City of London in relation to his development of his new London town house, prompting a second speech to the Lords, this time in his own defence. Both of these speeches were later printed but the second address offers useful insights into the transmission of texts thanks to the survival of a British Library manuscript claiming to represent Mulgrave's speech taken down in short-hand at the time of its delivery. This article attempts to demonstrate how the second speech was adapted for the press and what both speeches reveal about the nature of parliamentary rhetoric in the period and the Lords’ conceptions of honour.
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The Only Early English Translation of Giovanni Botero's Della ragion di stato: Richard Etherington and Sloane MS. 1065
(2016)
Trace, Jamie
Giovanni Botero (1544–1617) was an extremely popular Italian author of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. His works were translated into a number of languages and saw many editions. One of his most famous works, the Della Ragion di Stato (1589), was particularly popular in Europe. This response to Machiavellian politics spawned a number of treatises on this newly recognised form of politics: reason of state. Despite this success on the continent, Botero's Della Ragion di Stato was never published in England. However a little-known contemporary English manuscript translation exists in the British Library. This article therefore aims at a material and textual analysis of this manuscript translation of the Della Ragion di Stato. By examining how this manuscript was produced and for whom we can understand the significance its creator placed on the work. Then by examining the way in which the Della Ragion di Stato has been translated and by examining the contents of the translator's own 'Adjunct', we can begin to understand how Botero was being read in England.
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The Date and Context of Robert of Torigni's Chronica in London, British Library, Cotton MS. Domitian A. VIII, ff. 71r-94v
(2016)
Pohl, Benjamin
This article establishes a precise date and context for British Library, Cotton MS. Domitian A. VIII, ff. 71r-94v, a copy of Robert of Torigni’s Chronica that was despatched from Mont-Saint-Michel to the Norman abbey of Le Bec during the early 1180s. Based on a palaeographical and codicological examination of MS. Domitian A. VIII alongside its exemplar, Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS. 159, this article demonstrates that Robert’s Chronica underwent a major chronological revision in 1182, and that MS. Domitian A. VIII was copied in precisely that context. Indeed, it will be argued that it was the production of MS. Domitian A. VIII – a custom job that had been requested by the abbot of Le Bec several years earlier – which gave rise to the Chronica’s revision in the first place. These are important discoveries which allow us to identify, for the first time, the specific historical circumstances that governed the production of MS. Domitian A. VIII. In addition, these findings also help us develop a clearer notion of the relationship between the two great abbeys of Le Bec and Mont-Saint-Michel (and their respective scriptoria) during the twelfth century.
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The Charles G. Leland Collection of Romani Books and Manuscripts
(2016)
Edwards, Adrian S.
The American writer Charles G. Leland (1824-1903) is primarily known for his comic verses. He was, however, also a pioneering linguist who published widely on the languages of the Roma (Gypsy) people of Britain, Ireland and continental Europe. Archival collections in the American north-east hold a range of Leland's literary materials, but his Romani books and autograph manuscripts at the British Library have largely gone unnoticed by researchers. This article examines over fifty volumes of Leland material, and attempts to place them within the context of his life and work. They include published books (some with annotations and inserts), correspondence with other Romani scholars, publication drafts, manuscript vocabulary lists, and a variety of other linguistic and ethnographic notes. Most of the material was donated by his niece and biographer Elizabeth Pennell.
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W. Somerset Maugham’s Letters to Lady Aberconway in the British Library
(2016)
Lee, Lilith
The Western Manuscripts collection of the British Library possesses a series of original letters from W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) to Christabel, Lady Aberconway (1890–1974) that has not been registered in bibliographies of Maugham’s manuscripts and private letters. Maugham’s biographers only mention the relationship between the two correspondents as fellow dinner guests. However, these letters, written over a period of thirty years, show that Maugham was teasing and playful with his friend, enjoyed her company, and was moved by her letters. This article outlines briefly Lady Aberconway’s life for understanding Maugham's letters and discusses several details of interest for the study of the author’s life and work.
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Psalterium in quatuor linguis: Hebraea, Graeca, Chaldaea [i.e. Ethiopic], Latina (Cologne, 1518). Baltic Trade and Cultural Connections: Evidence from the Paper
(2016)
Christie-Miller, Ian
The archiving and study of images of the watermarks in the British Library’s three copies of Psalterium in quatuor linguis: Hebraea, Graeca, Chaldaea [i.e. Ethiopic], Latina (Cologne, 1518) enables close comparison to be made of the make up of the books. Access to the Bernstein on-line database of watermarks indicates a close correlation of watermarks in the books with the activities of the Hanseatic League even as far afield as Moscow. Finally a brief comparison is made of the layouts of Psalterium and its contemporary multi-language work, the Complutensian Polyglot. It is suggested that the different layouts reflect, respectively, the progressive and the conservative world views of the publishers.
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Tambimuttu: Re-Inventing the Art of Poetry Illustration
(2016)
Boselli, Sandra
M. J. T. Tambimuttu, the much maligned Ceylonese editor of Poetry London and Editions Poetry London, was in fact consistently admired at home and abroad during the Second World War. Both his periodical and books were held in high esteem by his peers for their aesthetic innovations: his judicious commissions enabled him to assemble poets and artists to their mutual advantage and satisfaction. His dream of unity among the arts, however, did not survive postwar economic requirements.
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eBLJ 2016

eBLJ 2016

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