The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club

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The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club

The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club

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De Hamel’s tale is punctuated with detailed descriptions of prize manuscripts and lamentations at the odd tragedy, such as a fire in 1731 at the portentously named Ashburnham House that destroyed dozens of texts, badly damaging the only manuscript of Beowulf and the fourth- or fifth-century Genesis, both collected by England’s pre-eminent antiquarian, Sir Robert Cotton. public Wi-Fi - this extends to the majority of our public spaces including the Reading Rooms, as well as our study desks and galleries at St Pancras (you won't require a login)

In this talk we will meet the patrons and illuminators, but also the antiquaries and collectors, the librarians, the dealers, the scholars and a rabbi and even a forger, all brought together by their passion for the books of the Middle Ages. We learn more about manuscripts by knowing the company they have kept throughout history.

The people who made, saved and sometimes destroyed medieval manuscripts, over a thousand years of history, from the acclaimed author of Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts In this stunningly beautiful book, Christopher de Hamel constructs an imaginary club of people who adore mediaeval manuscripts; bibliophiles whose obsession he shares. The 12 delightfully eccentric members span eight centuries - de Hamel imagines meeting them, sharing precious discoveries, trading gossip. The illustrations emit a light of their own, but what shines even brighter is the author's boyish enthusiasm for his subject. Times Books of the Year My one complaint about the book is a technical one, and I don't know if it's only on my ARC, or if the published version (printed or digital) would be this way as well. The "Bibliographies and Notes" at the end of the book take up nearly 20% of the book, but the font is roughly half the size of the rest of the book and there are no paragraph indentations. This makes for a very long, tedious notes section and I truly wish that more of this information had been included in the narrative or at the very least used as individual footnotes. Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? Looking for a good book? The Manuscripts Club, by Christopher de Hamel, biographizes twelve important figures through history who have collected and preserved rare manuscripts.

De Hamel acquired his first antiquarian book at the age of 15 and promptly defaced it with his signature Regular readers of my review blog might recognize that the last person in the book, Belle de Costa Greene, was the subject of the historical fiction novel I reviewed in 2021, The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.

This book is really a series of twelve mini-biographies of people who, through the course of history, have been collectors of manuscripts and who very well may have saved (or at least preserved) many rare manuscripts from destruction. Something that comes across as relatively common is the desire to own a rare item more than owning a specific item due to its significance. What is also common among the people included here is a real joy among the collectors for manuscripts. We also meet Rabbi David Oppenheim (1664-1736), many of whose Hebrew manuscripts are now in Oxford’s Bodleian library. The wider significance of Hebrew texts is understated today – indeed, de Hamel writes that “curators are usually astonished and delighted when a gentile shows an interest” – but he is right to do deference to a manuscript tradition that was long held in parallel esteem to Latin or Greek. Henry VIII founded the Regius Professorial chair of Hebrew at Cambridge in 1540, the same year he founded the Greek chair. Chapter 46: Records a touching Act of delicate Feeling not unmixed with Pleasantry, achieved and performed by Messrs. Dodson and Fogg



  • Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
  • EAN: 764486781913
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