Sir Thomas Phillipps’s purchases of manuscripts in Switzerland
Speaker(s): Angéline Rais
Related events: New sources for book history – International Conference
Releated Working Group(s):
Collection: CERl conferences
Recorded: November 28, 2017
Abstract:
Angéline Rais (University of Oxford), Sir Thomas Phillipps’s purchases of manuscripts in Switzerland: an analysis of sources.
In 1822, Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872) left England to reduce his debts and decided to settle in Berne for he thought that the cost of living was more affordable there and book-buying temptations less strong. This was, however, a miscalculation and he purchased several hundred manuscripts and printed books during his one-year stay. While Phillipps bought most of these books from professional dealers, private and religious owners also sold him medieval and early modern manuscripts, as well as incunables and other valuable printed books. All these acquisitions were sent to his home, Middle Hill, to become part of the Bibliotheca Phillippica. After his death, the Swiss books were auctioned along with Phillipps’s whole collection and are now in various libraries around the world.
The aim of this paper is to show how primary sources, that is, Phillipps’s papers, the books he purchased in Switzerland, as well as library and auction catalogues, provide valuable insights into the changing value assigned to books by members of the antiquarian book-trade and how these items have been gradually defined as part of a country’s cultural heritage. This study focuses on Phillipps’s acquisition of the manuscript of Ludolph of Suchen’s Reise in das Heiliges Land copied in the late 15th century, which he obtained from the Hermits of St. Augustine at Fribourg. This paper will argue that a combined methodology based on the analysis of books’ material evidence, the reading of archival documents and the use of historical bibliographical sources, help understand why some Swiss owners dispersed their rare books and how one of the major English book-collector of the 19th century build his library abroad.
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