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Lot 245

MASSEY (WILLIAM)

22 November 2011, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £1,375 inc. premium

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MASSEY (WILLIAM)

"Gulielmi Massey/ Liber Memorialis", being his autograph commonplace book, inscribed with title on the inside of the upper cover, compiled between c.1723 and 1763, containing two pages of introductory matter giving personal details such as the date and place of his birth, his marriage, the birth and death of his son, and details of his early schooling; the main text comprising a variety of entries on subjects such as the number of foundlings in Paris in 1763, a list of extraordinary events in 1723-41, the number of Quaker births and burials in Norwich in 1699-1726, comparison of Greek and Phoenician letters, notes on the character and location of various classical and biblical manuscripts, "Philosophical & physical Remarks", etc., nearly 250 pages, original vellum wrappers with tulip decorated bronze clasp, old paper repairs covering two splits on the spine of the clasp side, first covering becoming lightly detached but overall in good and attractive condition, 8vo, c.1723-1763

Footnotes

MASSEY'S 'LIBER MEMORIALIS': for a notice of the Quaker schoolmaster, historian of penmanship and translator William Massey, see the ODNB. The first section of the present volume supplies a good deal of biographical information that has hitherto been not known, such as the correct date of his birth, his place of birth, the fact of his marriage, the fact that he had a son and the fact that that son died. As befits the author of The Origin and Progress of Letters (1763) – to which Ambrose Heal stated that 'we owe a great deal of our knowledge of the English writing masters' – this volume is written throughout in a meticulous and most attractive hand. Other manuscripts by Massey are at the Bodleian Library and Yale University. It is being sold on behalf of Oxfam, with a note on it prepared by Bernard Nurse, former Librarian of the Society of Antiquaries.

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