IN BOOKLAND

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 7 September 1929, Page 18

IN BOOKLAND

LITERARY TREASURES. TWO VA.LUABLE MANUSCRIPTS. Of the many important literary and art treasures that recently have oomc | tinder the auctioneer’s hammer in London. two of the most outstanding are the. two manuscripts, “The Luttrell Psalter’’ and) “The Bedford Horae. These belong to the Weld! family, ol Luhvo-rth Gas tie. They were sold bv Messrs. Sotheiby on July 29. The famous Luttrell manuscript, one of the finest English medieval manu- . scripts, was privately bought by an | anonymous ipurchaseir for the Britrsu | Museum, where it lias been on loan lor 33 years. Jt is understood that the] price paid was £30,000. The manuscript dates from 1310, and contains over 300 leaves, lavishly illustrated in colouii'is andi gold. Its reiiniirlvulbl© I'liustrations have been freeliy drawn upon in current works on English medieval life. . „ . Tliis manuscript, executed in Last Anglia, about 1340 for Sir Geoffrey Louterell, of Irnliam, Lincolnshire, is written in a large and bold liturgical script oil 309 leaves, and is perhaps one of the most .lavishly decorated in existence. It lias long been famous for its remarkable .series otf marginal drawings illustrating the life and social customs of medieval England. The beautiful soft- colouring of 'the miniatures is in a> wonderful state of preservation. in the latter part of the f ourteenth Century the manuscript passed into the possession of a member of the FitzAilian family. Alt a later period the manuscr.ijpt belonged to- Alary, daughter and co-heir of Sir Edward Widdrmgton, of Oartington, Nor thu tnbeiiland. who subsequently presented, it to Sir Nicholas Shireburn, of Stonyhurst. Ultimately it was inherited with the Shireburn property by the familv of Weld, of Lul worth, Dorsetshire, through marriage of Elizaboth, daughter of Richard Shirebuirn, to William ...'ll. At least ten pages of Messrs Sotheby’s beautifully*- illustrated catalogue are occupied with descriptions of the illuminations, many of which are s-op'rod u,oed the rein. “The Bedford Horae,” executed between 1414 and 1435 for John of Lan-e-aster, Duke of Bedford, brother of Henry V., consists of 238 leaves, and is decorated with delightful miniatures, initials, and borders. It was purchased for £33,000 by Messrs Quaiutcli, who r„-.e holding it for eventual purchase by tiie British Museum.

NOTES. .V “Peel Centenary” is shortly to be celebrated in the Cumberland hills where John Peel used to hold the meets of liis famous fox-hounds. There will be a born-blowing contest. Sil-Vara, the Viennese author of “Cal'rite,” which was recently produced at the St. James’s Theatre, was employed' as a clerk in London before the waii'. He has also been a wine-dheeker i t a London Hotel.

Anne Comnena, was not only a Princess, but first of women historians. Hitherto, however, she and her works have had no great attention in England. But they have been made the subject of a study by Aire Georgina Buckler, written for the Oxford Press. Anna’s life of her father, the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Commenus, deals with a period of the world which has a permanent interest, for it included the first Crusade. Anna’s is also the only Greek account we have of the Western Crusaders Who passed through Constantinople. In France, as in England and Germany, tOie fashion nowadays seems to be for biograpty. An interesting little book recently* published in Paris 1 is M. Alauri.ee Thiery’s “La Vie et Les Voyages du Capitaine Cook.” M. Thiery is a lecturer at London University, and lie has written his biography of Captain Cook in a lively and anything but academic style. The book is. now being translated into English. It will be published some time in the l autumn by Mr Geoffrey Bles. Afr Walter Jorrold and his wife have written, “Five Queen Women.” The five were all literary women, as may be seen from this paragraph from the book : In Apih.ra Belm (1640-89) we have England’s first professional woman v l iter, and the earliest English Woman novelist. In; Alary de la. Riviere AlanIcy (1663-1724), we> have the introducer into English literature of the “secret history” in the form of fiction. In Susanne Oentillivre (1667-1723), we have the most outstanding English woman playwright. In Elizabeth Haywood (1093H756), we have a writer of a fecundity comparable only with that of Defoe'. In Lotitia. Piikington (17121750), wo may recognise the first woman writer, who indulged in the revelations of frank and intimate autobiography.

First editions' of modem writers continue to bring liigli prices at- London sales. A new Gissing record! was established at Sotheby’s rooms when a first edition of his “Workers- of the Dawn,” 1880, realised £325. A week earlier a copy of this work realised £66 in the same rooms but the £325 copy chanced to be that presented l by the author to Charles Brad! a ugh. It also contained a. two-page letter from _ Gissing. At the. same sale a first edition of George Moore’s “Pagan Poems,’’ 1881, made £125. Another day nearly £250 was paid for five first editions of Bernard Shaw'-s works. The first authorised edition qif “Love .Among the Artists,” 1900. made £7B; ‘‘Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant-,’ ’ 1908. went for £7O; and n onpy of “Widowers’ Houses,” 1893, in the original cloth, realised £4l.