Author Christopher de Hamel does a really wonderful job of researching these manuscript collectors (and he gives a lot of credit to others for some of this work) and presenting their lives and collecting rigor in an easy-to-read, conversational tone. Each of these lives was fascinating in unique ways and I'd be interested in learning more about all of them. Chapter 28: A good-humoured Christmas Chapter, containing an Account of a Wedding, and some other Sports beside/which although in their Way even as good Customs as Marriage itself, are not quite so religiously kept up, in these degenerate Times Chapter 33: Mr. Weller the elder delivers some Critical Sentiments respecting Literary Composition; and, assisted by his Son Samuel, pays a small Instalment of Retaliation to the Account of the Reverend Gentleman with the Red Nose

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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. For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. 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) Chapter 20: Showing how Dodson and Fogg were Men of Business, and their Clerks Men of pleasure; and how an affecting Interview took place between Mr. Weller and his long-lost Parent; showing also what Choice Spirits assembled at the Magpie and Stump, and what a Capital Chapter the next one will be If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month.

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. Chapter 21: In which the old Man launches forth into his favourite Theme, and relates a Story about a queer Client Chapter 3: A new Acquaintance—The Stroller’s Tale—A disagreeable Interruption, and an unpleasant Encounter The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club is a logical sequel to Christopher de Hamel’s Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts (2016), in which he introduced readers to some of the most famous handmade books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. In this new book he turns his attention to the important question of how such manuscripts have survived the intervening centuries since they were made. The book examines the lives of 11 men and one woman whose actions have played a major part in shaping the fates of medieval books and determining both what survives and where the manuscripts are to be found today. Chapter 44: Treats of divers little Matters which occurred in the Fleet, and of Mr. Winkle’s mysterious Behaviour; and shows how the poor Chancery Prisoner obtained his Release at lastgloriously engaging and readable ... De Hamel wears his erudition lightly, and the reader is taken deeply into the worlds of individuals who lived across almost a thousand years of history Richard Ovenden, Financial Times You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. I dream of stealing it away, and I am not alone in my weakness for these singular objects (as centuries of light-fingered clergymen could attest). My bibliophilia, however, cannot compete with that of Christopher de Hamel, the Cambridge fellow and ex-Sotheby’s expert whose 2017 Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts saw him wrangle with hundreds of the things. For this follow-up, The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club, he takes us into the strange world of bibliomaniacs across time, presenting 12 portraits of collectors and their surprisingly “restless” texts, that shuffle across nations and continents as they pass between collections. Christopher de Hamel introduces his newest and largest book yet, about people who spent their lives with medieval manuscripts, from the eleventh century to the twentieth. It imagines a fraternity of enthusiasts sharing very different obsessions with some of the most beautiful books ever made.