Calendar
Archive
Categories
Links
- Ad vivum
- Ashmolean Museum
- Blog Graphic Arts Collection, Princeton University Library
- Bodleian Library
- Picart
- The British Museum
- The Conveyor
- The John Johnson Collection
- The Lewis Walpole Library blog
- The William Hone BioText
- The Word on the Street
- UCSB English Broadside Ballad Archive
- William Godwin's Diary
Category Archives: Literature
Parlour game
Bonnets are everywhere due to the bicentenary of Pride and Prejudice*. This blog could not resist the temptation to join in, especially when the said article of apparel features so prominently in Douce’s folders of costumes, where the fashion plate … Continue reading
Posted in Colour, Costumes, Everyday life, Fashion, Games, Literature, Prints, Wood-engravings
Leave a comment
The cook’s oracle
In December 1826, Douce wrote to his friend George Cumberland: If you will write a book of cockery for your Bristoldians & other gormandizers, you will get as rich as Dr Kitchener, who told me that he has sold 20,000 … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Cookery, Everyday life, Feast, Literature, Networks, Physicians, Wood-engravings
Leave a comment
“The Puck of Commentators”
One of Douce’s most assiduous correspondents in the 1790s was the Shakespeare scholar George Steevens (1736-1800), of whom the DNB says that “his wit and the associated learning [...] earned him the name of the Puck of Commentators”: From his … Continue reading
German tales
The title-page of the Historische Kalender in the previous post is not the only representation of the story of William Tell in Douce’s collection. A series of plates entitled Wilhelm Tell. Nach Schillers Schauspiel and published by Philipp von Foltz … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Colour, Literature, Lithography, Poetry, Prints, Romances
Leave a comment
“The best engraver on wood in Europe”
Douce’s interest in German prints was not limited to early woodcuts and engravings; it also encompassed the work of contemporary printmakers. Next to what seems to be a proof for a title-page, Douce wrote ‘Unger of Berlin, The best engraver … Continue reading
Posted in History of printmaking, Literature, Prints, Wood-engravings, Woodcuts
Leave a comment
Douce’s evening readings
In the evening of 26 September 1830, Douce was reading Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. Scott was a friend of Douce: in 1804, he had sent him a copy of his edition of the medieval romance Sir Tristrem (now in the Bodleian). … Continue reading
Posted in Antiquaries, Games, Literature, Prints, Romances
Leave a comment
The spiritual Quixote
Among Douce’s satirical prints, there is a full set of caricatures of clerics after designs by George Moutard (or Murgatroyd) Woodward (1760?-1809). When Mary Dorothy George catalogued the five prints from the series in the collection of the British Museum, … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Prints, Religion, Satirical prints
Leave a comment
Scandinavian Noir
Long before subtitled Danish drama reached these shores*, Douce was already championing Scandinavian story-telling of a different sort, as transcribed by his friend the Danish scholar and antiquary Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin (1752-1829). On 28 April 1819, Douce wrote in his … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Networks, Poetry, Prints, Uncategorized, Witchcraft
Leave a comment
Douce and Flaxman
Douce counted the artist John Flaxman (1755-1826) among his friends: numerous gifts from the sculptor are recorded in his Collecta and Flaxman’s Compositions from the Tragedies of Aeschylus (1795) was one of the books bequeathed by Douce to the Bodleian. … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Prints, Satirical prints
Leave a comment
The valorous and witty-knight-errant Don Quixote
I recently saw (and very much enjoyed) The Romance of the Middle Ages at the Bodleian: The Romance of the Middle Ages Quite a few beautiful manuscripts and fascinating rare books from Douce’s collection have been included in this exhibition … Continue reading