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The Collation

A manuscript misattribution?

This post was originally going to be titled “Murder in the Archives” and was going to be about an account in William Westby’s 1688 diary (Folger MS V.a.469) of the discovery of a dismembered body found scattered on a dung hill and in two “houses of easement” (latrines) in London, the revelation of which caused panic throughout the city. I often use Westby’s description of the murder and subsequent confession and punishment of a French midwife accused of killing her abusive husband on “diary day” in paleography class. But after these passages were digitized, I’d never had the chance to explore the diary further; that is, until yesterday when I thought I’d write about it for The Collation

  1. (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 7.0, 27 February 2013), February 1688, trial of MARY AUBRY Dennis Fanet John Fanet John Desermo (t16880222-24).
  2. Ashgate, 2008, pp. 90-95

Comments

Heather Wolfe thought she was looking for a murder, but instead solved a manuscript misattribution. http://t.co/ISzA5EV0je

@FolgerResearch — March 1, 2013

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I’ve linked it already, but this kind of blogging makes much conventional academic publishing feel almost superfluous http://t.co/EYKNFWG9zt

@sharon_howard — March 1, 2013

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I hope no one thinks that manuscripts and archives are dull. http://t.co/7wRQaj3VPD

@bfk — March 2, 2013

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Thank you so much for your work on this–I’ll be eager to hear whether the hand matches that of the Le Neve diary at the BL! I referred to this as the “Westby” diary about fifteen times in my recent book, but I’m sure that future scholars will forgive me once all this is sorted out. It’s a fascinating document and one of my favorite diaries of the Revolution of 1688-89; I love that the author recorded in detail his responses to some of the pamphlets being printed in the months before the Revolution. (In all cases I cited the Folger catalog number, so future scholars will be able to follow my references even if the attribution is wrong). By the way, I am coming to the Folger for the month of June and am looking forward to seeing you then!

Scott Sowerby — March 2, 2013

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We look forward to seeing you, Scott! Arnold Hunt at the BL has kindly forwarded a couple of images of the 1678 diary, and the hand is certainly not an exact match, but some of the differences could possibly be accounted for by the ten year separation. So the next step is to look for other examples of his hand from the 1680s, and see if they are as cursive and slanty as V.a.469…

Heather Wolfe — March 4, 2013

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I assume that BL Add. MS 79491 will be your next port of call! (Although Peter Le Neve’s letters in that collection date from after 1692, so again it might not be an exact match). See you in June!

Scott Sowerby — March 5, 2013

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I remember this transcription day! What a fascinating post; it’s so interesting to see the intersection of library administrative history and reception history.

John Kuhn — March 11, 2013

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