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Lost and Found: Ben Jonson's Autograph in Joachim Morsius's Album Amicorum

Lost and Found: Ben Jonson's Autograph in Joachim Morsius's Album Amicorum JUNE SCHLUETER "I cannot be optimistic enough to think that many more such reports of loss and destruction will prove to be false." The sentiment is that of Peter Beal, compiler of the magisterial database Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts 1450­1700. It appears near the end of an engaging essay entitled "`Lost': The Destruction, Dispersal and Rediscovery of Manuscripts,"1 which, within a few short narratives, artfully captures the frustrations of scholars longing for manuscripts that no longer exist. Of course, in some cases, even though the original has disappeared, a facsimile has survived: One that comes to mind is a liber amicorum inscribed by Ben Jonson to the theosopher Joachim Morsius [1593­1644] on New Year's Day 1620. The inscribed page ­ giving the full quotation from Seneca of Jonson's celebrated Tanquam explorator motto ­ was fortunately reproduced in facsimile in 1929.2 The album was then in the Municipal Library of Lübeck. When I made enquiries about it in the 1970s they seemed to The 20.2 (2013): 260­272 DOI: 10.3366/bjj.2013.0084 © Edinburgh University Press www.euppublishing.com/bjj confirm that the album had perished, with many other books, when Lübeck was bombed in the Second World War.3 Having recently completed a study http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Ben Jonson Journal Edinburgh University Press

Lost and Found: Ben Jonson's Autograph in Joachim Morsius's Album Amicorum

Schlueter, June
Ben Jonson Journal , Volume 20 (2): 260 – Nov 1, 2013
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Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
© Edinburgh University Press
Subject
Bibliographic / Editorial Studies; Literary Studies
ISSN
1079-3453
eISSN
1755-165X
DOI
10.3366/bjj.2013.0084
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

JUNE SCHLUETER "I cannot be optimistic enough to think that many more such reports of loss and destruction will prove to be false." The sentiment is that of Peter Beal, compiler of the magisterial database Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts 1450­1700. It appears near the end of an engaging essay entitled "`Lost': The Destruction, Dispersal and Rediscovery of Manuscripts,"1 which, within a few short narratives, artfully captures the frustrations of scholars longing for manuscripts that no longer exist. Of course, in some cases, even though the original has disappeared, a facsimile has survived: One that comes to mind is a liber amicorum inscribed by Ben Jonson to the theosopher Joachim Morsius [1593­1644] on New Year's Day 1620. The inscribed page ­ giving the full quotation from Seneca of Jonson's celebrated Tanquam explorator motto ­ was fortunately reproduced in facsimile in 1929.2 The album was then in the Municipal Library of Lübeck. When I made enquiries about it in the 1970s they seemed to The 20.2 (2013): 260­272 DOI: 10.3366/bjj.2013.0084 © Edinburgh University Press www.euppublishing.com/bjj confirm that the album had perished, with many other books, when Lübeck was bombed in the Second World War.3 Having recently completed a study

Journal

Ben Jonson Journal – Edinburgh University Press

Published: Nov 1, 2013

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