GEMMS IDGEMMS-MANUSCRIPT-001354
TitleElizabeth Lyttelton's commonplace book
ShelfmarkMS Add. 8460
Creation Dateca. 1665 - 1710
RepositoryCambridge University Library
Contents NoteA miscellany of verse and prose, predominantly written in a single female hand; namely, that of Elizabeth Lyttelton (b. c. 1648), daughter of Sir Thomas Browne. Lyttelton probably began compiling this manuscript in the mid to late 1660s, when she is first mentioned in her father's letters as helping him to organise his papers. The latest dateable item in the miscellany is 1710. The manuscript also contains seventy pages of sermon notes and religious meditations written by Dorothy Browne, the wife of Sir Thomas, dateable to the late 1650s. Victoria E. Burke has suggested that one function of Lyttelton's entries in this volume was to memorialise both her father's works and her relationship with him.
Material FeaturesQuarto. 174pp; 87 leaves. Contemporary calf. Double ruling in blind and spotted red edging to the pages.
Associated Peoplemanuscript owner - Browne, Marymanuscript owner - Browne (née Mileham), Dorothymanuscript owner - Dodsley, Jamesmanuscript owner - Keynes, Geoffreymanuscript owner - Lyttelton (née Browne), Elizabethmanuscript owner - Tenison, Edward
ProvenanceThis volume was previously owned by Lyttelton's mother, Dorothy Browne. Inscriptions include 'Mary Browne' (the younger sister of Lyttelton, who died in 1676) and 'Ja[me]s Dodsley' (recto of the first folio). On p. 174, the following has been written: 'Mar 11th 1713/4 The gift of Mrs Lyttelton to Edward Tenison [i.e. the clergyman Edward Tenison, Lyttelton's first cousin]'. The bookplates of Geoffrey Keynes and the Royal College of Physicians, London are pasted on the inside front cover of the volume.
AcquisitionPurchased by Geoffrey Keynes for three guineas during the First World War. In 1975, he presented this volume, together with his Browne collection, to the Royal College of Physicians, London. Keynes then requested that the collection be sold to the University of Cambridge.
Source of DataCELM; Perdita; Archives Hub (see link below); Hannah Yip.
Other NoteSee Geoffrey Keynes, The Commonplace Book of Elizabeth Lyttelton, Daughter of Sir Thomas Browne (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1919); Victoria E. Burke, 'Contexts for Women's Manuscript Miscellanies: The Case of Elizabeth Lyttelton and Sir Thomas Browne', The Yearbook of English Studies, 33 (2003), 316-28; Rebecca Bullard, '"A bright Coelestiall Mind": A New Set of Writings by Lady Dorothy Browne (1621-1685)', Huntington Library Quarterly, 73.1 (2010), pp. 99-122. This MS is mentioned briefly in Angus Vine, Miscellaneous Order: Manuscript Culture and the Early Modern Organization of Knowledge (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), p. 8.
Sermons Contained
Sermon Reports ContainedSermon notes by Lady Dorothy Browne -- c. 70 pages
Attached URLs:
| URL | Notes |
|---|---|
| archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/6f73b69a-6027-33c3-bccf-17cce8df9f46 | Archives Hub catalogue entry for CUL, MS Add. 8460. |
| web.warwick.ac.uk/english/perdita/html/ms_CULA8460.htm | Perdita entry for CUL, MS Add. 8460. |
| cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-08640/1 | Digitised copy of CUL, MS Add. 8460, available on Scriptorium (University of Cambridge Digital Library). |
| www.english.cam.ac.uk/scriptorium/Bullard_CUL_MS_Add_8460.pdf | Rebecca Bullard, 'Cambridge University Library, MS Add. 8460', published on the Scriptorium website. |
GEMMS record createdAugust 31, 2020
GEMMS record last editedSeptember 15, 2020