Books, and What to Do with Them, #3

It’s been an age since I posted last. I’ve been very busy I have to say, working, teaching, writing and the like. More anon. But for now, some book craziness, just to reassure you that things are ticking along nicely.

Some time ago I posted about wanting the Habitat Louis de Bernières Book Caddy and despaired of ever finding one. This cyber lament appears to have been an excellent idea because I was contacted by someone who had one to sell and before putting it on eBay, he offered me first refusal. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance. So here is a little picture of it, in red, up against my red couch! You’ll immediately see that it is a Dante Caddy, with the Ricciardi Opere minori, the Meridiani Commedia and the first volume of the Opere, the SISMEL Comedìa and the Rime on the upper shelf, while on the lower shelf is the Edizione nazionale, Commedia, Rime, Convivio, Monarchia, and then the 1932 Vita nuova. All on wheels. What’s not to love!

I’ve been making some exciting acquisitions lately, such as a lovely (unread and uncut) copy of Branca’s critical edition of the Decameron published by the Accademia della Crusca in 1976. It is quite hard to find, and, very appropriately, I found it the very day before I travelled to Berlin to see the autograph manuscript, MS Hamilton 90. Exciting and enjoyable and fascinating. I also acquired the Storia della lingua italiana Einaudi, which I’m very happy with and am using quite a bit lately. I ordered what I thought would be the three volumes of the Grande grammatica italiana di consultazione from BOL.it but they are having trouble finding the first and third volumes, alas. My GDLI is growing nicely, with recent acquisitions of the two supplements (2004 and 2009), the latter of which was bought for a mere £2.50 online and which I was almost incredulous to find at that price. I’ve also acquired Bruni’s L’italiano nelle regioni, vol. 1, Lingua nazionale e identità regionali and vol. 2, Testi e documenti, and am delighted with it. You’ll see there Serianni’s Grammatica italiana, all keyed to the GDLI.

I also made another acquisition (or rather a gift, actually) which is the Storia della letteratura italiana published by Salerno, in the volumes that appeared along with Il Sole 24 Ore. The pagination is the same and so it is possible to cite from them without having to check the Library copy, so they’re extremely useful and I’m delighted to have them. It’s in 24 volumes, which is a bit bulky, but it is very useful.

Books Books Books

Help. I think that may be what I need. Help. I have gone a little insane on the old book buying front lately and this term have been adding significantly to the Biblioteca del Crazy Guy. Just before I moved over I found a lovely original copy, in two parts, of Rossetti's parallel text edition of Troilus and Criseyde (Chaucer's Troylus and Cryseyde (from the Harl. ms. 3943) compared with Boccaccio's Filostrato [London: Pub. for the Chaucer Society by N. Trübner & Co, 1873]). I also picked up some of those parallel texts transcriptions of Troilus MSS in the Chaucer Society series. Very pleasing. Still in Oxfam on St Giles, I found a (cheap-ish) copy of the Z-Text facsimile (Brewer, 1994), prepared by Brewer and Rigg. In BW's, I found a lovely discounted copy of Claire Donovan's The De Brailles Hours (BL, 1991) which I very much enjoyed reading.

I have also received some books in lieu, such as the excellent facsimile of Bodleian Library, MS Arch. Selden B. 24, intro. Boffey & Edwards (Brewer, 1997), and Butterfield's collection of essays in Chaucer and the City (Brewer, 2006), which is extremely good. I also got some interesting Palgrave books, such as The Palgrave Literary Dictionary of Chaucer (2006); Baldwin's A Guidebook to Piers Plowman (2007), which looks very good; Cooney's collection Writings on Love in the English Middle Ages (2006); Edwards' Chaucer and Boccaccio (2002), which of course I'd read by did not own; Patterson's Temporal Circumstances (2006), most of which I've read before, but with a few new things; Tison Pugh's Queering Medieval Genres (2004); Martha Rust's Imaginary Worlds in Medieval Books (2007), which I have not read yet but am looking forward to; and Elizabeth Scala's Absent Narratives (2002).

It was however, when I moved over that I discovered G. David, a rather well-known bookseller here in Cambridge. There I found some marvellous things, mainly Chaucer editions and criticism (about 15 items or so) but other stuff too, such as Philippa Tristram, Figures of Life and Death in Medieval English Literature (London: Paul Elek, 1976) which I did not know. These books belonged to the late and lamented Derek Brewer, which he'd sold off shortly before he passed away. I feel unworthy to have them, but glad too.

A visit to Oxford last weekend for a very enjoyable birthday party provided the opportunity to return to BW's where a distinguished don was selling his books after retirement. Gawd. I hardly knew where to look. What I'm particularly pleased with is Mary Wack's Lovesickness in the Middle Ages (UPenn, 1990); Smither's edition of Havelok (Oxford, 1987); and Vantuono's edition of Pearl (Garland, 1984), though sadly vol. 1 only. I'm not exactly sure how good it is, but it is rather full. Vol. 2 seems utterly irretrievable. Anyway, there was lots of Langland too, which I wanted, but I restricted myself to Justice & Kerby Fulton's Written Work (UPenn, 1997), and then Bloomfield's PP as a Fourteenth-Century Apocalypse and Robertson & Huppé's PP and Scriptural Tradition. Very pleased with that haul I must say.

By the way, I managed to find a paperback copy of Volume 1 Foster & Boyde's Dante's Lyric Poetry. Yes, a paperback was printed of the first volume only, which I had never seen. I'm still on the lookout for the whole thing in h/b, needless to say. But I'm getting there. I also picked up some volumes (1, 6 & 10) of Tutte le opere di Giovanni Boccaccio, ed. by Vittore Branca (in 10 volumes, published between 1964-1998), but am still missing vols 2, 3, 4, 5/1, and 9, which I despair of ever seeing in the flesh. I also found a copy of Judson Boyce Allen's Ethical Poetic of the Later Middle Ages (Toronto, 1982), which is very hard to find and looks now like it was printed during the war the paper is so yellowed (in every copy I've ever seen actually!).

I'm afraid that this is just a taster of what has been going on this term chez miglior acque but I admit I'll have to cool it for a while. I have now been banned from using my debit card or credit card for a number of months. I may also need a psychiatric evaluation before I'm allowed them back.