Please join us at the new Early Modern at the Beinecke, for news on recent acquisitions and other doings of the Beinecke’s British and European collections, in print and manuscript, 1500-1800.

I’m very happy to welcome the following five graduate fellows in the Early and Early Modern collections in June and July:

Julia Doe, a graduate student in Yale’s Department of Music, draws on the early modern opera and music collections for her project, “French Opera at the Italian Theater (1762-1793): Nationalism, Genre, and Opéra-Comique”.”

Justin DuRivage, a graduate student in Yale’s Department of History, has worked across the early modern British and American print and manuscript collections for his project, “Taxing Empire: American Revolution and Clash over Imperial Political Economy, 1748-1776.”

Hadi Jorati, a graduate student in Yale’s Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department, is working in the Beinecke’s Arabic manuscript collections for his project, “Medieval Arabic and Islamic Civilization: Intellectual history of the medieval Middle East.”

James Macdonald, a graduate student in Yale’s English Department and Renaissance Studies Program, draws on the early modern British manuscript collections for his project, “Popular Religion and Literature in Early Modern England.”

Ying Jia Tan, a graduate student in the Yale History of Medicine and Science Program, will be working in the early modern cartographic holdings for his project, “The History of Printing and the Map: European Composite Atlases between 1600-1800.”

An annotated sale catalogue of the posthumous auction of the possessions of the notorious Queen Caroline, a recent addition to the Beinecke collections.

MAY. 
First Course. 
Poultry; as, roasted Fowls, forc’d.
Fish; as, Jowl of Salmon, boil’d with Smelts, &c.  Carp and Tench stew’d; Collar’d Eel with Crayfish, &c. Roasted Lobsters, Bisque of Shell-fish.
Boil’d Beef, Mutton, Veal, with Greens, Roots, &c.
Calf’s Head.
Breast of Veal ragou’d
Chine of Mutton with Pickles
Neats Tongue and Uider, roasted or boil’d, with Cauliflower or Brocoli, if to be had.
Beans and Bacon.
Pastry; as Boil’d Puddens of several sorts, Chicken or other Pyes.

Second Course.
Venison; as, Haunch of Venison, Leverets or Fawn roasted, Quarter of Kid, &c.
Poultry; as Turkey-Pouts or Quails, young Ducks, Green Geese, roasted
Fish; as, Collard’d Eels, roasted Lobsters, Prawns, or Cray-fish
Asparagus upon Toasts
Green Pease
Pastry; as, Orangado-pye, Tarts, Custards, Cheese-cakes, Creams, &c.
Fruits; as, Apples, Strawberries, Cherries, &c.

From The Family Magazine in Two Parts (London, 1741), a recent addition to the Beinecke collections.

“Nothing upon earth can be conceived so wretched as poor Chloe: for on the first moment that she suffered herself to reflect on what she had done, she thoroughly repented, and heartily detested herslef for such baseness.  She went directly into the garden, in hopes of meeting Sempronius, in order to throw herself at his feet, confess her treachery, and to beg him never to mention it to Caelia: but now she was conscious her repentance would come too late; and he would despise her, if possible, still more for such a recantation, after her knowledge of what had passed between him and Caelia.”

The further fortunes of Chloe, Caelia, and the adamantine-souled Sempronius can be found in The Little Female Academy (London, 1765), a recent acquisition at the Beinecke.

Drawing on the Lady Betty Bruce archive in the Beinecke’s Boswell Family Papers, Mallin examined the correspondence between Lady Betty Bruce, wife of James Boswell (1672-1749), Laird of Auchinleck, and her sisters and niece over a near twenty year span from 1698-1717.  In making close and extensive use of this correspondence archive, Mallin offers a new contribution to the study of Scottish correspondence, household, and kinship networks in the period, while exploring the idea of correspondence networks as a form of “virtual household.”

As Mallin argues, “the virtual household, as exemplified by the Bruce women, is a mode of communication that serves to negate the disadvantages of distance, and to increase the interdependence and resources of a group of people–in this case, a group of women who have no patriarchal head to tie them to each other, and who might otherwise have been absorbed entirely into their husbands’ families and away from each other.  … The letters that they wrote went beyond simple accounts of day-to-day life…; they served to reinforce the interdependence of the sisters’ families in a way that enhanced their social, economic, physical and emotional security.”

The Lady Betty Bruce letterbooks are held in the Beinecke’s Boswell Family Papers, call number: Gen MSS 89, Box 104.    Portions of the archive (primarily those relating to James Boswell) have been scanned and can be found in the Beinecke’s Digital Images Online.

A recent acquisition, adding to the Beinecke’s collections of early modern British and European almanacs: a sammelband of 30 late seventeenth-century German almanacs, stitched in a paper wrapper with pages interleaved for manuscript notes.  Beinecke call number: 2010 300.  Below, an almaniacal excerpt, from Swift’s satire; Beinecke call number: Ik Sw55 +708Eb.

A tip of the hat to our early modern feathered friends and their fans!

For the ornithologically intrigued, visit some of the Beinecke’s online bird collections in the Beinecke’s Digital Images & Collections.  Below, an 1843 sighting of a woodpecker, in John Bell’s Diary of an Expedition with John James Audubon (call number: WA MSS S-1752, in the Beinecke’s Yale Collection of Western Americana).

“The Day following, Don Philip made his public Entry into the City of Parma, where he was received with the greatest Demonstrations of Joy by all Ranks of People, and was immediately complimented thereupon by the Nobility, the Bishops of Parma and Guastalla, and by a large Body of Merchants.  In the Evening he was entertain’d at Supper by M. d’Umada, in the Palace of Giandemaria; after which his Royal Highness went to the Ducal Palace.  On this Occasion, Illuminations and Rejoicings were made for three Nights successively, and the Cannon of the Castle were fired.  As yet he has made no Alteration in the Government, excepting that he has conferred the Government of Parma upon the Advocate Arceli.”

“STOLEN out of the Stable of Mr. Thomas Baylis, of New-Mills, in the Parish of Stroud, Gloucestershire, on the 12^th of March last, between the Hours of Nine at Night and Four the next Morning, a black NAG, about 14 Hands and a half high, with a Star, a white Spot on the Far Hip … Whoever give Notice of the said Nag, (so as he may be had again) or of the Person or Persons that stole the same, (so as he or they may be convicted thereof) shall receive Three Guineas Reward from me, Thomas Baylis.”

“On Thursday an Order was sent to the New-Gaol from the Duke of Newcastle’s Office, for the Discharge of one Mr. Charles Watson, a Rebel Prisoner belonging to the Manchester Regiment, taken at Carlisle.

There are now only two Persons confined in the New-Gaol on account of the late Rebellion, viz. Mac Donald and Mac Gregor.”

“We, the under-written, do hereby Certify, That the Town of Dursley, in the County of Gloucester, is now entirely free from the SMALL-POX, and has been so for some Weeks past.

Charles Wallington, Minister.
George Faithorn, Richard Tippetts, Churchwardens.
John Gethen, Thomas Hughes, Overseers.
Charles Wallington, Apothecary.”

From a recent acquisition of The Gloucester Journal, volume 27, numbers 1391 – 1442. From Tuesday, January 3, 1748-9 to Tuesday December 26, 1749. Printed by R. Raikes, in the Black-Fryars, Gloucester.

The Beinecke has extensive collections of early modern newspapers and gazettes, particularly for Britain.  To browse the catalog, try a search in the “Genre/Form” field of the “Advanced Search”  option in Orbis, the Yale Library online catalog, for “Newspapers-England-17th century” or “Newspapers-England-18th century.”  Some titles include: The Cirencester Flying-Post; The British merchant, or, Commerce preserv’d; Mercurius bifrons, or, The English Janus: the one side true and serious, the other jocular.