AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Scheme, 2007-2010:
Seventeenth-century verse and prose miscellanies at Chetham's Library

We are happy to be able to announce the start of a second new study in the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Collaborative Doctoral Scheme. It will examine the seventeenth-century verse and prose miscellanies at Chetham's Library'
This work is the result of a collaboration between the Research Institute for Humanities, University of Keele and Chetham's Library, Manchester.

We are delighted to have been joined by Joel Swann, of the University of Keele, who is undertaking the research for his PhD. Prior to registering as a PhD student at Keele University, Joel completed a BSc in Maths and English and an MA in Early Modern English Studies at the University of Manchester.

First verse of 'A valediction forbidding mourning,' by John Donne from Chetham's Library MS A.4.15

The manuscripts which make up the centre of the study (A.4.15 and A.4.16), from the collection of Dr Richard Farmer (1735-1797), Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, were dispersed as part of the sale of his collection. The manuscripts contain a mixture of prose (including letters of Ralegh and Bacon); poems by Davies, Donne, Hoskins, and Jonson; material on Philip Sidney; libels on the Earl of Somerset and on Giles Mompesson, and other Jacobean libels. The two collections date from between c. 1590 and 1631, and both are likely to have a London or university origin. The project will (i) seek to trace the provenance of these manuscripts, both within Farmer's collection and earlier; (ii) examine the physical make-up of the manuscripts for evidence about provenance and origins; (iii) study the texts included in the manuscripts, providing accurate transcriptions, and through collation with other comparable manuscripts, ascertain the likely base-copies for these exemplars. Despite its early publication these manuscripts have been neglected: their texts are not even recorded in the 'Early Stuart Libels' database (possibly because the text was already in print).

Swann amid the books

A major part of the project will be to relate these manuscripts to manuscript circulation and its role in the dissemination of political and cultural information especially in the English regions. Some attempt will be made to explore the difference between the manuscripts generally located in national collections and the kinds of material found in local archives, by considering not only the contents of the volumes and how they relate to other key manuscript collections, but also by considering the different types of manuscripts available (single sheets, separates, unbound or later rebound; pre-ruled and stitched books; fair copies of previously existing unbound or less formal collections; poetry interspersed in letter collections or diaries), and the differing kinds of collections which they might contain. The study will examine the Farmer Chetham's manuscript as examples of 'metropolitan' circulation in comparison with a range of local collections.

Joel shows us how much paper he has to fill in for his PhD.

This project is jointly supervised by Chetham's Librarian, Dr Michael Powell, and Professor James Knowles of the University of Keele. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or would like to know more.

Joel Swann
October 2007