Vieira, Alberto – AS ILHAS ATLÂNTICAS / THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS, CTT Correios, 1995.domingo, junho 21, 2009
As Ilhas Atlânticas - Alberto Vieira
Vieira, Alberto – AS ILHAS ATLÂNTICAS / THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS, CTT Correios, 1995.
História do Vinho da Madeira - Alberto Vieira
Vieira, Alberto – HISTÓRIA DO VINHO DA MADEIRA, Colecção Documentos nº 2, Secretaria Regional do Turismo e Cultura, Centro de Estudos de História do Atlântico, 1993.
sexta-feira, junho 19, 2009
«Baltazar Dias» - Elucidário Madeirense
Dias (Baltazar). Das circunstancias pessoais deste madeirense pouco se sabe, a pesar de ter tido grande nomeada no seu tempo como poeta e autor de vários autos, que as classes populares liam avidamente e de que se fizeram muitas edições. Vagamente consta que nasceu na freguesia de Sant'Ana e presume-se que tivesse passado uma parte considerável da sua vida no continente do reino, onde faleceu em ano que não podemos determinar. Diz Barbosa Machado na sua Bibliotheca Lusitana «que foi um dos celebres poetas que floresceram no reino del-rei D. Sebastião, principalmente na composição de autos, com a circunstancia de ser cego de nascimento», limitando-se o Diccionario Btbliographico de Inocencio, no tomo 1, a reproduzir a sucinta noticia que dá Barbosa Machado.
Dá Inocencio nota das seguintes composições de Baltazar Dias: Auto d'el-rei Salomão, 1613; Auto da Paixão de Christo, metrificado, 1613; Auto de Santo Aleixo, 1613, 1616, 1638, 1749 e 1791; Auto de Santa Catharina Virgem e Martyr, 1616, 1638, 1659, 1727 e 1786: Auto da Feira da Ladra, 1613; Conselhos para bem casar, 1638, 1659 e 1680; Auto da milicia das mulheres, 1640 e 1793; Historia da Imperatriz Porcina, mulher do Imperador Lodonio de Roma, 1660, que tem sido reimpressa muitas vezes; Auto do Nascimento de Christo, 1665; Trovas de arte maior sobre a morte de D. Joâo de Castro. . .; Tragédia do Marquez de Montua, 1665 .
São de Inocencio os seguintes esclarecimentos, que textualmente transcrevemos:
«Esta tragédia (a do Marquez de Mantua) de que ha várias reimpressões posteriores, foi ultimamente incluída pelo V. de Almeida Garrett no tomo III do seu Romanceiro (Vol. XV das Obras) de paginas 195 até 296, onde os leitores a poderão ver. Ahi se emitte a opinião de que esta versão portugueza de um romance originalmente francez ou provençal, data dos fins do século XIV, ou quando muito dos princípios do século XV. Se assim for, não seria por certo Balthasar Dias, e erradamente lhe andava atribuída pelos nossos bibliographos; o que todavia o illustre critico parece ignorar, pois que nem palavra diz de Balthasar Dias, nem de que a obra andasse jamais em nome deste.
«Bem desejara eu aclarar melhor o que diz respeito a este antigo poeta, cujas producções ou suas ou attribuidas, são tão conhecidas e vulgares, quanto são ignoradas as suas circunstancias pessoaes, e a epocha precisa, e certa em que viveu:-e também verificar se além das edições que ficam apontadas, extrahidas da Bibl. Lus., e repetidas no Catalogo da Academia, ha outras mais anteriores, como parece provável, se o auctor viveu na epocha que se diz: não posso porém satisfazer ainda este desejo, por não ter colhido resultado satisfatório das investigações até agora feitas.
«Se obtiver, como espero, algumas noticias ulteriores, direi no Supplemento o que tiver accrescido. O que é innegavel, sejão ou não de Balthasar Dias essas obras que andam em seu nome, é que ellas tem tido (se não todas, a maior parte) repetidas reimpressões: e que apesar dos erros de que andam cheias, que muitas vezes desfiguram o sentido, tem toques tão nacionaes e tão gostosos para o povo, que ainda hoje são procuradas e lidas tanto em Lisboa como nas províncias. «Percorrei, (diz um dos nossos mais conspícuos autores modernos) as choupanas nas aldeias e as oficinas e lojas de artífices nas cidades, e em quasi todas achareis uma ou outra das multiplicadas edições dos autos de S. Aleixo, S. Catharina, Imperatriz Porcina, Malicia das Mulheres, etc,»
No tomo VIII do seu Diccionario, acrescenta Inocencio o seguinte:-«Subsiste acerca deste nosso poeta, da epocha certa em que viveu e do tempo em que pela primeira vez se imprimiram as producções cuja paternidade se lhe attribue, a mesma escassez de noticias, que torna escuro e duvidoso tudo o que a elle diz respeito ».
Na «Recapitulação da Historia da Litteratura Portuguesa II. Renascença», de Teofilo Braga, encontram-se, a pag. 308, as seguintes interessantes informações:
«De todos os poetas da eschola vicentina foi o querido do povo, cuja sympathia ainda dura, sendo lido e representado pelas aldeias: Homem carecido de vista, se lê d'elle em um manuscripto do século XVII, o que no alvará de 29 de Fevereiro de 1537 com o privilegio para a publicação das suas obras se confirma: «faço saber que Baltazar Dias, ceguo, da ilha da Madeira, me disse per sua petyçam que tem feytas algûas obras assy em prosa como em verso, as quaes foram já vistas e aprovadas e algûas d'ellas ymprimidas, segundo podia ver por um pubrico estromento que perante mi apresentou. E por quanto elle quer mandar imprimir as ditas obras que tem feitas e outras que espera de fazer, por ser homem pobre e nam ter outra industria para viver por o carecimento de sua vista se nam vender as ditas obras, me pidia houvesse por bem, por lhe fazer esmolla, dar-lhe de privilegio pera que pessoa alguma não possa imprimir nem vender suas obras sem sua licença, com certa pena.» Concedido o privilegio e imposta multa de trinta cruzados ao contrafactor, impoz-se-lhe: «se elle fizer algumas obras que toquem em cousa de nossa santa fee, nam se imprimiram sem primeiro, serem vistas e enjaminadas por Mestre Pedro Margualho, e vindo por elle vistas e achando que não falla em cousa que se não deva fallar, lhe passe disso certidam, com a qual certidam hey por bem que se imprimam as taes obras e d'outra maneira nam.»
Estes rigores de censura eclesiástica foram systematisados no primeiro Índice dos Autos condemnados pelo Cardeal Infante D. Henrique em 1551, e pelos que prohibiram os Autos sobre assumptos tirados da Bíblia e dos Evangelhos. Perderam-se o Auto del rei Salomâo, o Auto da Paixâo de Christo metrificado, o Auto da Feira da Ladra. São ainda de uma grande actualidade o Auto de Santo Aleixo e o Auto de Santa Catherina formados nas narrativas da Legenda Aurea e a tragédia do Marquez de Mantua. Tinha um vivo sentimento poético, que faz com que ainda sejam lidos pelas aldeias a Historia da Imperatriz Porcina, a Malicia das Mulheres e os Conselhos para bem casar. Por uma estrophe d'esta sátira popular sabe-se que viveu os seus últimos annos na Beira
Vossa fama pregoeira
Me faz esta vos mandar,
Posto que estou n'esta Beira
Tão remoto de trovar,
Que não faço trova inteira.
Bem mereciam todas estas obras de cunho classico dispersas em folhas volantes, ficarem reunidas em um volume com uma cuidada recensão litteraria. Supõe-se ter falecido pelo fim do reinado de D. Sebastião.»
Dá Inocencio nota das seguintes composições de Baltazar Dias: Auto d'el-rei Salomão, 1613; Auto da Paixão de Christo, metrificado, 1613; Auto de Santo Aleixo, 1613, 1616, 1638, 1749 e 1791; Auto de Santa Catharina Virgem e Martyr, 1616, 1638, 1659, 1727 e 1786: Auto da Feira da Ladra, 1613; Conselhos para bem casar, 1638, 1659 e 1680; Auto da milicia das mulheres, 1640 e 1793; Historia da Imperatriz Porcina, mulher do Imperador Lodonio de Roma, 1660, que tem sido reimpressa muitas vezes; Auto do Nascimento de Christo, 1665; Trovas de arte maior sobre a morte de D. Joâo de Castro. . .; Tragédia do Marquez de Montua, 1665 .
São de Inocencio os seguintes esclarecimentos, que textualmente transcrevemos:
«Esta tragédia (a do Marquez de Mantua) de que ha várias reimpressões posteriores, foi ultimamente incluída pelo V. de Almeida Garrett no tomo III do seu Romanceiro (Vol. XV das Obras) de paginas 195 até 296, onde os leitores a poderão ver. Ahi se emitte a opinião de que esta versão portugueza de um romance originalmente francez ou provençal, data dos fins do século XIV, ou quando muito dos princípios do século XV. Se assim for, não seria por certo Balthasar Dias, e erradamente lhe andava atribuída pelos nossos bibliographos; o que todavia o illustre critico parece ignorar, pois que nem palavra diz de Balthasar Dias, nem de que a obra andasse jamais em nome deste.
«Bem desejara eu aclarar melhor o que diz respeito a este antigo poeta, cujas producções ou suas ou attribuidas, são tão conhecidas e vulgares, quanto são ignoradas as suas circunstancias pessoaes, e a epocha precisa, e certa em que viveu:-e também verificar se além das edições que ficam apontadas, extrahidas da Bibl. Lus., e repetidas no Catalogo da Academia, ha outras mais anteriores, como parece provável, se o auctor viveu na epocha que se diz: não posso porém satisfazer ainda este desejo, por não ter colhido resultado satisfatório das investigações até agora feitas.
«Se obtiver, como espero, algumas noticias ulteriores, direi no Supplemento o que tiver accrescido. O que é innegavel, sejão ou não de Balthasar Dias essas obras que andam em seu nome, é que ellas tem tido (se não todas, a maior parte) repetidas reimpressões: e que apesar dos erros de que andam cheias, que muitas vezes desfiguram o sentido, tem toques tão nacionaes e tão gostosos para o povo, que ainda hoje são procuradas e lidas tanto em Lisboa como nas províncias. «Percorrei, (diz um dos nossos mais conspícuos autores modernos) as choupanas nas aldeias e as oficinas e lojas de artífices nas cidades, e em quasi todas achareis uma ou outra das multiplicadas edições dos autos de S. Aleixo, S. Catharina, Imperatriz Porcina, Malicia das Mulheres, etc,»
No tomo VIII do seu Diccionario, acrescenta Inocencio o seguinte:-«Subsiste acerca deste nosso poeta, da epocha certa em que viveu e do tempo em que pela primeira vez se imprimiram as producções cuja paternidade se lhe attribue, a mesma escassez de noticias, que torna escuro e duvidoso tudo o que a elle diz respeito ».
Na «Recapitulação da Historia da Litteratura Portuguesa II. Renascença», de Teofilo Braga, encontram-se, a pag. 308, as seguintes interessantes informações:
«De todos os poetas da eschola vicentina foi o querido do povo, cuja sympathia ainda dura, sendo lido e representado pelas aldeias: Homem carecido de vista, se lê d'elle em um manuscripto do século XVII, o que no alvará de 29 de Fevereiro de 1537 com o privilegio para a publicação das suas obras se confirma: «faço saber que Baltazar Dias, ceguo, da ilha da Madeira, me disse per sua petyçam que tem feytas algûas obras assy em prosa como em verso, as quaes foram já vistas e aprovadas e algûas d'ellas ymprimidas, segundo podia ver por um pubrico estromento que perante mi apresentou. E por quanto elle quer mandar imprimir as ditas obras que tem feitas e outras que espera de fazer, por ser homem pobre e nam ter outra industria para viver por o carecimento de sua vista se nam vender as ditas obras, me pidia houvesse por bem, por lhe fazer esmolla, dar-lhe de privilegio pera que pessoa alguma não possa imprimir nem vender suas obras sem sua licença, com certa pena.» Concedido o privilegio e imposta multa de trinta cruzados ao contrafactor, impoz-se-lhe: «se elle fizer algumas obras que toquem em cousa de nossa santa fee, nam se imprimiram sem primeiro, serem vistas e enjaminadas por Mestre Pedro Margualho, e vindo por elle vistas e achando que não falla em cousa que se não deva fallar, lhe passe disso certidam, com a qual certidam hey por bem que se imprimam as taes obras e d'outra maneira nam.»
Estes rigores de censura eclesiástica foram systematisados no primeiro Índice dos Autos condemnados pelo Cardeal Infante D. Henrique em 1551, e pelos que prohibiram os Autos sobre assumptos tirados da Bíblia e dos Evangelhos. Perderam-se o Auto del rei Salomâo, o Auto da Paixâo de Christo metrificado, o Auto da Feira da Ladra. São ainda de uma grande actualidade o Auto de Santo Aleixo e o Auto de Santa Catherina formados nas narrativas da Legenda Aurea e a tragédia do Marquez de Mantua. Tinha um vivo sentimento poético, que faz com que ainda sejam lidos pelas aldeias a Historia da Imperatriz Porcina, a Malicia das Mulheres e os Conselhos para bem casar. Por uma estrophe d'esta sátira popular sabe-se que viveu os seus últimos annos na Beira
Vossa fama pregoeira
Me faz esta vos mandar,
Posto que estou n'esta Beira
Tão remoto de trovar,
Que não faço trova inteira.
Bem mereciam todas estas obras de cunho classico dispersas em folhas volantes, ficarem reunidas em um volume com uma cuidada recensão litteraria. Supõe-se ter falecido pelo fim do reinado de D. Sebastião.»
«Funchal - Uma Porta para o Mundo» - Rui Carita
Ficha TécnicaFunchal - Uma Porta para o Mundo
Esta obra sublinha os aspectos mais relevantes do contributo madeirense para a construção de Portugal. O pretexto é a passagem dos 500 anos da elevação do Funchal a cidade. É conhecido o papel determinante que esta teve nos séculos XV e XVI, na saga dos descobrimentos portugueses. Contém 4 selos e 2 blocos da emissão filatélica «500 Anos da Cidade do Funchal» com o valor facial total de € 7,56. Edição Bilingue.
Valor Facial, Selos e Blocos da respectiva emissão:
Selos:
€ 0,30
€ 0,61
€ 0,75
€ 1,00
Blocos
2 x € 2,45
Edição : Clube do Coleccionador dos Correios
Autor : Rui Carita
Tradução : Peter Ingham
Designer : Sofia Martins/Vasco Marques
Tiragem : 6.000 exemplares
Impressor : Norprint
quarta-feira, junho 17, 2009
«Marquez de Mantua (...)» - Baltazar Dias
Marquez de Mantua : Tragedia do Marquez de Mantua; e do Emperador Carlos Magno.... - Lisboa Occidental : na Officina de Antonio Pedroso Galrão, 1737. - 23, [1 br.] p. : il. ; 4'(22 cm)
«Auto de Stª Catarina» - Baltazar Dias
Auto de Catarina / Baltazar Dias. - Lisboa : Off. Francisco Borges de Sousa, 1786. - 31 p. ; 21 cm http://purl.pt/11489
«Auto de S.tª Catharina» - Baltazar Dias
Auto de S.tª Catharina : obra novamente feita da vida da bemaventurada Santa Catharina Virgem, e Martyr... / feita por Balthazar Dias. - Lisboa : Off. de Francisco Borges de Sousa, 1789. - 31, [1] p.
«Imperatriz Porcina no romance e no teatro» - António Guerreiro e Maria Galhoz
Imperatriz Porcina no romance e no teatro
António Machado Guerreiro
e
Maria Aliete Dores Galhoz
Revista Lusitana (Nova Série), 10 (1989), pp. 41-84http://www.fl.ul.pt/unidades/centros/ctp/lusitana/rlus_ns/rlns10/rlns10_p41.pdf
«Poesia e dramaturgia populares no séc. XVI - Baltasar Dias» - Alberto Figueira Gomes
Poesia e Dramaturgia populares no século XVI - Baltasar Dias
Alberto Figueira Gomes
ICALP - Colecção Biblioteca Breve - Volume 77
1983
«Cartas de sátira e aviso:(...) de Baltasar Dias» - Maria de Lurdes Correia Fernandes
«Cartas de sátira e aviso: em torno dos folhetos Malícia das mulheres e Conselho para bem casar de Baltasar Dias»
Maria de Lurdes Correia FernandesUniversidade do Porto
Península : revista de estudos ibéricos, nº. 1, 2004, pág. 161
http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/artigo12991.pdf
terça-feira, junho 16, 2009
«An Introduction to the History of Maggs Bros»
An Introduction to the History of Maggs Bros.
The firm of Maggs was founded in the 1850’s, probably in 1853, by Uriah Maggs, who at the age of 25 had left his home town of Midsomer Norton in Somerset to set up in business in London. Like many migrants of all times, he never got far from his port of entry, and set up shop firstly in Westbourne Terrace and later in Paddington Church Street, both shops still close to the Great Western Railway terminus of Paddington.
He ran a general stationer’s, newsagent’s and bookseller’s business in the style of the day, lending and selling books and newspapers, and built the business into a flourishing concern. Although it is unlikely that he had a bindery himself, he did offer bookbinding as a service, and we have one rare “Maggs Binding”, in heavy brown morocco, signed at the foot of the front free endpaper. The transformation into a specialist bookdealer took place over the next fifteen years, and by 1870 the main thrust of his business was “Second-Hand Books, Ancient and Modern, in all Classes of Literature.”
All four of Uriah’s sons eventually joined the business, taking over on his retirement in 1894. The initial Maggs Brothers of the firm’s title were Benjamin and Henry, later joined by Charles and Ernest. This was a period of rapid expansion for the rare book trade as the gradual relative decline in prosperity of the European aristocracy brought increasing quantities of rare books
on to the market. At the same time the great tycoons of the United States were beginning to form their incomparable collections and the collecting of rare books was becoming an important part of a fashionable life on both sides of the Atlantic. The firm prospered in this climate, and in 1901 moved to the Strand, then the centre of the London antiquarian book-trade. A further move in 1918 led them to 34/35 Conduit Street, (off New Bond Street, on the site now occupied by the Westbury Hotel) where the architect John A. Campbell designed them a bookshop of some style, partly as a replica of a monastic library with beautiful custom made furniture, much of it re-used at their next premises. The year 1938 saw the firm moving again, this time to 50 Berkeley Square, where it still remains. It was to be a lucky move, for the Conduit Street premises were completely destroyed in the Blitz: in the brochure announcing the move the firm
had unwittingly announced “The demolition of our premises at 34 & 35 Conduit Street, W1, scheduled to take place in 1940.” 50 Berkeley Square, although initially criticised as being too far from Bond Street (all of 300 yards!), has turned out to be almost perfect. To quote the same brochure “The 18th Century house is ideal in many ways. Its rooms are many and spacious . . . It retains its 18th century character with fine decorated ceilings, Adam fireplaces of singular beauty, and torch extinguishers outside the front door. It is situated in the heart of Mayfair, easily accessible, in one of the most beautiful squares in London.” Antiquarian booksellers are typically good tenants of interesting buildings (they have more important things to spend their money on than building works), and the house is for the most part unaltered since its last modernisation over 100 years ago. The pantries are still lined with large white ceramic tiles, there is a massive cast-iron cooking range in the old kitchen, and the chief cataloguer in the military department works between the iron railings of a stall in the former stables.
The house has had two distinguished tenants since its completion in 1740: the British Prime Minister George Canning in the early 19th. century, and the famous ghost – or should it be ghosts, for there are several different and apparently contradictory tales of the manifestations encountered here. You can take your pick from a pair of legs coming down a chimney, a “feathered thing”, and the present writer’s favourite, the “nameless horror”. By 1907 the ghost was so famous that Charles Harper, in his Haunted Houses could write that “the famous ‘haunted house’ in Berkeley Square’ was long one of those things that no country cousin come up from the provinces to London on sight-seeing bent, ever willingly missed.” Despite many all-night sessions, on fire-watch during the Second World War and more recently (oh, the joys of computers), there have been no strange reports during the present tenancy, but we still feature in the guide books of haunted houses and are used to dealing with a steady flow of inquiries. A “virtual tour” of the building can be seen at www.maggs.com/virtualtour.
At the same time as maintaining the London offices the firm also had a branch in Paris from around 1933 until the 1950’s (interrupted by the removal of much of the stock to Germany in 1940), first at 140 Boulevard Haussman and later at the Rue de la Boëtie, overseen by Dr. Maurice Ettinghausen, one of the great bookseller/ scholars of his age. It was Ettinghausen and Ernest Maggs who pulled off the greatest bookselling coup of the era, when in 1932 they successfully negotiated with the government of Russia to acquire not only a Gutenberg Bible, the first printed book of circa 1455, but also the celebrated Codex Sinaiticus. This is one of the earliest Bible manuscripts known (c. AD 350), containing the whole of the New Testament and part of the Old in Greek. It had been unearthed in the mid-nineteenth century at St. Katherine’s Monastery in the Sinai desert by the German scholar Friedrich von Tischendorf, who “persuaded” the monks to present it to his patron and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Emperor of Russia. In the 1930’s the Russian government, desperately short of hard currency was selling off components of the great Russian libraries and art galleries, now nationalised. In 1931 Ernest and Dr. Ettinghausen travelled to Leningrad (the food situation was so bad that Ettinghausen later claimed to have survived on a diet of canned sardines he had brought with him) and there bought the Gutenberg Bible (pre-sold to Martin Bodmer) and began the negotiations which were to lead to their purchase of the Codex on behalf of the British Museum in 1933. Maggs have thus handled two Gutenberg Bibles in their history, the one described above and the Dyson Perrins copy bought at auction in 1947 for a record price for a printed book of £22,000, on behalf of Sir Philip Frere, and a few years later resold it to Mrs. Doheny of California, this latter copy now the only one in Japan.
The negotiations for the Codex began with an asking price of two hundred thousand pounds and an offer of forty thousand, before the final price of one hundred thousand was settled on, by a long way the most expensive book in the world at the time. The British government was to put up half of the purchase price, and the balance was raised in a public appeal orchestrated by Sir Frederic Kenyon, retired director of the British Museum and President of the Friends of the
National Libraries. When predictable objections were raised to spending public money on a book, Kenyon made the fine rallying call “Where millions are spent on the material needs and amusements of the people, may not £100,000 be properly spent on their minds and souls?”
The 1920’s and 1930’s were a golden era for book-collecting and during these Josephine (to the French Government), dispersed the library of the Comte de Chambord (King Henri V of France), helped King Manuel II of Portugal form one of the greatest libraries of Portuguese and Latin American books and manuscripts, sold the papers of the Earls of Huntingdon en bloc to the Huntington Library of California and issued a catalogue containing six block-books bought by R.E. Hart of Blackburn, Lancashire for cash, and now at Cambridge University Library. The collection of Napoleonica formed by his doctor, Vignali, and sold by Maggs in the early 1920’s,
famously included Napoleon’s mummified membranum virilis.
Ben died in 1935, having been allowed the rare pleasure (shared with Mark Twain and Sabine Baring-Gould) of reading an exaggerated account of his own death earlier in the year, and Ernest continued in the business right up to his death in 1955.
The members of the next generation of the Maggs family were to be Clifford, Frank & Kenneth, now cousins as well as brothers. Clifford was the firm’s incunabulist and medieval manuscript expert, a bookseller of the highest integrity, who was proud to boast in 1969 of a predecessor’s “superb disregard of commercial value” in doing “as long a note, amounting often to an essay, for a book worth two or three guineas as for one valued at several hundred.” This is a temptation the firm still falls into from time to time today, and indeed we are proud of the fact that although we regularly handle books and manuscripts of the very highest quality (in 1998 we set a new record for the most expensive printed book when buying for £4,200,000 a copy of the first book printed in England, Caxton’s Chaucer), we also handle books at more affordable price levels, hoping to be able to offer something for the enthusiasts of all means. The present writer remains moved by the description given by Dr. Christopher de Hamel, now one of the world’s leading
experts on medieval manuscripts, of the encouragement given him by Clifford when only a young man, with no money to speak of, and many thousands of miles away in New Zealand.
Kenneth specialised in English literature, and was responsible for several series of catalogues as well as the Mercurius Britannicus series of bulletins, initially and optimistically promoted as a monthly, between 1933 and 1968. Frank Maggs was one of the great specialists in travel books, producing several great series of catalogues, and was actively involved in the formation of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. Three members of the family still work in the firm, its
chairman John, who like his father Frank is a specialist in travel books, with a authorities on the history and technique of bookbinding; and Edward, managing director and specialist in modern literature and illustrated books.
One of the great assets of the firm has always been its extraordinary loyal staff, among whom have been and still are, many of the greatest experts in their areas.
Dr. Ettinghausen has been mentioned above, who worked closely with Sarah Laredo, largely responsible for the great Americana catalogues mentioned below; many customers today will remember with affection Bill Lent, who was with the firm over fifty years, but not all realised that his father had spent thirty years working for Maggs before that, making over eighty years between them. Indeed staff turnover is so low that in the year 2000 the 21 employees and directors of the firm have between some 340 years of service, making an average of over sixteen years a head. Brief resumés of current specialists can be found at www.maggs.com/departments.
The most lasting legacy of the firm is probably the extraordinary series of catalogues, now approaching 1,300 in number, many in series such as Bibliotheca Americana and Voyages and Travels. Although the bulk are relatively routine reflections of what was in stock at the time, many are considerable works of scholarship and are now valuable reference works in their own right. Among the more significant are The first three Books printed in South America, (1932, one of a series of astonishing specialist Americana catalogues, 30 copies printed at the Curwen Press); Food and Drink Through the Ages, 2500 B.C. to 1937 A.D. (1937, 767 items) Bibliotheca Aëronautica (1920, 1494 items and believed to be the first specialist rare book catalogue on aviation); Colonel Lawrence of Arabia; his original manuscript Autobiography (1936); Curiouser and Curiouser, a Catalogue of strange Books and Curious Titles (1932), the fulsomely titled The Art of Writing, 2800 B.C. to 1930 A.D. Illustrated in a Collection of original Documents written on Vellum, paper, Papyrus, Silk, Linen, Bamboo, or inscribed on Clay, Marble, Steatite, Jasper, Haematite, Matrix of Emerald, and Chalcedony (1930) and the pioneering Les debuts de la Photographie (1939).
In modern times we have had a series of scholarly catalogues on British bookbindings by Bryan Maggs, specialist catalogues on The English Theatre from the Restoration to 1800 (1980), Dr. Samuel Johnson (1983) and T.E. Lawrence (1985), and in 2000 an autograph catalogue including an item from every year of the nineteenth century. For information on current catalogues, please see www.maggs.com/catalogues.
Maggs Bros. Ltd. have been antiquarian booksellers by appointment to H.M. King George V, H.R.H. The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), H.M. King Alfonso XIII of Spain, H.M. King Manuel II of Portugal, and are currently favoured with the Royal Warrant to H.M. Queen Elizabeth II.
He ran a general stationer’s, newsagent’s and bookseller’s business in the style of the day, lending and selling books and newspapers, and built the business into a flourishing concern. Although it is unlikely that he had a bindery himself, he did offer bookbinding as a service, and we have one rare “Maggs Binding”, in heavy brown morocco, signed at the foot of the front free endpaper. The transformation into a specialist bookdealer took place over the next fifteen years, and by 1870 the main thrust of his business was “Second-Hand Books, Ancient and Modern, in all Classes of Literature.”
All four of Uriah’s sons eventually joined the business, taking over on his retirement in 1894. The initial Maggs Brothers of the firm’s title were Benjamin and Henry, later joined by Charles and Ernest. This was a period of rapid expansion for the rare book trade as the gradual relative decline in prosperity of the European aristocracy brought increasing quantities of rare books
on to the market. At the same time the great tycoons of the United States were beginning to form their incomparable collections and the collecting of rare books was becoming an important part of a fashionable life on both sides of the Atlantic. The firm prospered in this climate, and in 1901 moved to the Strand, then the centre of the London antiquarian book-trade. A further move in 1918 led them to 34/35 Conduit Street, (off New Bond Street, on the site now occupied by the Westbury Hotel) where the architect John A. Campbell designed them a bookshop of some style, partly as a replica of a monastic library with beautiful custom made furniture, much of it re-used at their next premises. The year 1938 saw the firm moving again, this time to 50 Berkeley Square, where it still remains. It was to be a lucky move, for the Conduit Street premises were completely destroyed in the Blitz: in the brochure announcing the move the firm
had unwittingly announced “The demolition of our premises at 34 & 35 Conduit Street, W1, scheduled to take place in 1940.” 50 Berkeley Square, although initially criticised as being too far from Bond Street (all of 300 yards!), has turned out to be almost perfect. To quote the same brochure “The 18th Century house is ideal in many ways. Its rooms are many and spacious . . . It retains its 18th century character with fine decorated ceilings, Adam fireplaces of singular beauty, and torch extinguishers outside the front door. It is situated in the heart of Mayfair, easily accessible, in one of the most beautiful squares in London.” Antiquarian booksellers are typically good tenants of interesting buildings (they have more important things to spend their money on than building works), and the house is for the most part unaltered since its last modernisation over 100 years ago. The pantries are still lined with large white ceramic tiles, there is a massive cast-iron cooking range in the old kitchen, and the chief cataloguer in the military department works between the iron railings of a stall in the former stables.
The house has had two distinguished tenants since its completion in 1740: the British Prime Minister George Canning in the early 19th. century, and the famous ghost – or should it be ghosts, for there are several different and apparently contradictory tales of the manifestations encountered here. You can take your pick from a pair of legs coming down a chimney, a “feathered thing”, and the present writer’s favourite, the “nameless horror”. By 1907 the ghost was so famous that Charles Harper, in his Haunted Houses could write that “the famous ‘haunted house’ in Berkeley Square’ was long one of those things that no country cousin come up from the provinces to London on sight-seeing bent, ever willingly missed.” Despite many all-night sessions, on fire-watch during the Second World War and more recently (oh, the joys of computers), there have been no strange reports during the present tenancy, but we still feature in the guide books of haunted houses and are used to dealing with a steady flow of inquiries. A “virtual tour” of the building can be seen at www.maggs.com/virtualtour.
At the same time as maintaining the London offices the firm also had a branch in Paris from around 1933 until the 1950’s (interrupted by the removal of much of the stock to Germany in 1940), first at 140 Boulevard Haussman and later at the Rue de la Boëtie, overseen by Dr. Maurice Ettinghausen, one of the great bookseller/ scholars of his age. It was Ettinghausen and Ernest Maggs who pulled off the greatest bookselling coup of the era, when in 1932 they successfully negotiated with the government of Russia to acquire not only a Gutenberg Bible, the first printed book of circa 1455, but also the celebrated Codex Sinaiticus. This is one of the earliest Bible manuscripts known (c. AD 350), containing the whole of the New Testament and part of the Old in Greek. It had been unearthed in the mid-nineteenth century at St. Katherine’s Monastery in the Sinai desert by the German scholar Friedrich von Tischendorf, who “persuaded” the monks to present it to his patron and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Emperor of Russia. In the 1930’s the Russian government, desperately short of hard currency was selling off components of the great Russian libraries and art galleries, now nationalised. In 1931 Ernest and Dr. Ettinghausen travelled to Leningrad (the food situation was so bad that Ettinghausen later claimed to have survived on a diet of canned sardines he had brought with him) and there bought the Gutenberg Bible (pre-sold to Martin Bodmer) and began the negotiations which were to lead to their purchase of the Codex on behalf of the British Museum in 1933. Maggs have thus handled two Gutenberg Bibles in their history, the one described above and the Dyson Perrins copy bought at auction in 1947 for a record price for a printed book of £22,000, on behalf of Sir Philip Frere, and a few years later resold it to Mrs. Doheny of California, this latter copy now the only one in Japan.
The negotiations for the Codex began with an asking price of two hundred thousand pounds and an offer of forty thousand, before the final price of one hundred thousand was settled on, by a long way the most expensive book in the world at the time. The British government was to put up half of the purchase price, and the balance was raised in a public appeal orchestrated by Sir Frederic Kenyon, retired director of the British Museum and President of the Friends of the
National Libraries. When predictable objections were raised to spending public money on a book, Kenyon made the fine rallying call “Where millions are spent on the material needs and amusements of the people, may not £100,000 be properly spent on their minds and souls?”
The 1920’s and 1930’s were a golden era for book-collecting and during these Josephine (to the French Government), dispersed the library of the Comte de Chambord (King Henri V of France), helped King Manuel II of Portugal form one of the greatest libraries of Portuguese and Latin American books and manuscripts, sold the papers of the Earls of Huntingdon en bloc to the Huntington Library of California and issued a catalogue containing six block-books bought by R.E. Hart of Blackburn, Lancashire for cash, and now at Cambridge University Library. The collection of Napoleonica formed by his doctor, Vignali, and sold by Maggs in the early 1920’s,
famously included Napoleon’s mummified membranum virilis.
Ben died in 1935, having been allowed the rare pleasure (shared with Mark Twain and Sabine Baring-Gould) of reading an exaggerated account of his own death earlier in the year, and Ernest continued in the business right up to his death in 1955.
The members of the next generation of the Maggs family were to be Clifford, Frank & Kenneth, now cousins as well as brothers. Clifford was the firm’s incunabulist and medieval manuscript expert, a bookseller of the highest integrity, who was proud to boast in 1969 of a predecessor’s “superb disregard of commercial value” in doing “as long a note, amounting often to an essay, for a book worth two or three guineas as for one valued at several hundred.” This is a temptation the firm still falls into from time to time today, and indeed we are proud of the fact that although we regularly handle books and manuscripts of the very highest quality (in 1998 we set a new record for the most expensive printed book when buying for £4,200,000 a copy of the first book printed in England, Caxton’s Chaucer), we also handle books at more affordable price levels, hoping to be able to offer something for the enthusiasts of all means. The present writer remains moved by the description given by Dr. Christopher de Hamel, now one of the world’s leading
experts on medieval manuscripts, of the encouragement given him by Clifford when only a young man, with no money to speak of, and many thousands of miles away in New Zealand.
Kenneth specialised in English literature, and was responsible for several series of catalogues as well as the Mercurius Britannicus series of bulletins, initially and optimistically promoted as a monthly, between 1933 and 1968. Frank Maggs was one of the great specialists in travel books, producing several great series of catalogues, and was actively involved in the formation of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. Three members of the family still work in the firm, its
chairman John, who like his father Frank is a specialist in travel books, with a authorities on the history and technique of bookbinding; and Edward, managing director and specialist in modern literature and illustrated books.
One of the great assets of the firm has always been its extraordinary loyal staff, among whom have been and still are, many of the greatest experts in their areas.
Dr. Ettinghausen has been mentioned above, who worked closely with Sarah Laredo, largely responsible for the great Americana catalogues mentioned below; many customers today will remember with affection Bill Lent, who was with the firm over fifty years, but not all realised that his father had spent thirty years working for Maggs before that, making over eighty years between them. Indeed staff turnover is so low that in the year 2000 the 21 employees and directors of the firm have between some 340 years of service, making an average of over sixteen years a head. Brief resumés of current specialists can be found at www.maggs.com/departments.
The most lasting legacy of the firm is probably the extraordinary series of catalogues, now approaching 1,300 in number, many in series such as Bibliotheca Americana and Voyages and Travels. Although the bulk are relatively routine reflections of what was in stock at the time, many are considerable works of scholarship and are now valuable reference works in their own right. Among the more significant are The first three Books printed in South America, (1932, one of a series of astonishing specialist Americana catalogues, 30 copies printed at the Curwen Press); Food and Drink Through the Ages, 2500 B.C. to 1937 A.D. (1937, 767 items) Bibliotheca Aëronautica (1920, 1494 items and believed to be the first specialist rare book catalogue on aviation); Colonel Lawrence of Arabia; his original manuscript Autobiography (1936); Curiouser and Curiouser, a Catalogue of strange Books and Curious Titles (1932), the fulsomely titled The Art of Writing, 2800 B.C. to 1930 A.D. Illustrated in a Collection of original Documents written on Vellum, paper, Papyrus, Silk, Linen, Bamboo, or inscribed on Clay, Marble, Steatite, Jasper, Haematite, Matrix of Emerald, and Chalcedony (1930) and the pioneering Les debuts de la Photographie (1939).
In modern times we have had a series of scholarly catalogues on British bookbindings by Bryan Maggs, specialist catalogues on The English Theatre from the Restoration to 1800 (1980), Dr. Samuel Johnson (1983) and T.E. Lawrence (1985), and in 2000 an autograph catalogue including an item from every year of the nineteenth century. For information on current catalogues, please see www.maggs.com/catalogues.
Maggs Bros. Ltd. have been antiquarian booksellers by appointment to H.M. King George V, H.R.H. The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), H.M. King Alfonso XIII of Spain, H.M. King Manuel II of Portugal, and are currently favoured with the Royal Warrant to H.M. Queen Elizabeth II.
sexta-feira, junho 05, 2009
Lista de e-books disponíveis em NESOS
- Infante D. Henrique e a Descoberta e Povoamento do Arquipélago da Madeira
- Notas e Comentários para a História Literária da Madeira - Volume III
- Fasquias & Ripas da Madeira
- O Natal Madeirense
- Elucidário Madeirense - Volume II
- Elucidário Madeirense - Volume I
- Georgeida. Poema dedicado ao illustrissimo Senhor Roberto Page
- Fasquias da Madeira
- Os Alicerces para a História Militar da Madeira
- O Arquipélago da Madeira na Legislação Portuguesa
- Observações sobre a situação económica da ilha da Madeira e sobre a Reforma das Alfâdegas
- Corografia Elementar do Arquipélago da Madeira
- O Cavaleiro de Santa Catarina (De Varna à Ilha da Madeira)
- Nossa Senhora da Esperança. Ilha da Madeira
- O Vinho da Madeira. Como se prepara um nectar
- Descobrimento da Madeira. A Novella Historica
- Memoria Sobre a Descoberta das Ilhas de Porto Santo e Madeira 1418-1419
- Breve Notícia sobre a Ilha da Madeira
- O Porto do Funchal e a Economia da Madeira no Século XVIII
- A Madeira na Rota dos Descobrimentos e Expansão Atlântica
- Quando Foi Descoberta a Madeira? Breve Resenha Histórica
- Ponta do Sol: Um Século de Vida Municipal (1594-1700) in Actas do III Colóquio Internacional de História da Madeira
- Fascículo - "Funchal, origem do nome, a criação da vila e município, distrito administrativo e concelho", in Elucidário Madeirense, Vol. II
- O Arquipélago da Madeira no Século XV
- Fascículo - "MADEIRA, Fortificações na Ilha da " in Elucidário Madeirense, Volume II
- Fascículo - "MADEIRA, O Arquipélago da" in Elucidário Madeirense, Volume II
- Fascículo - "SARMENTO, Alberto Artur " in Elucidário Madeirense, Volume III
- O Romanceiro do Archipelago da Madeira
- Páscoa
- Fascículo - "BARRETO, Manuel Agostinho" in Elucidário Madeirense, Volume I
- Fascículo - "MENESES, Carlos Azevedo de " in Elucidário Madeirense, Volume II
- Fascículo - "Madeira, Conventos da" in Elucidário Madeirense, Vol. I
- Fascículo - "MADEIRA, Levadas da, in Elucidário Madeirense, Vol. II
- O Vinho da Madeira (Breve Resenha Histórica)
- Histórias das Ilhas (Reminiscências dos Açores e da Madeira)
Subscrever:
Mensagens (Atom)
Historie del S.D. Fernando Colombo - Fernando Colón
Colón , Fernando; Ulloa , Alfonso de; Pané , Ramón - Historie del S.D. Fernando Colombo; : nelle quali s'ha particolare, & v...
-
O ceanos Revista editada pela Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses entre 1989 e 2002. Inicialmen...
-
Rodrigues , José Wasth; Barroso , Gustavo - Uniformes do Exercito brasileiro, 1730-1922 : Obra commemorativa do Centenario da Ind...