Pièce 10a.1-3 - Manuscript of Charles William King's The Gnostics and their Remains

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Cote

O./10a.1-3

Titre

Manuscript of Charles William King's The Gnostics and their Remains

Date(s)

  • 1871-1887 (Production)

Niveau de description

Pièce

Étendue matérielle et support

3 vols., each c 239 x 150 x 55 mm, half bound in dark green leather with gilt tooling and title, and green marbled paper.
Vol 1., 529 ff. plus endpapers; Vol. 2, 562 ff. plus endpapers; Vol. 3, 544 ff. plus endpapers.

Zone du contexte

Nom du producteur

(1818-1888)

Notice biographique

C. W. King was born on 4 September 1818 at Newport in Monmouthshire and entered Trinity College in 1836. He graduated with first class honours in the Classical Tripos of 1840 and was elected a Fellow of Trinity in 1842. He remained a Fellow all his life and lived in College for most of that time, except for the period 1845–50, which he spent chiefly in Italy.
During his residence on the continent King was able to pursue various antiquarian interests, in particular the study of engraved gems which was to occupy him for the rest of his life. He began to acquire examples of such work, and by a series of judicious purchases over the following years he formed an important collection of Greek, Roman and other early gems. Towards the end of his life he sold the collection. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Returning from Italy in 1850, King adopted a quiet existence at Trinity, publishing a number of works on antiquarian subjects, including Antique Gems (1850), Handbook of Engraved Gems (1866, 1885), and Early Christian Numismatics and other Antiquarian Tracts (1873), besides many papers contributed to joirnals and learned societies. He also wrote on The Gnostics and their Remains (1864) and translated works of classical literature such as Plutarch's Morals (1882). Although he took no part in College teaching or administration, King was by no means reclusive; he formed longstanding friendships both at Trinity and elsewhere, and was often consulted as an authority by the gem collectors his works had helped to inspire.

In later years King was troubled with failing eyesight, and he was obliged to give up the detailed close work his collecting demanded. But he continued to study and write, and was in regular correspondence until shortly before his death, which occurred after a short illness on 25 March 1888.

Histoire archivistique

Source immédiate d'acquisition ou de transfert

Bequeathed by C.W. King.

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Portée et contenu

The first volume is dated by King on the first page after the front free endpaper 'Trin. Coll. Feb. 11. 1871', although the first edition of this work in fact appeared in 1864. The next page is dated 23 Nov. 1887, the year in which the second edition appeared. A mock-up of the title and facing page of the second edition follows, with an illustration, seal impression and Latin quotation [from Lucretius] follow, then two versions of the preface to the new edition, one of 37 ff. and the next of 26 ff. [unnumbered], then the contents pages of the new edition, 6 ff. The following manuscript of the first edition is written predominantly on blue paper: 46 ff. introduction and 2 ff. with a contents page and epigraphs, then the main text (foliated 1-407 in red throughout, though there are several other numbering schemes at various points).

The second volume has a contents page and epigraphs, 2 ff., then two sections, each foliated through in red, of 260 and 300 ff. The third volume has two sections, each foliated through in red, of 219 and 208 ff, blank, then 20ff foliated in pencil headed 'Woodcuts in the Text', and another section of 97 ff. headed 'Descriptions of the Plates'.

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      Related units of description

      A letter from W. N. Jones to King's executors, originally found at the front of O.10a.1, and a letter from Samuel Savage Lewis to William Aldis Wright found at the front of O.10a.3 are now at Add. MS a 732.

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      Preferred form of reference

      O.10a.1-3

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