Item 744 - Two items by Richard Porson

1 folded sheet and 1 single sheet.

These items were purchased in 2019 from Richard Ford Ltd, dealers in books, printed ephemera, and manuscripts. There is no indication of the intervening provenance of the items.

Both have stubs from mounts attached to them, suggesting their removal from a bound volume. The pencil annotation on the letter was written later, as Porson only became a professor in 1792.

Richard Ford Ltd.

A letter purporting to be from John Villette to Sir Busick Harwood on how to make money from the corpse of an executed man. Actually written by Richard Porson as satire. 'In the handwriting of Professor Porson. Evidently a joke' is annotated in pencil at the head.

With a handwritten Latin exercise, preceded by a line of Greek text. 'Porson' is annotated in ink at the head and '5' is annotated in pencil at the top of the stub.

Description created by I. David in 2025.