Literary Manuscripts Leeds
Sources from The Brotherton Library, University of Leeds
This project opens up new opportunities for the reading, study and appreciation of early modern verse and provides valuable source materials for both literary scholars and historians.
This resource offers literary scholars the opportunity to examine manuscripts of 17th and 18th century verse held in the celebrated Brotherton Collection at the University of Leeds. Alongside original compositions are copied verses, translations, songs and riddles.
The whole collection is situated within an assortment of manuscripts, some entirely dedicated to poetry, while others contain medicinal recipes, household accounts, draft letters, musical scores and plays. There are also several printed works, with handwritten verse additions.
Included in
Key data
Period covered
Source archive
- The Brotherton Library, University of Leeds
- 17th and 18th century English literature and culture
- Poems and verses ranging from well-known poems by canonical authors to amateur verse, covering a huge variety of topics
- Large verse miscellanies and commonplace books
- Religious and political texts
- Original manuscripts from the Brotherton Library Collection of 17th and 18th century verse. All of the manuscripts have been captured in their entirety. Most of the volumes contain verse. All of the manuscripts have been described and indexed in general terms and all of the verse is accessible through the integrated BCSMV database
- Paul Hammond, Department of English, University of Leeds
- Laura Runge, Department of English, University of South Florida
- Chris Sheppard, Curator of Manuscripts, the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds
- Nigel Smith, Department of English, Princeton University
- Many thanks to the late Professor Harold Love (Emeritus Professor in the School of Literary, Visual and Performance Studies, Monash University) for his valuable contribution to this project
- Great Britain, Republic of Ireland and Northern Irish Studies
- Literature
- Biographical details of key authors and palaeography, providing transcriptions and alphabets of 17th century texts
- Linked to the powerful BCMSV database which lists first lines, last lines, attribution, author, title, date, length, verse form, content, bibliographic references, MS and record number for over 6,600 poems within the collection
- Essays by leading academics
Reviews
One collection access to some remarkable, unusual poetry known only in the past to a handful of people
- Author: Professor Nigel Smith, Department of English, Princeton University
