GRAY (Thomas).

Thomas Gray's Commonplace Book Edited by Ruth Abbott.

Presented to Pembroke College Cambridge 2024

Folio. [390 x 250 mm]. [13], 14-307 pp. Bound in red buckram, gilt blocked silhouette bust of Gray on the front cover, marbled endleaves.

£260.00

Dedicated and presented to the Master and Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge, by John Armitage and the Honourable Robert Lloyd George. Also presented to members of The Roxburghe Club by the Honourable Robert Lloyd George as a set with Thomas Gray’s Commonplace Book (2024).

The poet and literary scholar Thomas Gray (1716-1771) kept throughout his adult life a Commonplace Book of excerpts from his voluminous and polymathic reading in many languages, both ancient and modern, which are interspersed with copies of original poems and translations by himself and his friends. Comprising three volumes, the originals have long been in the library of Pembroke College, Cambridge, Gray’s old college.

Presented here in full-size facsimile are a representative selection of his neat entries, including under ‘Carmina’ all the original poems and translations by himself and his friends, with each section introduced by an explanation of its contents, organisation, and context by Dr Ruth Abbott of St John’s College, Cambridge..

“The selection from Gray’s Commonplace Book reproduced in this book showcases the diversity of his learning and linguistic talents. It highlights his wide-ranging literary knowledge, represented in quotations gathered for comparison from the great poets of ancient Greece and Rome and early modern Italy and England, and in summaries of French and Greek books. Illuminated here too is the vast scope of his inquisitiveness on topics ranging from the modern values of ancient coinage through the symbology of of the Ottoman Empire, classical versification, musical performances in antiquity, the arrangement of guests at ancient banquets, ancient Greek ethics, classical dancing and acting methods, ancient foodstuffs, the history of printing, Turkish and Christian beliefs about the afterlife, and obscure classical astronomers, poets, and historians whose work survives only in fragments, all represented in quotations that Gray copied from works in English, French, Latin, and Greek.” (Introduction).

The illustrations comprise four portraits of Thomas Gray, a portrait of William Mason by Joshua Reynolds, a watercolour of Eton College Kitchen by Paul Sandby, an engraving of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and a drawing of Pembroke College by J. M. W. Turner.

Designed by Humphrey Stone. Typeset in Baskerville. Endpapers by Compton Marbling. Printed by Gomer Press, Wales. Bound by Ludlow Bookbinders.

ISBN 978-I-901902-18-1 - £260

Also available: Thomas Gray’s Naturalist’s Journal 1767-1771 edited by Ruth Abbott (Presented to Members of The Roxburghe Club, 2024). ISBN 978-I-901902-17-4 - £170

Available as a set: (Thomas Gray’s Commonplace Book and Thomas Gray’s Naturalist’s Journal) £400 - ISBN 978-1-901902-16-7

Please note that due to the large size postage will be quoted separately for all orders including internet orders and in the latter case may be at a higher rate than the automatic calculator.

Stock No.
255721