.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Details
LHUYD, Edward (1659/60?-1709). Autograph letter signed ('Edw. Lhwyd') to his fellow antiquary the Reverend Henry Rowlands (rector of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll in Anglesey), Oxford, 10 March 1701, 3 pages, folio, integral address panel (heavily creased, wear and old damp-staining at margins and at folds on f.2).
An account of Lhuyd's arrest as a suspected spy during a philological expedition to Brittany: 'I came home but this week, out of Bretagne in France, which I was foarc'd to quit much sooner than I intended: for I had scarce been there three weeks when the Intendent (des Marines) of Brest, sent a Provô [sic] three & thirty miles (viz. to St Paul de Leon) to bring me before him. The messenger found me busy in adding the Armoric words to Mr Ray's dictionariolum trilingue with a great many Letters and small manuscripts about the Table w[hi]ch he immediatly secur'd & then proceeded to search our Pockets for more'; his papers having been bundled up and sealed, Lhuyd and his travelling companions are imprisoned for 18 days in the castle at Brest, where, deprived of the usual prisoners' allowance, they resort to purchasing food through their ground-floor window from some Irish soldiers at the castle. At length, they are called before the Intendant, and their papers opened and inspected: 'After this they were deliver'd to an interpreter who kept them about 9 days and thô many of them were writ in Welsh & some in Cornish; yet he rightly concluded from the Nature of the rest they contained nothing of Treason, & bearing the Character of an Interpreter he was loath to own him self puzl'd'. They are accordingly released, but ordered to leave France. The letter goes on with a comparison between Breton, Cornish and Welsh languages, literatures and cultures, noting the close similarity between the two former: 'The Cornish is much more corruptly spoken than the Armorican as being confin'd to half a score parishes towards the Land's end'.
Lhuyd had been Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum since 1690, but his duties allowed him ample time for philological excursions of the type described in the present letter. His pioneering comparative studies of what would come to be known as the Celtic languages and cultures were published in 1707 as Archaeologica Britannica. The present letter is one of four by Lhuyd to Rowlands published by the latter in an appendix to his fanciful work on the druidic history of Anglesey, Mona antiqua restaurata (1723).
An account of Lhuyd's arrest as a suspected spy during a philological expedition to Brittany: 'I came home but this week, out of Bretagne in France, which I was foarc'd to quit much sooner than I intended: for I had scarce been there three weeks when the Intendent (des Marines) of Brest, sent a Provô [sic] three & thirty miles (viz. to St Paul de Leon) to bring me before him. The messenger found me busy in adding the Armoric words to Mr Ray's dictionariolum trilingue with a great many Letters and small manuscripts about the Table w[hi]ch he immediatly secur'd & then proceeded to search our Pockets for more'; his papers having been bundled up and sealed, Lhuyd and his travelling companions are imprisoned for 18 days in the castle at Brest, where, deprived of the usual prisoners' allowance, they resort to purchasing food through their ground-floor window from some Irish soldiers at the castle. At length, they are called before the Intendant, and their papers opened and inspected: 'After this they were deliver'd to an interpreter who kept them about 9 days and thô many of them were writ in Welsh & some in Cornish; yet he rightly concluded from the Nature of the rest they contained nothing of Treason, & bearing the Character of an Interpreter he was loath to own him self puzl'd'. They are accordingly released, but ordered to leave France. The letter goes on with a comparison between Breton, Cornish and Welsh languages, literatures and cultures, noting the close similarity between the two former: 'The Cornish is much more corruptly spoken than the Armorican as being confin'd to half a score parishes towards the Land's end'.
Lhuyd had been Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum since 1690, but his duties allowed him ample time for philological excursions of the type described in the present letter. His pioneering comparative studies of what would come to be known as the Celtic languages and cultures were published in 1707 as Archaeologica Britannica. The present letter is one of four by Lhuyd to Rowlands published by the latter in an appendix to his fanciful work on the druidic history of Anglesey, Mona antiqua restaurata (1723).
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
Brought to you by
Eugenio Donadoni