Thomas Chatterton Manuscript Project
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Universities & Libraries
A List of Chattertoniana Held by Major Institutions
The Thomas Chatterton Manuscript Project
Was created as the go to site for everything Chatterton.
With Free Access to ALL.
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Most Universities & Libraries are happy to share for the common good. A prime example is Johns Hopkins Sheridan Library. They hold Chatterton's personal copy of Henry Cornelius Agrippa, His Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy...1655. Fortunately, they have had the foresight to place it online for access to all. This possibly means more to me than to many, in fact I had goosebumps when I discovered it online. I then went on to discover that Johns Hopkins had actually put a large number of Chatterton related books online.
This is a forward thinking university and for their foresight they have been awarded the thanks of a simple man.
It should be noted, on flysheets, that every hidden book or manuscript is the equivalent of a pile of ashes.
Give it Life - Put it Online for All to See and Research.
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Harvard Library
Founded 1638
Hyde Room, Houghton Library, Harvard
'Chatterton's Half Holiday Afternoon'
Composing his Rowley Manuscripts
William Canynges 1474, St Mary Redcliffe
Harvard is to be commended and thanked for uploading so many rare antiquarian books and manuscripts. It is such a wonderful resource to have at your fingertips and is a great service to the world of learning; pardon the pun but many other institutions could take a lesson from Harvard and other like-minded Universities - Thank you indeed Harvard!
Why am I writing about Harvard? It is because Harvard has two of the earliest manuscript poems in the hand of Thomas Chatterton, along with an ALS (autograph letter signed).
I wonder if we can cut through the bureaucracy and ask that someone, anyone, in Harvard, with access to the manuscripts in the Hyde collection, possibly in the stunning Hyde Room, can arrange for just four photographs to be taken of the manuscripts? ​
This would be Harvard's contribution, in a tiny, little, small way to the Thomas Chatterton Manuscript Project (TCMP).
​​The manuscripts we need are as follows:
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ITEM Identifier: MS Hyde 10, (128): Chatterton, Thomas, 1752-1770. Autograph letter, signed, Redclift Hill, Bristol (England), to James Dodsley, 1768 Dec. 21., 1768 : View on the TCMP (Thomas Chatterton Manuscript Project)
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ITEM Identifier: MS Hyde 10, (129): Chatterton, Thomas, 1752-1770. Sly Dick: autograph manuscript, [1764], [1764]; Also includes his A Hymn for Christmas Day : View on the TCMP
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The photography can be a simple task, a 10 minute job, no need for highfalutin camera equipment, instead shots with an iPhone would be more than acceptable - I have taken nearly 5,000 images using an iPhone of Chatterton related manuscripts, mostly 18th century transcripts by his contemporaries, and the quality is perfect.
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By the way, Chatterton is more famous than you might imagine. The Annual Register of 1776, which contained one of the earliest publications of the American Declaration of Independence, also contained eleven pages regarding Chatterton and his works, pages 155-165.
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Timeline of Chatterton's Life
- with links to important phases -
Columbia University Library
Columbia University Library holds the Stephen Whitney Phoenix collection of books, amounting to something over 5000 volumes. It includes a very important Chatterton Notebook, which contains six Chatterton poems and some heraldic drawings.
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We have a wonderful letter written to Modern Language Notes by Thomas Ollive Mabbott in 1924. In his letter he describes the Chatterton Notebook and announces the discovery of a 'new poem' by Chatterton, referring to Elegy-29 Octr, which is included in the notebook. He also lists the many errors in the transcription of the poems published in 1803, and by later editors who followed 1803. The errors in 1803, were thanks to faulty transcripts supplied by T. Hill, who owned the notebook at the time : View Mabbott's letter
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Interest thou universal God of Men : View
Elegy, Written at Stanton Drew : View
Conversation : View
Elegy to the Memory of Mr. Thomas Phillips, of Fairford : View
Elegy -29 Octr : View
Hervenis harping on the hackneyd Text : View​​​​​
Johns Hopkins University
Chatterton's father had a library of around 150 books, most of which were sold after his death, but a few were kept by the family including the Agrippa.
Henry Cornelius Agrippa. His Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy. Of Geomancy. Magical Elements of Peter de Abano. Astronomical Geomancy. By Gerard Cremonensis. Of he Nature of Spirits. By G. P. Villinganus. Arbatel of Magick. (1665). ​
We do know a little of the history of the book :
The first we hear of it is in a letter from Edward Gardner, in volume 3 of 1803, p.523, where Gardner states that Chatterton's father 'was deeply read in Cornelius Agrippa.' The next important mention is in Meyerstein, where we learn that Lambert gave the book, along with Chatterton's mock will, to Paget in 1797.
​Now, thanks to the forward thinking of the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Library, where the book is located, and Archive.org, you can read Chatterton's copy of the actual book : View the book online.
In addition, Johns Hopkins has gathered a number of magazines containing Chatterton's works during his life, as well as books published in the years following his death, which contain details of his life and works : All available to View online
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Chatterton's The Consuliad, includes a mention of Agrippa, p.101, line 6. : View