My reading schedule this terms is absolutely crazy which will make my posting rather few and far between I'm afraid. So, every once and a while I'm going to post something interesting I come across in my readings. Hopefully this won't bore too many of you.
With my love for collecting books this quote from
An Introduction to Manuscript Studies by Raymond Clemens & Timothy Graham really tickled my fancy.
The Italian humanist Petrarca (1304-74) ..."was inspired by his love of the classics to become a tireless collector, seeking out texts wherever he could find them and adding them to his personal collection. He called upon his frinds to help him in the task. On one occasion (perhaps in 1346) he wrote to the Dominican friar Giovanni dell'Incisa:
I am still in thrall of one insatiable desire, which hitherto I have been neither able nor willing to check.....I cannot get enough books. It may be that I have already more than I need, but it is with books as it is with other things: success in acquisition spurs the desire to get still more...Books delight us through and through, they talk with us, hey give us good counsel, they enter into a living and intimate companionship with us...Now do you, as you hold me dear, commission turstworthy and competent men to go through Tuscany for me, examining the book-chests of the religious and of other studious men, searching for things that might serve to alleviate or to increase my thirst. And although you know in what streams I fish and in what woods I hunt, nevertheless, to avoid error I enclose a list of the things I chiefly desire; and that you may be the more eager, let me tell you that my sending similar request to friends in Britain, France, and Spain. So then, in order that none may surpass you in faithfulness and diligence, do your best - and fairewell." (pg 63 of above noted test)
What a delightful man Petrarca was. I must investigate him further.
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