tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105362130482278496.post7284137897209394323..comments2023-06-19T03:02:29.593-04:00Comments on My Sentimental Library: Other People's Ownership Signatures in My Samuel Johnson and James Boswell BooksJerry Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12749823995193026579noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105362130482278496.post-39426123993080870282020-08-31T17:36:37.316-04:002020-08-31T17:36:37.316-04:00June Samaras, owner of Kalamos Books, has provided...<br />June Samaras, owner of Kalamos Books, has provided excellent information on where my copy of The Idler came from. I copied and pasted her response. Thanks June!<br /><br />Jerry,<br /><br />This copy would, I think, have been from a school library in England<br /><br /><< While my wife was busy looking at antique furniture, I could think of nothing better to do than to read this book. It was an odd volume of an 1806 edition of the works of Samuel Johnson; his Idler essays to be exact. And when my wife made some purchases, the store owner told me to keep the book and finish reading it.<br />...<br />There is no ownership signature written in this book. The only provenance information was written seemingly "in code" on the front free endpaper, and I think it points to a library. I could not make heads or tails of the identity of the library, or what kind of library it was.<br />..<br />It seemed to read "Burg. vi Form Library." I thought the first word might be "Bury" because Bury St. Edmunds was nearby. But the first word is clearly "Burg" and not "Bury." I'm not sure about the word "Form." It could also be "Forni" or "Forsi." My best guess is that the book once belonged to a village library near Bury St. Edmunds. >><br />==================<br /><br />Classes in high schools/private schools were called "Forms" and grades were denominated in Roman numerals<br />When I went to an English all girl's high school at 11 years old I started in "Form i" and each subsequent.<br />year we passed through I to VI <br />[If you have ever encountered any of the English school stories of Elsie J Oxenham or Angela Brazil you would<br />have encountered the presence of the " Sixth Form" girls who set the tone of such establishments!]<br /><br />In the case of your book think of Tom Brown's Schooldays<br />https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Tom_Brown%27s_School_Days_(6th_ed)/Chapter_8 <br /><br />If the Bury /Burg is actually an ink blot then it might have been from St Edward's Grammar School<br /><br /><<aThe oldest and most rare of the Grammar School's books and records are now deposited in the Cambridge University Library, including the psalter which had survived from the Abbey of St Edmund. The University Library has a collection of more than 500 books belonging to the school. Some of the books were used by teachers and students - texts in Latin and Greek, stories, the plays of Shakespeare - and some were donated to the school by former students. Some tell the history of the school; one - The English School-Master - was written by former headmaster Edmund Coote and probably led to him losing his job.[3]<br /><br />Old boys of this school are known as " Old Burians" ' and there is this resource<br /><br />Biographical list of boys educated at King Edward VI. Free Grammar School, Bury St. Edmunds. From 1550 to 1900 <br />https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=ha009782933 <br /><br />June SJerry Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12749823995193026579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105362130482278496.post-71206471236857171512020-08-31T01:22:00.037-04:002020-08-31T01:22:00.037-04:00Hi Jerry, Brian Grimes here, in Seattle. John Byr...Hi Jerry, Brian Grimes here, in Seattle. John Byrne forwarded me your post, so I get to be the first to say congrats! I enjoy the inscriptions in my SJ related books, especially from Johnsonian to Johnsonian. Your post brought to mind a copy of "Samuel Johnson's Library, an Annotated Guide," by Donald Greene that I refer to often for my work on sjdictionarysources.org. It is inscribed on the cover: "For Gwin/with kind regards/Don."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09487741506305205588noreply@blogger.com