Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 6957

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
[Marginalia]: some pencil marks and marginal ms notes throughout the text. Generally they highlight points of grammar or translation, mostly in English but at least one is in Persian (p. 132). Examples: title page "x While the nightingale, oh Hafiz, makes a boast [?] of his eloquence, do thou lessen [?] the value of his life, by singing thy Persian strains" [translation of Persian quote on title page, similarly marked ie 'x'?]; p.100/101 is bookmarked with a scrap of contemporary newspaper and the text line 'By the approach of Spring, and the return of December, the leaves of our life are continually folded' is annotated with underlines and alternative translations above words.
Century: 1700-1799, 1800-1849
Date: unknown
Country: Scotland or India
Time: n/a
Place: n/a
   
Type of Experience (Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Type of Experience (Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Reader/Listener/Reading Group:

Reader:John Drummond Erskine
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Male
Date of Birth Apr 1776
Socio-economic group: Gentry
Occupation: East India Company writer, later landowner
Religion: unknown
Country of origin: Scotland
Country of experience: Scotland or India
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: Identification of reader is inferred from provenance

 

Text Being Read:

Author: William Jones
Title: Grammar of the Persian Language, A
Genre: Language
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: The third edition with an index, London: Printed by W. Richardson for J. Murray, 1783
Provenance: owned

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 6957  
Source - Manuscript Other
  Author: Book with annotations in the Dunimarle Library of the Erskines of Torrie in Fife: Jones, William, "A grammar of the Persian language. By William Jones", (London, 1783), various pages, [DH LIB 748].,

Citation: Book with annotations in the Dunimarle Library of the Erskines of Torrie in Fife: Jones, William, "A grammar of the Persian language. By William Jones", (London, 1783), various pages, [DH LIB 748]., http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=6957, accessed: 28 March 2024

Additional comments:

The form, handwriting (small and neat) and subject of the annotations matches those of other John Drummond Erskine items in the collection but some of the annotations are in a scrawling style though content remains the same. JDE was known to have eyesight problems, which could explain the change but this is a very tentative suggestion. If annotations are by JDE, they would have been done between the late 1790s and 1836.

 

 

Reading Experience Database version 2.0.  Page updated: 27th Apr 2016  3:15pm (GMT)