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Distributed for Iter Press

News from the Midell Regions and Calthorpe’s Chapel

An introduction to a new early modern woman writer that makes her manuscripts available in print for the first time.
 
This first print edition of two extant manuscripts by Dorothy Calthorpe (1648–1693) introduces a new seventeenth-century woman writer to the growing canon of early modern female authors. The edition provides transcriptions of the manuscripts and Calthorpe’s will, as well as a hefty apparatus that features a comprehensive introduction to Calthorpe, her family, and her work; a glossary of persons who figured in her writing and her life; and two genealogical charts. Calthorpe’s writings (including both prose and verse and ranging from Petrarchan love poems to roman à clef and devotional verse), and the thoughtfully constructed and illustrated volumes in which her texts appear, demonstrate the rich intellectual life of a previously unknown female writer and provide a compelling example of Restoration manuscript production.
 

236 pages | 15 color plates, 5 halftones | 6 x 9 | © 2022

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series

History: British and Irish History

Literature and Literary Criticism: British and Irish Literature

Women's Studies


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Reviews

“The discovery of two manuscripts written by Dorothy Calthorpe enriches the canon of early modern writing in many different genres: speculative fiction, family history (which in Calthorpe’s case intersects with romance writing), pastoral lyrics, commentary on the Fall, and religious poetry. Perfectly pitched to a wide audience, this edition provides learned glosses and sketches out Calthorpe’s entire milieu, from her will and self-designed funeral monument, to her extended family relationships, to later provenance information about her books and manuscripts. Julie Eckerle’s presentation of Calthorpe’s work allows today’s readers to appreciate this fascinating writer’s wide-ranging interests, unusual imagery, and unique voice.”

Victoria E. Burke, University of Ottawa

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Illustrations
Abbreviations
INTRODUCTION
The Other Voice
The Calthorpes of Ampton
Historical Context
Life and Works
Content and Analysis of news from the midell regions
Content and Analysis of Calthorpe’s Chapel
The Manuscripts: Material Conditions
Provenance and Afterlife
Editorial Principles and Practices
THE REDWOOD LIBRARY MANUSCRIPT: NEWS FROM THE MIDELL REGIONS
“of truth who is times eldest daughter times wonted off spring”
“Contempt of the world”
“on the death of Mrs I R”
THE BEINECKE LIBRARY MANUSCRIPT: CALTHORPE’S CHAPEL
“Philismena to Philander”
“Philander to Philismena”
“In commendations of a country Life it being so innocent”
“A Discription of the Garden of Edden”
A Short History of the Life and death of Sir Ceasor Dappefer
A Castell in the aire or the pallace of the man in the moon
APPENDIX 1: Dorothy Calthorpe’s Pedigree
APPENDIX 2: Bible and Calthorpe’s Chapel Manuscript Ownership
among Calthorpe/Harvey Descendants
APPENDIX 3: Dorothy Calthorpe’s Will
APPENDIX 4: Glossary of Persons
Bibliography
Index

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