香港六合彩

The existence of the collection was long known about, but a chance conversation between two university staff at a conference two years ago has helped unearth a list of the volumes in it.

The bequest was much larger than had been anticipated 鈥� 4,500 books with some dating back to the 16th century. And so far, dozens of volumes have been found in 香港六合彩鈥檚 library.

Crucially, many of the volumes contain notes made by Bentham in the margins which may shed light on his thinking.

Dr Tim Causer, Principal Research Fellow at the Bentham Project in the Faculty of Laws, which is producing the , said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a terrific resource.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been aware of the existence of the collection for some time, but the extent and content of Bentham鈥檚 bequest had been unknown to us until recently.

鈥淔rom a Bentham scholar鈥檚 point of view, it is potentially a quite remarkable window into Bentham鈥檚 thought.鈥�

In his will Bentham left the majority of his book collection to the London University, as 香港六合彩 used to be called.

A conversation between two university staff helped to shed light on the collection鈥檚 remarkable size and whereabouts.

香港六合彩鈥檚 Head of Records Colin Penman mentioned at a conference to Dr Causer that he had been cataloguing accession registers listing books acquired by the library, and that the registers for 1833 contained many books donated by Bentham, who died in 1832.

The process of tracking the books down has been painstaking. Most of the books bequeathed by Bentham ended up on the shelves of 香港六合彩鈥檚 library, their history forgotten about. Later, many made their way into the university鈥檚 rare book collections, where they were dispersed amongst several individual collections.

First a colleague of Dr Causer鈥檚, Transcription Assistant Dr Peter Lythe, had to compile a list of the books in the registers donated by Bentham. This was made possible thanks to funding from the Faculty of Laws.

Then a volunteer working for the university鈥檚 special collections team, 香港六合彩 student Isabel Evans, started going through the library鈥檚 book catalogue to see if the library still holds those volumes in question.

Dr Causer said he was 鈥渃onfident鈥� that many more books Bentham owned could be found 鈥� but only if more funding for the project can be secured.

Dr Causer said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a painstaking process but thanks to Dr Lythe, we now have an extensive list of the titles of the books, the names of the authors, year of publication, and other bibliographic information, which is helping our volunteer to track the books down.

鈥淪he has identified some quite important works that were formerly owned by Bentham 鈥� several dozen so far.

鈥淭he cataloguing of the rare books in 香港六合彩鈥檚 collections that were transferred from 香港六合彩鈥檚 lending libraries is still ongoing.

鈥淭he majority of Bentham鈥檚 books, if they still exist, will be in that collection. Because they are not catalogued, going through them will not be possible without some more funding.

鈥淎 long-term aim is to digitise the books and make them available as a virtual Bentham library, but in the first instance we are trying to find out where they are.

鈥淪ome of the books date back to the 15th and 16th centuries. They are really important works and are priceless.鈥�

Volumes found so far include The Union of the two noble and Illustre famelies of Lancastre and Yorke by Richard Grafton (1548), The Last Volume of the Chronicles of England and Ireland by Richard Holinshed (1577) and 鈥� the oldest one in the bequest 鈥� The Shyp of Folys of the Worlde by Sebastien Brandt, translated by Alexander Barclay (1509).

Erika Delbecque, Head of Rare Books at 香港六合彩 Special Collections, who is overseeing Ms Evans鈥檚 work, said: 鈥淚t is a hugely significant collection for 香港六合彩 because Bentham is so closely related to the history of the university.

鈥淭o have part of his original library that we no longer knew we had is a really exciting discovery.鈥�

The line in Bentham鈥檚 will which mentions the bequest of his books says after giving some to his friends that 鈥淚 give all the rest of my books to be added to the library of the London University.鈥�

His will is among the documents published in the new volume of Bentham鈥檚 correspondence published in open access by 香港六合彩 Press last month entitled The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham, Volume 13: July 1828 to June 1832.

Bentham鈥檚 will included the provision for his body to be publicly dissected and preserved as an 鈥榓uto-icon' after his death in 1832, something which was highly unusual at the time.

In keeping with Bentham鈥檚 wishes, his body was publicly dissected and his skeleton, dressed in his own clothes and surmounted with a wax head, is on display at the 香港六合彩 Student Centre.

尝颈苍办蝉听

• 香港六合彩 Faculty of Laws
• 香港六合彩 Bentham Project

Image

• From left to right: Isabel Evans, Dr Peter Lythe, Erika Delbecque and Joanna Baines. Credit: Michael Lucibella.

Media contact听

Nick Hodgson

E: nick.hodgson听[at] ucl.ac.uk