Francis Douce (1757-1834) was the Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum. He bequeathed more than 19,000 printed books to the Bodleian Library in Oxford on almost every subject in almost every period: romances, novels, all forms of popular printing, history, biography, antiquities, art, travel, archaeology, drama, children’s books. (If you ever work in the Bodleian and call up a book with a ‘Douce’ shelfmark, that means it’s one of his.) He also left 420 manuscripts, 27,000 prints, 1,500 drawings, and a load of medals and coins.
Superb! And plus ça change... Ineffectual committees, pointless reports, uncongenial colleagues, "the total absence of all aid in my department"... But the question is: is this the letter he actually handed in, or the one he kept in a desk drawer, like so many of us, adding supplementary grievances as time went by? And another thing...
Superb! And plus ça change... Ineffectual committees, pointless reports, uncongenial colleagues, "the total absence of all aid in my department"... But the question is: is this the letter he actually handed in, or the one he kept in a desk drawer, like so many of us, adding supplementary grievances as time went by? And another thing...
Mike