The Digital Ark :: Tudor Books and Readers: Materiality and the Construction of Meaning

The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700

Tudor Books and Readers: Materiality and the Construction of Meaning

Secondary Title (i.e. Proceedings Title): Periodical Title: Publication Type:book Authors:King, John N. Editors: Publisher:CUP Place of Publication:Cambridge Publication Date:2010 Alternate Date (i.e. Conference Date): Volume: Issue: Start Page: End Page: Abstract: Descriptors/Keywords: ISBN: URL:

Documents in Print Item: No Documents Listed in Print Item Attached People: Mentioned or referenced by - Paston, Robert (29 May 1631-08 Mar 1683)
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Objects Contained: No Objects Attached To This Item
Annotation:Describes "the painting known as The Yarmouth Collection (c. 1679), by an anonymous Dutch artist, which itemized the fabulous collections of Robert Paston, Earl of Yarmouth, shortly before he had to sell them off to meet his crippling debts. As well the nautilus cups, tankards, engraved shells and vanitas emblems, the image contains books (in the top right-hand corner); and it contains people - the black servant, confidently objectified in the manner of many such paintings, and a young girl, oddly doll-like and incongruous by contrast, in the foreground. Holding a bunch of blown roses and a music-book open at a song about death, she has been identified as Paston's second daughter Mary, who died of smallpox in 1676. This posthumous portrait registers the girl as one fading possession among many, another object to be priced and prized. Bridging the gap between the materiality and subjectivity in the history of the book will require a much fuller engagement with the appraising gaze that was one of the most characteristic modes of the early modern eye. Richard Stonley, as accountant, diarist and reader, is in many respects a paradigmatic figure" (251-2).