The University of Saskatchewan Library acquired 127 volumes of the Cabinet Cyclopaedia in 1979. The Cyclopaedia, published between 1830 and 1849 by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, Paternoster Row, London in 133 volumes with sixty-one titles directed by Dr. Dionysius Lardner (1793-1859), the first professor of Astronomy and Natural Philosophy at London University (now University College, London). Six volumes are missing from the set, the significant omission being Robert Southey’s five-volumes Lives of the British Admirals (with volume five completed by Robert Bell).
The set belonged to a Yorkshire collector of books, prints, shells and fossils, Frances Mary Richardson Currer (1785-1861), whose book plate appears in each of the volumes. Currer is a significant figure in her own right, described by Thomas F. Dibdin as being “at the head of all female collectors in Europe” (Lee citing Dibdin, Reminiscences 2.949) and “England’s earliest female bibliophile” (Lee, citing Seymour De Ricci, English Collectors of Books and Manuscripts 141). She added to the library at Eshton Hall, Yorkshire, which she inherited from her great grandfather, Richard Richardson (1663-1741), a botanist and antiquary, and its 15,000 volumes made it one of the largest in England during the nineteenth century (those of the Duke of Devonshire, the Duke of Buckingham, and Earl Spencer being larger). It was known for its titles on history, classics and antiquities, natural science, and topography and for the volumes being in good condition and having fine bindings and each containing her heraldic book-plate. In an era when books were purchased in paper boards or with simple cloth covers and bound by the purchaser, Currer often used the King’s binder, Mackenzie to bind her books (Kennedy 3). The collection was deemed important enough that several times during the early decades of the nineteenth century it was catalogued and published.
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Currer never married and lived a somewhat reclusive life, while also acting as a patron and supporter of charitable causes. One of the projects that she supported was the Clergy Daughters’ School attended by Charlotte Bronte and her sisters (which serves as a model for Lowood School in Jane Eyre) and it is speculated that she was the 'wealthy lady in the West Riding of Yorkshire' who gave the Reverend Patrick Bronte £50 in 1821 to help pay (Barker 105). It is because of these associations that Charlotte Bronte may have adopted her surname for her pseudonym, Currer Bell (Barker 480).
Although it was Currer’s wish that her library would remain as Eshton Hall, a year after her death in 1861 her half-brother sold much of her library to Southebys and a second sale occurs in 1916. The remaining books were sold in 1979 and 1994 (Lee, Oxford DNB). During the twentieth century Eshton Hall was used as a school and a nursing home and was converted into flats in 2005.
It was when the house was converted into a nursing home that York booksellers McDowell and Stern Ltd. acquired the volumes and they were purchased by the University of Saskatchewan. The Cyclopaedia volumes are octavo volumes set in half-calf with marbled boards and end papers. The spines of each volume have five raised bands with decorative lines in gilt, a brief title and the date of publication stamped in gilt. At the top of the spine is a red leather rectangle with “Cabinet Cyclopaedia” (Kennedy 3-4).
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In his article about the Cabinet Cyclopaedia, Morse Peckham suggests that the value of this work is how in a general and integrated manner its volumes offer “the general state of knowledge on a good many subjects in the 1830s,” particularly as they were presented for a general audience. It is one of the treasures of Special Collections at the University of Saskatchewan.
Thanks to Craig Harkema and Donna Canevari de Paredes, University of Saskatchewan Library, for their helpful sleuthing.
Barker, Juliet. The Brontës. New York: St. Martin’s, 1994.
Dibdin, Thomas. Reminiscences. 2 vols. 1827; rpt. New York: AMS, 1970.
Kennedy, J. E. “The Cabinet Cyclopaedia.” Notable Works and Collections. Main Library, University of Saskatchewan. Number 11 (December 1980): 1-6.
Lee, Colin, ‘Currer, Frances Mary Richardson (1785–1861)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6951a>, accessed 27 Jan 2009].
Myers, Robin and Michael Harris. Ed. Antiquaries, Book Collectors, and the Circles of Learning. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll P, 1996.
Peckham, Morse. “Dr. Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopaedia.” The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 45 (1951): 37-58.
Tedder, H. R. “Currer, Frances Mary Richardson (1785-1861).” Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder, 1888.
- General Introduction
- Dr. Lardner
- Mary Shelley and the Lives
- Provenance of the University of Saskatchewan Collection