Report to the Right honourable the master of the rolls upon the documents in the archives and public libraries of Venice / by Thomas Duffus Hardy.

  • Thomas Duffus Hardy
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the Right honourable the master of the rolls upon the documents in the archives and public libraries of Venice / by Thomas Duffus Hardy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    To the Right Honourable Sir John Romilly, Master of the Rolls, &c. &c. &c. Public Record Office, Sir, 30th November 1865. Pursuant to your directions, and with the approbation of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, I visited Venice in the month of September last. My instructions were to make a report to you, for the information of their Lordships, relative to the documents contained in the Archives and Public Libraries of Venice, illustrating the history of this country. 1. My first object was to ascertain what progress Mr. Rawdon Brown had made in his Calendar of Venetian Papers. His first volume, bringing the work down to 1509, was published in Sep- tember 1864. Since that time, he has prepared the Calendar lor press down to 31st December 1522, extending to about 1150 pages. The manuscript is in the hands of the printer, and 208 pages have been printed off. 2. Mr. Brown was very desirous, not only for his own satisfac- tion, but also for your Honour's, that I should compare his published volume with the originals in the Venetian Archives. I was induced, at his urgent solicitation, to examine a portion of it. I found upon examining the originals that his abstracts had been made with great care and accuracy, and, so far as I could discover, every point of importance in eacli document had been noticed in the fewest words possible. In justice to Mr. Brown, I ought to state that his Calendar gives but a faint idea of the extent of the work he has performed. In making his selections, he was com- pelled to wade through volume after volume, and document after document, page by page in closely cramped handwriting in a foreign language, with no marginal or other indications to guide him as to the contents of the papers; and, to extract the informa- tion required, he had to examine not merely the series relating to England, but also those which referred to France and Germany. 3. To show the interest which literary men in England take in Mr. Brown's labours, I may mention that immediately on the appearance of his Venetian Calendar, several men distinguished in the world of letters wrote to him for information relative to the different periods of history upon which they are severally engaged. With his usual ready kindness, Mr. Brown liberally gave them most valuable information, as he considered that by so doing he was carrying out the object of the Master of the Rolls and the Government, by facilitating the researches of English students. 13951. A 2
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