Rylands Blake project 11. Archive materials relating to Rebekah Bliss

In the Bliss Bibliotheca Splendidissima, the books that were the most far-flung in their origin, the most difficult to procure in Rebekah Bliss’s lifetime, the most unexpected in an Englishwoman’s library of circa 1800, were the two Japanese books that appeared in the 1842 sale of books that had passed to her cousin's son, Samuel Roffey Maitland:

[lot] 696 Book of Fishes, printed in Colours, with descriptions and a prefatory treatise in the Japanese Language

697 Book of Plants, Reptiles and Insects, printed in Colours, with descriptions in Japanese

Sir Frederic Madden noted in his copy of the sale catalogue that these two books were purchased by Bohn on behalf of “Mr. Bland”. In fact, apart from a volume of Chinese drawings acquired for the British Museum, all the Oriental books in the 1842 sale were acquired by the noted Persian scholar Nathaniel Bland. Following Bland’s suicide in 1866 (apparently because of his gambling debts), the Bland collection was acquired en bloc by the Earl of Crawford, and the Crawford collection itself purchased in 1901 by Mrs. John Rylands.



These two Japanese books, together, we presume, with all the other Oriental books from the Bliss collection, are now in the John Rylands Library, Manchester (Japanese books 147, 205). They were identified with the help of P. F. Kornicki, “The Japanese collection in the Bibliotheca Lindesiana”, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, (1993) and I am grateful to Professor Kornicki for confirming my initially tentative identifications. A puzzle is how Rebekah Bliss acquired her Japanese books. Not only are they immensely rare in European libraries of this date, but she has managed to acquire Japanese works that fit her collecting interest in natural history. (I am tempted to suggest they came from one of the sales of Japanese books from the collection of Isaac Titsingh.)

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Manuscripts from the 1842 sale acquired by Bland.

lot
690 ORIENTAL MS. — The adventures of Krishna, in Sanscrit, written in a most minute character, on a Roll 45 feet 7 inches long, ILLUMINATED WITH NUMEROUS BEAUTIFUL PAINTINGS IN GOLD AND COLOURS, by Native artists, mounted on rollers in a mahogany case
<JRL: Sanskrit MS 7>

691 ALCORAN, a beautifully written MS., in Arabic, the divisions of the chapters and verses marked in gold, in the original Oriental binding

691* ORIENTAL MS. — written upon 26 leaves of the Talipot, by Native Artists, richly illuminated in gold

692 Beautiful MS. — in the Singalese Character, upon the Talipot leaf, by Native Artists.  A very fine and perfect specimen

693 Divani Hafiz, or the Poems of Hafiz, one of the most eminent of the Persian Poets, a beautifully written MS., in the original Oriental binding

693* ORIENTAL MS. — Divanagair Gheeta, or Adventures of Krishna in Sanscrit, A MOST BEAUTIFUL MANUSCRIPT in the Sacred Language of Hindostan, executed at Cashmire, containing 101 MINIATURE PAINTINGS, most exquisitely finished in the richest gold and colours, bound in crimson velvet, 8vo.
This exquisite volume was formerly in the collection of James Edwards, Esq. at whose sale it was purchased for £25. 5. 0

695 ORIENTAL MS., Sirnah Baghueen, A MOST BEAUTIFUL MANUSCRIPT, WITH ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY PAINTINGS, executed by a Native Artist, in gold and colours, bound in crimson velvet  folio
One leaf of this remarkably fine and beautiful Oriental Manuscript, is unfortunately damaged.

696 Book of Fishes, printed in Colours, with descriptions and a prefatory treatise in the Japanese Language
<JRL: Japanese 205>

697 Book of Plants, Reptiles and Insects, printed in Colours, with descriptions in Japanese
<JRL: Japanese 147>

700 PERSIAN MANUSCRIPT. — Works of Nizami one of the most admired Persian poets, A MOST BEAUTIFUL Persian MS, written about the year 1630, WITH THIRTY SEVEN PAINTINGS, executed by a Native Artist, in the richest gold and colours, and each page ornamented with borders of gold, a remarkably fine Manuscript, in the Oriental binding, with beautifully painted sides  folio

Rebekah Bliss's Oriental books are part of the foundational collections of the Rylands Library itself.  Matching currently existing books with the vague, imprecise, or incomplete entries in the sale catalogues of her collection is the task before us.

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