The Topographers of Suffolk : Brief Biographies and Specimens of the Hands of Selected Suffolk Antiquaries

Suffolk Record Office, [Ipswich], first edition, 1976. Printed wrappers in slide-binder, large 8vo, 30 cm,. [3], 49 leaves. Few topographers made a practice of signing their work; some never did so at all. Their manuscripts passed to other antiquaries and then into the libraries of collectors, who, even if they understood the provenance the material, rarely left a proper record of this vital information. Today's researcher must unravel the complex course through gifts, legacies, sales and even borrowings by which the works of his predecessors in the field have survived for his use. Familiarity with the handwriting of our county historians is a powerful tool, particularly when tackling the mixed contents of scrapbooks and packets of slips collected by those eighteenth century topographers who seem to have been as active with the scissors as with the pen. Here we have 35 antiquaries who collected mainly in Suffolk, 10 who covered East Anglia more generally and seven with wider interests who visited Suffolk on their tours. The best reason for including a topographer is that his work is scattered and usually unsigned. Many important authors are omitted because they present no problems; men like the Kirbys and Suckling whose works are published and Claude Morley whose excellent writings, so badly typed as to be unmistakable, are all together in Ipswicb Library." - from the introduction. Front cover somewhat spotted, otherwise Good.