JASP is employing a wide variety of evidence in order to reconstruct the contents of Symonds’s personal library, including the following:
- Early Bookseller Catalogues. In the decades after his death, books from Symonds’s libraries were featured in several auctions and sales. One particularly important catalogue, rich in extra detail, was issued by the Bristol bookseller William George’s sons in 1909.
- Letters. Symonds’s published and unpublished correspondence abounds in references to books he bought or borrowed, gave or lent.
- Known Copies. In precious cases Symonds’s actual copy of a book survives in a library (including some at Johns Hopkins) or private collection. These can usually be identified by Symonds’s distinctive armorial bookplate or by other ownership marks or annotations.
- Modern Sales Records. We also track copies that can be shown to have come from Symonds’s library when they are offered by online (and other) sellers today, even if their eventual location is unknown.
For information about the source behind a particular item’s inclusion in our inventory, consult its “Notes” in our Zotero Group Library.
