university of melbourne collections · 2015-03-16 · discover the grainger museum, ian potter...

COLLECTIONSUniversity of Melbourne Issue 6, June 2010

Front cover: Illustration from Violet Teague and Geraldine Rede, Night fall in the ti-tree (illustrated book, designed, illustrated, printed and hand-bound by theartists; colour woodcut; 32 pages, printed image 24.4 x 17.4 cm), London: Elkin Matthews, 1906. Joyce Thorpe Nicholson Collection, Special Collections, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne. See story pp. 14–19.Back cover: Angela Cavalieri, Le città continue (concertina artist book bound by George Matoulas; hand-printed linocut, acrylic, pen and ink; 18 pages, edition: 10; variable dimensions; 57.0 x 39.0 x 3.0 cm [closed]; can fold out to 2 metres). Melbourne: La Bella Press, 2009, edition 2/10. Special Collections,Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne. © Angela Cavalieri. Image courtesy of the artist and Australian Galleries, Melbourne. Photography by Tim Gresham.

University of Melbourne CollectionsIssue 6, June 2010

University of Melbourne Collections succeedsUniversity of Melbourne Library Journal, publishedfrom 1993 to December 2005.

University of Melbourne Collections is produced bythe Cultural Collections Group and thePublications Team, University of Melbourne Library.

Editor: Dr Belinda NemecAssistant editor: Stephanie JaehrlingDesign concept: 3 Deep DesignDesign implementation: Jacqueline Barnett

Advisory committee:Shane Cahill, Dr Alison Inglis, Robyn Krause-Hale, Jock Murphy, Associate Professor Robyn Sloggett

Published by the University LibraryUniversity of Melbourne Victoria 3010 AustraliaTelephone (03) 8344 0269Email [email protected]

© The University of Melbourne 2010

ISSN 1835-6028 (Print)ISSN 1836-0408 (Online)

All material appearing in this publication iscopyright and cannot be reproduced without thewritten permission of the publisher and therelevant author.

The views expressed herein are those of individualsand not necessarily those of the University ofMelbourne.

Note to contributors: Contributions relating toone or more of the cultural collections of theUniversity of Melbourne are welcome. Please contact the editor, Belinda Nemec, on (03) 8344 0269 or [email protected]. For more information on the cultural collections seewww.unimelb.edu.au/culturalcollections.

Additional copies of University of MelbourneCollections are available for $20 plus postage andhandling. Please contact the editor.

Subscription to University of Melbourne Collectionsis one of the many benefits of membership of theFriends of the Baillieu Library, Grainger MuseumMembers and Members of the Ian Potter Museumof Art. See www.unimelb.edu.au/culturalcollections/links/friends.html

CONTENTS

Page 2 IntroductionJohn Dewar

News from the collections

Page 8 The physick gardenerSusie Shears

Page 14 Artists’ books: A world of openingsPeter Di Sciascio

Page 20 Jules-Bernard Luys and his brain atlasJohn S. McKenzie

Page 26 The University’s forgotten peopleJuliet Flesch

Page 34 A royal portraitHenry F. Atkinson

Page 36 Joseph BrownChris McAuliffe

Page 42 AcquisitionsSusan Millard, Pam Pryde, David Jones, Bick-har Yeung

Page 48 Handel and HaydnRichard Excell

Page 51 A Gregorian manuscript in the Ian Potter Museum of ArtJohn R.C. Martyn

University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 6, June 2010


IntroductionJohn Dewar

The contents of this issue ofUniversity of Melbourne Collectionsvividly illustrate the long-lastingbenefits that donors and otherbenefactors have provided to ourcultural collections, whether throughthe gift of collection items, or fundsto support them. Chris McAuliffe forexample discusses the substantialenhancements that accrued to theUniversity of Melbourne ArtCollection through the generosity ofthe late Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE.Over several decades Dr Browndonated more than 70 works of art tothe University, as well as giving tomany other institutions. Dr JohnMcKenzie discusses a rare book thathe donated to the Baillieu Library.His contribution shows that a donorgives not only the collection object(and in this case also, funds towardconserving it), but also the benefit ofhis or her professional expertise thatsheds light on the object itself. Theopportunity to publish a discussion bya distinguished medical scientist of ahistorical text in his own area ofspecialisation shows the synergies thatcan occur particularly in Universitycollections. The magazine highlights other

recent gifts from people with a strongassociation with our University: mapsdonated by the former Curator ofMaps, Mrs Dorothy Prescott OAM;

Chinese books donated by ProfessorHarry Simon, our FoundationProfessor of East Asian Studies; and arare book by Francis Bacon donatedby the recently retired Head of theDepartment of Zoology, ProfessorDavid Macmillan. Each gift issignificant in its own right and ofgreat use to students and researchers,but the connection to a former staffmember or alumnus adds anotherlayer of meaning and value.Museums, libraries and archives

require money to make these richcollections usable and accessible, andto ensure that they are preserved forfuture generations. Financial gifts aretherefore equally important and weare fortunate to be able to report onmany projects that have been madepossible through philanthropicsupport, such as the appointment of aCurator of Academic Programs at theIan Potter Museum of Art, funded bythe Ian Potter Foundation; CulturalTreasures Day 2010, funded by abequest; publication of a newbrochure listing all the culturalcollections, supported by theUniversity’s Cultural and CommunityRelations Advisory Group; andprojects made possible by donors tothe University’s Annual Appeal. As Provost, the University Library

falls within my area of responsibilityand I am therefore particularly

pleased that five of the 11 inauguralScholarly Information InnovationGrants, which are funded by theLibrary, will support culturalcollections: the Medical HistoryMuseum, Baillieu Library SpecialCollections, Grainger Museum,School of Chemistry Collection andArchitecture and Planning Library.I hope you enjoy reading this issue

of University of Melbourne Collections.The University takes seriously itscommitment to public engagementthrough knowledge exchange, and ourcollections are tangible evidence ofthat commitment. We are delightedto receive such strong support fromthe community for our collections.

Professor John Dewar took up the role of Provost,the University’s chief academic officer, inSeptember 2009. He was previously Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Relations). Professor Dewar is an internationally knownfamily law specialist. A graduate of the Universityof Oxford, he taught at the Universities ofLancaster and Warwick and worked for theLondon law firm Allen & Overy.

University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 6, June 2010 3

Grainger Studies: AnInterdisciplinary JournalAs well as welcoming visitors to itsrefurbished building, the GraingerMuseum’s role in supporting originalresearch will be enhanced by thelaunch of a new, scholarly, peer-reviewed journal, Grainger Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. To bepublished annually by the UniversityLibrary and edited by Dr David Pearin the UK and Dr Belinda Nemec inMelbourne, and with an AdvisoryBoard of distinguished internationalacademics chaired by ProfessorWarren Bebbington, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (University Affairs), thisinternational journal will cover thewide range of subjects whichinterested Percy Grainger himself,and are therefore represented in his museum. The journal will bepublished electronically, with printedcopies available via ‘print-on-demand’. For further information seewww.msp.unimelb.edu.au/index.php/graingerstudies/index or [email protected] [email protected]

Grainger Museum Grainger scholars, musicians andmusic-lovers in Melbourne andaround the world are keenly awaitingthe re-opening later this year of theGrainger Museum. The museum hasbeen undergoing extensive buildingconservation work, upgrades to staffand visitor facilities includingconstruction of a café, and thecreation of a suite of exciting newexhibitions. The building can nowoperate to internationally acceptedstandards of environmental control,lighting and security.Work is continuing apace on the

re-fitting of the gallery spaces, whichwill tell the story of Percy Grainger’slife as well as investigating aspects ofbroader Australian musical culture. Itis anticipated that the Museum willbe open to the public in September.

A date for your diary:Cultural Treasures Day 2010Visit the University’s collectiontreasures all on one day. Following thesuccess of the inaugural event held in2008, Cultural Treasures Day 2010will be held on Sunday 14 November2010. Activities will include curators’talks, workshops, campus and collectiontours, and special programs forfamilies. This will be an opportunityfor the whole community to visitmany of the University’s culturalcollections, some of which are nototherwise easy for the public to visitwithout an appointment. Discover theGrainger Museum, Ian PotterMuseum of Art, Medical HistoryMuseum, Henry Forman AtkinsonDental Museum, Centre for CulturalMaterials Conservation, SpecialCollections and Print Collection ofthe Baillieu Library, University ofMelbourne Archives, Rare andHistoric Maps Collection, East AsianCollection, Louise Hanson-DyerMusic Library, Tiegs ZoologyMuseum, School of Physics Museum,School of Chemistry Collection, andthe University of MelbourneHerbarium. Cultural Treasures Day2010 is made possible by a gift fromthe late Estelle Harriet Dow. Toregister your interest and join ourmailing list for regular updates, pleaseemail [email protected]

News from the collections


Previous page: Cultural Treasures Days 2008: Visitors comparing 18th century fashion

illustrations from the Baillieu Library Print Collection with present-day fashion magazine illustrations. Photography by Kerrianne Stone.

Left: The Grainger Museum building following recent conservation work.

Photography by Brian Allison.

New museums andcollections brochure fundedby CCRAGA new brochure highlighting theUniversity’s museums and othercultural collections was publishedrecently, thanks to the support of theUniversity’s Cultural and CommunityRelations Advisory Group.The full-colour brochure,

designed by 3 Deep Design, gives thelocation and other information aboutthe most frequently used among thecollections at Parkville and othercampuses, as well as a handy map. It can be downloaded electronicallyfrom www.unimelb.edu.au/culturalcollections/collections/melbunicollections.pdf or for printedcopies please email [email protected] or tel (03) 8344 0269.

Medicalia: Melbourne’shealth and medical collectionsunveiledMelbourne’s health and medicalcollections constitute a remarkableresource, often familiar only toprofessionals and students fromrelated fields. This series of eightpublic lectures in April–Mayinformed the public about thehistories and stories of medicine,dentistry, surgery, anaesthesia,obstetrics and gynaecology and otherrelated specialties through the rich

collections held at the University ofMelbourne (the Medical HistoryMuseum, Harry Brookes AllenMuseum of Anatomy and Pathologyand the Henry Forman AtkinsonDental Museum), and at theprofessional colleges and other healthand medical museums in Melbourne.It drew on the expertise of medicaland museum professionals, includingthe University’s Susie Shears, LouiseMurray and Professor EmeritusHenry F. Atkinson, to bring theircollections’ stories to life.

Ian Potter Curator ofAcademic ProgramsThe new position of Ian PotterCurator of Academic Programs at theIan Potter Museum of Art is the firstof its kind at an Australian university.Supported by a grant from the IanPotter Foundation, this three-yearposition links the University ArtCollection and the Potter’sexhibitions to the academic programsof the University of Melbourne.Establishing partnerships betweenacademic and museum staff, theCurator will develop undergraduateand postgraduate curriculumengagement activities in a variety ofdisciplines. These may include classvisits to exhibitions, small-groupteaching using the art collection,online learning resources, tailored

assignments and tours, individualresearch projects and semester-lengthsubjects.The Potter was very pleased to

appoint Ms Amanda Burritt to theposition. Ms Burritt brings with hersubstantial experience in educationand curriculum development. Prior tocommencing in her new role, Ms Burritt was Senior EducationOfficer and Manager, RiskFramework, at the National Galleryof Victoria. An alumna of theUniversity of Melbourne, Ms Burrittholds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) infine arts, Bachelor of Theology,Diploma of Education and Master ofEducation.

Innovation grantsSeveral of the University’s culturalcollections will benefit from theUniversity Library’s InauguralScholarly Information InnovationGrants. These grants engage theUniversity community in thepossibilities of our scholarlyinformation future. Of the 11successful projects, those fiveinvolving the cultural collections are:

• Medical History Museum:Database upgrade.

• School of Chemistry Collection:Virtual Museum.

• Grainger Museum: Digital and


Jean-Jacques Haffner, Compositions de Jardins,Paris: Vincent, Fréal et Cie, 1931 (detail of extratitle page). Architecture and Planning LibraryRare Materials Collection, University ofMelbourne. One of the works to feature in theforthcoming touring exhibition Cultivatingmodernism: The literature of the modernist garden.

print dissemination of the Marshall-Hall Collection.

• Special Collections and PrintCollection, Baillieu Library:Recapturing and publicisingRenaissance and early modern printculture in Australia: Scholarlydocumentation, conservation, anddisplay of early prints and rare books.

• Architecture and Planning Library: Cultivating modernism:The literature of the modernistgarden—a touring exhibition.

For further information on the grants,visit www.library.unimelb.edu.au/about_us/innovation_grants

Collections at a clickThe University Library has beenupgrading its capacity for creatingdigital collections to support teaching,research and knowledge exchange.For example, late last year, threegroups of items of particular historicalinterest from the cultural collectionswere scanned and made availableonline. The first was the completetranscript of evidence given to theRoyal Commission to inquire into thecauses of and measures taken to preventthe bush fires of January, 1939. Thisvery rare document was located at theCreswick Branch of the UniversityLibrary, then scanned and publishedonline at http://repository.unimelb.

edu.au/10187/3652 along with thecomplete final report andrecommendations of the Commission.Previously only the final report hadbeen published. The online versioncontains digitally scanned facsimilecopies of the report and transcripts of34 days of evidence, with a searchableindex. It has already proved itself tobe of great interest to researchersinterested in bushfires, emergencymanagement, land and forestmanagement, primary industry, andthe social and legal history ofVictoria, as well as to families anddescendants of those affected by the1939 bushfires.The second digitised collection

comprises the annual reports of theBoard for the Protection ofAborigines in Victoria, 1861–1925.This project was undertaken incooperation with the Public RecordsOffice Victoria. The remarkablecollection reveals intriguing detailsabout how Aboriginal missions andreserves—places like Coranderrk,Lake Condah and Lake Tyers, whosenames continue to resonate in livingmemory—were established andadministered. The reports summariseannual expenditure, describe theoperation of farming and businessenterprises, report on the movementof people into and out of the reserves,and describe the various health,

education and welfare programs thatwere intended to improve the lives ofAboriginal Victorians. Some list thenames of families and individuals who lived at particular locations. The collection is available athttp://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/4228 and will be of particularinterest to historians, members of theStolen Generations, and descendantsof those who lived on missions andreserves.The third, and largest, collection

to have been digitised is theUniversity’s annual Calendars from1858 to 2006. This is a register of allthose who have gone before us in thehistory of this University as well asthe various component parts of theUniversity community that havebecome established over the years. For example, a virtual visit to the veryfirst Calendar shows us the Act ofIncorporation of the University(1853), in which we find that theUniversity is to be ‘open to all classesand denominations’ to whom ‘noreligious test is to be administered’.We see that the Council wasproclaimed on 11 April 1853 and theselection of professors was ‘entrustedto a committee of gentlemen inEngland’. Statute 1.1 of the 1858 Actrequired Council to meet on aMonday; it still does so in 2010. The 1858 Calendar contains lists of


‘Timetable of lectures, 1858’, from Melbourne University Calendar,

Melbourne: William Fairfax & Co., 1858, p. 57,University of Melbourne Archives.

staff, dates of terms and fee schedules:non-matriculated students couldattend lectures for £2 per term. There are details of the curriculum aswell as examination papers,regulations for courses, lecturetimetables, book lists and so on. The Calendars can be searched atwww.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/archives/collections/calendars.htmlWith all of these and other

digitised cultural collections, thosescholars who need to consult theoriginal documents are welcome to do so in the Cultural CollectionsReading Room in the BaillieuLibrary, but the availability of asearchable online version will speedtheir work considerably, as well asmaking the collections usable bydistant users.

Annual AppealEach year the cultural collectionsbenefit from money generouslydonated to the University’s AnnualAppeal by alumni, parents, staff,students and other supporters. Gifts directed by donors in 2009 to‘Library and cultural collections’ willsupport several important projects in2010: cataloguing of the collection ofChinese books donated to the EastAsian Library by Professor HarrySimon; uploading of data into thesearchable online collection catalogue

of the Henry Forman AtkinsonDental Museum; improving theperformance of the online catalogueof the University of Melbourne ArtCollection on the website of the Ian Potter Museum of Art; digitalphotography of some 2,500 artefactsin the Medical History Museumcollection and uploading to the onlinedatabase; and the creation of newdisplay labels for the Tiegs ZoologyMuseum. All of these projects makethese collections more accessible forstudents, staff, other researchers andthe general public. Projects to besupported with funds to be sought in2010 include digitisation and onlinepublication of unique and raredocuments relating to the capture ofNed Kelly, held by University ofMelbourne Archives, and theconservation of works by WilliamHogarth and other artists, in theBaillieu Library Print Collection.You can support the cultural

collections in the 2010 AnnualAppeal by visiting www.unimelb.edu.au/alumni/giving/ or calling theAdvancement Office on (03) 83441751.

Wilson Hall: Centre andsymbol of the UniversityThe exhibition Wilson Hall: Centreand symbol of the University was heldin the Leigh Scott Gallery, Baillieu

Library, from 15 March to 23 May2010. Curated by Jason Benjamin,Coordinator of Conservation Projects(Cultural Collections), with assistancefrom student Emily Wubben, theexhibition highlighted the place ofWilson Hall in the history and mindsof the University of Melbournecommunity. Since the 1880s WilsonHall has been the ceremonial heart ofthe University, serving as a venue forsignificant University occasions,including commencements,examinations and graduations. The exhibition traced the Hall’s past,starting from its conception andconstruction of the original gothicbuilding in 1878–1882 with fundsdonated by pastoralist Sir SamuelWilson.Wilson Hall quickly achieved

iconic status and dominated thecampus until it was destroyed by firein January 1952. The exhibitionrecorded that tragedy and the ensuingcommunity response to the WilsonHall Appeal Fund, demonstrating theemotional attachment people hadformed with the building. This led tostrong opinions in the debate ofwhether to restore the gothic ruins orrebuild in modern style. It is here thatthe story of the ‘New Wilson Hall’begins.The exhibition drew upon several

of the cultural collections of the


Four terracotta female figurines, Hellenistic, 4thcentury BCE. Gift of Peter Joseph, Marilyn Sharpeand Susan Rubenstein in honour of their parentsKeith and Zara Joseph, 2009. The University of Melbourne Art Collection.

1960 - 2010YEARS50ARCHIVESUNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

1960 - 2010YEARS50

ARCHIVESUNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

University of Melbourne to provide arich display of original architecturaldrawings, artworks, photographs andartefacts. A detailed essay on thesubject will appear in issue 7 ofUniversity of Melbourne Collectionslater this year.

Devotion and ritualThis exhibition at Ian Potter Museumof Art from 17 April to 17 October2010 features a diverse selection ofobjects from the Classics andArchaeology Collection, David andMarion Adams Collection, Keith and Zara Joseph Collection, andLeonhard Adam Collection ofInternational Indigenous Cultures. Curated by Dr Andrew Jamieson,Lecturer Spencer-Pappas Grant,School of Historical Studies (Centrefor Classics and Archaeology), theexhibition’s objects speak of manydifferent belief systems, customs andtraditions. Selected archaeological andethnographic works from theMediterranean, Indus Valley, African,Mesoamerican and Oceanic regionsrepresent ceremonial practices and faiths of the ancient and tribalworlds.

50 years for the University ofMelbourne ArchivesThis year marks the 50th anniversaryof the founding of the University ofMelbourne Archives. Plans are afootto honour the occasion with a rangeof events.The commemorations will get

under way in July with a cocktailparty to commemorate theappointment of the foundingarchivist, the late Frank Strahan. The event will be a celebration of theachievements of the Archives, andwill re-unite former staff and thankdonors and key stakeholders for theirsupport over the past 50 years.Later in the year an exhibition in

the Baillieu Library will showcasesome of the Archives’ treasures. Thiswill give the public an opportunity tosee some of the Archives’ mostsignificant but rarely seen documentsand objects, carefully chosen fromamongst the several million that itholds. The exhibition will run from December 2010 through toFebruary 2011, with curators’ toursconducted throughout its duration. A commemorative publication willaccompany the exhibition.

Museums Australia NationalConference 2010University of Melbourne will host the14th Museums Australia NationalConference from 28 September to 2 October 2010, in Wilson Hall andother Parkville campus locations. This annual conference is the flagshipevent for the museums sector inAustralia and involves local andinternational speakers and delegatesfrom museums and other collectinginstitutions. The theme of this year’sconference is Interesting times: New roles for collections. For furtherinformation please visit theconference website atwww.ma2010.com.au and registeryour interest for future updates.


The physick gardenerSusie Shears

The exhibition The physick gardener:Aspects of the apothecary’s world fromthe collections of the University ofMelbourne marks the re-opening ofthe Medical History Museumfollowing the recent renovations tothe Brownless Biomedical Library, inwhich the Museum is located, and theLibrary’s new additional purpose as aStudent Centre. Established in 1967,the Medical History Museum’scollection numbers more than 6,000items. It is one of 32 collectionswhich form part of the University ofMelbourne’s astonishingly richcultural capital. The Museum’scollection has largely been acquiredthrough public-spirited donors, manyof whom have had a professional orstudent relationship with theUniversity’s medical teachingprogram, or a fascination with thehistory of medicine. The ceramic drugjars, glass specie jars, and metal andstoneware mortars which are the coreof this exhibition were acquired bysuch means, and the Museum isindebted to those who have enabledthese objects to be preserved for all toenjoy.The first medical students at the

University of Melbourne in the 1860swere taught botany, and were requiredto learn about herbs and theirmedicinal applications. This practicederived from the 16th century


Opposite: Mortar and pestle,English, c.1850, copper alloy,

height of mortar 11.0 cm, pestle 21.5 cm. Gift of the estate of Graham Roseby, MedicalHistory Museum, University of Melbourne.

Below: Specie jar, English, c.1880, glass, gold leaf,coloured transfer and paint, height 67.0 cm. Gift of the Royal Australasian College ofPharmacists, Medical History Museum,

University of Melbourne.

European tradition of attachinggardens to medical faculties, whichwas subsequently emulated inEngland from the early 17th century.The exhibition encompasses the

flowers, fruits and herbs used by theearly apothecaries—includingelderberry juice, figs, hemlock, sage,fennel, senna and the pervasive poppy.They are illustrated in the herbalsfrom Special Collections in theBaillieu Library, and depicted in thethree-dimensional botanical modelsof commonly-used medicinal plantsfrom the University of MelbourneHerbarium. Their Latin namesencircle the drug jars, and are inkedon the botanical specimens’ hand-written labels. The mortars andpestles which were central to theapothecary’s kitchen are a potentreminder of the physical labourinvolved in grinding and poundingthese plant-based ingredients.The impetus for the exhibition

was the acquisition in 2009 of a groupof ceramic drug jars and copper alloymortars and pestles. They weregenerously donated by the estate ofGraham Roseby, and it was feltimmediately that their new status inthe collection of the Medical HistoryMuseum needed to be celebrated. Wehave also been able to borrow fromthe Baillieu Library’s SpecialCollections, Print Collection and


East Asian Collection, the Universityof Melbourne Herbarium in theSchool of Botany, and the Ian PotterMuseum of Art, and it is a tribute tothe University’s remarkable culturalacumen that the exhibition has beencurated entirely from six of its owncollections on the historic Parkvillecampus.The Roseby collection had

initially been lent to the Museum.Graham Roseby (1932–2007) trainedas a pharmacist in Melbourne, andmanaged pharmacies for others ratherthan owning a shop of his own. Fromthe early 1970s to the early 1990s heworked as a pharmacist in the clinicsrun by the Mental HealthDepartment in Melbourne. Hisfather, a Richmond doctor, hadstimulated his then eight-year-oldson’s interest in medical history whenhe gave him a book with illustratedbiographies of well-known medicalscientists. Always a passionatecollector in a number of fields,Graham purchased pharmaceuticalceramics at every opportunity—froma passing car spotting something inthe window of local auction rooms, toantique dealers abroad during histrips to Britain and Europe in 1954and 1958. He was a great admirer ofthe Museum’s founder, ProfessorKenneth Russell, and it was originallythrough this connection that the

Frontispiece from John Parkinson, Paradisi in sole:Paradisus terrestris, or, A garden of all sorts of pleasantflowers which our English ayre will permitt to benoursed vp…, [London]: printed by Humfrey Lownes and Robert Young at the signeof the Starre on Bread-Street Hill, 1629. Special Collections, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne.


collection came to the Museum.Following his death in 2007 hiswidow, Alison Roseby, donated thecollection to the Medical HistoryMuseum, and a number of drug jarsand mortars from the estate ofGraham Roseby have been includedin The physick gardener exhibition.The other major benefactor of

objects in this exhibition is theGrimwade family. The bequest of Sir Russell (1879–1955) and LadyGrimwade (1887–1973) to theUniversity of Melbourne comprisedartworks, photographs, decorativearts, furniture, almost 2,000 rarebooks, historical documents and othermemorabilia from ‘Miegunyah’, theirhome in Orrong Road, Toorak, aswell as a substantial endowmentincluding ‘Miegunyah’ itself. SirRussell Grimwade was the fourth sonof Frederick Sheppard Grimwade, apartner in the Melbourne firm ofFelton, Grimwade & Co., wholesaledruggists, formed in 1867. On hisfather’s death in 1910, Russell becamea partner in the firm.1 Hisextraordinarily diverse interestsspanned medical research, cabinet-making, industrial gases, forests andthe extraction of oils and compoundsfrom indigenous plants such aseucalyptus, and drug plant growthand manufacture. Russell’s interest inbooks and the natural world is evident

in the two-volume herbal of 1710 bythe English writer of medical textsWilliam Salmon (1644–1713), whoadvertised himself as ‘Professor ofPhysick’, which is now in thecollection of the Baillieu Library.2

The Grimwade bequestcollections are mostly housed at theIan Potter Museum of Art, in theUniversity of Melbourne Archivesand at the Baillieu Library.3 Someitems were thought to be moreappropriate to the collection of theMedical History Museum, to whichthey were transferred in 1988.Amongst the 14 items thus donated isa group of drug jars, five of whichhave been included in the exhibition.The key work, the late 17th centuryEnglish drug jar made to store thejuice of the berries of the elder tree, isreproduced on the front cover of theexhibition catalogue.The Baillieu Library’s East Asian

Collection includes the ThomasChong Collection, the professionallibrary of Dr Thomas Chong(1887–1950), a traditional Chinesemedicine practitioner of Bairnsdale.The collection comprises 500 bookspublished in classical Chinese fromthe 1890s to the early 1920s,complemented by some of Chong’sprescriptions, formulae, invoices,notebooks and shipping bills relatingto the dispensing of cures for a wide

variety of ailments. The ThomasChong collection was donated to theUniversity in 1994 by his widowDorothy Chong and her family, andincluded in the exhibition is ThomasChong’s volume of woodcutsillustrating the various plants fromwhich the herbal preparations weremade.4

The inclusion of items from theUniversity of Melbourne Herbariumbrings to life the plant origins ofmany of the apothecary’s ingredients.The striking botanical modelsselected for this exhibition—borage,fig, hemlock, poppy and prunus—arerepresentative of the species used byapothecaries for their medicinalproperties, and were produced inFrance and Germany in around 1900for teaching purposes. TheHerbarium’s collection of 132botanical models, made by R. Brendel& Co. in Berlin, and by Les Filsd’Emile Deyrolle and Dr LouisThomas Jérôme Auzoux in Paris, isunique in the southern hemisphere.5

Displayed in the exhibition arerare medical books from the BaillieuLibrary’s Special Collections,comprising herbals andpharmacopoeias, many dating fromthe 16th and 17th centuries, andderiving from a time of exponentialgrowth in the varieties of plantscultivated in England. The


pharmacopoeia produced in Bergamoin 1597 is amongst the earliest worksin the exhibition and is a fine exampleof the recording of plant informationfor medicinal use.6 Founded in 1518by Henry VIII, the London Collegeof Physicians agreed in 1585 that apharmacopoeia, or book of formulaefor apothecaries, would be of benefit.This became the PharmacopoeiaLondinensis.7 Contemporaryfascination with gardens and plants isparalleled by the development innatural history illustration, with thepresentation of flowers in an aestheticrather than purely diagrammaticmanner being exemplified in JohnParkinson’s important horticulturalstudy of 1629, Paradisi in sole:Paradisus terrestris, which is subtitledA garden of all sorts of pleasant flowers…, one of the first English booksdevoted to flowers as exceptionallyattractive specimens as distinct fromtheir curative use.The richness and depth of the

University’s cultural heritage areevidenced in the objects whichcomprise The physick gardener which ison display at the Medical HistoryMuseum, 2nd floor, BrownlessBiomedical Library, ParkvilleCampus, University of Melbourne,until November 2010.My thanks to Alison Roseby and her family fortheir generous donation of Graham Roseby’s

collection, which stimulated the development ofthe exhibition, and for their contribution to thework of the Medical History Museum. I wouldalso like to thank the University’s Cultural andCommunity Relations Advisory Group and itschairman, Professor Warren Bebbington, forsupporting the publication of the exhibitioncatalogue; the Russell and Mab GrimwadeMiegunyah Fund for the conservation of drug jarsand documents in the collection of the Museum;John Coppock of Pharmaceutical Defence Ltd forhis assistance towards the exhibition photography;and Sir Andrew Grimwade who has providedinformation on the Grimwade family.

Susie Shears took up the position of Curator,Medical History Museum, in 2009. Prior to thisher roles included Director of the VictorianTapestry Workshop, Director of the Geelong ArtGallery and manager of the Australian Pavilion atthe 1995 Venice Biennale.

This is an abridged version of an essay publishedin The physick gardener exhibition catalogue.

Notes

1 For the biography of Russell Grimwade seeJohn Riddoch Poynter, Russell Grimwade,

Pair of Albarelli, Caltagirone, Italy, 17th–18thcentury, earthenware, height 23.2 and 23.0 cm.Gift of the estate of Graham Roseby, 2009,Medical History Museum, University ofMelbourne.


Carlton: Melbourne University Press at theMiegunyah Press, 1967.

2 William Salmon, Botanologia: The Englishherbal, or, History of plants, London: Printed byI. Dawks, for H. Rhodes; and J. Taylor, 1710.Sir Russell and Lady Grimwade Collection,Special Collections, Baillieu Library,University of Melbourne.

3 For information about the Grimwadecollections see Rachel Kent and ElizabethAders, Art, industry and science: The Grimwadelegacy: Works of art from the Russell and MabGrimwade Bequest, Parkville: University ofMelbourne Museum of Art, 1997.

4 Gongxiu Huang, 圖注本草綱目求真 : [九卷,圖一卷, 卷後一卷, 主治二卷, 脈理求真三卷]/ [黄宫繡撰] ; 秦鑑泉鑒定 (Tu zhu ben caogang mu qiu zhen: [9 juan, tu 1 juan, juan hou1 jun, zhu zhi 2 juan, Mai li qiu zhen 3 juan] /[Huang Gongxiu zhuan]; Qin Jianquan jianding), Shanghai: Wei wen ge, Guangxu 34[1908]. Thomas Chong Collection, gift of Mrs Dorothy Chong and family, 1994, EastAsian Rare Book Collection, University ofMelbourne.

5 There are, however, numerous collections ofbotanical models in North America andEurope, and in particular at the University ofFlorence, which holds more than 200 botanicalmodels made by the Brendel firm alone, andthe National Museum of Liverpool’s collection of approximately 200 Brendelmodels.

6 Collegio de’ Signori Medici di Bergomo,translated from the Latin by D. TitoSanpellegrino, La farmacopea o’antidotariodell’eccellentissimo Collegio de’ signori medici diBergomo: ..., Vinegia [Venice]: Nicolo Moretti,1597. Presented by the Friends of the BaillieuLibrary, Medical Rare Books Collection,Special Collections, Baillieu Library,University of Melbourne.

7 Royal College of Physicians of London,Pharmacopoeia Collegii Londinensis, London:1680. Medical Rare Books Collection, SpecialCollections, Baillieu Library, University ofMelbourne.

Botanical model: Borage (Borago), Boraginaceae,Les Fils d’Emile Deyrolle, Paris, c.1900, mixed media including papier-mâché,

wood and metal, height 53.5 cm. University of Melbourne Herbarium.


Artists’ booksA world of openingsPeter Di Sciascio

Regular readers of this journal willprobably have realised that if youscratch the surface of any one of theUniversity of Melbourne’s 32 culturalcollections, gems can be found. Thisis what I discovered when I embarkedon a Cultural Collections StudentProject in the second half of 2009,working in Special Collections at theBaillieu Library on the artists’ bookscollection. My brief was to conduct asignificance assessment of thecollection using the national protocolthat is being applied across theUniversity,1 and to draft a collectionpolicy to help guide the artists’ bookscollection into the future.By now I can already hear you

asking: what are artists’ books? Oneof my first tasks was to grapple withthis question of definition. I foundeven those in the art world often hadlittle understanding of artists’ books.Most of the articles and referencebooks I consulted dedicated space tothis question, as did conferences andsymposia on the topic.2 Defining agenre of art is not something that weare used to doing. We all know what apainting, a sculpture or photograph is,but if we think further we can alsothink of art, especially contemporaryart, which can straddle more than onegenre or even question our ideasabout what art is; that’s where youwill find artists’ books.

A recent historyAs an artistic genre, artists’ bookshave a fairly short history. They firstappeared in the mid-1960s in Europeand North America, part of themounting counter-culture and thegrowth of conceptual art. Artistswanted cheap, readily available,transportable ‘art for the people’ thatcould bypass the established artmarket. The format of the bookprovided a portable medium andallowed the artist to directly involvethe viewer in turning the pages,taking the journey, and discoveringconnected or disconnected worldswith each opening. Many of the earlyartists’ books were cheaply hand-made on the kitchen table, oftendistributed for free, or werecommercially produced in largeeditions under instructions from theartist.An early example of the

commercially produced variety isMichael Snow’s 1975 artists’ bookCover to cover, a copy of which is heldin the Lenton Parr Library at theSouthbank campus of the University’sVictorian College of the Arts andMusic. Cover to cover (illustratedopposite) is of the conceptualistphotographic type of artists’ book; itcontains no text and as the titleimplies, can be read forwards andbackwards, converging towards the

In the simplest terms, AlexSelenitsch (artist, poet and a seniorlecturer in architecture at theUniversity of Melbourne) writes thatit is ‘a book made by an artist, and ismeant as an artwork’.3 Others haveexplored the literature and discoveredmany definitions. I collected theseand came up with 23 that I thoughtwere worth noting.4 I then synthesisedthese, considered the history of artists’books, the University’s collection andthe direction of the art, and came upwith the following proposed definitionfor use in the collection policy:

Artists’ books are books or book-like objects, over the finalappearance of which an artist hashad a high degree of control:where the book is intended as awork of art in itself and/or ispresented by the artist as anartists’ book.5

Even the name of the genre tooknearly ten years to be settled. In 1973a landmark exhibition of artists’ bookswas held at the Moore College of Art in Philadelphia.6 It was at thisexhibition that the term artists’ bookswas generally agreed upon, althoughthe use of the apostrophe is stilldebated.7 Until then they were alsoreferred to as bookworks, bookart orbook objects.


centre. Both the front and back coversare illustrated with a photograph of awood-panelled door. The appearanceof figures, cameras, images withinimages, blank sheets of paper,windows and doorways on each pagecreates a thread to connect whatmight otherwise be disparate images.An Australian artist involved in

the early days of the movement isRobert Jacks. Jacks was in NorthAmerica from 1968 to 1977 andstarted producing small, hand-madeartists’ books, often using histrademark feature of hand-stamping.Designs were made, old-fashionedrubber stamps produced, and thepages of the books were hand-stamped with the designs. At times,Jacks distributed them freely.8 SpecialCollections in the Baillieu Libraryand the University of Melbourne ArtCollection (managed by the IanPotter Museum of Art) each hold acopy of this series of hand-stampedbooks made by Jacks between 1973and 1982 (illustrated on page 16).As time progressed, artists

explored the genre further, pushingthe boundaries as they often do. Noone type dominates. Some examplesare sculptural, involving metal, woodand other mixed media in a book-likeform. Others use altered books—found books altered in some way topresent a different idea from that of

the original book. Then there arethose that mix poetry or literature in avisual journey, sometimes referred toas concrete or visual poetry. Manyinvolve original works of art onpaper—such as prints or drawings—while some are totally photographic,with the images conveying a story,concept or idea. Bindings can rangefrom simple and handmade toelaborate and finely executedexamples of the bookbinder’s craft.Artists’ books may be unique (i.e.only one copy is made) or, moreusually, of limited edition (often fewerthan ten copies), although largereditions still occur, as do unlimitededitions. Limited edition artists’

books are commonly signed andnumbered by the artist.Since about the year 2000, Special

Collections in the Baillieu Library hasbecome a dedicated collector ofartists’ books. The University now hasapproximately 225 artists’ books inthe collection, representing a range ofstyles. Most are by Australian artists,with a good representation ofcontemporary practice since the mid-1990s. A recent acquisition is a bookby Melbourne artist Angela Cavalieri,titled Le città continue. It is a large(57.0 cm high) example of theconcertina book type (illustrated onback cover). The artist’s statementbest describes the work:

Michael Snow, Cover to cover (artists’ book, 150 leaves, all photographically illustrated, height: 23.0 cm), Halifax: Nova Scotia

College of Art and Design, 1975. Lenton ParrLibrary, University of Melbourne.


Le città continue (Continuous cities)is based on text from the Italianversion of Italo Calvino’s, Le cittàinvisibili (Invisible cities). Inparticular, Le città continue is one ofthe ‘cities’ invented by Calvino andI chose this city because it gave mea sense of space and infinite time.

I wanted to create the sensation Ioften have when entering and re-entering a city. For me it feels likea continuous journey and althoughcities vary, it appears you are in thesame ‘space’ and you can dissolveinto it.

Through the book you are enteringfrom one passage way into anotherbut they appear to be the same‘space’. The arch symbolises this‘passage way’ and on opening thisbook you view a large arch whichslowly diminishes into the lastpage.9

This work by Cavalieri is a goodexample of the best of current artists’books, having won the Geelong ArtGallery’s annual Acquisitive PrintAward for 2009.One enjoyable aspect of my

project has been the discovery ofartists’ books in various branches ofthe University Library. These werenot counted in the number citedabove, as they are not part of theSpecial Collections Artists’ BooksCollection. My research, involvinghours of mining the Library’scatalogue, uncovered an additional 70artists’ books, both international andAustralian, dating back to the1960s.10 While some were identifiedas an artists’ book in the catalogue byuse of various subject headings, 70 percent were not. A future project forsomeone will be to review thecataloguing of artists’ books in theUniversity Library to capture all theexamples held and to ensureconsistency in the cataloguing style.A collection is now in place at

Robert Jacks, 12 hand stamped books, 1973–1982(colour impressions from rubber stamps, printer’sink, staples and colour cloth tape, black buckrambox with red ribbon; 11.5 x 12.5 cm, in slipcase12.0 x 13.0 x 5.0 cm), New York and Sydney:Robert Jacks, 1973–1982. Each volume separatelytitled. Special Collections, Baillieu Library,University of Melbourne. Another set is held inthe University of Melbourne Art Collection(accession no. 1989.0059.001.013, gift of JulienneJacks, 1989, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Universityof Melbourne). © Robert Jacks. Image courtesy ofthe artist and Peter Anderson. Photography by Ian H. Hill.


the University which can provide avaluable resource for visual artstudents, artists and anyone interestedin art, artists’ books and books.

A pre-historyWhile it appeared that the genre ofartists’ books just sprang out of the1960s, a closer look at the precedingyears can identify books that containelements of today’s artists’ books, orcould in fact be classified as artists’books with a retrospective applicationof the definition.An example of the latter is the

Australian book by Violet Teague andGeraldine Rede, Night fall in the ti-tree (illustrated on page 19 and onfront cover). Not only did this bookbreak new ground in its use of hand-coloured woodcut prints, but it wasentirely conceived, handmade andhand-bound (with yellow silk ribbon)by the artists. The University is luckyto hold three copies of this book.Other examples from this pre-

history of artists’ books (which I referto as antecedent artists’ books) are:French Livres d’artiste; fine/specialpress books; Dada publications;Surrealist publications; ItalianFuturist publications; Russian avant-garde/Constructivist publications;concrete and visual poetry; works byStéphane Mallarmé; and works byWilliam Blake. Many of these types

contain elements of artists’ books,such as significant involvement of theartists, hand-making and productionin limited editions. They are visuallyartistic or representative of an artisticmovement.

A connection to placeThe project also allowed me toconnect the University to a number ofevents important to the history ofartists’ books in Australia.In 1978 the University’s Ewing

and George Paton Galleries held anexhibition of artists’ books, believedto be the first of its kind in

Australia.11 The University Libraryholds two copies of the extensivecatalogue accompanying theexhibition,12 which included aselection of recent artists’ books andephemera from the Los AngelesInstitute of Contemporary Art, one-of-a-kind books from the FranklinFurnace Archive,13 as well as aselection of Australian artists’ bookscurated by Noel Sheridan of theExperimental Art Foundation inAdelaide. Following its season at theUniversity, the exhibition travelled toSydney and Brisbane. The quirky,handmade look of the advertising

Photographer unknown, Visitor views the displayof artists’ books from the Franklin Furnace at theEwing and George Paton Galleries, University of

Melbourne, 1978. Photographic slide. George Paton Gallery Collection, 90/144,

University of Melbourne Archives. © GeorgePaton Gallery. Image reproduced courtesy of the

George Paton Gallery and the University of Melbourne Archives.


poster (illustrated above) is in keepingwith the nature of some of the artists’books of the time. As one of thelibrary staff commented to me, ‘cooltypography’.A history of the George Paton

Gallery has recently been published.14

It seems that the artists’ bookexhibition was in line with theGallery’s program of presentingcutting-edge art, which continues tothis day. In the Gallery’s records, nowheld at the University of MelbourneArchives,15 I found a collection ofslide images from the 1978exhibition. One slide depicts a womanviewing a selection of artists’ booksfrom the Franklin Furnace Archivelaid out on a table (illustrated on page17). Note the visitors were allowed tohandle the artwork!The Australian section of the

1978 exhibition then travelled to theUSA in late 1979, firstly to theFranklin Furnace in New York, thento other locations. The exhibition,titled Contemporary Australianbook/works, was curated by Jill Scottand co-curated by Kiffy Rubbo of theEwing and George Paton Galleriesand Noel Sheridan of theExperimental Art Foundation inAdelaide. This is believed to be thefirst international exhibition ofAustralian artists’ books.Unfortunately a catalogue of this

momentous exhibition was not found,but I did find flyers, correspondenceand a selection of photographic slidesin the George Paton Gallery archive.16

From 30 June to 22 July 1983 theGeorge Paton Gallery held a secondexhibition of artists’ books.17 Theexhibition, in two parts, was ofinternational artists’ books puttogether by a Canadian, Tim Guestof Art Metropole, Toronto, and anItalian, Mirella Bentivoglio. Guest’sexhibition featured 28 internationalartists’ books including works byleaders in the field Dieter Roth,Michael Snow and Edward Ruscha.18

An image from an artists’ book byLuigi Ontani was included on thefront cover of the catalogue.19

Bentivoglio’s exhibition includedworks by 22 Italian artists.20 TheGeorge Paton Gallery’s director notedthat both these exhibitions drew alarge number of people to thegallery.21 The Age art critic, MemoryHolloway, reviewed the exhibitionand after asking the question ‘Whenis a book not a book, but a work ofart?’, she noted that ‘You are invitedby the gallery to put on a pair ofwhite gloves and then to move in andaround the white tables which arestrewn with books.’22

In May 2006 the Baillieu Libraryheld a symposium to accompany theexhibition Art bound: A selection of

artists’ books.23 The core of theexhibition of 72 works was drawnfrom the Baillieu’s stronglydeveloping collection of artists’ books.Additional works were sourcedthrough the Art in the LibraryProgram, including examples fromstudents of the University’s School ofCreative Arts. The exhibition washeld in the Baillieu Library’s LeighScott Gallery and the books weredisplayed in glass cabinets.24 Thesymposium brought together a rangeof interested parties and speakers,including a number of practisingartists who presented on the topic ofartists’ books.25

At about this point my projecttime was fast running out. I hadlearned more than I could haveimagined about artists’ books, anddiscovered some of the delights ofSpecial Collections and theUniversity of Melbourne Archives.Artists’ books are a living andevolving art form. The opportunityexists for the University to expand thecollection along with the art’sdevelopment and maintain what is asignificant collection.

I would like to thank Pam Pryde (Curator), SusanMillard (Deputy Curator) and all the staff inSpecial Collections at the Baillieu Library for theirassistance with this project, as well as KarinaLamb, Acting Student Projects Coordinator(Cultural Collections), who provided valuablesupport along the way.

Artists books: Bookworks, poster for exhibition held 5–22 September 1978, at the Ewing andGeorge Paton Galleries, University of Melbourne.Poster lithograph; 45.0 x 32.0 cm. System number001779618, National Gallery of AustraliaResearch Library. © George Paton Gallery. Image reproduced courtesy of the National Galleryof Australia Research Library.


Peter Di Sciascio is a clinical biochemist andquality manager in a medical laboratory. He iscurrently studying part-time for a graduatediploma of arts at the University of Melbourne, forwhich he enjoys ‘using the other half of my brain’.

Notes

1 Roslyn Russell and Kylie Winkworth,Significance 2.0: A guide to assessing thesignificance of collections, Adelaide: CollectionsCouncil of Australia, 2009.

2 See Stefan Klima, Artists books: A critical surveyof the literature, New York: Granary Books,1998, pp. 21–40; and Betty Bright, No longerinnocent: Book art in America 1960–1980, New York: Granary Books, 2005, pp. 1–15, 258–265.

3 Alex Selenitsch, Australian artists books, Parkes,ACT: National Gallery of Australia, 2008, p. 5.

4 The definitions were drawn from varioussources. Both Ford and Turner are particularlyhelpful. Simon Ford, ‘Artists’ books in UK &Eire libraries’, Art Libraries Journal, vol. 18, no. 1, 1993, pp. 14–25. Silvie Turner (ed.),Facing the page: British artists’ books, a survey1983–1993, London: estamp, 1993, pp. 4–11.

5 This definition borrows substantially from thatof Stephen Bury, Artists’ books: The book as awork of art, 1963–1995, Aldershot: ScolarPress, 1995, p. 1.

6 Moore College of Art, Artists books (exhibitioncatalogue), Philadelphia: Moore College ofArt, 1973.

7 Sue Forster, ‘Editor’s note’, Imprint, vol. 44, no. 1, Autumn 2009, p. 12.

8 Peter Anderson, Jacks: The artist’s books ofRobert Jacks, Bendigo: Bendigo Art Gallery,2009, p. 12.

9 Angela Cavalieri, Le città continue, 2009,artist’s statement provided by Gallery 101.

10 Michael Snow’s Cover to cover is an example ofthe artists’ books found elsewhere in theUniversity Library.

11 The gallery is owned and operated by theMelbourne University Student Union. It waspreviously called the Ewing and George Paton

Galleries but is now called the George PatonGallery. See Helen Vivian (ed.), When youthink about art: The Ewing and George PatonGalleries 1971–2008, Melbourne: Macmillan,2008.

12 Artists books, bookworks (exhibition catalogue),Melbourne: Ewing and George PatonGalleries, 1978. Copies held in SpecialCollections, Baillieu Library, and Lenton ParrLibrary, University of Melbourne.

13 At the time the Franklin Furnace Archive wasthe archive of artists’ books and a centre forartists’ books knowledge. In 1993 the archivewas taken over by the Museum of Modern Artin New York where it still exists as a distinctcollection. See Alexandra Anderson-Spivy,‘The museum acquires a pioneering collectionof artist books’, MoMA, no. 16, Winter–Spring1994, pp. 7–9.

14 Vivian, When you think about art.15 George Paton Gallery Collection, accessionno. 90/144, University of Melbourne Archives.

16 For poster, advertising flyer and press releasesee George Paton Gallery Collection, accessionno. 90/144, box 3, University of MelbourneArchives.

17 Vivian, When you think about art, p. 132.18 Artists’ books: George Paton Gallery (exhibitioncatalogue, curated by Tim Guest), [Parkville]:The Gallery, 1983.

19 Luigi Ontani, Untitled, 1974, cat. no. 17, inArtists’ books: George Paton Gallery. A copy ofOntani’s book (Luigi Ontani, Untitled, 1978edition) is in the George Paton GalleryCollection, accession no. 90/144, box 9,University of Melbourne Archives.

20 Not(e) books: Exhibition of object books,(exhibition booklet, curated by MirellaBentivoglio), Parkville: George Paton Gallery,University of Melbourne, 1983.

21 July gallery report, 26 July 1983. George PatonGallery Collection, accession no. 90/144, boxlabelled ‘George Paton Gallery – Exhibitions2, 1983’, University of Melbourne Archives.

22 Memory Holloway, ‘Art’, The Age, 20 July1983, p. 14.

23 University of Melbourne, InformationServices, Art bound: A selection of artists’ books:

23 May – 26 July 2006 (exhibition catalogue),[Parkville]: University of Melbourne, 2006.

24 Note that we had progressed from white glovesand there was no handling of the art. Morerecent exhibitions of artists’ books I haveattended still have the books under glass butinclude digital flat screens with scrollingimages of the pages of the artists’ books. Somecan be interactive and one example includedthe sound of the turning pages, something likethe sound of turning parchment pages, thusmimicking the full experience for the viewer(e.g. Working through/turning pages: The artist’sbooks of Robert Jacks, exhibition held at BendigoArt Gallery, 24 October – 29 November2009).

25 The proceedings of the symposium areavailable at www.library.unimelb.edu.au/art/exhibitions/past/artbound/symposium accessed9 December 2009.

Violet Teague and Geraldine Rede, Night fall inthe ti-tree (illustrated book, designed, illustrated,printed and hand-bound by the artists; colourwoodcut; 32 pages), London: Elkin Matthews,1906. Joyce Thorpe Nicholson Collection, Special Collections, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne.


médecin des hôpitaux in 1862, and wasattached to the Salpêtrière, where thegreat neurologist Charcot practised,and then to the Charité hospital, ruedes Saints-Pères, until his retirementin 1893. In 1864 he took anadditional appointment as Director ofthe Ivry-sur-Seine mental hospital.When an intern, Luys had

undertaken assiduous research inmicroscopy applied to clinicalmedicine. His first reports to theSociété de Biologie, in 1855,concerned ossification of the duramater of the brain in a 68-year-oldwoman, and multiple brain tumours.The next year he received a prizefrom the Académie de Médecine for amemoir on the microscope and itsapplications to pathological anatomy,to diagnosis, and to the treatment ofdiseases. The following year hedefended his doctoral thesis, onstudies in pathological histologyconcerning the manner of appearanceand evolution of tubercles inpulmonary tissue. In about 1860 hebegan the research that earned himhis fame: on the anatomy, physiologyand pathology of the nervous system,publishing various neurologicalarticles on the pathology oflocomotor ataxia in syphilis, ofprogressive muscular atrophy,dementia due to brain haemorrhage,and physiological and pathological

anatomy of the cerebellum. Wishingto cover the central nervous system inits entirety, he published the majorwork of his scientific life, Recherchessur le système nerveux cérébro-spinal: sastructure, ses fonctions et ses maladies.This 660-page tome wasaccompanied under the same title bya separate volume: Atlas de 40 planches(drawn from nature by J. Luys,lithographed by Léveillé), with 80pages of copious explanatory text. Forthis major treatise, Luys receivedprizes, of 500 francs from theAcadémie de Médecine, and 2,500francs from the Académie desSciences.This was the atlas found by

chance in a second-hand tray, andnow, restored, belonging to theSpecial Collections of the BaillieuLibrary. The large parent text was notwith it; its table of contents and somepages of its text became availablethanks to the University’s interlibraryloans service, but it would be betterthat the Library obtain an entire copy.The anatomy of the central

nervous system is coveredsystematically, in categories derivedfrom the author’s mid-19th centuryview of the brain, a view partlydistorted by inadequate technicalmethods then available for hardeningbrain tissue and cutting thin slices fordetailed examination. Within ten

In 1976 I was on sabbatical leave,working with colleagues of theInstitut Marey directed by ProfessorAlfred Fessard of the Collège deFrance, in the Laboratoire dePhysiologie des Centres Nerveuxheaded by Professor Denise Albe-Fessard of the Université Pierre etMarie Curie. One day I bought asecond-hand book from a tray outsidea medical bookseller’s near the OdéonMetro station. It was an atlas of thehuman brain in 40 lithographicplates, by Jules-Bernard Luys, whowas known as the discoverer of thesubthalamic nucleus within the basalganglia of the brain related tomovement disorders, and on which Iwas at the time doing neuro-physiological research. It was dated1865, and turned out to be part of alarge book on the central nervoussystem, its structure, functions anddiseases.1

J.-B. Luys was born on 17 August1828 into a wealthy Parisian family,and educated in Paris, where hestudied medicine. He was appointedinterne des hôpitaux in December1853, Doctor of Medicine in 1857,but was failed for agrégation in theFaculty of Medicine, despitesubmitting theses on puerpural fever(1860) and hereditary diseases (1862).He succeeded in the competition forappointment to the senior rank of

Jules-Bernard Luysand his brain atlasJohn S. McKenzie


years, others such as Forel inSwitzerland had improved methodsto a level approaching modernstandards. Nonetheless, Luys was thefirst to describe certain sensory,neuroendocrine and motor brainstructures: the centro-median nucleusof the thalamus, the hypothalamicgrey matter close to the thirdventricle, and the subthalamicnucleus, although he made manymistakes in describing theirconnections in the brain and in thefunctions he proposed for them; thesubthalamic nucleus he seriouslymisnamed and inconsistentlydescribed, but it now bears his nameas the ‘Luysian Body’, conferred in1877 by Forel (who also corrected hiserrors).The illustrations Luys prepared

for the 1865 atlas are ingenious, butquaint even by the standards of a fewyears later. He attempted to conveythree-dimensional impressions ofdeep brain structures, anddiagrammatically of the wholenervous system (illustrated). Some ofhis figures were based on dissectionand microscopic examination of nervefibre bundles (in which he was apioneer), but with assumptions orpoorly based conclusions as to theirorigins and terminations, which wereoften proved wrong subsequently. Inthe figures, structures of concern are

Opposite: Monsieur le Docteur Luys (de Paris), n.d.Collection of the Bibliothèque

Inter-Universitaire de Médecine, Paris.

Below: Plate II, a semi-diagrammatic impressionof the human central nervous system, showing

some cranial and spinal nerve pathways,cerebellum, and ‘inside-out’ view of cerebral

hemisphere, from Jules-Bernard Luys, Recherchessur le système nerveux cérébro-spinal: sa structure, ses

fonctions, et ses maladies: atlas de 40 planches, Paris: J.-B. Baillière et fils, 1865.

Gift of Dr John S. McKenzie, 2009, Special Collections, Baillieu Library,



numbered with fine lines leadingfrom outside the image;unfortunately, not only are thenumbers often too small for sureidentification, but also theterminations of the excessively finelines are sometimes undetectableagainst the background. As alreadystated, he faced the obstacle of as yetinadequate techniques inneurohistology; in some instances heappeared not to distinguish betweennerve cell clumps and nerve fibrebundles.In 1873 Luys published a second

atlas of the human brain, entitledIconographie photographique des centresnerveux.2 With improved fixation andstaining, thin slices were presented inphotographs, each coupled with adetailed drawing made from therelevant section. This method alsowas invented by Luys: thephotographs provide objectivedelineation of major structures, whilethe drawings enabled more accuratedetail to be defined within them; thisis still usually the case today, evenwith the advent of modern techniquesincluding more specific stains andtomographic scanning methods.After 1873 Luys produced many

reports correlating pathologicallocations of brain damage withneurological signs such as generalparalysis, Parkinson’s syndrome, or

congenital idiocy. He also becameincreasingly concerned with mentaldiseases, and with states of hysteriaand hypnosis. He continued topresent speculative inferences aboutbrain mechanisms, and published abook The brain and its functions in1876,3 which was received withreserve by his fellow neurologists, butenjoyed considerable success amongthe general public. The book offeredan interesting plan of attack. First heset out the main lines of brainanatomy, then in several chaptersoutlined the properties of nerve cells:reactivity, storage of experiencedactivity, and automatic activity. (Someof these features are now directlyobservable but were at the time onlyunproven inferences from behaviour.)He then expanded on this base toexplain attention, personality, ideas,even the formation of judgements.Finally he discussed brain outputs tointernal body processes and toskeleto-motor action in the externalworld. This ambitious plan wasdeveloped using many poorlygrounded or quite speculativemechanisms, in an overblown stylewith facile metaphorical arguments.The writing often betrays a conceit inhis own achievements and priority.For his work at the Ivry-sur-Seine

maison de santé, on mental illness andits correlates, and for his books Traité

clinique et practique des maladiesmentales4 and Le traitement de la folie,5

Luys received recognition from bothhis academic peers (election to theAcadémie de Médecine in 1877), andthe French government (madeChevalier in 1877, then in 1893Officier of the Légion d’Honneur).From about 1886, his interest in

hysteria and hypnotism increasinglygave rise to reports of bizarre findingsin hypnotised patients. Theseincluded purported ‘action at adistance’ of drugs, such as vomitingproduced by an emetic held in a tubebehind a subject; alleged ability ofhypnotised patients to ‘see’ magneticand electric fields with the poles indiffering colours (magnetic south red,and north blue; electrical positive red,negative blue); to see ‘emanations’from the body of normal, activehumans or animals (right side red, leftside blue); storage of emitted cerebralenergy in magnetised metal crownsworn on the head and its transferwith the crown to other hypnotisedsubjects (along with the mentaltrouble of the first subject). He statedthat the training of hypnotismsubjects for this research requiredspecial methods (‘to be reported at alater date’), and described them as‘living reagents’ for the study of suchphenomena. René Semelaigne, whowas an intern at the Charité hospital

Luys, Recherches sur le système nerveux cérébro-spinal, plate XXIII, (detail), illustrating verticalsection through mid-thalamus to brain stem.

Shows paired red nuclei (wrongly named ‘superiorolives’ by Luys), centres medians (an originaldiscovery by Luys), and medial hypothalamus:

grey matter lining the third ventricle.


where Luys conducted hisexperiments on hypnotic phenomenain public, wrote that several subjectsof his acquaintance were knownimposters, who coached each other intheir responses;6 and another formerintern testified that such patientsreceived special treatment in thehospital, and rehearsed theirperformances days in advance.However, Luys appeared to be quitesure of his subjects’ truthfulness anddismissed objections. That he wasduped by some patients points to asad lack of scientific rigour, despitehis continued energetic researchactivity; it is true that in his last fewyears he suffered from increasingdeafness that prevented hisappreciation of the meetings of theSociété de Biologie he continued tofrequent, and this could have left himsusceptible to fraud on the part of hisspecial patients and assistants. Allreports witness his continued greatamiability in relations with hiscolleagues, even in the face of hisaffliction. The roots of his poor rigourmay also be discernible already insome of his earlier speculativeinterpretations concerning brainpathways and their functions. Butunlike some of his late 19th centurycontemporaries, he did not try toexplain his strange results by‘paranormal’ phenomena, always

believing (though withoutindependent evidence) that the stateof hypnosis activated an increase insensitivity of already existingphysiological mechanisms in thevisual system, particularly in theretina, to the extent of being able topick up energy ‘emanations’ producedby bodily activity in others, includingthat in the brain.In apparently perfect health, Luys

died suddenly on 21 August 1897,while on vacation in Divonne-les-Bains, a country town where he hadjust arrived on vacation, a few daysafter turning 69. His obituariesdescribed him as maintaining a kindaffability to all his friends andcolleagues until the last.J.-B. Luys was not the first to

make realistic illustrations of thebrain. Predecessors like Willis inEngland began to produce gooddrawings of brain slices in the early17th century. But Luys was probablythe first to attempt a comprehensivedepiction of the brain, brainstem andspinal cord. His 1865 atlas wascleverly executed, and includedillustrations of cellular and tissuecomponents as seen with themicroscopes of the time, the use ofwhich he adopted as a necessary partof normal and pathological anatomy(illustrated on page 24). The 1865atlas constitutes a landmark in

detailed brain science. His 1873 atlaswas an improvement in terms ofaccuracy, thanks to his originalinvention of the photography ofstained whole brain slices. Otheranatomical neurologists also were bythen starting to publish detailedillustrations of brain sections insuccessive planes, culminating in thesuperb body of work by J.-J. Déjerineand his wife, Augusta Déjerine-Klumpke.7

The broad approach made byLuys to the structure and function ofthe brain probably contributedforcefully, despite its deficiencies, tothe flowering of brain science in thesecond half of the 19th century, whichhas since continued to expand inscope with new physical and chemicaltechniques for illustrating brainstructures in health and disease. Suchmethods as computer-assistedtomography and magnetic resonanceimaging are used to obtain virtualslices through a living brain with everimproving structural and functionaldetail; new histochemical andmolecular biological probes can locatean enormous variety of specificchemicals active in the functioning ofbrain cells. Such advances inspirenumerous specialised brain atlases,tools for experimental and clinicalinvestigations.In the context of Luys’s

Luys, Recherches sur le système nerveux cérébro-spinal, plate XXIV, (detail), illustrating vertical

section through anterior thalamus, showing subthalamic nucleus (wrongly namedhere ‘accessory grey matter or accessory strip ofsuperior olives’, and elsewhere ‘accessory grey

matter of locus niger’), hippocampus and inferior temporal lobe.


photographic atlas of 1873, it isappropriate to mention the later andfar more comprehensive photographicatlas of the human nervous system byHenry Alsop Riley of ColumbiaUniversity.8 The deep structures ofthe brain are illustrated in sectionsstained for the myelin of whitematter, in their entirety and indetailed enlargements, using sets oftransverse, horizontal andlongitudinal planes oriented to theaxis of the hemispheres or of thebrain stem. This great work of 264plates, with facing pages identifyinglabels on the figures, includes 370pages where each structure is listedand discussed. Despite the modernatlases that provide accurate three-dimensional stereotaxic images of theintact brain with recent computertechnology, that of Riley remainsunequalled in detail and authority.Mention should also be made of thetextbook by the Chicagoneuroanatomist Wendell Krieg, whoin 1953 provided an atlas of thehuman central nervous system indrawings from stained sectionsaccompanied by remarkable three-dimensional sketches of internalstructures and their connections,constructed in the same spirit as theLuys 1865 atlas.9

Luys, Recherches sur le système nerveux cérébro-spinal, plate XXXV, illustrating horizontal sectionsshowing cerebellar cortex and deep nuclei (figs 1& 2); choroid plexus of lateral ventricle at 15 and250 times magnifications (figs 4 & 5).


Left: The book in the condition in which it was received.

Below: The book following conservationtreatment. This involved removal of old adhesiveand paste; repairs to torn pages using starch paste

and Japanese tissue paper; repairs, infill and re-attachment of the cover boards; re-attachmentof loose illustrations and plates; reduction of stains

caused by acidity; resewing of the sections andguards into the text block on hemp cotton sunkencords; lining of the spine with linen cloth; then

re-attachment to the cover boards. The spine wasreplaced with black buckram book cloth, and the

title stamped in 23 carat gold.

Dr John S. McKenzie is an honorary senior fellowin the Department of Physiology at the Universityof Melbourne, where he was employed as a seniorlecturer until his official retirement in 1993. Aftergraduating with a BSc, MSc and later PhD fromMelbourne he embarked upon a research careerfocussing on the central nervous system and itsdisorders. He donated the book discussed here toSpecial Collections in the Baillieu Library in 2009,and also helped fund its conservation.

Notes

1 Jules-Bernard Luys, Recherches sur le systèmenerveux cérébro-spinal: sa structure, ses fonctions,et ses maladies: atlas de 40 planches, Paris: J.-B.Baillière et fils, 1865. Gift of Dr John S.McKenzie, 2009, Special Collections, BaillieuLibrary, University of Melbourne.

2 Jules-Bernard Luys, Iconographiephotographique des centres nerveux, Paris: J.-B.Baillière et fils, 1873.

3 Jules-Bernard Luys, The brain and its functions,3rd edition, English language, London: KeganPaul Trench, 1889. University of MelbourneLibrary.

4 Jules-Bernard Luys, Traité clinique et practiquedes maladies mentales, Paris: Adrien Delahaye etÉmile Lecrosnier, 1881.

5 Jules-Bernard Luys, Le traitement de la folie,Paris: Rueff, 1893.

6 René Semelaigne, Les pionniers de la psychiatriefrançaise: avant et après Pinel, Paris: Baillière,1930–1932, pp. 77–96.

7 Joseph-Jules Déjerine, with Madame [AugustaMarie] Déjerine-Klumpke, Anatomie des centresnerveux, Paris: Rueff, 1895 (vol. 1) and 1901(vol. 2).

8 H.A. Riley, An atlas of the basal ganglia, brainstem and spinal cord, based on myelin-stainedmaterial, Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins,1943, reprinted with revisions, New York:Hafner, 1960.

9 Wendell S. Krieg, Functional neuroanatomy,New York: Blakiston, 1953.

Other referencesJohn S. McKenzie, ‘The subthalamic region ofLuys, Forel, and Déjerine’, in H.J. Groenewegenand others (eds), The basal ganglia IX, New York:Springer, 2009, pp. 97–107.

A. Ritter, ‘Necrologie: Dr J. Luys’, Annalesmedicopsychologiques, series 8, vol. 6, 1897, pp. 321–323.

Conservation of the bookDr McKenzie, as well as donatingthis book to the Baillieu Library in2009, generously contributed to thecosts of its conservation, thus makingthe volume useable again for librarypatrons without causing furtherdamage.

When Dr McKenzie donated thebook, it was in a very damagedcondition, no doubt caused by regularuse by various owners and readerssince its publication in 1865. Inparticular, the worn-out cloth spinehad been poorly (and ultimatelyunsuccessfully) repaired with clearadhesive tape, which had left brownacidic stains. The book had alsosuffered other damage over the years,such as general soiling, staining,foxing, loss of the corners on covers,and tears to some of the pages.Conservation treatment wasundertaken by Guy Morel of MorelPreservation.


resources, isn’t it? Well, no. Thisarticle illustrates a few problems andtells some of the stories I wasdelighted and astonished to find.

Porters, messengers andbellringersThe University was around 100 yearsold before a Superintendent of Workswas appointed to oversee some of thefunctions of the present day P&CS,and the Division’s writ has changedwith changing times, but theappointment of a P&CS-typeemployee followed hard upon that ofthe first professors. The first salariedemployee—the Registrar, EdwardGraves Mayne—was appointed inOctober 1853. The first member ofwhat would eventually become P&CScame a year and a half later. His namedoes not appear in any publishedhistories of the University and it isimpossible to find out much abouthim, perhaps because his ingloriouscareer lasted only four years. GeorgeSmithers was appointed UniversityPorter (sometimes referred to as theMessenger) in May 1855, at an initialsalary of £150 a year. (The professors’salaries were set at £1,000 and theRegistrar’s at £600.) Smithers seemsto have been a factotum; early claimsfor expenses include £7.10.6 forscrubbing brushes, wire, a large handbell and two ‘burch brooms’ as well as

payment for cleaning lecture roomsand offices and moving officefurniture.3

In November 1855 Smithers’ssalary was reduced to £120 because hewas allowed to live in the lodge at thegate and he was authorised to spendup to £50 to enclose the piece ofground around it and erect someoutbuildings. This project was toprove his downfall. On 22 December1856 Finance Committee heard:

In carrying into effect this objectit appears that an arrangementwas made with the Messengerwho was the occupant of thelodge, that he should supply boththe materials and the laborrequired, to the amount grantedby the Council, and shouldreceive that sum in considerationof the performance of the workand to enable him to defray thecost of it. / An account for timbersupplied by Messrs Wallis, Owen& Wallis, amounting to the sumof £25.11.0 (for which Smitherssent orders signed in his ownname for the MelbourneUniversity) forms the subject ofthis investigation. / Smithersstates that upon receiving thecheque for the sum appropriatedfor this purpose by the Council,he sent amount of Messrs Wallis

The University’s forgotten peopleResearching the history of the Division of Property and Campus ServicesJuliet Flesch

Minding the shop, published in 2005,is a history of the people and eventsthat shaped what is now the Divisionof Property and Campus Services(P&CS).1 This Division of theUniversity has an extraordinary rangeof functions and responsibilities: fromcampus master-planning to issuingone-hour parking permits; fromdeciding to demolish large buildingsto recording the pruning history ofindividual trees. Its facilities andservices extend all over the State, asduring its 150-year history theUniversity has become heir to anastonishing array of properties,ranging from small houses to shops tolarge farms. The book however is confined to

the Parkville campus, and thechronological coverage is 1853 to2003. Taking up the commission, Iinitially assumed that, as EdwardGorey so eloquently put it:

The helpful thought for whichyou look

Is written somewhere in a book.2

As a former librarian I thought I’d goto the right part of the library and thearchives and it would all be prettymuch laid out for me. The people I’mwriting about were Universityemployees, and such information is inthe University’s information


and Co’s account to them by thehands of a workman who hadassisted him, and that he receivedfrom him Messrs Wallis & Co’sreceipt; which was afterwardsdestroyed in the fire whichconsumed the lodge and that hehas since used every endeavour,by advertisement and otherwise,to find the man who paid themoney. / Messrs Wallis & Co onthe contrary deny ever havingreceived payment or given anyreceipt for the amount; andfurther assert that they maderepeated application for paymentand were informed by Smithersthat he had sent in the accountand that it would be paid in duecourse. …

Your Committee now proceeds toa second case—

During the months of July,August and October 1855, a MrMcHutchison supplied articles ofstationery to the University to theamount of £3.4.0; and, before theaccount was paid, gave up hisbusiness and proceeded up thecountry. In the month of April1856 Smithers havingrepresented that a person whowas authorised to collect accountsfor McHutchison was in the

habit of calling in the evening forpayment of the account, theamount was left out and Smithersafterwards handed in a receiptprofessing to be signed in hispresence by ‘Jas. McHutchinson.’/ Mr McHutchison’s brothersubsequently applied forpayment; and being shown thereceipt at once pronounced it tobe a forgery. Mr McHutchisonhimself has since returned andstates that he never authorisedany one to collect money or tosign receipts for him except hisbrother.4

There were other irregularities,and Smithers was dismissed. Givenhis short stay at the University, it isunsurprising that his name has beenforgotten. What is astonishing,however, is how consistently thenames and contributions of laterP&CS staff who have served theUniversity for two, three or even fourdecades have remained largelyunacknowledged in Universityhistories—at most they are simplynamed. I must also plead guilty. 150years, 150 stories,5 which PeterMcPhee and I published in 2003,does not include a single member of

Group of seven administrative officers of theUniversity, 1894. Standing, left to right:

E.H. Bromby (librarian), F. Gladish (porter), J.S. Robertson (clerk), P. Marcham (bellringer andporter); seated, left to right: J.F.C. James (assistantregistrar), E.F. à Beckett (registrar), F.T.J. Dickson(accountant), photographic print, 10.0 x 14.5 cm.

UMA/I/1292, Photographs Collection, University of Melbourne Archives.


P&CS staff. It would be ridiculous totry to name every individual, but wemight ask why, for example, when thestate of the grounds has always been amatter of such pride, anxiety andconcern to the University and thewider Melbourne community, a 2005publication should be the first to listthe University’s head gardeners. Theporters are even harder to track down.Phillip Marcham (1830–1915)

gets into many histories because he isin a famous picture of theadministrative staff of 1894, standingbehind Edward Fitzhaley à Beckett,the incompetent registrar, andFrederick Dickson, the fraudulentUniversity accountant (see page 27).But Marcham’s own story is worthtelling and it took a fair bit of piecingtogether, if only because differentsources manage to misspell both hisfamily and given names. He isMarcham or Marsham, Peter, Philipor Phillip.He was born in Oxford and

employed as Junior Porter atChristchurch College. Since thisposition was available only to singlemen, he left when he married in 1856and emigrated to Australia, where heworked initially as a draper. Hesupplied the dress for Miss McCoy’s(daughter of Professor FrederickMcCoy) début. Alma Mater tells ustantalisingly that his original

connection with the University ‘wasdue to certain of his relatives, whowere of the resident Professor’shousehold’ without telling us whothey were. He also acted as attendantat matriculation examinations.6 In1881 he took up the position ofPorter and Bellringer. Universallyreferred to as ‘Good Old Marcham’,Alma Mater tells us:

Everybody likes him, everybodyrespects him. Princess Ida [thewomen students’ club] idoliseshim, he being the only one whohas crossed her threshold—andlived … Though his sphere is notof the highest, that is not his fault,and in that sphere he has donewhat he could, and can rank withthe highest, for they can do nomore.7

Marcham remained popular amongstaff and students, and was stillworking at the age of 82, althoughbellringing had been evidently beyondhis strength for some time, as sinceabout 1902 this duty had beenperformed by an electric gong in thequadrangle.8 In 1912, FinanceCommittee resolved to pension offthis old man who had served theUniversity for over 30 years at a quitegenerous £60 p.a., leaving him somelight duties in order to retain his

connection with the University. It alsosuggested some cleaning work forMiss Marcham, presumably hisdaughter.9 But Miss Marchamrefused, and the whole familydisappears from the official recordsuntil Finance Committeeunsentimentally records the death on6 September 1915 of ‘P Marcham’.10

There is no mention in the Councilpapers of the end of an era.Just six months before Marcham’s

death, another porter was appointed,who was, like him, to serve theUniversity for over three decades. The tone in which his death (agedonly 57) is recorded provides aninteresting contrast to the patronisingreferences to Good Old Marcham. In 1948, the University Gazettepaid tribute to an occupant of thelodge:

One of the oldest and best-known members of the staff diedon Friday October 1, after a longillness. Mr Richard Dart joinedthe staff as Porter in 1912 andbecame Head Porter in March,1913. He enlisted in the A.I.F. inJuly, 1915, and saw service inEgypt and France as a signallerwith the 29th Battalion,returning from England in 1919with his wife. They occupied theLodge from 1926 until his death.

P. Marcham (bellringer and porter) standing onthe steps at the eastern entrance to the cloisters,showing the northern wing of the main building,c.1890–1910, photographic print, 14.0 x 8.5 cm.

UMA/I/1155, Photographs Collection, University of Melbourne Archives.


During his thirty-six years ofservice he built a great reputationon his reliability and integrity.Those who knew and understoodhim were aware of an intenseloyalty to the University. Hispresence in the Quadrangle willbe very much missed.11

The loyalty was well deserved.Richard Dart had been appointed at£1 per week, a salary which doubledwhen he became Head Porter. Hisenlistment was viewed by theUniversity administration withapproval and regret, with the

University deciding to make up the15/- per month gap between his armypay as a Private and his Universitysalary, and promoting his youngerbrother, F.R. Dart, during hisabsence.12

Dart was one of many headporters and others to occupy thelodge at the main entrance onGrattan Street over 137 years. Now ithouses the office of the provost andhis staff. The former provost wasstartled one day to find an elderlycouple on the doorstep, who, takingthe cottage for a chapel, asked if theycould come in to say a short prayer.

In the 1920s another porter, E.J.Reid, was dismissed, and the record isso detailed that the reader can decidewhether he got a rough deal or hisfinal inadvertence was the straw thatbroke the University camel’s back.Reid came to the attention of FinanceCommittee in February 1925 whenhis children, left alone in WilsonHall, amused themselves by stickingpens into the portraits hanging there.Finance Committee decided ‘that inview of this episode, but moreparticularly in view of a tendency to alack of sobriety’, Reid should besacked. Reid appealed and, onpromising to stay sober, was told hecould stay, on sufferance. Tantalisinglyabsent from this account are thereasons for Reid’s bringing his kids towork in the first place. Why werethey not at school? Was their motherdead? Certainly, the University gaveno hint of concern that the offspring(number not stated) of a tipsy manhad been left to his care, confiningthemselves to outrage that they hadbeen left to their own devices inWilson Hall.Two and a half years later Reid

once more came to official attention.There was a burglary in theRegistrar’s office. Someone came in,apparently through an unlocked door,and abstracted the key to theUniversity safe from where it was

Administrative and office staff group photo takenin the main building quadrangle near the doorsleading to the library and appointments board.

Richard Dart is at the extreme left in his porter’suniform, c.1936–1937, photographic print, 15.5 x 21.0 cm. UMA/I/1416, Photographs

Collection, University of Melbourne Archives.


routinely stored. This was in thepocket of an old jacket left on theback of his chair by the Universitycashier. The thieves netted £44.16.7and Reid, who had failed to lock thedoor, was dismissed on the spot. Thecashier, who immediately repaid themoney, however, was merelyreprimanded and retained, finishinghis employment 20 years later as asupervisor in the library.13

Gardeners and a pricklyprofessorThe University engaged its firstgardener in May 1856, exactly a yearafter its first porter. Neither he norfour of his successors were to last longunder the dreaded Fredrick McCoy,Professor of Natural Science. I havenot found his biography recordedanywhere, so what follows is piecedtogether from University archives andan article by John Foster.14 WilliamHyndman (1822–1883) migrated toAustralia on the White star with hiswife and son in 1855. As early as 5June, less than a month after hisappointment, the University had beenobliged, not for the first time, toremind McCoy of the limits to hisauthority, pointing out:

that the Building Committeeemploys the gardener to carry intoexecution the work of laying out

the grounds of the University; thatthis man is the hired servant of theBuilding Committee, and not aPorter or Servant of the Universityor servant of any particularProfessor.

But by the following year McCoy hadmanaged to get rid of him.15 Howeverhard McCoy may have been to workfor, there may have been good reasonsfor dismissing Hyndman, who foundnew employment in the CarltonGardens with the Melbourne CityCouncil. These gardens did not thriveunder Hyndman’s ministrations, andhe was sacked in 1870 for ringbarkingwithout permission a row of bluegums in Victoria Parade, before adamning report on his work waswritten in 1872.Hyndman’s successor at the

University, John Clayton, lasted justover four months, following a quarrelwith McCoy.16 The next gardener,Daniel Carmody, died in office, a bare12 months after being appointed. Forthe next two years, the gardener wasWilliam C. Mortimer, one of a bevyof Mortimers employed in thegrounds. In December 1861, he wassucceeded by a man who dedicatedthe next 40 years of his life to theimprovement of the University andwho deserves to be remembered.Notably, he is the only one of the

gardeners and porters I havementioned so far to be accorded thetitle of Mister in the University’srecords. Alexander Elliott (1824–1901) was by far the longest servingof the University gardeners, but thisdid not mean a trouble-free run. Theson of the steward and head gardenerto Sir Thomas Carmichael of CastleCraig in Peebleshire, Scotland, Elliotthad studied botany and travelledwidely in England and Scotlandbefore emigrating to Australia.Elliott’s assessment of the Universityon his appointment was unfavourable,later recalling it as ‘just a tangled massof wattle-trees and gums. The onlycultivated pieces of ground were theborders around the old building—allthe rest was simply scrub. The Lakewas a swamp …’17 The records of theBuilding Committee certainly suggestthat some of the money it had beenspending on new plants may havebeen wasted, as the grounds sufferedfrom depredations by Sunday visitors.Like Daniel Carmody, Alexander

Elliott was still working when hedied, but the last part of his life andpassing were noted with far moreceremony. In its June 1901 issue,Alma Mater printed a photograph ofhim in old age with an affectionateand respectful tribute to his work.When he died a few months later,Alma Mater recorded that:

Left: Portrait of Alexander Elliott (head gardener, 1861–1901) in Masonic attire,photographic print, 16.5 x 12.0 cm. UMA/I/1205, Photographs Collection, University of Melbourne Archives.

Right: The University grounds, c.1870. Melbourne University Calendar, 1878–1880.


By his artistic judgement andunceasing hard work, he graduallybrought the grounds to theirpresent state of beauty, and for alltime this life-work shall remain asa pleasing memory of its departedauthor … Mr Elliott … had beenin failing health for several monthsprevious to his death, and althoughscarcely able to walk, owing to hisillness and advanced age (seventy-seven years) he neverthelessmanaged to stick to his post anddied in full harness.18

Elliott was sufficiently well known forhis death to be noted by The Age on23 October, but University Councilmade only a perfunctory note in itsminutes.19 The respect evident in thearticles in Alma Mater had been hard-won. In 1866 conflict arose betweenElliott and McCoy, includingaccusations that Elliott had stolenplants from the Department ofBotany. Council dismissed the charge,originally raised by an undergardener,as ‘frivolous, vexatious and vindictive’,and sacked the undergardener.20

Charwomen, wages andvacuum cleanersThis then is part of the story of a fewof the people employed in keepingthe University running. It will nothave escaped anyone’s notice that

they have all been men. P&CS is stilla pretty blokey place, although severalsenior and middle-level staff arewomen, and there have been femalecarpenters, grounds and security staffand locksmiths. During the 19th andfor much of the 20th century, womenwere employed in the P&CS areaonly as cleaners, and it is depressingto see how hard the University wasprepared to haggle over a few pence aweek. In September 1926, forexample, a row erupted overcomplaints that the ‘charwomen’ werebeing paid only 1/- an hour, while theaward rate was 1/8. After lengthydeliberations the University agreed toincrease the wages but also add to thewomen’s duties, and it was suggestedthat the question of using vacuumcleaners be looked into with a view toseeing whether that would reduce theamount of labour involved.In March 1938, the purchase of a

vacuum cleaner for use in the MainBuilding was approved, and just tomake sure it worked really hard, 29yards of red carpet was alsoacquired.21 In 1939 another disputearose over the wages, hours of workand annual leave of departmentalcleaners: ‘After a full discussion, itwas finally resolved to recommendthat the normal working week be 35hours for a wage of £2.10.0 instead ofthe present amount of £2.6.0 for a

working week ranging from 30 hoursin a few cases to 43½ hours.’22

Finding out more about thewomen who enjoyed such pay andgenerous conditions did not prove aneasy task. I tracked names throughthe papers of Council and itscommittees, but I wasn’t really able tobring their stories to life until themid-20th century. Then it was easier,because I was able to interviewwomen like Mrs Tierney, who cleanedin the Baillieu Library for 31 years,and whose mother and sister alsoworked there. Her nephew alsoworked in P&CS. In the end, I hopemy story of the University’s forgottenpeople gives due recognition to thewomen, as well as its forgotten men.

A discussion of sourcesWhen George Smithers, PhillipMarcham and E.J. Reid joined theUniversity as porters, they can havehad little idea that details of theiremployment history would beenshrined forever in the minute booksof the various committees of Counciland/or the University’s voucherbooks. These volumes provide arecord of employment which is attimes almost embarrassingly detailed,showing not only salary information,but also what would today be called‘performance appraisals’ and guardedas confidential documents. What

System Garden, University of Melbourne, c.1866,when Alexander Elliott was head gardener(National Museum and main building in thedistance), photographic print, 10.5 x 16.5 cm.UMA/I/1154, Photographs Collection, University of Melbourne Archives.


concerned me as a historian howeverwas the differential treatment of theemployment records of variouscategories of staff, discovered duringmy research. My major sources werethe minutes of Council and itscommittees, which are held in theUniversity of Melbourne Archives;and personnel records which are heldby Human Resources. Access to theformer was easy. Council documentsbefore a certain date can be viewed byanyone. They are brought from theUniversity of Melbourne Archivesrepository in Brunswick to theCultural Collections Reading Roomin the Baillieu Library. Later Councildocuments are under the control ofthe University Secretary, and held inthe Raymond Priestley Building. A letter of recommendation from the then Vice-Principal (Property and Buildings) enabled me to seethem. Getting access to the personalfiles in Human Resources was,understandably, a little harder, but aletter to the Vice-Principal (HumanResources) from the Vice-Principal(Property and Buildings) served thepurpose.I obtained from every person I

interviewed written permission toconsult their personnel records.Minding the shop was intended to be agood news story. While I hope itstops short of being either a sales

pitch or a hagiography, I certainlyintended to exclude as far as possibleany information which would bepersonally distressing to any of thepeople involved, their descendants,friends or colleagues. I was careful, forexample, not to include thedescription in the Council papers of along-serving staff member, quite earlyin his career, as ‘subnormal’ and ‘anincubus’. Long-serving staff were notinfrequently found guilty of minormisdemeanours, such as filching smallquantities of paint or otherunauthorised use of Universityproperty. Although the circumstanceswere sometimes very funny, I believedthat the distress which could beoccasioned by publishing themoutweighed their entertainment value.It will come as little surprise that thedrinking habits of some staff causedcomment. I was rather more cavalierabout people who had been long deadand who had reasonably commonsurnames. It would have been hard totrack the descendants (if any existed)of men called Reid or Smithers and Itook the view that if any descendantsread my book, they were unlikely tobe much troubled by what I revealed.I was, however, astonished at the levelof detail that the early Universityadministrators included in theirrecorded discussions. The evidence ofSmithers’s frauds, for example, is

given in detail in the FinanceCommittee papers and repeated inMinding the shop.23 FinanceCommittee was almost as outraged atthe revelation of ‘a person holding theSituation of a Messenger presumingto sign orders for suppliers on behalfof the University’ as they were by hisfinancial dishonesty. The Committeeseemed almost to expect swindlingfrom a man of Smithers’s class, buthis apparent uppityness was tooserious a matter to condone.I got much of the information

about incidents such as the dismissalof porter E.J. Reid from the volumesof Council papers, but manyemployees were noted there only inrecords of pay; not much to build astory on, so I went hunting in theHuman Resources Division. There,records can be seen essentially inthree formats: a card file, paper filesand electronic files. The card filecovers the earliest employees, and forsome time ran concurrently with thepaper files. None of these cards coverspersons still living, but they were veryuseful in discovering the numerousfamilies with several members on thestaff, as they provided homeaddresses, etc. These unique recordsconcern the history of Victoria ingeneral, not just an important aspectof the history of the University ofMelbourne. Fortunately for scholars


University of Melbourne Council minute books,University of Melbourne Archives.

of the future these invaluable recordsare now held in the UniversityArchives.The later paper files are in several

sequences and overlap to some extentthe electronic files. For current staff,an electronic record will provide payand leave information, butapplications, references, letters ofappointment, reports by staff of visits,accounts of disciplinary action, etc.,are generally absent, being locatedonly in the paper files, which are lessexhaustive than I had expected, andwhich will eventually be destroyedunder the records managementschedules, generally between ten and30 years after the person leaves theUniversity. This timing variesaccording to factors such as theseniority of the staff member, whetherthey were academic or professionalstaff (academic staff records generallybeing kept longer and in some casespermanently), whether a staff memberwas dismissed or there were any legalcases in train, and even to whichsuperannuation scheme the personbelonged! Other considerationsinclude achievements such as beingawarded University bronze or silvermedals or being an artist-in-residenceor vice-chancellor’s fellow, andwhether an employee dies on duty.Records of staff who have made aworkers’ compensation claim are

retained for 100 years after their dateof birth, unless of course they are inthe category where they are keptpermanently in any case. Given thelow classification of tradespeople atthe University, I had, when writingMinding the shop, reason to be gladthat Property and Buildings staff,particularly during the first 100 yearsof the University’s existence, were sooften injured on the job.

Dr Juliet Flesch is an honorary fellow in theSchool of Historical Studies at the University ofMelbourne. Her areas of research include popularromance novels and French history. She wasfoundation Principal Librarian (Collections) at theUniversity of Melbourne from 1978 to 1997.

Notes

1 Juliet Flesch, Minding the shop: People andevents that shaped the Department of Propertyand Buildings 1853–2003 at the University ofMelbourne, Melbourne: Department ofProperty and Buildings, University ofMelbourne, 2005.

2 Edward Gorey, Verse advice: A book for recordingbirthdays and other special occasions, Petaluma,Calif.: Pomegranate, 2001.

3 University of Melbourne, Voucher books, 3 October 1855. University of MelbourneArchives (UMA).

4 University of Melbourne Finance Committee,Minutes, 22 December 1856. UMA.

5 Juliet Flesch and Peter McPhee, 150 years, 150stories: Brief biographies of one hundred and fiftyremarkable people associated with the Universityof Melbourne, Melbourne: Department ofHistory, University of Melbourne, 2003.

6 Alma Mater, June 1899, p. 55. Special

Collections, Baillieu Library, University ofMelbourne.

7 Alma Mater, June 1899, p. 55.8 University of Melbourne Finance Committee,Minutes, July 1902. UMA.

9 University of Melbourne Finance Committee,Minutes, 31 March 1912. UMA.

10 University of Melbourne Finance Committee,Minutes, 15 October 1915. UMA.

11 University Gazette, October 1948, p. 83.12 University of Melbourne Finance Committee,Minutes, July 1915. UMA.

13 Flesch, Minding the shop, pp. 27–28.14 John Foster, ‘The Carlton Gardens: Thegardens with a jinx’, Landscape Australia, vol. 4,no. 84, November 1984, pp. 265–275.

15 University of Melbourne Building Committee,Minutes, 4 July 1857. UMA.

16 University of Melbourne Building Committee,Minutes, 12 December 1857. UMA.

17 Alma Mater, June 1901, p. 192.18 Alma Mater, October 1901, p. 308.19 University of Melbourne Council, Minutes, 28 October 1901. UMA.

20 University of Melbourne Building Committee,Minutes, 11 May 1866. UMA.

21 Several University committees deliberated onsuch matters, including the FinanceCommittee, Buildings Committee and Staffand Establishments Committee.

22 University of Melbourne Staff andEstablishments Committee, Minutes, 7 March1939.

23 Flesch, Minding the shop, pp. 17–20.


In late December 1962 when theSchool of Dental Science was allpacked up to leave the building whichit had occupied since 1907, at 193Spring Street, Melbourne, for the‘New Dental School and Hospital’ onElizabeth Street, Dr Alan Grant, asenior lecturer, on his last visit saw inan overflowing rubbish bin, a framedphotograph with unbroken glass. Thisimmediately aroused his interest andso he took possession. Some yearslater when Alan’s room was beingcleared, the framed photographreappeared and being considered ofhistorical interest, it was added to theembryo dental museum collection.The object in question is a dark-

stained wooden picture frame holdinga signed sepia-toned photograph ofhis Royal Highness, Albert, Duke ofYork, in naval dress. Below this is afaded type-written letter, now almostundecipherable; fortunately however alater copy is glued on the back. The letter was sent from GovernmentHouse in Adelaide on 4 May 1927,and addressed to C.D. Hearman,President of the Dental Students’Society, Melbourne. It reads:

Dear Sir,

I am desired by His Royal Highnessthe Duke of York to thank youfor your letter of April 30th.

He deeply regrets that he isunable to accept the position ofHonorary Life Member of theDental Students’ Society. Thereason is that it is now theestablished practice for Membersof the Royal Family to acceptsuch positions in Clubs andOrganisations as a whole and notin individual branches; and asyour society would appear to be abranch of the University HisRoyal Highness is afraid hecannot make an exception to thisrule. He is, however, very pleasedto send you a photograph ofhimself for the Students’Common Room, with his bestwishes, and I forward it herewith.I am, at the same time, to assureyou that he will always have veryhappy recollections of his visit tothe University.

Yours faithfully,

(Signed) P.K. Hodgson Private Secretary.

C.D. Hearman, Esq.,The President,Dental Students’ Society,Melbourne.

Cecil Hearman was at that timestudying dental science; he later

became a member of the staff of theDental Hospital and the School, aleader of the profession, author ofseveral papers and of a text on hislife’s interest—diet and theprevention of dental disease.1

The events which led to the gift ofthe portrait are a keystone of dentalstudent history and mythology. Theywere first known to me many yearsago when proclaimed by ProfessorFrank C. Wilkinson at a socialoccasion in the mid-1930s after hehad been appointed to a position atthe University of Manchester, similarto that which he had held for tenyears as Dean of the Faculty ofDental Science at the University ofMelbourne. The Professor stated withpride and dramatic effect that hisdental students had planned andcarried out, under the noses of theauthorities, the kidnapping of theDuke of York while he was on aformal visit to the University ofMelbourne. Having heard since thenmany different versions of thisoccasion, ranging from attempts bythe dental authorities to eliminate itfrom the records as an insignificantand greatly exaggerated student rag,harmful to the profession, to highlycolourful accounts that improved witheach telling, my interest was againstimulated by the finding of thephotograph.

A royal portraitHenry F. Atkinson


The photograph with attachedletter was the first evidence I had seenthat something momentous hadoccurred during the Duke’s visit. Asearch of issues of the Mouth Mirror,the ‘Official Magazine of theMelbourne Dental Students’ Society’,revealed in the 1948 edition anunsigned article entitled ‘The King isa dental student’.2 This had beenwritten some 20 years after the event,by one who had apparently takenpart, and was therefore thought to bea fairly accurate account. The articleindicates that elaborate arrangementshad been made by the dental studentsto kidnap the Duke after he hadreceived an honorary degree at aformal ceremony in Wilson Hall.Their efforts included the hiring of alandau and appropriate costumes forthe attendants. The article states thatas the Duke was leaving the hall hewas surrounded by students and thenwhisked away in the horse-drawncarriage and taken to ‘the dungeon’,the dental students’ common room inthe basement of 193 Spring Street inthe city, the building occupied by theAustralian College of Dentistry andthe Dental Hospital. There he wasquestioned and inducted into theDental Students’ Society. After whatmust have been a most gruelling andnerve-wracking experience, he wasreturned safely to an anxious crowd

waiting outside Wilson Hall.Further searches revealed an

editorial in the Melbourne UniversityMagazine of June 1927 whichdescribes the event in some detail. Itstates that the dental students didmost of the planning, produced thecarriage and conducted the initiationceremony but—and here there is anessential difference between the twoaccounts—the tour was of theUniversity grounds only, ‘round thelake’, not to the city, and theceremony was held in ‘the Clubhouse’on the campus, not ‘the dungeon’ inSpring Street. The editorial givescredit to the other student groups andthe SRC which helped ‘to make theday a success’.3

The story is a wonderful exampleof leadership and cooperation withinthe student body; it provides aglimpse into the innocence andamazing freedoms of the times; andvividly contrasts the community’sdevotion to the Royal Family with thethoughts of the disaster that wouldoccur if such an event werecontemplated today, in our necessarilyprotective society.

Professor Emeritus Henry F. Atkinson MBEjoined the University of Melbourne in 1953 asChair of Dental Prosthetics, and retired as Deanof the Faculty of Dentistry in 1978. He hasworked on the dental collection for over 50 yearsand was made Honorary Curator in the early1990s. In 2006 the museum was named the Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum inappreciation of his many years of work.

Notes

1 Cecil Hearman, Diet: Its relation to dentalhealth, Melbourne: A.H. Massina, 1940. Reg.no. 1921.1, Henry Forman Atkinson DentalMuseum, University of Melbourne.

2 ‘The King is a dental student’, Mouth Mirror,1948, pp. 37–38. Reg. no. 2567, HenryForman Atkinson Dental Museum, Universityof Melbourne.

3 Editorial, ‘The visit of the Duke of York’,Melbourne University Magazine, vol. 21, no. 3,June 1927.

Photograph of Albert, Duke of York, 1927, 65.0 x 30.0 x 2.0 cm (frame). Reg. no. 2023,Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum,



Melbourne, and that he had his ownparticular vision of what form bothshould take.Something of this is evident in his

first gift to the University, a modest19th century depiction of the originalGothic revival buildings at the centreof the campus, by H.N.E Cook. Thegift was made in 1969, in gratitudefor the University’s loan of works byNorman Lindsay for display atBrown’s new gallery. Aside fromreflecting Dr Brown’s old-worldmanners, the donation alsodemonstrates his understanding thatthe University’s art collection oughtto reflect the history and values of theinstitution itself.

At this time, the University wasbeginning to make greater efforts todisplay its art collection. Discussionof an art gallery was incorporated intothe design development of the JohnMedley Building and, in February1972, the inaugural exhibition of theUniversity Art Gallery was staged inthe overpass lounge of the newbuilding. Among the selections fromthe University Art Collection ondisplay was Dr Brown’s second gift: amajor double portrait by Roy deMaistre, Lord and Lady Ashbourne atCompiegne, 1924. The gift was, as theUniversity’s then Vice-Principal, RayMarginson, noted at the time, ‘the actof a major patron’.2 It arrived when

The late Dr Joseph Brown AO, OBE(1918–2009) migrated to Australiafrom his native Poland in 1933. Aftertraining and practising as a sculptor andpainter,1 serving in World War II andworking in the fashion industry, hebecame one of Australia’s leading artdealers, collectors and consultants, whoseresearch and connoisseurship led to therediscovery of many under-appreciatedor forgotten Australian artists and thementoring of many others. He was aremarkably generous donor to manymuseums and galleries, culminating in2004 with the gift of the major part of his collection of Australian art to the National Gallery of Victoria. The University of Melbourne awarded Dr Brown an honorary Doctor of Lawsin 1986. Dr Chris McAuliffe reflectshere on the nature of Dr Brown’ssubstantial contribution to theUniversity of Melbourne Art Collection. Over a period of 39 years, Dr

Joseph Brown gave 75 works of art tothe University of Melbourne ArtCollection, making him one of themost significant donors to thecollection. The story of Dr Brown’sgenerosity is shaped by his personality;it is challenging, committed andoccasionally a little eccentric. Lookingback over those 39 years, it becomesclear that Dr Brown was determinedto support the presence of art and anart museum at the University of

Joseph BrownChris McAuliffe


the University was seeking to bringnew energy to its collection andoffered concrete evidence that majorcollectors, such as Dr Brown, wouldsupport such a move.In his activities as a collector and

art dealer, Dr Brown always showed astrong engagement with Australianart history, often leading the field inthe rediscovery of neglected andundervalued artists of the 19th andearly 20th centuries. This historicalconsciousness is something that Ithink he expected from the UniversityArt Gallery too. His donations strikeme as challenging the museum staffand academics to undertake researchand to redraw the narrative ofAustralian art in greater detail. Earlygifts of work by artists such as HoraceBrodzky, Danila Vassilieff and AdrianLawlor were made when suchpioneers of Australian modernismwere given little attention. Thechallenge was to rediscover theirmeaning and achievement. It is nocoincidence, I think, that the later giftof a John Peter Russell watercolour,Inlet of Goulphar, Belle-Ile, 1907, came at the time when Dr AnnGalbally, then an academic in theFine Arts department, had recentlypublished her pioneering study ofAustralia’s ‘forgotten Impressionist’.3

The momentum that Dr Brown’sgifts gave the University Art

Collection can be seen also in the wayin which a donation galvanisedattention on individual artists. Twogifts of works by Danila Vassilieff, in1973 and 1977, prompted the laterpurchase by the University of threeadditional works by the artist.4 Witha further donation by Dr and MrsEric Stock in 1997,5 the University’sholdings of Vassilieff had grown fromzero to six in 25 years. It is thiscombination of the ‘significantmoment’ with a subsequentmomentum of steady accumulationthat is the pulse of the collection.Elsewhere, Dr Brown’s gifts

observe that informal principle ofcomplementarity that is so importantto university collections. In 1985, hisdonation of a study drawing forBernard Hall’s enigmatic painting,Despair, brought together an initialfigure study with the finishedpainting already held by theUniversity in the Samuel ArthurEwing collection.6 A pairing such asthis is invaluable support for studyand teaching.Others of Dr Brown’s gifts arrived

in far more personal circumstances.The donation of Leonard French’sThe trial was described by Dr Brownas a thanksgiving gift.7 In January1979, thieves had stolen 80 paintingsfrom his famous gallery-home inCaroline Street, South Yarra. When

police recovered the works, Dr Browndonated a selection to Melbourneuniversities, with the suggestion thatFate was owed something in returnfor his good fortune.8

If Dr Brown’s manner of donationwas a little eccentric, it was alwayspurposeful. I recall a phone call fromDr Brown in 2001. (I should notehere that there is very little by way ofcorrespondence with Dr Brown in thePotter’s records. He preferred tooperate on his own terms—in person,or in conversation—rather than in abureaucratic manner.) He advised methat he had a number of works thathe wished to donate to variousuniversity collections. What followedwas a combination of ‘pop quiz’ andinterview. As Dr Brown mentionedthe names of artists, it was my task toboth discuss their merits and tosuggest how they might relate to ourexisting holdings. John Passmore,what did we have of his art? Would anon-objective work be relevant? Youhave a Ralph Balson, don’t you? Howwould you see an abstract Passmorerelating to it? I must have passed the interview

because the Potter’s van was soondispatched to Dr Brown’s Prahranhome to make a pick-up. And therewe encountered something more ofhis personal touch. As two smallworks by Passmore and Meadmore

Opposite: John Peter Russell, Inlet of Goulphar,Belle-Ile, 1907, watercolour on cardboard, 31.3 x 44.4 cm (sheet). Reg. no. 1980.0012,

gift of Dr Joseph Brown, 1980, University of Melbourne Art Collection.


were being loaded into the van, Dr Brown handed over another work,saying, ‘You might as well take thisone, too’. The added extra turned outto be a Margaret Preston linocut,Hollyhocks.9 Not only a fine work, buta significant addition to our smallholding of her art. I wonder whetherthe ‘bonus’ gift was a reward forperforming well in the telephone quiz,or whether Fate had again intervened.Perhaps the most prominent

example of Dr Brown’s support of theUniversity Art Collection was not thegift of an artwork itself. Dr Brownsupported the restoration of NapierWaller’s Leckie window, allowing theUniversity to pursue its plan toreinstall the window in a prominentnew building. As it eventuated, thatbuilding was, of course, the Ian PotterMuseum of Art, where the Leckiewindow has pride of place in theatrium.

Dr Chris McAuliffe has been Director of the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University ofMelbourne since 2000.

Notes

1 In 1999 the Ian Potter Museum of Art held an exhibition of Dr Brown’s own art, see Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE: A creative life: 65 years a private artist (exhibition catalogue),Parkville: Ian Potter Museum of Art,University of Melbourne, 1999.

2 Ray Marginson, letter to Joseph Brown, 3 November 1971, files of Ian Potter Museumof Art.

3 Ann Galbally, The art of John Peter Russell,South Melbourne: Sun Books, 1977.

4 Danila Vassilieff: Woronora, 1936, oil on canvason board, sight: 54.0 x 59.2 cm. Reg. no.1977.0041, purchased 1977; NazarethKaragheusian, (c.1940s), oil on compositionboard, 41.0 x 30.0 cm. Reg. no. 1982.0033,purchased 1983; Time for lunch, 1942,watercolour, 29.8 x 22.6 cm. Reg. no.1982.0047, purchased 1982, University ofMelbourne Art Collection.

5 Danila Vassilieff, Portrait of Betty, (c.1940), oilon composition board, 48.5 x 41.5 cm. Reg. no.1997.0031, gift of Dr and Mrs Eric Stock,1997, University of Melbourne Art Collection.

6 Bernard Hall, Despair, (c.1916–1918), oil oncanvas, sight: 100.0 x 75.0 cm. Reg. no.1938.0007, gift of Dr Samuel Arthur Ewing,1938, University of Melbourne Art Collection.

7 ‘Painting donated as thanksgiving’, Staff News[University of Melbourne], vol. 7, no. 8,October 1979, p. 101.

8 The gift of The trial and some other donationsby Dr Brown are discussed in Robyn Sloggett’sinterview of Ray Marginson: ‘High drama and… comedy: Developing the cultural collectionsof the University of Melbourne’, University ofMelbourne Collections, issue 5, November 2009,pp. 12–21.

9 Margaret Preston, Hollyhocks, (c.1928), colourwoodblock, 30.5 x 31.5 cm (sight). Reg. no.2001.0006, gift of Dr Joseph Brown, 2001,University of Melbourne Art Collection.

Donations by Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE to theUniversity of Melbourne Art Collection (first partof registration number indicates year of gift).

H.N.E. Cook (fl.1880–1899)Melbourne University, 1883oil on canvas on board, 41.3 x 67.7 cm (sight)reg. no. 1969.0002

Roy de Maistre (1894–1968)Lord and Lady Ashbourne at Compiegne, (1924)oil on composition board, 73.6 x 94.0 cmreg. no. 1971.0051

Percy Leason (1889–1959)Untitled (Old gum, Eltham Park), (1930)oil on canvas on board, 38.0 x 45.5 cm (sight)reg. no. 1972.0074

A.H. Fullwood (1863–1930)Sydney Harbour, 1921etching, 17.6 x 32.5 cm (plate), reg. no. 1973.0504

A.H. Fullwood (1863–1930)Sand modeller. NSW, 1924etching, 20.8 x 16.0 cm (plate), reg. no. 1973.0505

Danila Vassilieff (1897–1958)Sunday Ebbott, (c.1938)oil on canvas, 50.0 x 45.0 cm (sight)reg. no. 1973.0528

Horace Brodzky (1885–1969)Untitled (Head study (1)), 1935pen and ink on paper, 38.3 x 28.0 cm (sheet)reg. no. 1977.0005

Horace Brodzky (1885–1969)Untitled (Head study of John Brodzky, son of theartist, aged ten), 1934pen and ink on paper, 30.3 x 21.8 cm (sheet)reg. no. 1977.0006

Adrian Lawlor (1880–1969)Untitled (Landscape), (c.1940s)oil on canvas on cardboard, 46.0 x 50.5 cmreg. no. 1977.0015

Danila Vassilieff (1897–1958)Nude lady, (c.1945)oil on composition board, 82.6 x 61.2 cmreg. no. 1977.0042

Arnold Shore (1897–1963)Stringys and messmate near Airey’s Inlet, 1957oil on cardboard, 39.0 x 29.0 cm (sight)reg. no. 1978.0019

Bessie Davidson (1879–1965)Still life – apples and pears, (c.1930?)oil and charcoal on cardboard, 21.8 x 26.6 cmreg. no. 1978.0020

Bernard Hall, Study for Despair, c.1918, charcoal on brown paper, 91.5 x 64.3 (sheet). Reg. no. 1985.0004, gift of Dr Joseph Brown,1985, University of Melbourne Art Collection.


Bessie Davidson (1879–1965)Château d’Aix, (c.1920s–1930s?)oil on wood panel, 26.7 x 35.0 cmreg. no. 1978.0021

Tom Roberts (1856–1931)The opening of the first Parliament of Australia, 9thMay 1901, 1903Photo-engraving, 52.7 x 88.1 cm (plate)reg. no. 1978.0022

John Brack (1920–1999)Nude with revolving chair, 1972pencil, 52.0 x 68.3 cm (sight)reg. no. 1978.0070

Charles Blackman (b. 1928)Gently, 1953oil on muslin on composition board, 51.2 x 63.4 cmreg. no. 1979.0001

Arnold Shore (1897–1963)Side road at Flinders, Victoria, 1959oil on composition board, 46.3 x 60.1 cmreg. no. 1979.0005

James Wigley (1918–1999)The unemployed and the workers, (c.1940s)pencil on paper on cardboard, 39.4 x 51.8 cm(sheet), reg. no. 1979.0030

Paul Jones (1921–1998)Untitled (Flower study), 1953pen and ink with wash, 36.0 x 42.0 cm (sight)reg. no. 1979.0031

Leonard French (b. 1928)The trial, (1962)Enamel on hessian on hardboard with spackle and plastic flowers, 228.5 x 183.5 cmreg. no. 1979.0043

Sidney Nolan (1917–1992)Bush verandah no. 1, (1948)enamel on composition board, 45.7 x 61.0 cmreg. no. 1980.0003

Sidney Nolan (1917–1992)Bush verandah no. 2, (1948)enamel on composition board, 45.5 x 61.0 cmreg. no. 1980.0004

Bertram MacKennal (1863–1931)Salome, (c.1900)bronze, sculpture 27.0 cmreg. no. 1980.0010

William Dobell (1899–1970)Study for portrait (David Chambers), (1940)oil on composition board, 45.5 x 39.8 cmreg. no. 1980.0011

John Peter Russell (1858–1934)Inlet of Goulphar, Belle-Ile, 1907watercolour on cardboard, 31.3 x 44.4 cm (sheet)reg. no. 1980.0012

Margaret Thacker (active 1850s)Untitled (Near Sydney), (c.1850)sepia watercolour, 25.2 x 18.4 cm (sheet)reg. no. 1981.0001

Jane Sutherland (1855–1928)Nellie Drake, (c.1896)oil on canvas, 35.0 x 41.5 cmreg. no. 1981.0003

Dawn Sime (1932–2001)Untitled (Semi-abstract composition withdrinking glass and foliage), 1980pencil, watercolour and cut paper collage78.7 x 28.3 cm (sheet), reg. no. 1981.0004

Lina Bryans (1909–2000)Bridge at Warrandyte, (1959)oil on canvas on composition board, 76.5 x 63.5 cmreg. no. 1982.0002

Russell Drysdale (1912–1981)Untitled (Still life with Chianti bottle), (c.1938–1939)pencil, 8.8 x 13.5 cm (sight)reg. no. 1982.0003

Tom Roberts (1856–1931)At Phillip Island, 1886etching, 11.6 x 17.6 cm (plate)reg. no. 1982.0004

Unknown artistUntitled (Three women mourning), (n.d.)oil on canvas on plywood, 17.5 x 21.5 cmreg. no. 1982.0005

Vic O’Connor (b. 1918)The sisters – Butte Chaumant, Paris, 1980linocut, 24.3 x 30.3 cm (comp.)reg. no. 1982.0006

Napier Waller (1893–1972)The procession, (c.1927)watercolour on paper, 60.0 x 100.0 cm (sheet)reg. no. 1982.0007

Ola Cohn (1892–1964)Herald boy, 1923plaster cast, 49.0 x 21.0 x 20.0 cmreg. no. 1982.0008

UnknownUntitled (Figure in landscape), (1890s)oil on wood panel, 14.6 x 12.0 cmreg. no. 1982.0010

Derwent Lees (1885–1931)Ethelreda (portrait of a girl), 1908–1910pencil and wash, 47.3 x 30.0 cm (sheet)reg. no. 1982.0022

Robin Wallace-Crabbe (1938)Family before a mirror, 1967synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 124.0 x 114.0 cmreg. no. 1983.0001

Eric Thake (1904–1982)Hillend benefit (show animal) (Christmas card),1970screenprint with watercolour wash, 53.3 x 38.1 cm(sheet), 25.0 x 44.2 cm (image)reg. no. 1983.0003

Danila Vassilieff, Sunday Ebbott, c.1938, oil on canvas, 50.0 x 45.0 cm (sight).

Reg. no. 1973.0528, gift of Dr Joseph Brown,1973, University of Melbourne Art Collection.

© Reproduced courtesy National Gallery of Victoria.


Arthur Boyd (1920–1999)Untitled (Christ walking on the water?), (c.1950)pen and ink with wash on buff paper on board,38.2 x 46.2 cmreg no. 1983.0004

Teisutis Zikaras (1922–1991)Untitled (Red and blue grey abstract), 1957crayon, watercolour and ink, 33.9 x 44.3 cm(image)reg. no. 1983.0005

Murray Griffin (1903–1992)Bird of Paradise, (n.d.)linocut, 35.2 x 46.4 cm (sight)reg. no. 1983.0006

Fred Williams (1927–1982)Waterfall, 1980coloured lithograph, 76.0 x 57.5 cm (sheet)reg. no. 1983.0007

David Blackburn (1939)Hillside trees (blue green abstract triptych), 1971synthetic polymer paint and pastel on paper,38.1 x 29.5 cm (each sheet)reg. no. 1983.0008.000.A.000.C

George Lambert (1873–1930)Portrait study, old woman, (c.1915)red, brown and white chalk, 44.0 x 35.2 cm (sheet)reg. no. 1983.0009

Christian Waller (1895–1956)The shepherd of dreams, (1932)linocut on paper, 31.9 x 13.5 cm (sheet)reg. no. 1983.0010

Fred Williams (1927–1982)Untitled (Four Welsh landscapes), (1952)watercolour, 19.2 x 26.2 cm (each, sight)reg. no. 1984.0200.000.A.000.D

Bernard Hall (1859–1935)Study forDespair, (c.1918)charcoal on brown paper, 91.5 x 64.3 cm (sheet)reg. no. 1985.0004

Sidney Nolan (1917–1992)The sculptress, 1951enamel on composition board, 76.2 x 63.5 cmreg. no. 1986.0001

Hardy Wilson (1881–1955)Liverpool Hospital, Liverpool, N.S.W., 1922colour lithograph, 33.6 x 26.3 cm (sheet)reg. no. 1986.0266

Hardy Wilson (1881–1955)Newington on Parramatta River, N.S.W., 1916lithograph, 32.5 x 25.2 cm (sight)reg. no. 1986.0267

Hardy Wilson (1881–1955)Entrance to Brownlow Hill, Camden, N.S.W., 1919lithograph, 33.8 x 26.1 cm (sheet)reg. no. 1986.0268

Derwent Lees (1885–1931)Untitled (Landscape), (n.d.)oil on panel, 19.1 x 26.4 cm, reg. no. 1987.0001

Audrey Bergner (b. 1927)Untitled, 1985watercolour and pencil, 25.3 x 24.6 cm (sheet)reg. no. 1987.0002

Wes Walters (b. 1928)Roger Woodward, 1980oil on composition board, 91.5 x 61.0 cm (sight)reg. no. 1989.0001

Harald Vike (1906–1987)Portrait of a woman, (1942)pencil on paper, 20.2 x 12.7 cmreg. no. 1993.0020

John Perceval (1923–2000)Mathew Perceval, (1974?)pencil on paper, 35.0 x 28.0 cmreg. no. 1993.0021

Thea Proctor (1879–1966)Still life, (n.d.)watercolour and pencil on paper, 55.0 x 46.0 cm(sight), reg. no. 1993.0022

Eric Thake (1904–1982)Pied cormorant, Werribee 1975, 1975pencil on laid paper, 26.5 x 18.9 cm (sight)reg. no. 1994.0006

Wes Walters (b. 1928)Untitled (Abstract), 1963synthetic polymer paint, P.V. glue, plaster, sand,mixed media on canvas, 153.0 x 122.0 cm (sight)reg. no. 1994.0025

Tim Maguire (b. 1958)Untitled (Asparagus), (n.d.)charcoal, white pastel (chalk?) on paper,46.2 x 61.0 cm (sight)reg. no. 1995.0064

Horace Brodzky (1885–1969)Untitled (Head of a woman), 1934pen and ink and watercolour wash, 20.5 x 20.5 cm(sight), reg. no. 1995.0114

Arthur Boyd (1920–1999)On the banks of the Shoalhaven, (c.1995)oil on composition board, 23.0 x 30.0 cmreg. no. 1996.0003

Helen Ogilvie (1902–1993)Galvanized iron shed with gig, 1972oil on composition board, 15.3 x 20.0 cmreg. no. 1996.0024

John Passmore (1904–1984)Untitled, (c.1954)ink, watercolour and gouache on newspaper, 24.0 x 24.6 cm (sight), reg. no. 1996.0035

Wes Walters (b. 1928)Tree, 1996charcoal on paper, 76.0 x 54.5 cm (sight)reg. no. 1997.0036

Jessie Traill (1881–1967)The jewell necklace – Bland River, Lake Cowal,N.S.W., 1920etching and aquatint on paper, 11.2 x 36.0 cm(plate)reg. no. 1997.0127

Jane Sutherland, Nellie Drake, (c.1896)oil on canvas, 35.0 x 41.5 cm.

Reg. no. 1981.0003, gift of Dr Joseph Brown,1981, University of Melbourne Art Collection.


Fred Williams (1927–1982)Upwey landscape, (1965)gouache on paper on composition board,49.0 x 74.0 cmreg. no. 1998.0002

Joseph Brown, (1918–2009)Abstract landscape, 1954oil on canvas, 74.5 x 125.0 cm (sight)reg. no. 1999.0063

Wes Walters (b. 1928)Preparatory drawing for portrait of ProfessorEmeritus Sir Douglas Wright, 1988pencil on paper, 40.8 x 33.9 cm (sight)reg. no. 2000.0007

Clement Meadmore (1929–2005)Untitled, 1992black ink on paper, 56.0 x 38.0 cm (sheet)reg. no. 2001.0004

John Passmore (1904–1984)Untitled, (n.d.)watercolour, charcoal and pencil, 42.5 x 47.0 cm(sight)reg. no. 2001.0005

Margaret Preston (1875–1963)Hollyhocks, (c.1928)colour woodblock, 30.5 x 31.5 cm (sight)reg. no. 2001.0006

John Brack (1920–1999)Untitled, 1962ink drawing, 51.2 x 20.3 cm (sight)reg. no. 2003.0005

Charles Conder (attributed to), (1868–1909)Untitled (Miss Raynor), (n.d.)oil paint on board, 18.2 x 24.6 cm (image)reg. no. 2008.0011

Lina Bryans, Bridge at Warrandyte, 1959, oil oncanvas on composition board,

76.5 x 63.5 cm. Reg. no. 1982.0002, gift of Dr Joseph Brown, 1982,

University of Melbourne Art Collection. © Estate of the artist.


Acquisitions

the University’s already strongholdings of special press books.

The PressThe Gregynog Press is the mostsignificant and well-known privatepress in Wales. Gregynog itself is acountry mansion in Montgomeryshire,acquired by two sisters, Gwendolineand Margaret Davies, in 1919. Theylived there for many years with theirformer governess and companion,Miss Blaker, whose brother Hugh,artist and poet, stimulated the sisters’interest in the arts.Originally the sisters had thought

to make Gregynog a centre for thepromotion of a variety of crafts. Sucha venture needed a manager andRobert Maynard, an artist and afriend of Hugh Blaker, was employed.In preparation for this new challenge,Maynard travelled to London tostudy contemporary arts and crafts,but ended up spending most of histime at the Central School of Artsand Crafts learning how to print andhow to design and execute woodengravings.In mid-1922 Maynard took up

residence at Gregynog, where fineprinting and bookmaking quicklybecame the focus of theestablishment, shaping the beginningsof a private press. Shortly after,bookbinder John Mason joined the

The Lambert albumSusan Millard‘The approaching retirement of Mr Lambert from the stage hasbegotten a wish on the part of manyto possess some graphic andpermanent memorial of an actor whohas delighted them so often.’1

Special Collections in the BaillieuLibrary recently acquired The Lambertalbum. This important item is one ofthe earliest ever photographic booksproduced in Melbourne, containingactual mounted photographs. It isbelieved to be one of only three copiesissued, according to James Smith, atheatre critic who is assumed to bethe author of the introduction to thealbum.2 James Smith’s own copy isheld in the Mitchell Library inSydney,3 and the third is in the StateLibrary of Victoria. The albumcontains 17 albumen silverphotographs, 16 of them depictingthe actor J.C. Lambert in two poses,each as characters in his best-knowncomedic roles in the Melbournetheatre, which included Sir PeterTeazle in School for scandal, JusticeShallow in Henry IV, part 2, and SirJohn Falstaff in Henry IV, part 1. Itwas photographed at the establishmentof Batchelder & Co. in Collins StreetEast. The introduction states:

Forty years of steadfast devotion

to his art, the education anddiscipline acquired in passingthrough the various grades of hisprofession in the mother country,a diligent study of the bestmodels and the inheritance ofthose stage traditions whichembody the accumulatedexperience, invention andproficiency of generations ofgreat actors, have combined torender Mr Lambert a finishedartist.

Joseph Charles Lambert was born inEngland in about 1818 and came toAustralia in the mid-1850s. His lastperformance in Melbourne was inFebruary 1868. He then returned toEngland where he died in 1875.

Susan Millard is Deputy Curator of SpecialCollections in the Baillieu Library, University ofMelbourne.

Gregynog PressPam PrydeIn 2009 the University acquired forBaillieu Library Special Collections acomplete set of the books publishedby the Gregynog Press between 1922and 1940, all except two in specialbindings (the finely hand-crafted anddecorated leather bindings created fora small portion of each edition). Thisis a major acquisition and builds on


Opposite: J.C. Lambert in the role of Lord Ogleby in Clandestine marriage,

from Batchelder & Co., The Lambert album: Comprising sixteen character

portraits of Mr J.C. Lambert, Melbourne: Batchelder & Co., 1866. Special Collections, Baillieu Library,


Below: The fables of Esope, translated out of Frensshe in to Englysshe by William Caxton; with

engravings on wood by Agnes Miller Parker, Newtown, Montgomeryshire, [Wales]: Gregynog Press, 1931 [actually published 1932].The University’s copy is no. 3, bound in originalpale brown Levant morocco, with tooling and

gilt ornamentation. Special Collections, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne.

small team. The studio comprised aconverted stable at the back of thehouse, which housed a folio Albionhand press, related printingequipment and several fonts ofKennerley type. The Press began byprinting small jobs, in time buildingthe experience and expertise necessaryto face the challenge of printing itsfirst book, a selection of poems byGeorge Herbert, published in 1923.For this new challenge, a Victoria

platen (jobbing) press was acquired,and John Mason set the type whileRobert Maynard engraved the woodblock illustrations. Once the printingwas completed, the two-man team setabout binding the volumes, 257copies in grey marbled paper with acloth spine, and 43 copies in a specialbinding of crimson Levant morocco.A second book of poetry followed,then a book in Welsh. To cope withthis new challenge, local WelshmanJohn Jones was apprenticed andtrained up as a compositor; and notlong after Robert Maynard invitedanother colleague to join the team—artist Horace Bray, who assistedRobert with the wood blockillustrations.Around this time, Robert

Maynard decided to investigate fontsother than Kennerley; after looking atwhat was available he decided toinvest in a monotype caster, from

which he cast Garamond, Poliphilusand Blado, amongst other fonts, andover time, this use of differenttypefaces became one of thedistinctive features of the Press. Asthe work at the Press expanded,another local boy, Idris Jones, wastaken on and trained as a compositorto free John Mason’s time so he couldconcentrate on the binding side of theproduction. Idris was soon joined inthe composing room by his youngerbrother Idwal, and shortly thereafterR.O. Jones and Herbert Hodgsonalso joined the Press as compositors.John Mason left the Press in 1926,

during the production of the press’sfourth work, Detholiad o ganiadau byT. Gwynn Jones. The Press, nowunder a Maynard-Bray partnership,

was attracting wide acclaim andflourished during the second half ofthe 1920s. The plays of Euripides—atwo-volume translation by ProfessorGilbert Murray—marked the end ofthis period, when Robert Maynardand Horace Bray moved to Londonin 1930 to establish the Raven Press.In the meantime, bookbinder GeorgeFisher had taken over John Mason’srole at the Press, remaining there forthe next 20 years, and working onbeyond the life of the Press. J. EwartBowen was employed as the bindery’sapprentice. The bindery alsoemployed a number of local girls,including Idris and Idwal Jones’ sister,Gwen Edwards.In 1931, management of the Press

was taken over by William McCance,


with Blair Hughes-Stanton asdesigner, together with their wivesAgnes Parker and Gertrude Hermes,both of whom were engravers, andlater book illustrators in their ownright. This next period in the Press’sexistence lasted three years, andheralded an improvement in thequality of the illustrations, and in theskill of the pressmen, in particularHerbert Hodgson, who was capableof bringing out the finest lines ofHughes-Stanton’s engravings. Duringthose three years Blair Hughes-Stanton cut between 200 and 300wood blocks; also during this periodthe book considered the gem of theGregynog Press was created, Thefables of Esope, containing delicatewood engravings of wild animals fromillustrations made by Agnes Parker.McCance and Hughes-Stanton

left the Press in 1933, and in 1934 anAmerican, Lloyd Haberley, took overas manager and employed a large newtypeface for his production of Erosand Psyche. Unfortunately it wasmuch criticised and hardly ever usedagain, and within two years Haberleyresigned and management of thePress was taken over by JamesWardrop of the Victoria and AlbertMuseum. The finest volumepublished during this period was theHistory of St Louis which drew on thetalents of a number of famous people

such as Alfred Fairbank, R.J.Beedham, Reynolds Stone andBerthold Wolpe. Hand-colouredillustrations were completed by thegirls working in the bindery.The Davies sisters were extremely

wealthy, and no expense was sparedon time spent or quality of materialsused to make a book as perfect aspossible. By 1940, 42 bookscomprising some 12,000 copies hadbeen published. All but nine of thebooks were illustrated; seven bookswere printed in Welsh, one work isbilingual and eleven others, althoughprinted in English, were by Welshauthors or had Welsh connections.The outbreak of war in 1939

signalled the end of the Press as themen joined the armed forces, withonly George Fisher remaining tocomplete outstanding bindings, a taskwhich kept him at Gregynog until1945.4

The set of books purchased by theUniversity has an excellentprovenance, having come from theDavies family home in Plas Dinamwhere the two owners of the press,Margaret and Gwendoline Davies,lived with their stepmother, MrsEdward Davies (1853–1942), prior totheir move to Gregynog. Thiscollection is Mrs Edward Davies’personal set, purchased for her byMargaret and Gwendoline, and kept

at the family home until now. Apartfrom the first two books, they are allnumbered ‘3’, which is the next copyafter the sisters’ own copies, and oneof the books—the 3rd book off thePress, Caneuon Ceiriog detholiad—is ina unique binding by George Fisherdone especially for Mrs Davies, withher name on the upper cover. Theonly two volumes not in specialbindings are The revelation of St Johnthe Divine and The poems of HenryVaughan, which form part of thelarger ordinary edition.Such an opportunity to acquire a

set is unlikely to come up again, asthis was the last set still in familyhands. A total of 15 full sets of thespecial bindings is possible, but fivesets are held in institutions in the UK,four are known to be in private hands,and apart from this set, all otherknown sets are thought to have beendispersed. The purchase alsocomplements the Library’s existingholdings of 14 Gregynog Press titlesin ordinary edition bindings.

The University of Melbourne’sprivate press collectionA great strength of the University ofMelbourne’s Special Collections inthe Baillieu Library is workspublished by private presses, buildingon the original donation of hiscollection by Dr J. Orde Poynton in

Agnes Miller Parker, illustration from The fables of Esope. Special Collections, Baillieu Library,



the 1950s. Special Collections hascomplete holdings of the KelmscottPress, Eragny Press, Golden CockerelPress, Fleece Press and the BookClub of California Press. In addition,we have strong holdings of manyother presses, such as the StrawberryHill Press, Ashdene Press, DovesPress, Franfrolico Press, Vale Press,Beaumont Press, Birmingham Schoolof Printing Press, Riccardi Press,Nonesuch Press, Roycroft Press,Rampant Lions Press, Argonaut Pressand Scholartis Press, as well asmodest holdings in dozens morepresses, including Australian pressessuch as the Hawthorn Press.There is only a smattering of

Gregynog Press titles held in librariesacross Australia, including whatappears to be only one specialbinding, and no other institution hasa complete set of the Gregynog Press.A number of titles are not held in anyother Australian library.

A gift from a zoologistPam PrydeSpecial Collections in the BaillieuLibrary recently received a veryspecial donation on the retirement ofProfessor David L. Macmillan, headof the Department of Zoology in theFaculty of Science. ProfessorMacmillan contacted Special

Collections shortly before hisretirement to discuss an idea hewanted to develop; he knew theDepartment would like to give him amemento on his retirement, and histhoughts were that he didn’t want amemento that would ‘sit at home anddeteriorate and disappear’. Thetraditional parting gift in Zoology is abook or a print, and while ProfessorMacmillan has a particular love ofbooks—and of history—sadly he losthis eyesight in recent years, so heneeded to think creatively around theanticipated gift. With the support ofhis wife Wilna Macmillan, a seniorlibrarian at Monash University, Davidcame up with the idea of donating tothe University of Melbourne Libraryan early text in his area of research—neuroethology, particularly of aquaticorganisms.Professor Macmillan studied for

his BSc (Hons) degree at MonashUniversity and his PhD at theUniversity of Oregon. His post-doctoral and other research wasundertaken at the Gatty MarineLaboratory in St Andrews, Scotland;the Max Planck Institute forComparative Physiology inSeewiesen, Austria; the University ofRegensburg in Germany; the CNRSComparative NeurobiologyLaboratory in Arcachon, France; andthe Marine Biological Laboratory in

Woods Hole, USA. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Marine andFreshwater Behaviour and Physiologyand a member of the InternationalNeuroethology Society, Society forExperimental Biology, AustralianMarine Science Association and othernational and international scientificbodies. He is also a member of theadvisory board of the SpecialResearch Centre for EnvironmentalStress and Adaptation Research. Hismost recent research at Melbourneexamines a range of issues on theinterface between behaviour andphysiology, concentrating oninvertebrate animals, mostly aquatic.To find a suitable book reflecting

Professor Macmillan’s scientificinterests, Special Collections staffcontacted several local booksellers.The following title caught ProfessorMacmillan’s attention:

Bacon (Francis) NOVUMORGANUM SCIENTIARUM.Editio Secunda. Pp. [xxiv]+404,engraved emblematic title page, afew small decorative initials;[bound with] DE AUGMENTISSCIENTIARUM. Pp. [xx]+607+[67](index), engraved title page, acouple of decorative headpieces,and a few small decorativeinitials; f’cap. 12mo;contemporary full vellum, spine


titled by hand ... JoannisRavestein, Amsterdam, 1660;1662. *Novum Organum (the ‘newinstrument’), was the book inwhich Bacon set forth his theoryof scientific method for acquiringtrue knowledge. The pictorialtitle page depicts a ship in fullsail, passing through the Pillars ofHercules from the old world tothe new. ‘It symbolizes the visionof its author whose ambitiousproposal was “a totalreconstruction of sciences, artsand all human knowledge ... toextend the power and dominionof the human race ... over theuniverse”.’ First published in1620, it was intended as the firstpart of a much largerphilosophical work (which wasalso to include De AugmentisScientiarum, in which headdresses the classification ofknowledge). ... The full projectwas never completed, but theinfluence of Bacon’s work wasprofound. The inductive andempirical method of investigatingnature he propounded in theNovum Organum set the modelfor modern experimentalscientific method. (Ironically,Bacon’s death was a direct resultof following his own method: hedied of a chill caught while

stuffing a chicken with snow inorder to observe the effects ofcold on the preservation of flesh).The printer of this edition,Johann van Ravestein (1618–1681) was a leading Amsterdambookseller, active between 1650and 1678.

Professor Macmillan knew this bookwould cost more than theDepartment of Zoology couldcontribute, so he proposed that thepurchase be achieved through thecombined efforts of the Departmentof Zoology, his own (substantial)personal donation and the UniversityLibrary.At his farewell, Professor

Macmillan told his colleagues, ‘Yourassistance in purchasing Novumorganum scientarium by Francis Baconwas the best gift I could havereceived. It will sit in the Rare Bookcollection at the University to remindus of our time together long after Iam gone; indeed, to inform otherswho follow of our association longafter we are all gone. I will not bedisappearing from the University orZoology just yet. I will continue tocontribute wherever you perceive thatI can help. Indeed, and still: Thewoods are lovely, dark and deep. But Ihave promises to keep, and miles to gobefore I sleep. Robert Frost.’

Afterwards Professor Macmillanobserved that he was ‘very pleasedwith the book and with the positiveand warm reception from theZoology staff when they learned whatI had done with their donations’.

Pam Pryde is Curator of Special Collections in theBaillieu Library, University of Melbourne.

Gift of rare maps from former curatorDavid JonesIn December 2009 the MapCollection of the University Libraryreceived a generous donation of alarge part of the personal collection ofmaps of Mrs Dorothy F. PrescottOAM. Mrs Prescott’s gift of severalhundred items includes both sheetmaps and books. Of particularsignificance is the large number ofBritish Admiralty navigation chartsfrom around the globe. Some of thesedate back more than a century; theyare no longer in print and few copiesexist in Australia. Now used for avariety of research purposes includingenvironmental research, they are animportant record of our planet. Alsoincluded in the gift is a large numberof topographical maps comprisingmodern and historical examples fromaround the world. Many of these arealso out of print and difficult toobtain. Library staff are now

Francis Bacon, Franc. Baconis de Verulamio, SummiAngliae Cancellarij, Novum organum scientiarum,2nd edition, Amsterdam: Joannis Ravesteinij,1660. Gift of Professor David Macmillan and theDepartment of Zoology, Special Collections,Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne.


cataloguing the donation.Dorothy Prescott has a long

association with the University ofMelbourne, and particularly with theLibrary. As the inaugural curator ofmaps from 1964 to 1979, she built upthe collection virtually from scratch,as well as undertaking detailedcataloguing and documentation. Shesubsequently took up the position ofmap curator at the National Libraryof Australia, and has held a similarrole at the University College Libraryin Ibadan, Nigeria. Mrs Prescott is aleading expert on maps in Australia,has advised government andcommercial organisations andlectured at Melbourne and otheruniversities. She is an approved valuerof maps for the CommonwealthGovernment’s Cultural GiftsProgram, and has many cartographicpublications to her name. In 2003 shewas awarded the Medal of the Orderof Australia for services to maplibrarianship and carto-bibliography.Dorothy and her husband, theeminent geographer ProfessorEmeritus Dr Victor Prescott, havebeen active members of the Friends ofthe Baillieu Library for many years,and are also supporting thedigitisation of rare maps in thecollection.5

The Maps Collection is locatedon the 4th floor of the ERC Library,

see www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/maps/map-historical.htmlfor more information.

David Jones is Information Consultant, MapsCollection, in the University Library.

The Harry Simon CollectionBick-har YeungA recent addition to the East AsianRare Books Collection in the BaillieuLibrary is the donation by ProfessorEmeritus Harry Felix Simon of hisChinese language collection.Professor Simon, an eminent linguistoriginally from London, wasappointed Foundation Professor ofOriental Studies at the University ofMelbourne in 1961. During his termin office he played an important rolein the establishment of teaching andresearch in the discipline of orientalstudies (which later changed its nameto East Asian studies), including theteaching of Chinese and Japaneselanguages. He was Dean of Arts inthe 1970s and also a great supporterof the Library’s East AsianCollection. He retired from theUniversity in 1988.The Harry Simon Collection

comprises 20 boxes of Chinesepublications dating from the 1900s tothe 1980s, in the areas of Chineseliterature and language, history andthe arts. There is an incomplete set of

early 1930s primary school textbooksand a few valuable titles of Chinesepoems in oriental bindings. EastAsian Collection staff are catalogingthe Collection with funding generouslyprovided by the University’s AsiaInstitute and donors to the 2009University Appeal.

Bick-har Yeung is the East Asian Librarian at theUniversity of Melbourne.

Notes

1 [ James Smith], ‘Introduction’, in The Lambertalbum: Comprising sixteen character portraits ofMr J.C. Lambert, Melbourne: Batchelder &Co., 1866, [pp. v–vi]. Special Collections,Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne.

2 Robert Holden, Photography in colonialAustralia: The mechanical eye and the illustratedbook, Potts Point, NSW: Hordern House,1988, pp. 20–23. See also pp. 143–145.

3 Wallace Kirsop, ‘A theatrical library innineteenth-century Melbourne and itsdispersal: Solving a puzzle’, La Trobe Journal,vol. 10, no. 37, Autumn 1986, p. 6 and note 25.

4 Dorothy A. Harrop, A history of the GregynogPress, Pinner, Middlesex: Private LibrariesAssociation, 1980.

5 See ‘Mapping a digital future for preciouscollections’, University of Melbourne annualgiving update, April 2010, [p. iv]www.unimelb.edu.au/alumni/giving/annual_giving_update/annual_giving_update_2009.pdf.

Mrs Dorothy Prescott OAM and Professor Emeritus Dr Victor Prescott examining

a map being scanned for online publication.


The year 2009 was a particularly bigone for musical anniversaries; aboveall it was 250 years after the death ofGeorge Frideric Handel and 200years after the death of Joseph Haydn.Notable among many Handelcommemorations were those in hisbirthplace, Halle, Germany, and thecity where he lived the longest,London. In Austria and Hungary,2009 was officially declared the‘Haydn Year’. No doubt many musiclovers will have precious memories ofconcerts, but in the last weeks of theyear the University of Melbourne alsoacquired a more tangible legacy: firsteditions of the two oratorios whichwere the composers’ own favourites,though they fared very differently inpublic estimation.There have been many reasons

given for the muted reception ofHandel’s Theodora at its premiere andfor two centuries after: theearthquakes that kept faint-heartedtheatre-goers at home, theunfamiliarity of a Christian story as aHandel oratorio theme, the obscurityof this particular Christian story, andthe lack of an upbeat ending amongthem. Thomas Morell’s libretto wasadapted from The martyrdom ofTheodora and Didymus (published1687), a pious novel by RobertBoyle.1 The libretto is perhaps nothelped by the literal reference to a fate

‘worse than death indeed’.From the outset the response to

Theodora set a pattern of publicdisdain contrasting with high esteemamong a few connoisseurs, as a letterby Handel’s friend the Earl ofShaftesbury reveals: ‘I can’t concludea letter, and forget Theodora. I haveheard it three times, and venture toPronounce it, as finished, beautifuland labour’d a composition, as everHandel made. ... The Town don’t likeit at all; but Mr Kellaway and severalexcellent musicians think as I do.’2

Another letter, by the librettistMorell, suggests that Handel himselfperceived this mixed response veryquickly, and accepted it with wryhumour:

The next I wrote was Theodora(in 1749), which Mr Handellhimself valued more than anyPerformance of the Kind; andwhen I once ask’d him, whetherhe did not look upon the GrandChorus in the Messiah as hismaster piece? “No, says he, I thinkthe Chorus at the end of the 2d partin Theodora far beyond it.–“He sawthe lovely youth &c’.

The 2d night of Theodora wasvery thin indeed, tho the PrincessAmelia was there. I guess’d it alosing night, so did not go to

Mr Handell as usual; but seeinghim smile, I ventur’d. when, willyou be there next Friday night? saysHe, and I will play it to you.3

The full score of Theodora withchoruses, including the one he valuedso highly, was not published until1787.4 Even then, the publication wasnot so much a recognition of themerits of this particular work as a by-

Handel and HaydnRichard Excell


product of the ‘HandelCommemoration’ of 1784,5 whichinspired efforts to publish amonumental edition of all his works.This is reflected in the binder’s spinetitle of the copy the library hasacquired, which reads: Handel’s Works,vol. xiv Theodora.The very first edition of Theodora

had, like most first editions ofHandel’s operas and oratorios,

included only the overture and songs,with the original singers named.6 Formany years just one of these arias,Angels ever bright and fair, was widelyknown, but there are many others ofat least equal quality and great variety,ranging from the villainous Romangovernor Valens’ blustering Racks,gibbets, swords and fire to Theodora’shaunting Fond flatt’ring world, adieu.The University of Melbourne’s

copy in the Louise Hanson-DyerMusic Library Rare Collections bearsthe name of an early owner: ‘JohnSharman, 22 Dawson Street’. As ‘aneminent astronomer and geographer’he may seem an unlikely connoisseurof a neglected musical masterpiece,but the concluding sentence of hisobituary makes things clear: ‘Histalents as a composer will be admittedby all judges of melody, whoremember that we are indebted tohim for the sublime music of the106th Psalm.’7

Though Theodora continued tohave admirers,8 it is only in recentyears, aided by several recordings anda provocative staged version directedby Peter Sellars, that Handel’s ownopinion of this oratorio is finallybeing vindicated.Haydn’s Creation, by contrast, was

an immediate triumph, and hasremained a favourite of all but themost jaded of music lovers. The main

reason is of course the richness andgood-natured profundity of the musicitself, but careful preparation helped.The first performances, private andlater public, were unusually well-rehearsed for the time, andanticipation had been aroused acrossEurope. The first edition was also theproduct of careful preparation,9 as thecomposer himself announced:

The success which my OratorioThe Creation has been fortunateenough to enjoy … [has] inducedme to arrange for itsdissemination myself. Thus thework will appear … neatly andcorrectly engraved and printed ongood paper, with German andEnglish texts; and in full score, sothat … my composition will beavailable to the public in itsentirety, and the connoisseur willbe in a position to see it as awhole and judge it.10

Haydn, whose dealings withmusic publishers were not alwaysmarked by the most scrupulousbehaviour on either side, was alsomotivated by a desire to secure hisdue financial reward. Each verifiedcopy, including those despatchedinternationally, received thecomposer’s ‘JH’ monogram from hispersonal hand-stamp. In the event,

Opposite, above: Frontispiece, engraved byJacobus Houbraken, from George Frideric Handel,

Theodora: An oratorio in score, London: Printed for H. Wright,

(Successor to Mr. Walsh) in Catharine Street inthe Strand, [1787]. Purchased 2009,

Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library RareCollections, University of Melbourne.

Left: Title page from George Frideric Handel,Theodora: An oratorio,

London: Printed for I. Walsh in Catharine Streetin the Strand, [1751]. Purchased 2009,

Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library RareCollections, University of Melbourne.

Below: Opening of ‘Racks, gibbets, swords andfire’, from Handel, Theodora: An oratorio, [1751].


The Creation was a great success, andmost of the performances that Haydndirected himself in Vienna were forcharity.The triumphant visits to London

which had seen the premieres ofHaydn’s last 12 symphonies were stillfresh in English memories, and, as wehave seen, Haydn anticipated this tooby publishing The Creation inGerman and English from the outset,with the German words in the normalposition below the stave and theEnglish words above. He sent aninitial run of 100 copies to hisLondon distributor, Longman,Clementi & Co., whose overpastedlabel can be seen on the University’scopy. Also present in our copy (butnot in most extant copies) is theprinted list of subscribers, with ahandwritten addition which mayindicate the volume’s original owner.The inserted name, ‘FrançoisCramer’, is easily identified. Born intoa musical family in 1772, Franz (orFrançois) Cramer had been one of theyounger violinists in the orchestraassembled by the impresario Salomonfor Haydn’s London concerts.11

Though not as famous as his elderbrother, the pianist and composerJohann Baptist, Franz Cramer had adistinguished career in his own right,culminating in his appointment in1834 as ‘Master of the King’s Musick’.12

The author wishes to thank Jennifer Hill andEvelyn Portek for their assistance in preparing thisarticle.

Richard Excell is a musicologist and librarian whoholds the position of Rare Music Cataloguer at theUniversity of Melbourne. He has a Bachelor ofArts (Honours) degree in music and a Master ofArts (Librarianship) from Monash University, andis a member of the medieval music ensembleAcord. In 2009–2011 he is located in Budapestbecause of his wife’s employment, and is workingremotely part-time for the University.

Notes

1 The same Robert Boyle (1627–1691) is betterknown as the chemist after whom ‘Boyle’sLaw’ is named. The earliest source for thestory was Saint Ambrose, and there had morerecently been an unsuccessful French play byPierre Corneille.

2 Fourth Earl of Shaftesbury, letter to JamesHarris, 24 March 1750, cited in Ruth Smith,‘Comprehending Theodora’, Eighteenth-Century Music, vol. 2, issue 1, March 2005, p. 57.

3 As transcribed in Ruth Smith, ‘ThomasMorell and his letter about Handel’, Journal ofthe Royal Musical Association, vol. 127, no. 2,2002, p. 218.

4 George Frideric Handel, Theodora: An oratorioin score, London: Printed for H. Wright,(Successor to Mr. Walsh) in Catharine Streetin the Strand, [1787]. Purchased 2009, LouiseHanson-Dyer Music Library Rare Collections,University of Melbourne.

5 Handel was born on 24 February 1685, but inthe 1780s the new year in England was stillcounted from 25 March (‘Lady Day’).

6 George Frideric Handel, Theodora: An oratorio,London: Printed for I. Walsh in CatharineStreet in the Strand, [1751]. Purchased 2009,Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library RareCollections, University of Melbourne.

7 Obituary, The Gentleman’s Magazine andHistorical Chronicle, vol. 93, 1823, p. 94.

8 Notably a review by the composer G.A.Macfarren in The Musical Times, 1873, p. 206.

9 Joseph Haydn, Die Schoepfung: ein Oratoriumin Musik: The Creation: An oratorio, Vienna:[the composer], 1800. Purchased 2009, LouiseHanson-Dyer Music Library Rare Collections,University of Melbourne.

10 Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, Intelligenz-Blatt, no. 15 [ June 1799]; translation from‘Haydn, Joseph, 5: Vienna 1795–1809’, Grovemusic online. Oxford music online, accessed 19 February 2010.

11 Simon McVeigh and others, ‘Cramer’, Grovemusic online. Oxford music online, accessed 24 February 2010.

12 ‘Queen’s Musick’ from 1837.

Right: Detail of publisher’s overpasted label ontitle page of Joseph Haydn, Die Schoepfung: einOratorium in Musik: The Creation: An oratorio,Vienna: [the composer], 1800. Purchased 2009,Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library RareCollections, University of Melbourne.

Below: Opening of ‘The heavens are telling’, fromHaydn, Die Schoepfung.


In about 10001 a very interestingilluminated manuscript that probablyheld copies of all of the letters of PopeGregory the Great was created. Fivecenturies later, 41 of these letters,from books two, three and four, wereremoved from the manuscript, whichdid not survive. These 41 letters atsome stage became part of therenowned library of Saint Michael’sCollege in Tenbury, England, wherein 1939 they were bound in a thickleather spine with linen on boards forcovers. The resulting slim volume wasbought in 1975 by the University ofMelbourne from the London rarebook dealer, Alan G. Thomas, andcan now be read in the University’sIan Potter Museum of Art.2

Pope Gregory, the favourite popeof today’s Benedict XVI, lived fromabout 540 to 12 March 604. For hislast 14 years Gregory was a highlysuccessful pontiff, despite his severeillnesses. As godfather of Theodosius,the eldest son of the ByzantineEmperor Maurice, in whose palace hehad stayed for several years, hebrought the church and state togetherfor the first time. A fine scholar andbrilliant administrator, he played amajor part in establishing theorthodox faith in Sardinia, Gaul,England, Sicily and Spain. Evidenceof this extraordinary achievement,and of his wide-ranging reforms and

his determined effort to help thehelpless and stamp out corruptionand violence, can be seen in hisbeautifully written letters, sentthroughout the Christian world.Brought up by his mother and threemaiden aunts, while his father wasbusy looking after the church’sfinances and large family estates inItaly and Sicily, he was the only popeto do all he could to help nuns, whoappear in 36 of his letters. Scholarshave regularly written chapters onGregory’s special support for monksand monasteries, but never on thenuns; only two of those letters haveever been discussed.3 Fourteen books

of Gregory’s letters have survived, andthey provide a fascinating picture ofthat important period. Most of these855 letters are personal, and many arewritten in fine Ciceronian Latin.Over the centuries the Melbourne

manuscript had fallen apart it seems,and in about 1600 several folios, ordouble pages, had been extractedfrom the manuscript, many of themunused and possibly thrown away.This was done by a group ofmusicians, who used the ones theykept to wrap around their musicalscores, some of which later becomepart of the collection of the library atSt Michael’s College in Tenbury.4

A Gregorian manuscript in the Ian Potter Museum of ArtJohn R.C. Martyn


Previous page: Detail showing inscription ‘Bassus’ at bottom of page, and initial letters ‘S’ and ‘Q.’Scribe and illustrator unknown [probably French],c.1000, Copies of 41 letters by Pope Gregory theGreat (c.540–604), black ink with historiatedinitials in red and blue ink, on vellum, bound in amodern leather and linen on board cover (c.1939)with front-matter enclosing moderncorrespondence and brief commentary; twopreviously pasted-in letters removed; height 34.6 cm. Reg. no. 1975.0096, purchased bythe Department of Classics, 1975, University ofMelbourne Art Collection.

The musicians inscribed thecorresponding voice-parts at thebottom of these folios, namely medius,tenor, contratenor maior, contratenorsecundus, and bassus (see example onprevious page). Five musical part-books were wrapped up with thesefragile folios; a sixth, that of thesuperius, may have been part of theset.5 The superius (uppermost) had thehighest voice in a polyphoniccomposition, the term coming intocommon use when music began to bepublished, and each part-book had tocarry some identification. But theterm medius was also sometimes givento the highest part-book of a set,especially in liturgical sources, as mayhave happened with this manuscript.Part-books contained music for only asingle voice (or instrument), unlikecomplete scores and choir-books thatwere standard for ensemble music inthe 16th to 17th centuries. A basic setvaried from just two to as many asten, four being the usual number.6

Almost all of the folios used bythe musicians are damaged at the top(see example opposite), having beenon the outside part of the roll ofmusic, their thin skins most exposedto human hands, other manuscripts orrodents. There are one or two holes,large or small, at the top of eight ofthe folios, where the script can nolonger be read. The musicians’ lack of

respect for the Gregory manuscript ishard to explain. It may have beenpoorly bound in the first place andwas breaking up as suggested by 1600,after excessive use, possibly due to thegreat popularity of Pope Gregory’sworks, which included the only life ofSaint Benedict. However, the way thefolios were used as wrappingssuggests that they were extractedfrom a pile of unbound early letters,gathering dust on a library shelf.The script is quite attractive,

although its many abbreviations makeit hard to read. It is a late minusculescript, from a scriptorium in Gaul,possibly Luxeuil or Avignon or Paris,great centres for the copying ofmanuscripts at that time, whereGregory’s letters and other splendidworks were admired and well knownin monasteries and convents. Thereare no cursive elements and the lettersare well rounded, and certainly notyet descending into the thick, blacklettering of the Gothic script. Alsothe freelance artist’s delightful love ofdecoration and quixotic variations inlettering suggests that he was workingin a well-endowed scriptorium inFrance, perhaps in Paris, rather thanin northern Europe or England.An English scholar, Edmund

Horace Fellowes (who served ashonorary librarian of Saint Michael’sCollege, Tenbury, from 1918 until

1948) at some point before 1927 sentthe folios to the deputy keeper of theDepartment of Manuscripts at theBritish Museum, John A. Herbert, forhim to examine. But Herbert retiredin 1927 and the folios wereoverlooked, remaining at the museumuntil a successor, Eric Millar, wrote tothe Tenbury librarian in 1937 askingwhat he wanted to do with them.7 Itseems that Fellowes considereddonating them to the BritishMuseum, an offer the museum wouldhave gladly accepted,8 but apparentlythe folios were returned to Tenbury,as in July 1939 they were boundtogether in a leather and cloth cover,together with some of thecorrespondence between Fellowes andthe British Museum and othermodern notations.9 This boundvolume next appeared in 1975 for salein the catalogue of Alan G. Thomas,a London rare books dealer.At that time I was taking senior

students in a palaeography courseeach year in the Classics Departmentat the University of Melbourne, at atime when funds were available forthe purchase of individual folios,including some illuminations, and ofancient pottery. The Gregory letterswere bought by the University at thistime. These folios now form part of asignificant group of Latinmanuscripts in the University’s


Classics and Archaeology Collection,which is located at the Ian PotterMuseum of Art. Asked to translate allof this material from Latin intoEnglish, I had no trouble until I gotto the Gregory letters. To makethings easier, I checked the BaillieuLibrary for a version of them, butthere was no sign of one, in fact therewas nothing in any modern languagein any library that covered them all.Although short of time, I translatedwhat turned out to be some veryinteresting material, but written incomplex Latin. The sequel was astrong request from colleagues inmedieval history for an Englishversion of all of Gregory’s otherletters. Nearly five years later I hadcompleted this mammoth task, andall the letters appeared in threevolumes, nearly 1,000 pagesaltogether, printed by the PontificalInstitute of Mediaeval Studies.10

For a talk on the subject ‘PopeGregory: Author of the Dialogues’,that I delivered at a conference of theAustralian Early MedievalAssociation held at MonashUniversity in September 2009, I analysed letter III.50 of theMelbourne volume. In this letter toMaximian, an old friend from theiryears together in Constantinople,Gregory asks his vicar of Sicily toremind him of some miracles he had

Folio page showing damage and loss at top of page.

University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 6, June 201054 University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 6, June 2010

mentioned earlier, as his fellow monksin Rome had pressured him intocomposing a book on Italian miracles.Based on analysis of other material,this letter had been condemned by anEnglish scholar, Francis Clark, as aforgery. Clark argued that PopeGregory never wrote the Dialogues,mainly because he thought that theletter asks the busy vicar to leave hispost, something Gregory would neverhave requested.11 I showed that thebest reading for the end of this letterwas ipse non proferas (‘but don’t bringit yourself’). The ipse appeared in a12th century Cologne manuscript andin the 10th century manuscriptfragment now at the Potter, and itmakes perfect sense. The othermanuscripts read ad me ipsum, ‘to memyself’, where the ipsum issuperfluous. The pope was joking,ironical, as he often was with hisfriends.12 A detail of the foliocontaining this letter can be seen onpage 53.There may be other interesting

readings in these letters,13 few innumber but sent during a veryimportant period in the Pope’s life,from 592 to 594.14 But that willrequire a lot of collating. Of moreinterest now are the illuminations,especially those of the initial capitalletters. If the original manuscript hadsurvived intact, it would have been

Detail showing capital initials ‘Q’, ‘C’ and ‘S’ (two styles).


one of the only ones containingreligious letters or classical works tohave regular or in fact anyilluminations, and in this case veryquixotic ones. In medievalmanuscripts, there are occasionallyhigh quality pictures, but otherwisecapital letters of similar nature fit thetwo lines allotted to them veryaccurately, without much or anyembellishment, and with no variety inlettering. In this manuscript theshapes of the letters are varied, as arethe two colours: red and blue. As canbe seen in the illustrations on thispage and on pages 54 and 56, thepainter was a law unto himself,especially where there was room for along tail; perhaps the artist was theabbot! For the letter ‘N’ there is asquare capital and a curved uncial, for‘S’ there is a simple version, an insularversion and yet another with a longblue and red tail. Red and blueinterchange regularly, and the ‘P’varies between a square capital in redand an uncial in blue, while the ‘C’looks like a figure ‘8’, one in blue,another red. The ‘Q’ appears in blue,filled with red filigree, and in red withblue filigree, and the ‘F’ appears in redas a square capital with blue filigreeinside, with a long blue tail. Some ofthe tails change colour, some are redwith blue alongside, some blue withred alongside. Overall, the letters are

plain or filled with filigree, with redor blue colouring or both. The booknumbers are noteworthy for theirinconsistency, with four red spotsaround one example, three red spotsaround six others, but just two oneach side of two, and just one on theleft side of another. With such a smallsample, one must wonder how manystriking variations like these appearedin the whole original manuscript,many of them paying no attention tothe lines ruled by the scribe, whichare clearly visible on each folio.This collection, now held by the

University of Melbourne, of tenth-century copies of some veryinteresting letters sent by PopeGregory late in the sixth century, is animportant one, not only for its versionof the letters, and its closeness to twoearly French manuscripts, but also forthe artistic embellishment, whichincluded the rubrication of the first

two lines or so in every letter. Theirlink with the musical part-books ofthat period is also of interest, as istheir provenance during the 20thcentury. At a later stage I hope towork through the Latin readings inthis manuscript with much more care,again collating and evaluating theirtext against the standard Latin text ofGregory’s letters, for an article in aninternational journal of palaeography.15

John Martyn is an honorary principal fellow in theSchool of Historical Studies, University ofMelbourne, and a former associate professor in theClassics Department. A leading expert on theearly Dark Ages in Western Europe, he haswritten and edited many books, particularly onand around Pope Gregory the Great. He has alsowritten widely on the Visigoths of Spain and onthe Vandals in North Africa.

Notes

1 The date is uncertain, but the distinctiveabbreviations which help to define the date ofsuch manuscripts vary between the 10th and11th centuries. See John R.C. Martyn, The letters of Gregory the Great, 3 vols, Toronto:Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2004,and Adriano Cappelli, Dizionario diabbreviature latine ed italiane, Louvain:Publications Universitaires, 1966.

2 Scribe and illustrator unknown [probablyFrench], c.1000, Copies of 41 letters by PopeGregory the Great (c.540–604), black ink withhistoriated initials in red and blue ink, onvellum, bound in a modern leather and linenon board cover (c.1939) with front-matterenclosing modern correspondence and briefcommentary; two previously pasted-in lettersremoved; height 34.6 cm. Reg. no. 1975.0096,purchased by the Department of Classics,1975, University of Melbourne Art Collection.

Left: Detail showing capital initials ‘R’ and ‘S’.

Below: Detail showing very ornate capital initial ‘L’.


3 See John R.C. Martyn, Pope Gregory and thebrides of Christ, Newcastle: CambridgeScholars Publishing, 2009, which notes inparticular Pope Gregory’s upbringing by fourwomen.

4 These musical part-books became known asTenbury mss 807–811 (E.H. Fellowes,inscription, July 1939, now bound withMelbourne reg. no. 1975.0096).

5 Each musician used two folios (each folio two-sided), and if the superius had been part ofthe ensemble, he would have used two foliosthat would have covered pages 31 & 32 and 33 & 34.

6 I am grateful to Dr Jan Stockigt for herelucidation of these terms.

7 Eric G. Millar, Deputy Keeper, Department ofManuscripts, British Museum, letter to theLibrarian, St Michael’s College, Tenbury, 15 November 1937 (now bound withMelbourne 1975.0096).

8 Eric G. Millar, letter to the Librarian, St Michael’s College, Tenbury, 27 November1937 (now bound with Melbourne1975.0096).

9 Fellowes, inscription, July 1939.10 Martyn, The letters of Gregory the Great.Melbourne 1975.0096 is included in the list of manuscripts on page viii of the preface tovol. 1.

11 See Francis Clark, The ‘Gregorian’ Dialoguesand the origins of Benedictine monasticism,Leiden: Brill, 2002. This book repeated thepersuasive thesis that Clark had argued withmissionary zeal in short articles and in hislengthy work The pseudo-Gregorian.

12 See Martyn, The letters of Gregory the Great, p. 243. See also p. 269, where Melbourne1975.0096 alone gives the name of the see ofBishop Florentius: Epidaurus, nearDubrovnik.

13 A most interesting link has already emerged.One of the key sources for the text is r, whichstands for two early manuscripts in theBibliothèque Nationale in Paris, 11674 (9thcentury) and 2279 (10th century). In my firstcollation of Melbourne 1975.0096, I cameacross over 60 cases where Melbourne

Detail showing plain and ornate initials‘P’ and initial ‘R’.

1975.0096 and r combine to present a variant,in some cases the best reading. A few yearsago, when I was collating all the mainmanuscripts of Gregory’s letters, I found ralmost the most accurate and significant one.Melbourne 1975.0096 was clearly copied fromthe same French originals, possibly in Paris inthe late 900s. Note that for books III and IV, ris the only reliable witness, as the P family, themost important witness, does not cover thesetwo books. A real surprise!

14 The letters are II.14, 15, 40, 42, 43, 44; III.7, 8,9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26,27, 28, 29, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58,59 and IV.15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Of these 19are incomplete: 11.14, 40, 43, 44; 111.7, 8, 14,20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 49, 52, 54, 57, 59; IV.15, 20.

15 Unfortunately the latest edition of Gregory’sletters, undertaken by a then very elderly DagNorberg (S. Gregorii Magni Registrumepistularum, Turnhout: Brepols, 1982), despitebeing adopted for inclusion in the prestigiousCorpus Christianorum Series Latina, has manyshortcomings.

university of melbourne collections · 2015-03-16 · discover the grainger museum, ian potter...

Documents