| Sumario: | The manuscript collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps was almost certainly the largest private collection ever assembled. Its dispersal during the century a' er his death in 1872 scattered his manuscripts into public and private collections around the world. This paper examines the extent to which Phillipps manuscripts are held in institutional collections in North America and traces the history of their acquisition. Because of the uncertainty inherent in information about Phillipps's collection, and the inadequacies and inaccuracies of current catalog information, calculating total figures must remain imprecise and approximate at best. But the broad picture of the migration of these manuscripts to North America remains sufficiently clear.
|
|---|