Ian Morrison: “Everything that a flower should have”: Maggs Brothers and the facsimile trade

The oldest book in the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts is The Description of a Voyage made by Certaine Ships of Holland into the East Indies (London, 1598). It is interesting for many reasons, including as the first English-language account of the voyage that led to the establishment of the Dutch East India Company. It isn’t completely authentic though: several pages are “supplied in facsimile”. Researching what this actually means – forgery? not exactly … – opened up larger questions about the practice of “completing” imperfect books, and the choice between a complete text and an authentic artefact.

Ian Morrison is currently Acting Manager Collection Development at Libraries Tasmania. In January 2020 he received a research grant to look at the records of the London bookseller Maggs Brothers, which are held in the British Library. This talk is about the vicissitudes of an international research project in the time of Covid, and the outcomes of the eventual visit to London when travel became possible.

Jointly sponsored by the State Library and Archive Service of Tasmania and the Professional Historians Association Vic & Tas, the Libraries Tasmania Talks are a series of monthly public lectures held at the Hobart Library. They can be attended free at the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts or viewed online via the Webinar.

To register for the event visit the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts website.

You can listen to all previous lectures on their Soundcloud website.