The Forster And Dyce Collections PDF Download

The Dyce Collection is one of two very large and distinct collections within the National Art Library, the other being the Forster Collection, bequeathed by John Forster (1812-76). The respective donors were close friends and the transfer of the Dyce Collection to the Victoria & Albert Museum was overseen by Forster, who was Dyce's executor. The Revd Alexander Dyce was born at Edinburgh in 1798 and died in London in 1869. He bequeathed over 14,000 books to what was then the South Kensington Museum, along with pictures, prints, drawings and other objets d'art. In 1825 he moved to London to further his literary career. He published editions of poets, particularly dramatic. Notably he undertook various editions for the Aldine Poets series published by the bookseller Pickering, and editions of the plays of Middleton and Beaumont and Fletcher. His enthusiasm for the theatre took him to see legendary figures such as John Kemble, Mrs Siddons and Edmund Kean on the stage. Dyce's library grew with judicious purchases of the best and most important editions required for his wide ranging literary and critical editions. His original intention to leave his collection to the Bodleian Library was changed by the persuasive argument that in London his books would be within reach of a larger scholarly audience. In contrast to the Forster Collection there are relatively few manuscripts and these are mainly copies of unique or rare plays and poems. But important holdings include the original manuscript of The Faithful Friends by Beaumont and Fletcher, and The Parliament of Love by Massinger, generally considered to be in the author's own hand. This archive includes 20 works from the Dyce Collection.