Research Catalog
Fragments of the skull of Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Title
- Fragments of the skull of Percy Bysshe Shelley [realia].
- Publication
- [Viareggio, Italy, 1822]
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Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | Mixed material | Permit needed | *Pforz | Schwarzman Building - Pforzheimer Collection Room 319 |
Details
- Additional Authors
- Description
- 2 larger and ca. 30 smaller fragments
- Subject
- Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822 > Relics > Specimens
- Genre/Form
- Skull (skeleton component)
- Note
- Thin pieces of skull, browned with age. With a manuscript attestation (S'ANA 0269a-b) in the hand of Augustus M. Moore, a younger brother of the writer George Moore. The text is also copied on an envelope that once contained it (S'ANA 0269b); (S'ANA 0269a) reads in full, "A piece of Shelley's scull / given me by Miss / Taylor, E. J. Trelawny's / niece, at 7 Pelham / Crescent, London on / August 9th 1879 & given / by me to my friend / Wilfrid Meynell on August / 11th 1879 as the greatest / token of our friendship. / Augustus M. Moore / 28 Clarge's St / London."
- Access (note)
- Restricted access;
- Biography (note)
- In his Recollections of the last days of Shelley and Byron (1858), E. J. Trelawny explains that during the disinterment of Shelley's body near Viareggio, the "iron [of the mattock] had struck a skull ...." He claims that Lord Byron desired Shelley's skull for himself, but Trelawny, recalling that Byron had once used a skull as a drinking-cup, "was determined Shelley's should not be so profaned." During the cremation, Trelawny reports that Shelley's corpse fell over, and the "frontal bone of the skull, where it had been struck with the mattock, fell off ..."
- Provenance (note)
- Edward John Trelawny (1822); Emma Taylor; Augustus M. Moore (9 Aug 1879); Wilfred Meynell (11 Aug 1879); Quaritch London Meynell-Sowerby Sale (Sotheby's 26-27 Oct 1959, part of lot 314).
- Call Number
- *Pforz
- OCLC
- 700289061
- Title
- Fragments of the skull of Percy Bysshe Shelley [realia].
- Imprint
- [Viareggio, Italy, 1822]
- Physical Medium
- human bone; in matting 15.4 x 20.4; window 6 x 9.3 cm
- Local Note
- Filed in SC manuscript file following Percy Bysshe Shelley manuscripts.
- Access
- Restricted access; Pforzheimer Collection; Permit must be requested at the division indicated.
- Biography
- In his Recollections of the last days of Shelley and Byron (1858), E. J. Trelawny explains that during the disinterment of Shelley's body near Viareggio, the "iron [of the mattock] had struck a skull ...." He claims that Lord Byron desired Shelley's skull for himself, but Trelawny, recalling that Byron had once used a skull as a drinking-cup, "was determined Shelley's should not be so profaned." During the cremation, Trelawny reports that Shelley's corpse fell over, and the "frontal bone of the skull, where it had been struck with the mattock, fell off ..."
- Provenance
- Edward John Trelawny (1822); Emma Taylor; Augustus M. Moore (9 Aug 1879); Wilfred Meynell (11 Aug 1879); Quaritch London Meynell-Sowerby Sale (Sotheby's 26-27 Oct 1959, part of lot 314).
- Connect to:
- Added Author
- Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822.Trelawny, Edward John, 1792-1881, former owner.Taylor, Emma, 1841 or 1842- former owner.Moore, Augustus M., former owner.Meynell, Wilfrid, 1852-1948, former owner.
- Research Call Number
- *Pforz