Percy Society

Percy Society was a literary society that existed in London between 1840 and 1852 .

Founded Lady Braybrooke in 1840 with twelve bibliophile colleagues - including William Chappell (1809–1888), John Payne Collier (1789–1883), Thomas Crofton Croker (1789–1854), James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820–1899), Charles Mackay ( 1812–1889), Edward Francis Rimbault (1816–1876), and Thomas Wright (1810–1877) - in London the Percy Society ; named after the writer Thomas Percy (1729–1811). The number of members was limited to 500.

Each member was required to have facsimiles of original literary texts produced at their own expense . The Committee of the Company discussed the upcoming release each and agreed it off. One focus of these publications was the Elizabethan theater , but anthologies of both ecclesiastical and secular songs were also published. The originals, which were planned for a new edition, came from the private collections of the members, or respected institutes such as the Bodleian Library , Ashmolean Museum Pepys Library ( Magdalene College , University of Cambridge ) or the Douce Collection .

In 1852 the company dissolved. When the English philologist Frederic James Furnivall (1825-1910) founded the Ballad Society in 1868 , it was seen as a legitimate successor. The Ballad Society only looked after the rescue or rediscovery of songs.

literature

• William T. Lowndes, Henry G. Bohn: Percy Society Publications . In this. (Ed.): Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature, Vol. 6 . Bell, London 1885, pp. 59-65.