Philip Bliss (Librarian)

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Philipp Bliss (painted by John Bridges)

Philip Bliss (born December 21, 1787 in Chipping Sodbury , † November 18, 1857 in Oxford ) was a British antiquarian and bibliophile , librarian and archivist. From 1824 to 1853, Bliss was Registrar at the University of Oxford , and from 1848 until his death, he ran St Mary Hall in Oxford.

Life

Philip Bliss was the older son of his father of the same name and his wife Anne. First, Bliss attended public school in his hometown and in 1797 moved to the Merchant Taylors' School in London , which he graduated in 1806 at the age of 19.

Immediately after graduation, Bliss went to Oxford to study private law at St John's College . At the age of 21 he got a job as an assistant at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, where he cataloged the collections of Richard Gough and Richard Rawlinson . The following year, erwirkten Thomas Park and Joseph Harding that Bliss additional staff position at the Athenae Oxonienses of Anthony Wood received. Also at John Aubrey 's Brief Lives , the first comprehensive edition of the diaries of Thomas Hearne was Bliss involved as editor prevail.

In 1815 Bliss graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Law. Two years later he was ordained a deacon and in 1818 a priest of the Church of England . That same year, Bliss, still a student assistant at the Bodleian Library, ran against Bulkeley Bandinel for the office of Bodley's Librarian and lost because Bandinel was re-elected. Also in 1818, Bliss's application for the post of senior archivist at the University of Oxford was turned down in favor of mathematician George Leigh Cooke . Even from the Advocates Library in Edinburgh , Bliss was rejected every time, despite multiple applications in the years 1818 to 1820.

In 1820 Bliss received his doctorate in Civil Law and was subsequently a curate (assistant priest) in Newington (Oxfordshire) for some time . After two more years at the Bodleian Library, Bliss was employed by the library of the British Museum (today: British Library ) in 1822 on the initiative of Earl Spencer , where he had also applied to no avail. In July of the same year, however, Bliss was poached again by Bandinel, who made him his assistant at the Bodleian Library.

Bliss married Sophia Bell on July 22, 1823. The following year, the now 37-year-old Bliss was appointed registrar at the University of Oxford, which was followed in 1826 by being appointed head of the university archives. After two years in several professions, Bliss resigned from the Bodleian Library in 1828.

In 1830 Bliss was appointed rector of Avening in Gloucestershire , but in view of his academic obligations he showed little interest. In 1848 Bliss succeeded Bishop Renn Hampden as head of St Mary's Hall. Perhaps this was the reason that Bliss less time-consuming post of chaplain in the Studley Priory ( Oxfordshire accepted), a position he held until his retirement in 1855th

Philip Bliss died on November 18, 1857 and was buried in the cemetery of St Giles' Church in Oxford on November 21, 1857.

Library

As a child, Bliss began to be interested in antiquarian issues and to collect books. He did not use bookplates , but simply marked the books with his initial n and the year of purchase.

Bliss' collection was one of the largest known Oxford-focused collections and contained some works from before the Great Fire of London . Bliss also owned a collection of books by authors from royal and aristocratic families, some of which were sold in London on January 11, 1811 while Bliss was still alive. In his will, Bliss had decreed that his correspondence should be offered to the British Museum, from which it was actually bought in January 1858. The remainder of the extensive library was auctioned off by Sotheby's and Wilkinson at the deceased's house. The first auction took place between June 28 and July 16, 1858, the second between August 9 and 18, 1858, and the third on August 21, 1858. At the auctions, the Bodleian Library bought a total of 745 volumes related to Oxford.

It is now considered unlikely that the "Mrs. Bliss' famous British collector a relative of Philip Bliss was because they, according to the auction catalog of its library in Kensington (London) lived, while the mother of Philip Bliss in Taunton and his widow lived in Oxford.

literature

  • William Prideaux Courtney: Bliss Philip . In: Dictionary of National Biography : from the earliest times to 1900 . tape 5 : Bicheno-Bottisham. Smith, Elder & Co., London 1886, p. 221-222 ( wikisource.org ).
  • Strickland Gibson, Christopher Joseph Hindle: Philip Bliss, 1787-1857, editor and bibliographer. With a bibliography (= Oxford Bibliographical Society Proceedings and Papers Vol. 3, Part 2). Oxford 1933.
  • Alan Bell: Bliss, Philipp. In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Volume 6: Blackmore – Bowyer. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861356-3 , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e William Prideaux Courtney: Bliss Philip . In: Dictionary of National Biography : from the earliest times to 1900 . tape 5 : Bicheno-Bottisham. Smith, Elder & Co., London 1886, p. 221 ( wikisource.org [accessed April 30, 2020]).
  2. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Allan Bell: Bliss, Philipp. In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Volume 6: Blackmore – Bowyer. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861356-3 , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
  3. Collection: Gough Collection. In: Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts. Bodleian Libraries, 2020, accessed April 30, 2020 .
  4. ^ Collection: Rawlinson Manuscripts. In: Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts. Bodleian Libraries, 2020, accessed April 30, 2020 .
  5. ^ A b Seymour De Ricci: English Collectors of Books and Manuscripts (1530-1930) and Their Marks of Ownership . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1930, pp. 141 ( google.at ).
  6. ^ Samuel Leigh Sotheby, John Wilkinson (Ed.): Catalog of the first portion of the extensive, interesting and valuable library formed by the late Rev. Dr. Bliss, Principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford. J. Davy and Sons, London 1858 ( google.at ).
  7. ^ Samuel Leigh Sotheby, John Wilkinson (ed.): Catalog of the second & remaining portion of the extensive and peculiarly interesting and valuable library, formed by the late Rev. Philip Bliss, DCL, Principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford. J. Davy and Sons, London 1858 ( google.at ).
  8. ^ Samuel Leigh Sotheby, John Wilkinson (Ed.): Catalog of some interesting autograph letters, historical documents, valuable manuscripts, collected by the late Rev. Philip Bliss, DCL, Principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford. J. Davy and Sons, London 1858 ( google.at ).
  9. Bibliotheca splendidissima. In: SOLO | Search Oxford Libraries Online. University of Oxford, accessed May 2, 2020 .
  10. ^ Keri: Blake books in 1826: Mrs Bliss's library. In: Bibliotheca Splendidissima. Blogger, November 9, 2013, accessed May 1, 2020 .