History of the World : Miscellany 1686.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Adam Matthew Digital (Firm), digitiser.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

London (England).

Hertford (England).

Athens (Greece).

Rome (Italy).

France.

Great Britain.

Biography.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Marlborough, Wiltshire : Adam Matthew Digital, 2008.

Summary:

According to the manuscript's opening page, it was written by Sarah Cowper in 1686. On the same page is the instruction that the book should be left to her daughter-in-law, Judith Cowper . Since Judith died fifteen years before her mother-in-law, it is unlikely that she ever owned the manuscript.

Notes:

AMDigital Reference:D/EP F41

D/EP F41, Sarah Cowper's "The History of the World", traces events and personalities in the western world from just after the biblical flood until 1686, the year in which the manuscript was written. Cowper does not cite all her sources, but Anne Kugler notes that much of the volume contains excerpts from William Howell'sAn Institution of General History. The section on ancient civilization not only includes biblical events, but also accounts from classical literature, such as the rape of Helen and the tragedy of Oedipus. Although the history moves roughly from ancient to modern civilization, within this chronological framework Cowper also organises her material with reference to empire: most pages have a heading such as "Athens" or "Rome" in the margin. In the latter half of the manuscript, Cowper tends to focus on an approximately three-hundred-year period in one country or group of people, before moving on to that same period in another country's history, and she helpfully provides cross-references at the beginning of each section so that the reader knows where to find the next installment about "France", "Britain" or "Turks". This last category is the only section of the history to extend to 1686; the section on Britain ends in 1660. That Cowper should dedicate a volume entirely to history is not surprising since her interest in the genre is readily apparent in many of her other manuscripts. D/EP F36 contains "Collections of Several things out of History" (fol.[1r][rev]), and D/EP F40A has a section entitled "Collections out of History" (p.228). In addition, almost every one of her diary volumes mentions the reading of histories. Cowper clearly intended her own "History of the World" to be read by others. The volume's opening leaves carry the inscription: "To my daughter Judith Cowper I leave this book. Desiring her to leave it some one of our family to be kept in memory of Sarah Cowper" (p.[i]). Unfortunately, it is likely that Judith, the first wife of Cowper's son William, never read the work, since she died in 1705, fifteen years before her mother-in-law.

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