[London and Paris], 1851. Very good. Together 2 vols., folio. Vol. I: 127 pp. manuscript written on rectos only, with insertions of the author's Port of Entry, various MS slips, maps, a folding letterpress plan of the British Museum, and a large folding depiction of the Museum of Practical Geology. Vol. II: printed documents bound into an album of blank leaves, some of which have extensive MS annotations and articles in the hand of the author. Bound in contemporary French quarter green basane, marbled endpapers, edges of the textblock untrimmed (headcap of vol. I chipped, some wear to other binding extremities). Overall in excellent condition. ENGAGING 19,000-WORD MANUSCRIPT ACCOUNT OF A FRENCH POLYMATH'S 17-DAY TOUR TO ENGLAND WHERE IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM HE STUDIED EGYPTIAN AND BABYLONIAN ANTIQUITIES AND RARE BOOKS, AND TOURED THE 1851 "GREAT EXHIBITION" AT CRYSTAL PALACE. THERE ARE MANY INTERESTING NOTES CONCERNING ENGLISH CATHOLICISM IN GENERAL, AND AMBROSE PHILLIPPS DE LISLE IN PARTICULAR.
The author, Eugène Van Drival (1815-1887), was an erudite philologist, a Catholic priest, and an antiquarian in the best sense of the word. He served as director of the great seminary of Arras, secretary general of the Arras Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, and was full member of the Society of Antiquaries of Morinie. Writing herein not only as a scholar but as a Catholic priest, Van Drival reflects (privately) on matters concerning English theology and society, sometimes with a certain amount of Gallic humor. His London tour lasted from 24 September to 10 October 1851. Although his handwriting is small, it is clear and readable. The present manuscript is unpublished; notably, the incomplete bibliography of Van Drival's writings ("Liste des ouvrages publiés par M. le chanoine Van Drival," Arras, 1882), published well before his death, already lists 80 articles on an usually broad range of antiquarian interests.
In addition to his record of the British Museum and its Library, Van Drival gives a long chapter devoted to the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace and its architecture (Day 5; evidently he returned again on Day 17, but if he took notes he did not transcribe them herein). These visits occurred during the final days of the Exhibition, which closed on Oct. 15, 1851. To this day the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations remains one of the pinnacles of the Victorian era, a celebration of "modern" technology, manufacturing, scientific and musical instruments, art, and colonial raw materials, all in the service of the entire world.
According to the text of the manuscript, Van Drival had made a first trip to England in 1847 in the company of the British Roman Catholic convert Ambrose Phillipps de Lisle (1809-1878). During the present second voyage, Van Drival spent several at de Lisle's Grace-Dieu manor (in Leicestershire), a former priory of Augustinian nuns. De Lisle had devoted himself to the interests of the Catholic church and the spread of Catholicism in Britain, and towards this goal he founded the Trappist monastery of Mount St Bernard which our author visited as well.
Nonetheless, at the end of the day (and at the end of the manuscript), our author states: "Plus je vois l'étranger, plus j'aime ma Patrie" (!)
PARTIAL CONTENTS of Vol. 1 (Manuscript text volume, written on rectos only):
Day 1: Observations about the "Absurd fanaticism" of Anglicans against the Pope and Catholics. -- Further observations about London: "When I arrived in London, the sun was shining! And yet it was the middle of the day! If one day it is still claimed that the sun in London has long been considered a myth, I am here to testify that I encountered it there and saw it clearly, despite the fog which was there nonetheless as an obligatory accompaniment. But I have just been given the answer to the enigma. It seems that since May, things have completely changed in England. [...] there are at this moment gathered in London, all the wonderful things from all parts of the world" [i.e. the Great Exhibition]. -- Added: Van Drival's Port of Entry document into Folkstone, England dated 24 September 1851.
Day 2: Visit to the "new" St Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Clapham (completed 15 May 1851) with a description of the celebration of the Mass. -- The importance of the English Breakfast. -- Meeting with the librarian, Assistant Keeper of Manuscripts, John Holmes (1800-1854). -- Viewing Luther's 95 Theses which took pride of place in the library. -- The Egyptian Museum and the Rosetta Stone: "How awe-inspiring! What magnificence! -- Praise for the Natural History division. -- The Ethnographic rooms: "I warn you, however, that the gods of India are not always very decent. And you will do perfectly well not to take them as a model." -- First visit to the Nineveh Antiquities Division. -- Van Drival obtains permission to examine closely the antiquities directly from Edward Hawkins (1780-1867), the numismatist, who at that time was Curator of Antiquities.
Day 3: A dreary day of London rain: "You must also know that the rain in London is like ink, perfectly black and loaded with all the molecules of charcoal and other similar things in the atmosphere here filled."
Day 4: A day of study at the Library of the British Museum. -- The procedure of borrowing books from the Library.
Day 5: First visit to the Great Exhibition of Crystal Palace, being a 10-page letter to M.A. Gérard, lawyer and librarian in Boulogne: "It takes no less than seven hours to see everything, without even stopping!" -- "It seems to me that I have just traveled around the world." -- "Never have I felt so keenly the union, the bond which truly and strongly attaches all the members of this great whole that we call humanity to each other." -- Description of the exterior and interior of the Crystal Palace. -- "Here we would think we were in one of those magical palaces of the kind dreamed of by the rich imagination of the Arabs; nothing is missing from the illusion, neither the green trees, nor the rarest exotic plants, nor even the fountains that distill perfumes (and there are several). This illusion, this dream, is a reality here very clear and very positive. Nothing, indeed nothing like this has been seen anywhere." -- Following are blank pages, apparently to be completed with details of the exhibitions, not present here. -- Added: Plan of Crystal Palace (pp. 12-13 of a guide).
Day 6: Reflections on Sunday worship in England. -- Conduct of the Mass.
Day 7: Wanderings in London. -- Reflections on the Irish people, and especially Irish women and prostitution. --
Mass among the [Roman Catholic] Oratorians of London: "What an unintelligent cult!"
Day 8: Visit to the Museum of Practical Geology. -- Further research in the British Museum Library. -- Comments on Jesuitical interpretation of Genesis written in the 16th century, "which should be blacklisted in the face of scientific facts." -- Added: Illustration of The Museum of Practical Geology."
Day 9: First day of the visit to Grace-Dieu, the mansion of his friend Ambrose Phillipps de Lisle.
Day 10: Second day at Grace-Dieu, with much discussion about de Lisle, his wife Laura (and their 11 children), and the "house" itself.
Day 11: Third day at Grace-Dieu.
Day 12: Visit to Mount St Bernard Abbey (Leicestershire), the Roman Catholic Trappist monastery founded by de Lisle.
Day 13: Day of rest at Grace-Dieu.
Day 14: Last day at Grace-Dieu. -- Reflections on the difference in education of young girls in France and England. -- Sports education.
Day 15: Return to London.
Day 16: Sights at the Regent's Park Zoological Garden.
Day 17: Beginnings of a second letter about the Great Exhibition (not completed).
Day 18: Musings on departing London. -- Return to France. -- Added: engraved map of the English Channel and Eastern France.
CONTENTS of Vol. 2 (Spine title: "Documents"). Interleaved with blank leaves throughout:
Printed text: "Synopsis or Guide book to the British Museum: Part III Egyptian Antiquities" (London, 1848). 94 pp.
Printed text: "The British Museum" Its Antiquities and Natural History (7 ff. concerning the Gallery of Niniveh), with manuscript annotations on 8 of the interleaved blanks with comparisons between Assyrian, Egyptian representations and biblical texts, symbolisms of horns, men with hawk heads etc.)
Manuscript texts: "Quelques notes ou études comparatives sur des emblèmes observés parmi les ruines de Ninive": 1. "Le disque ailé" (6 pp. MS with 8 original pen drawings + other sketches in the text); 2. "La croix ansée" (1.5 pp. MS with diagrams in the text); 3. "L'aigle et le vautour" (1/2 page MS); 4. "Rapports frappants et filiation d'idées entre l'Égypte et Ninive ou Babylone" (1.5 pp. MS); 5. "Le Panthéon Égyptien, recherches comparatives" (9 pp. MS); 6. "Notes diverses sur le musée [i.e. British Museum] et les antiquités" (3 pp. MS).
Printed text: "British and Foreign Bible Society: Specimens of Types of some of the Society's foreign. Bible and Testaments Distributed at the Great Exhibition" (London, 1851), 4 pp.
Printed texts (loosely inserted): 3 tracts in French issued by La société de la paix à Londres: 1. "L'exposition et la Paix" by Joseph Garnier (4 pp). 2. "La guerre est antichrétienne" (4 pp). 3. "Noble moyen de rétablir la Paix" (2 pp.).
