Invidious Comparisons: Manuscripts and Incunabula in the Libraries Donated by Sir George Grey to Cape Town and Auckland

Abstract

The manuscript collection Sir George Grey donated to Auckland is not a ‘mirror’ of the one he presented to Cape Town. Grey’s Cape Town library was assembled for his own use and enjoyment, particularly for the scholarly retirement he was then envisaging for his later life. His Auckland library was collected from the outset with the intention of donating it to his fellow citizens. Market forces and Grey’s distance from European salerooms, generally regarded as having restricted his acquisition of manuscripts, had significantly more effect on his acquisition of incunabula. Consideration of his incunabula, particularly his interest in early English printers, brings into sharp relief the absence of Middle English manuscripts from both of his collections, despite his personal and ideological attachment to Chaucer and his contemporaries.