The Manuscripts Club
The Manuscripts Club by Christopher de Hamel
Description via The StoryGraph:
Christopher de Hamel takes us into in their homes and workplaces, from the monasteries and synagogues of Normandy and Moravia to the universities of Germany and the museums of America, to chart a kinship of minds and to peer into these extraordinary lives among manuscripts. In the pages of his book, remarkable manuscripts tumble through the centuries, connecting a French prince and a Greek peasant and a Black curator.
This is a story about society and manuscripts, what manuscripts do for people, and why they mattered and still matter to us. As much as it is a story about transcendent human connection, it is also a story of greed, discovery and disaster. The Manuscripts Club celebrates the most treasured books ever made and their enduring hold on our imaginations.
Read from June 29th through August 10th of 2025
“The disentangling of the real identity of Belle da Costa Greene began with the sleuthing of Jean Strouse as recently as the I990s. It transpired that Belle was actually born on 26 November 1879, which would mean that she was twenty-seven in 1906. She is not the first woman in history or the last to be creative over her date of birth (others include Anne Boleyn, Eva Perón and Doris Day). More importantly, the Portuguese connection and ancestral names were a fabrication. Both Belle Greene's parents were of African American descent, and her father was very much still alive.”
