Signing Off - The Final Blog

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Studying and exploring the collection that belonged to Bishop John J. Grimes has been an eye opener for me and a journey in itself. Before I was given the collection to look at, I didn’t know who Bishop Grimes was, or if his collection would be important. Neither did I know that the collection would contain more than just religious orientated texts. But his texts have certainly taught me never to judge a collection based on its owner’s background.

There are still so many questions that I have that will have to be left unanswered. Why was Grimes so interested in the Antiquities, that he had copies of the Iliad (1816), Plutarch’s Lives (1813) and a book that discussed the Geographical Systems of Herodotus (1800)? Why did he have a German text in his collection if he received education in France and possibly did not learn German? And why was there a text about the uses of the mineral water from Glastonbury in a Catholic Bishop’s collection? Why was there a book about the General Conchology...[of Shells] (1815) in his collection? It’s difficult to answer such specific questions without being able to sit down with the Bishop himself and ask him why he was motivated to collect such a diverse range of subjects and themes.

General Conchology, Plate 22.

Perhaps in the future when there has been a more in-depth analysis of his entire collection (more than just the 82 titles that I looked at), there will be a clearer picture. After all, according to the University of Canterbury’s Chronicle, there were 195 books that could be considered Rare Books accounted for in 1980 when the collection was initially donated. In the last 35 years, this number has dwindled down to the 82 that I entered in my database. What has happened to those missing 113 titles? Have they been downgraded to books that can be entered into general circulation? Or like a number of the texts I came across, have they been moved to a different storage facility? A number of texts in the catalogue had been requisitioned by a Professor for what I can only assume was their own personal interests or studies. And a more important question to consider, have more books been classed as ‘Rare Books’ since 1980? There were almost 5,000 books in Grimes’ collection when it was donated to the University by Bishop Ashby, and a lot more of those texts could be considered Rare Books today and be more valuable than we know.

I was lucky to be supervised by a patient historian who encouraged me to explore deeper into the life of the authors and the books they wrote. He has also provided me with the translations to some of the French and Latin inscriptions that were used in my blogs. I am thankful for the help that I have received from Dr Chris Jones in completing my blogs and the database. I was also lucky to have the advice and experience of the Special Collections Librarian Damian Cairns to call on while I was working through the books. Without his help and time, my project would have been a lot more challenging to complete. Finally, I would like to thank Stephen Hardman, the University of Canterbury’s Internship Director for helping set up my project and for overseeing its completion. Without the help of these three gentleman, I would not have been able to gain the invaluable experience of working with a Rare Books collection and to have learnt more about myself as a person.

References

University of Canterbury, Chronicle Vol 15. No. 22 (22 November 1980). Article.

General Conchology, Or A Description of Shells, 1815. University of Canterbury Rare Books Collection – 118845 – ConchologyOfShells – Interior – Plate22