The missing letters J. R. R. Tolkien received from Derek J. Price and R. M. Wilson: addendum to “Further notes on J. R. R. Tolkien’s photostats of The Equatorie of the Planetis (MS Peterhouse 75.I)”

Cossio, A. (2023) The missing letters J. R. R. Tolkien received from Derek J. Price and R. M. Wilson: addendum to “Further notes on J. R. R. Tolkien’s photostats of The Equatorie of the Planetis (MS Peterhouse 75.I)”. SELIM: Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature, 28, pp. 97-106. (doi: 10.17811/selim.28.2023.97-106)

Abstract

In 2021, Andoni Cossio suggested cataloguing The Equatorie of the Planetis (MS Peterhouse 75.I, c. 1393) under “Section A” in Tolkien’s Library: An Annotated Checklist, by Oronzo Cilli. One year later, Cossio unearthed the exact list of MS Peterhouse 75.I folios J. R. R. Tolkien had once owned in the form of photostats (2022). In this second article, Cossio alludes the to the hypothetical existence of correspondence that Tolkien exchanged with Derek J. Price and R. M. Wilson during the preparation phase of Price and Wilson’s edition of The Equatorie of the Planetis (1955). New evidence gathered from Maggs Bros. Ltd. private archive (1991b), as well as auction (Phillips 1988; Sotheby’s 1995) and sales (Maggs Bros. Ltd. 1991a) catalogues demonstrate the existence of epistles and other material Tolkien received, though the brief, and often inaccurate, descriptions of the lots and items do not determine Tolkien’s exact contributions. However, the catalogues provide additional information about the timeline of Tolkien’s participation, and disclose that Price was the one to approach Tolkien in the first place. This note will elucidate those aspects and further complement Cossio’s (2022) article in other ways.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This note was completed under the auspices of a Next Generation EU Margarita Salas postdoctoral grant (MARSA22/19), financed by the Ministry of Universities (Government of Spain) and the European Union, and by the research group REWEST (IT-1565-22), funded by the Basque Government and UPV/EHU.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Cossio Garrido, Dr Andoni
• Authors: Cossio, A.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies
• Journal Name: SELIM: Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature
• Publisher: Universidad de Oviedo
• ISSN: 1132-631X
• ISSN (Online): 2792-3878
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 Ediuno. Ediciones de la Universidad de Oviedo
• First Published: First published in SELIM: Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature 28: 97–106
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License