Small Notebook 1 (British Library)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Production Description
Document Title: [untitled]
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of composition: 1871-1879?
Scribe: DGR
Provenance
Current Location: British Library
Catalog Number: Ashley 1410 (1)
Physical Description
Cover: decorated
Paper: white unlined
Dimensions of Document: 5.9 x 2.8 cm
Other Physical Features: The orientation of the texts in the notebook varies, but for the most
part DGR wrote across the page and away from the gutter (on the rectos)
and toward the gutter (on the versos). The pagination numbers at the
upper right of the rectos were a later addition, probably done by Wise
or at the British Library by a staff person. Also, at various points in
the notebook someone, probably WMR, has marked the text with an
“X” for reasons that are not quite clear.
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Copyright: By permission of the British Library
page images | transcript
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
This is one of four small notebooks—all written in soft pencil— that DGR used between 1871-1880 to jot down memoranda of various kinds, including ideas for his literary and artistic work. The material from this notebook, which has been traditionally called “Notebook 1”, dates from as early as 1871. It was certainly being used in 1873 as well, and may have been used as late as 1879.
The text of “Gioventu e Signoria” at pages [5v]-[7v] is complete though the casual nature of the entries leaves the ordering of the stanzas in doubt.
The notebook's entries duplicated in one of the larger format notebooks in the Duke University Library indicate how DGR regularly transferred jottings from different notebooks.