Although DGR's correspondence is not as lively and spontaneous as Swinburne's
wonderful letters, it is equally and in certain respects more important
than Swinburne's as an insight into the
life and times of the period. It is of course an invaluable resource for tracking
DGR's literary and artistic works.
In preparing the Rossetti Archive we have been
able cite and quote from the texts of
DGR's letters as published in W. E. Fredeman's ongoing (and authoritative)
edition of DGR's correspondence,
The Correspondence of Dante
Gabriel Rossetti, which began to appear in 2002 and is
currently through its seventh volume (up to the year 1877). One further volume
remains to be published. In the cases where these letters were not yet in print,
we have had access to the transcripts that Professor Fredeman had prepared for
his edition. These transcripts have been invaluable to us since the Archive was
in development well before the initial publication of Fredeman's edition, and after it
began to appear in a series of separately issued volumes,
before the actual publication of many relevant letters.
In certain cases, however, we have had to prepare
texts of the letters independently from their appearance in Fredeman's
authoritative edition. The Rossetti Archive has full texts
for about forty such files. We have independently edited these letters for the Archive
because reference is necessary to all of the material in these letters, and not just
to some selected passage.
In addition, all of the letters published in WMR's valuable 1895 collection of
Family
Letters are available in this Archive.
It is hoped that, in the future, the entirety of Fredeman's edition will be linked
to The Rossetti Archive.
Letter to William Michael Rossetti, 8 October 1849 1849 October 8 “And prayed of Christ (he knowing how it was) That, if this thing were sinful unto death, He would himself be first to throw the stone. So then I entered, &c.”
Although DGR's correspondence is not as lively and spontaneous as Swinburne's wonderful letters, it is equally and in certain respects more important than Swinburne's as an insight into the life and times of the period. It is of course an invaluable resource for tracking DGR's literary and artistic works.
In preparing the Rossetti Archive we have been able cite and quote from the texts of DGR's letters as published in W. E. Fredeman's ongoing (and authoritative) edition of DGR's correspondence, The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, which began to appear in 2002 and is currently through its seventh volume (up to the year 1877). One further volume remains to be published. In the cases where these letters were not yet in print, we have had access to the transcripts that Professor Fredeman had prepared for his edition. These transcripts have been invaluable to us since the Archive was in development well before the initial publication of Fredeman's edition, and after it began to appear in a series of separately issued volumes, before the actual publication of many relevant letters.
In certain cases, however, we have had to prepare texts of the letters independently from their appearance in Fredeman's authoritative edition. The Rossetti Archive has full texts for about forty such files. We have independently edited these letters for the Archive because reference is necessary to all of the material in these letters, and not just to some selected passage.
In addition, all of the letters published in WMR's valuable 1895 collection of Family Letters are available in this Archive.
It is hoped that, in the future, the entirety of Fredeman's edition will be linked to The Rossetti Archive.