Back to the future

"I am, The AUTHOR." ——In the copy: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy Gentleman Volume I-III T. Cadell. London, 1794, from Aabenhus Antikvariat, we also found, in Book Nine (Vol. III) this signature below the Authors dedication to "A Great Man" (Lord *******) —Either Sterne,—The AUTHOR—has been traveling in time —or someone else— perhaps the bookbinder — has been practising skills in writing authors signatures in books. 

What is obscured...

... in

"The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Sterne, Laurence

Published by T Cadell, London (1794)
Item Description: T Cadell, London, 1794. Full-Leather. Book Condition: Very Good. 3 volumes, (iv) 26-347: 299; 234pp, contemporary tree calf (slightly worn), joints cracked or starting, gilt ruled spines with black morocco labels, pp 327 & 328 in vol 1 (O8) have been pasted over with marbled paper (however chapter 36 ends on p326 and chapter 37 starts on p329 so it is not clear what is obscured), some light spotting and browning, 12mo (10.5x17.5cm). Bookseller Inventory # 10008"

we found out in the copy of the very same edition:

"Sterne, Lawrence: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy Gentleman Volume I-III "T. Cadell. Published in London 1794. (4)+ pp25-347; (2)+299; (1)+234 s. Bound in 3 later (ca. 1860), defective calf spine bindings, spines gilt. Former owner's signatures removed by rubbing. Text blocks tight. Some foxing to contents. Vol 2 wateredged. ¶ Vol I lacking pp 1-24. So the book contains title, dedication leaf and then streight to Chapter 1. We are not shure that something is really missing ... !

allerede solgt · spørg Aabenhus Aarhus Antikvariat, Århus C (DK) · ABH143909 ·"

So, it seems that the printer of the 1794 Cadell edition left it to the bookbinder, to cover the pages with "the best marbled paper" in his stock. But in this, he did not. ———"Pox take the fellow!"*

*) http://sterneetcetera.blogspot.dk/2015/07/small-curses-upon-great-occasions.html

...it is not clear what is obscured

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Sterne, Laurence

Published by T Cadell, London (1794)

Item Description: T Cadell, London, 1794. Full-Leather. Book Condition: Very Good. 3 volumes, (iv) 26-347: 299; 234pp, contemporary tree calf (slightly worn), joints cracked or starting, gilt ruled spines with black morocco labels, pp 327 & 328 in vol 1 (O8) have been pasted over with marbled paper (however chapter 36 ends on p326 and chapter 37 starts on p329 so it is not clear what is obscured), some light spotting and browning, 12mo (10.5x17.5cm). Bookseller Inventory # 10008

Calculation

in:
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Leipzig 1849.

The Nose #3

"[...] Nature had been prodigal in her gifts to my father beyond measure, and had sown the seeds of verbal criticism as deep within him, as she had done the seeds of all other knowledge———so that he had got out his penknife, and was trying experiments upon the sentence, to see if he could not scratch some better sense into it.——I’ve got within a single letter, brother Toby, cried my father, of Erasmus his mystic meaning.—You are near enough, brother, replied my uncle, in all conscience.———Pshaw! cried my father, scratching on——I might as well be seven miles off.—I’ve done it—said my father, snapping his fingers—See, my dear brother Toby, how I have mended the sense.——But you have marr’d a word, replied my uncle Toby.——My father put on his spectacles——bit his lip———and tore out the leaf in a passion."

The Nose #2

"[...]——Learned men, brother Toby, don’t write dialogues upon long noses for nothing.———I’ll study the mystick and the allegorick sense——here is some room to turn a man’s self in, brother.

My father read on.———Now I find it needful to inform your reverences and worships, that besides the many nautical uses of long noses enumerated by Erasmus, the dialogist affirmeth that a long nose is not without its domestic conveniencies also; for that in a case of distress—and for want of a pair of bellows, it will do excellently well, ad ixcitandum focum (to stir up the fire)."

The Nose

On Joseph Nollekens Marble bust of Sterne (1766) we see that:

“Nihil me pœnitet hujus nasi,” quoth Pamphagus;——that is—“My nose has been the making of me.”—————“Nec est cur pœniteat,” replies Cocles; that is, “How the duce should such a nose fail?”

The scull

In Coxwold, in the porch at St. Michaels Church, next to the epitaphstone*, we found this framed facsimile clipping from The Times on Thursday June the 5th 1969, on the reburied scull — and nearby found skeletal bones — in Coxwold. One thing further — among many others — for us to ponder upon: Tristrams nose, as well as his fathers — and his great grandfathers, that was shaped like an ace of clubs — was quite diminutive. But what about Sterne? Was he just as flat-nosed?

*)http://sterneetcetera.blogspot.dk/2015/08/sternes-stones.html

The Straight Line

Straight line in: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy MacDonald Illustrated Classics Series.
"This right line,—the path-way for Christians to walk in! say divines——

——The emblem of moral rectitude! says Cicero——

——The best line! say cabbage planters——is the shortest line, says Archimedes, which can be drawn from one given point to another.——

I wish your ladyships would lay this matter to heart, in your next birth-day suits!

——What a journey!

Pray can you tell me,—that is, without anger, before I write my chapter upon straight lines——by what mistake——who told them so——or how it has come to pass, that your men of wit and genius have all along confounded this line, with the line of gravitation?"

MacDonald

In York, in another Antiquarian bookstore — on our way to Coxwold —  we found this edition of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy published in the MacDonald Illustrated Classics Series. 50 pee, only. With cover in red fablea binding, with title and decorations in 'gold leaf' — (Fablea: danish word for leatherine; artificial leather, created of the two english words 'fabric' and 'leather'.  The later discovery of the absent of the title page, explained somehow this a-little-bit-too-good bargain.

The Emblem of My Work

The marbled page in Tristram Shandy. Everyman’s Library no. 617. The Aldine Press. London, 1959. 

Smoking and reading

Burnmark in Laurence Sterne: Tristram Shandy. Everyman’s Library no. 617 (fiction) London J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. New York E.P. Dutton & Co Inc. The Aldine Press. London, 1959. Purchased in Århus at Aabenhus Antikvariat.  

X

An X in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Leipzig 1849. 

Leipzig

Neatly foxed copy of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. By the Rev. Laurence Sterne, M.A. Printed in Leipzig 1849 by Bernh. Tauchnitz Jun. as "Vol. CLIII. in Collection of British Autors." apparently in original language. Purchased in Copenhagen at one of Vangsgaards "Dutch Sales" (50,- kr.).  — A very tight "rolled" edition; one volume, 502 pages, no black page, no marbled page. And not in nine books, but in CCCXII chapters. 

The Asses' Club

In the 1897 edition of A Sentimental Journey, that was purchased from a Antiquarian bookstore in York* — on the expeditions way to Coxwold — was found a clipping from a newspaper (1910?)— used as bookmark —  "Our Own Correspondent" reports on a curious dinnerparty in Paris. — The menu in itself: "Potage Cock and Bull; Saucissons de l’Ane Mort; Audouillettes de l’Abesse Dada (hobbyhorse) de l’Oncle Toby; Langue de Samsonnet; Haricots Lafleur; Bombe du Corporal Trim; fromage Sentimental; Marrons Phutatorius. As vines “Clos Yorick” and “Château du Roi de Bohème,” or, in other words, water, were served."  — made us certainly wish, that we could have been able to attend there. Instead we were in York presented for the full english breakfast — "Bless you", said the waitress while serving; fried eggs, bacon; fried sausages; fried portobello; fried tomatoes and — alas — the black sausage. 

*) http://sterneetcetera.blogspot.dk/2015/08/the-sentimental-journey.html.

The Great Grandfather

The expedition to Coxwold also lead us to the Minster of York where we had the the chance to revere Sterne's great grandfather the archbishop Richard Sterne (1596-1683). The memorial are located in the choiraisle and depicts the archbishop in a quite "trés chic" positura. Later that day we attended the evensong in the minster, but that is another — and longer —  story, that might follow.