Book Chapter

Poggio Bracciolini, Phyllis Goodhart Gordan, and the Formation of the Goodhart Collection of Fifteenth-Century Books at Bryn Mawr College

  • Eric L. Pumroy

The Poggio Bracciolini conference was dedicated to Bryn Mawr alumna Phyllis Goodhart Gordan (1913-1994) one of the leading Poggio scholars of her generation and the editor of the only major collection of Poggio’s letters in English, Two Renaissance Book Hunters (Columbia University Press, 1974). Gordan and her father, Howard Lehman Goodhart (1887-1951) were also responsible for building one of the great collections of 15th century printed books in America, most of which is now at Bryn Mawr College. This paper draws upon Goodhart’s correspondence with rare book dealers and the extensive notes on his books to survey the strengths of the collection and to examine the process by which he built the collection and worked with rare book dealers in the difficult Depression and World War II years, the period when he acquired most of his books. The paper also considers Goodhart’s growing connections with scholars of early printing as his collection and interests grew, in particular the work of Margaret Bingham Stillwell, the editor of Incunabula in American Libraries (1940).

  • Keywords:
  • Phyllis Goodhart Gordan,
  • Howard Lehman Goodhart,
  • book collecting,
  • incunabula,
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Eric L. Pumroy

Bryn Mawr College, United States

  1. Birmingham S. 1967, “Our Crowd”: The Great Jewish Families of New York, Harper & Row, New York.
  2. Bühler C.F. 1959, Howard Lehman Goodhart 1884-1951, in The Grolier Club. Grolier 75: A biographical retrospective to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Grolier Club in New York, New York.
  3. Gordan P.W.G. 1955, Fifteenth Century Books in the Collection of Howard Lehman Goodhart, Overbrook Press, Stamford.
  4. Gordan P.W.G. 1973, Of What Use are Old Books? A talk given 4 April 1972 to celebrate the adding of the one-thousandth incunabulum to the Bryn Mawr Library, Privately printed by the Friends of the Bryn Mawr College Library.
  5. Monfasani J., The First Call for Press Censorship: Niccolò Perotti, Giovanni Andrea Bussi, Antonio Moreto, and the Editing of Pliny’s Natural History, «Renaissance Quarterly», XLI (1), pp. 1-31.
  6. Stillwell M.B. 1951, Incunabula as Couriers of Learning: An Address Delivered at Bryn Mawr College at the Dedication of the Marjorie Walter Goodhart Mediaeval Library, June 1, Howard Lehman Goodhart Papers, Bryn Mawr College.
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  • Publication Year: 2020
  • Pages: 189-197
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2020 Author(s)

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  • Publication Year: 2020
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2020 Author(s)

Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Poggio Bracciolini, Phyllis Goodhart Gordan, and the Formation of the Goodhart Collection of Fifteenth-Century Books at Bryn Mawr College

Authors

Eric L. Pumroy

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/978-88-6453-968-3.14

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2020

Copyright Information

© 2020 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Poggio Bracciolini and the Re(dis)covery of Antiquity: Textual and Material Traditions

Book Subtitle

Proceedings of the Symposium Held at Bryn Mawr College on April 8-9, 2016

Editors

Roberta Ricci

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

220

Publication Year

2020

Copyright Information

© 2020 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/978-88-6453-968-3

ISBN Print

978-88-6453-967-6

eISBN (pdf)

978-88-6453-968-3

Series Title

Atti

Series ISSN

2239-3307

Series E-ISSN

2704-6230

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