The Road to UVic
The latter half of the twentieth century sets the stage for Acts and Monuments arrival at the University of Victoria
Jim Thorp, owner of Thomas Thorp in 1975: "[T]he book trade has changed so much over the last twelve years that I question the viability of many book shops now." Unfortunately, his own shop's viability would come under scrutiny.
Looking to Books for Profit
Sometime after the Viscount’s ownership the two volumes fell into the possession of an antique bookseller named Thomas Thorp. Thomas Thorp established his antiquarian bookshop in 1883, and it was actually his great-grandson Jim who sold Acts and Monuments to Bruce and Dorothy Brown in 1975, the eventual UVic donors.
Jim gave an interview for Shelia Markham’s The Book Collector, a collection of personal interviews with shop owners in the antiquarian book trade:
As one starts to get older, one’s customers should look younger. But they don’t and I suppose one should be worried about the advancing age of many book collectors. Perhaps there’s going to be a rebirth of collecting.
Thomas Thorp catalogue that contains the 1610 edition.
Markham’s interview with Jim was at a time of transition for Thomas Thorp, as Jim combined two locations into one at Guildford, coinciding with a time of decline in the book trade. Beyond the interview with Markham there is very little information on the Thomas Thorp firm; despite personal correspondence with Markham, the last time she had spoken to Jim was the interview itself, and she was under the impression Thomas Thorp had gone out of business in the early 2000s. Efforts from the Antiquarian Book Society in England have currently found no one who is familiar with the bookdealer to provide more information. It is remarkable to consider that, despite tracing the path of a book for over 400 years, the record of the business who sold it can fade into the annals of history within 20.
The meager amount of information reveals another important shift in the purpose antique books like Acts and Monuments served towards the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries: fewer people were interested in purchasing historical texts as a demonstration of refined interests or social status. Instead, the diminishing pool of individual book collectors has given way to libraries and research initiatives taking an interest in the contents of century old codices.
Looking to Books for Personal Interest
Jim Thorp sold the 1610 edition of Acts and Monuments to Dr. Bruce L. Brown and his wife, Dorothy. After Bruce’s retirement from the BC Provincial Government, the Browns began travelling extensively, pursuing their interests in art and antiques. Much of their collections were donated to the University of Victoria, the Maritime museum of BC, and the Royal Roads Military College. Bruce was also a member on the boards of the YMCA, the Victoria Symphony Society, Friends of the Royal BC Museum, the Maritime Museum of BC, and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Acts and Monuments was one of at least two purchases the Browns made from Thomas Thorp, the other being a list of French massacres, and the Browns donated both items to the University of Victoria in 1990 as part of their generous contribution to the Library’s Special Collections.
Pages from the Thomas Thorp catalogue, indicating what the Browns bought and donated to UVic.
Sadly, both Dorothy and Bruce have passed away since donating Acts and Monuments. Although their son is still local to the Victoria area, not much communication has occurred between the University and the family since the Brown’s generous donation nearly thirty years ago. In terms of the provenance of Acts and Monuments, determining why the Brown’s decided to purchase it in 1975, and what role it served in their household for fifteen years before being donated, are interesting considerations that unfortunately have no current answer. What can be said, however, is the Brown’s purchasing of Acts and Monuments indicates its ownership was motivated out of personal interest. This personal interest continued after the Brown’s donated the 1610 edition to the University of Victoria, only now the interest is not limited to one household.
When Personal Interest Formalizes into Research
Often the contents of a text are the primary focus, rather than the physical entity itself. Here we have taken a look at the journey the UVic 1610 edition took from publication to the library's bookshelf, along with the lives of the people who came in contact with it. For twenty-eight years the 1610 edition of John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments has evaded much attention until, under the direction of Dr Erin Kelly, graduate students in the ENGL 500 Fall 2018 class began researching its pages. The culmination of months of efforts are now presented here as an online exhibit. Much more than explain what the two volumes contain, the information provided here points to how people interacted and continue to interact with the text as a physical body. Owners of the 1610 edition emerge from a close study of its pages, and establishing even a portion of the Acts and Monuments provenance gives clues about who these individuals were and why they had an interest in owning this particular set of Protestant martyrology.
Works Cited
- Brown, Bruce Lloyd DMS, obituary. The Times Colonist, December 14, 2002. Access here:
- University of Victoria Special Collection, “Meet our Donors: Dr. Bruce L. and Mrs. Dorothy E. Brown.” Access here:
- Markham, Sheila. "The Interviews: Jim Thorp." The Book Collector, edited by Nicolas Barker, 1995. Access here:
Section author: Sean Oliver