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Jowett Papers - Introduction

III - The Present Catalogue

The disjointed manner in which the Jowett Papers have been put together imposes certain constraints on their cataloguing. This section will explain these constraints, and give reasons for the solutions offered.

Two basic rules have been followed throughout the catalogue. The first is that the provenance of records should not be confused any further, by trying to put like with like, no matter where an item was found. For example, Groups I and II contain many similar items, which it is tempting to put together, but this would ignore their different histories. The second is that previous reference systems should not be disturbed by new ones. Since Group I really contains two groups, namely BJ's own papers and the Abbott and Campbell papers, which are now jumbled together, it would be desirable to reorganise them more sensibly. However, since 1957, Faber's box numbers A-F have been the only means of referring to material in the Papers, and a complete re-ordering would make it impossible to find material alluded to in this way. A key for converting old references to new would be difficult both to create and to use. Furthermore, if one considers the history of the provenance of the Papers, one has to ask whether a reorganisation would, far from restoring an original order, merely confuse matters. Therefore it has been decided to preserve the old box numbers A-F as classes I A-F (although their contents have now been moved into more suitable storage), but to re-order items within each class in a more coherent way, so that, for example, all lectures on the same topic are placed together in chronological order.

Fortunately Abbott did not fill the boxes in a completely random manner. For example, he put all the working material for St. Paul in Box D, and all relating to Aristotle's Politics in Box C. Furthermore, most of Boxes A-D contained BJ's own papers, and Boxes E-F the Abbott and Campbell papers. There are, however, a few mavericks in each box, or items which would be better placed elsewhere. In such cases, cross-references are made.

Within these boxes, some subdivision has already occurred. Some items were placed in envelopes by Abbott, Campbell, or Philip Lyttleton Gell, and these have been kept together. The most extreme instances are Boxes E-F, where all the items were subdivided (it is not clear whether Abbott or Faber did this, although many envelopes and folders containing items are inscribed by Faber). They have been sufficiently used as references in published work to preempt complete re-ordering, but the divisions are almost all reasonable.

Group II posed different problems. Even though different classes frequently consist of similar items, it is inadvisable to cause further confusion by reorganising material from them. As with Group I, individual items in each class have been sorted into a coherent order, and cross-references provided.

Groups III and IV were easier to arrange. In Group III the letters to Morier and Stanley are placed in as near a chronological order as possible, but since the letters to Florence Nightingale have been bound in eight volumes, no re-ordering was possible. Since Group IV consists of many self-contained classes, which all arrived at Balliol at different times, these were preserved, and individual items within them put in order.

The organisation and numbering of the Jowett Papers is thus as follows:

Group IA1-35=Faber's 'Box A'

B1-37 = Faber's 'Box B'

C1-61 = Faber's 'Box C'

D1-141= Faber's 'Box D'

E1-27 = Faber's 'Box E'

F1-17 = Faber's 'Box F'

G1-16 = Faber's 'Wooden Box'

H1-96 = Faber's 'Brown Tin Box'

Group IIA1-24 = 'Additional Jowett Papers 1'

B1-7= 'Additional Jowett Papers 2'

C1-2= 'Additional Jowett Papers 3'

D1-6 = 'Additional Jowett Papers 4'

E1-3 = 'Additional Jowett Papers 5'

F1 = 'Additional Jowett Papers 6'

G1-5 = 'Additional Jowett Papers 7'

H1-7 = 'Additional Jowett Papers 8'

I1-8 = 'Additional Jowett Papers 9'

J1-4 = 'Additional Jowett Papers 10'

K1-9 = 'Additional Jowett Papers 11'

L1-3

M1-2

N1-5

O1

Group IIIC1-225 (removed from 'Box E')

M1-127

N1-701 (removed from the 'Brown Tin Box')

S1-119 (removed from 'Box E')

Group IVA1-32

B1-23

Every item is separately numbered: thus II A2/4 refers to item 4 of subclass 2 of class A of Group II. If the items require further subdivision, an extra slash is used (e.g. I G16/4/50). Page or folio numbers of a book are indicated by 'p' or 'f' in the index (e.g. I H45 f56).

Classes I E-F provided a problem in that since Faber had assigned the subdivisions in I E Greek letters, and those in I F Roman ones, these clashed with the overall scheme, and were replaced with Arabic numbers although they have been used in some published work. Therefore a conversion table from Faber's references to my own is given in the list of abbreviations.

In addition to the catalogue proper, five indexes are provided: one each for BJ's contemporaries, for post-classical authors consulted by BJ, for classical and biblical figures, a Biographical Index of selected people from the first and second indices, and a Subject Index. The Biographical Index includes people who were either close friends of BJ or well-known figures from Victorian England who came into contact with him. The decision about who to include is of necessity subjective, but everyone who receives a significant number of entries in the Index of Contemporaries is included. I have tried to provide the birth and death dates of an individual, other significant dates in their lives and offices which they held, brief biographical sketches (very short, for famous people, more extended for those who are less well-known today), and accounts of their relationship with BJ. In the Index of Contemporaries itself, some information, however little, is given on people who are mentioned only here. For former members of Balliol, the BalliolCollege Register 1833-1933, ed. Sir Ivo Elliott (privately printed 1934), supplies details for members matriculating from Michaelmas 1853. There are occasions when the index mentions people not even mentioned in the full catalogue. This occurs when there is a long list of names in an item which it would be otiose to copy down. On these occasions, the summary catalogue indicates what sort of people are mentioned, and whether the names are indexed or not.

The first four indexes should provide searchers with their chief point of entry into the material in the Jowett Papers. Thus material on theology can be found be examining the entries on theologians, and material on BJ's views on literature by examining those on authors. However, some material may not be found by these means, and yet may be of interest to users, and therefore the Subject Index is intended to remedy this. It is only a supplement to the other indexes, and should be used alongside them, and is therefore not as detailed.

- Robin Darwall-Smith, 1993