Some of the funniest and most bizarre news stories printed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Erotic misdemeanours in an Irish bean-field, the recipe for a frog barometer fresh from the French court, a parrot convicted of heresy and burnt at the stake in Spain and a Dutch stage effect for ejecting a wig (by means of a spring) during Hamlet's ghost scene are just some of the masterpieces of understated journalism collected by Francis Cox and contained in his Fragmenta. At ninety-four volumes, Cox's scrapbook has to be one of the largest collections of journalistic ephemera ever. For sixty years during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries he accumulated articles on everything from duels to playhouses, and foreign travel to warfare. Simon Murphy has selected the funniest and most bizarre to create an historical miscellany which will intrigue and delight.

A presumptuous bear imposing on a coachful of ladies, how to behave in the British Museum, the dangers of dallying with a black-eyed girl and the Royal Navy’s inaugural biscuit machine are just some of the masterpieces of understated journalism collected by Francis Cox and contained in his Fragmenta. At ninety-four volumes, Cox’s scrapbook has to be one of the largest collections of journalistic ephemera ever. For sixty years during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries he accumulated articles on everything from duels to playhouses, and foreign travel to warfare. Following on from the success of the first volume, Simon Murphy has selected more bizarre stories to create another delightful historical miscellany which will intrigue and amuse.

This directory is a handy on-volume discovery tool that will allow readers to locate rare book and special collections in the British Isles. Fully updated since the second edition was published in 1997. this comprehensive and up-to-date guide encompasses collections held in libraries, archives, museums and private hands. The Directory: Provides a national overview of rare book and special collections for those interested in seeing quickly and easily what a library holds Directs researchers to the libraries most relevant for their research Assists libraries considering acquiring new special collections to assess the value of such collections beyond the institution,showing how they fit into a ‘unique and distinctive’ model. Each entry in the Directory provides background information on the library and its purpose, full contact details, the quantity of early printed books, information about particular subject and language strengths, information about unique works and important acquisitions, descriptions of named special collections and deposited collections. Readership: Researchers, academic liaison librarians and library managers.

An authoritative new history of the vampire, two hundred years after it first appeared on the literary scene Published to mark the bicentenary of John Polidori’s publication of The Vampyre, Nick Groom’s detailed new account illuminates the complex history of the iconic creature. The vampire first came to public prominence in the early eighteenth century, when Enlightenment science collided with Eastern European folklore and apparently verified outbreaks of vampirism, capturing the attention of medical researchers, political commentators, social theorists, theologians, and philosophers. Groom accordingly traces the vampire from its role as a monster embodying humankind’s fears, to that of an unlikely hero for the marginalized and excluded in the twenty-first century. Drawing on literary and artistic representations, as well as medical, forensic, empirical, and sociopolitical perspectives, this rich and eerie history presents the vampire as a strikingly complex being that has been used to express the traumas and contradictions of the human condition.

This revised edition lists approximately 1200 libraries in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, some included for the first time, with details of their rare and special book collections. It covers mainly those printed before 1850, but includes manuscript and modern material where related.