Hugo Gurgeny: Prisoner of the Lisbon Inquisition.
Typescript of Mary Brearley's Hugo Gurgeny, with Autograph Presentation Letter Dedicated to Gurgeny's English Parish [Brearley, Mary, (Pseud. of Mary Salkeld-Robinson Jayne)]. Hugo Gurgeny: Prisoner of the Lisbon Inquisition. S.l. [London]: s.n., n.d. [circa 1930s-1940s]. An undated carbon typescript. Quarto (11-1/4" x 8-1/2"; 28.6 x 21.6 cm). 204 leaves, typed on rectos only. Bound in contemporary green binder's cloth, gilt-lettered spine and front board. Moderate shelfwear and soiling, bottom edge of front board lightly bumped. Binder's ticket of "A. West & Partners, Westminster" and author's presentation Typed Letter Signed (TLS) tipped-in to front pastedown on stationery inscribed from "The Basil Hotel/ Knightsbridge SW3" to top margin. Light foxing and dampstaining to endpapers. Text block uniformly toned but otherwise clean and crisp internally. A very good, unique survival of the author's typescript. $1,250. * An exceptional author inscribed presentation typescript, written on stationery from the historic Basil Street Hotel in Knightsbridge, London that operated until 2005 and was located near the famed luxury establishment Harrods. Writing in her capacity as president of the local historical society, Brearley presents this copy to Hugo Gurgeny's original English parish and candidly complains about her ongoing difficulties in securing a commercial publisher for the work. Brearley's narrative is a rigorous reconstruction of the 1605-1609 trial of Hugo Gurgeny, an English merchant captured and tortured by the Inquisition in Lisbon, painstakingly transcribed from the original trial records in the Portuguese National Archives (Torre do Tombo). This presentation copy, bridging the subject's historical parish with the author's personal campaign to preserve his memory, serves as a poignant artifact of literary endurance. Brearley's compelling narrative offers an extraordinary window into both 17th-century Anglo-Portuguese geopolitical friction and the mid-20th-century struggles of independent female scholarship.
Price: $1,250.00
Book number 87310