| Abstrakt: |
No manuscript survives of the 1694 autobiographical memoir which is a major source for the life of Ireland’s pioneer scientist and political writer, William Molyneux. It is only thanks to his great-nephew Sir Capel Molyneux II’s having published it in two very limited editions in 1803 and 1820 that this crucial work is known today. The discovery of a second copy of the 1803 edition, complete with its hitherto unknown title page, a further forty-two pages of text and extensive MS corrections and additions, prompts reappraisal of the work in the context of Sir Capel’s eccentric life and the relationship between the two editions. Doing so establishes the 1803 edition was never released for general circulation and helps clarify the role of the celebrated bibliographer and manuscript collector Sir Thomas Phillipps and his father-in-law, Sir Capel’s half-brother, General Thomas Molyneux, in bringing out the privately printed, 1820 edition. The paper concludes with a brief review of the memoir and what led Molyneux to write it. |
