That of ingeniousness is a characteristic that cannot be acquired, it is a gift of nature which you have to be born with, and, with the passing of time, it can only be cultivated and refined.
And the Brontë siblings, in greater or lesser measure, possessed it all and gave demonstartion of it since their earliest age.
In 1829-30 Charlotte Brontë was 13 and hers brother Branwell 12 years old; they both had fun creating fantastic worlds that called Angria and Glass Town Confederacy and adventurous stories set in these fantastic worlds which they gave life to for Branwell's soldiers, who were both protagonists and listeners, stories which are contained in lovely tiny books that lies in the palm of one's hand: they measure less than 1 inch for 2 (2.5 x 5 cm), are made with recycled paper, found in the house and carefully cropped and collected (for example, they may have used the margins of the pages of a newspaper) and drawn up in athe most accurate, far too little handwriting.
Both the dimensions and the characters with which they are written make of them works of a truly inestimable value, and if we think of their authors and the time we are talking about, their value grows further beyond measure.
Page after page you enter this fantastic world through reading poems, stories, songs, illustrations, maps, building plans, and dialogues written with old nibs on such small leaves that an adult's hand has difficulty to handle, especially with the care that requires their over 200 years age.
Twenty in all have been preserved, nine of them have been recently digitized from the Houghton Library at Harvard University and are available online free and in full version:
by Charlotte Brontë:
Blackwoods young mens magazine, August 1829;
The silver cup: a tale, October 1829;
Scenes on the great bridge, November 1829;
The adventures of Mon. Edouard de Crack, February 1830;
An interesting passage in the lives of some eminent personages of the present age, June 1830;
The poetaster: a drama in two volumes, July 1830;
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by Patrick Branwell Brontë:
Magazine, January 1829;
Branwells Blackwoods magazine, June 1829;
Branwells Blackwoods magazine, July 1829.
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Also Emily and Anne wrote miniature books similar to these, but their copies did not survive, alas! they didn't pass the test of the passing of time.
Imagine Charlotte Brontee, who, at the age which girls still play, while she carefully pierced her sheets of paper and tied them together, without causing any damage to them, with an embroidery thread reproducing a binding that an embroidery really resembles; Branwell used a firmer yarn and his binding, which allowed him to stack a sheet at a time after writing it, did not reveal the grace used by his sister, but this does not take off prestige to the little, great treasures of this artist who would have become a poet and a painter, though, destroyed by alcohol and opium addiction, he will go off at just 31 years (you can read the post that ~ My little old world ~ long ago devoted to this fascinating and contradictory character in history of Literature and Art of the XIXth century, for me still little known and appreciated at least as much as he would deserve, by clicking HERE).
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Both the dimensions and the characters with which they are written make of them works of a truly inestimable value, and if we think of their authors and the time we are talking about, their value grows further beyond measure.
Page after page you enter this fantastic world through reading poems, stories, songs, illustrations, maps, building plans, and dialogues written with old nibs on such small leaves that an adult's hand has difficulty to handle, especially with the care that requires their over 200 years age.
Twenty in all have been preserved, nine of them have been recently digitized from the Houghton Library at Harvard University and are available online free and in full version:
by Charlotte Brontë:
Blackwoods young mens magazine, August 1829;
The silver cup: a tale, October 1829;
Scenes on the great bridge, November 1829;
The adventures of Mon. Edouard de Crack, February 1830;
An interesting passage in the lives of some eminent personages of the present age, June 1830;
The poetaster: a drama in two volumes, July 1830;
by Patrick Branwell Brontë:
Magazine, January 1829;
Branwells Blackwoods magazine, June 1829;
Branwells Blackwoods magazine, July 1829.
Also Emily and Anne wrote miniature books similar to these, but their copies did not survive, alas! they didn't pass the test of the passing of time.
Imagine Charlotte Brontee, who, at the age which girls still play, while she carefully pierced her sheets of paper and tied them together, without causing any damage to them, with an embroidery thread reproducing a binding that an embroidery really resembles; Branwell used a firmer yarn and his binding, which allowed him to stack a sheet at a time after writing it, did not reveal the grace used by his sister, but this does not take off prestige to the little, great treasures of this artist who would have become a poet and a painter, though, destroyed by alcohol and opium addiction, he will go off at just 31 years (you can read the post that ~ My little old world ~ long ago devoted to this fascinating and contradictory character in history of Literature and Art of the XIXth century, for me still little known and appreciated at least as much as he would deserve, by clicking HERE).
I'm sure you're wondering, at this point, how these twenti 'juvenilia' could have been preserved ...
Well, Charlotte's husband, after her death, sold the small volumes to a collector who gave them in turn to the poet Amy Lowell, who presented them at the Houghton Library in 1925 just a year before her death.
The deterioration that the time has physiologically impressed on the paper has made necessary a work of meticulous restoration and therefore this technological intervention so that they won't be lost and now, thanks to digitization, the time for them is as if it were stopped ... even if browsing them on a screen is never how to handle them, the emotion they give, believe me, is really great!
Thanks once again for following me up to here,
my dear friends, affectionate and occasional readers,
I heartily thank you and looking forward to meet you again,
I'm greeting you warmly,
see you soon 💕
SOURCE:
Quello della genialità è un tratto caratteriale che non può essere acquisito, è un dono con cui si nasce e che con il tempo può solamente essere coltivato ed affinato
ed i fratelli Brontë , in maggiore od in minore misura, lo possedevano tutti e ne diedero dimostrazione fin dalla più tenera età.
- immagine 1
Nel 1829-30 Charlotte Brontë aveva 13 anni e suo fratello Branwell ne aveva 12; costoro si divertivano a creare mondi fantastici che chiamarono Angria e Glass Town Confederacy e proprio i racconti avventurosi ambientati in questi mondi fantastici creati per i soldatini di Branwell, i quali delle suddette storie erano sia protagonisti che uditori, sono contenuti in incantevoli libricini che stanno nel palmo di una mano: misurano meno di 1 pollice per 2 ( cm.2,5 X 5 ), sono fatti con carta riciclata, trovata in casa ed accuratamente ritagliata ( si poteva trattare, per esempio, dei margini delle pagine di un quotidiano ) e vergati in una più che accurata, piccolissima grafia.
Sia le dimensioni che i caratteri con cui sono scritti ne fanno opere di un valore davvero inestimabile, se poi si pensa a coloro ne furono gli autori e all'epoca di cui stiamo parlando, il loro valore cresce ulteriormente a dismisura.
Pagina dopo pagina si entra in questo mondo fantastico attraverso la lettura di poesie, storie, canzoni, illustrazioni, mappe, piani di costruzione e dialoghi vergati con antichi pennini su fogli talmente piccoli che le mani di un adulto fanno fatica a maneggiare, soprattutto con la cura che richiede la loro età che data più di 200 anni.
Venti in tutto se ne sono conservati, nove ne sono starti recentemente digitalizzati dalla Houghton Library alla Harvard University e sono disponibili on-line gratuitamente in versione integrale:
di Charlotte Brontë:
Blackwoods young mens magazine, August 1829;
The silver cup: a tale, October 1829;
Scenes on the great bridge, November 1829;
The adventures of Mon. Edouard de Crack, February 1830;
An interesting passage in the lives of some eminent personages of the present age, June 1830;
The poetaster: a drama in two volumes, July 1830;
- immagine 2
- immagine 3
di Patrick Branwell Brontë:
Magazine, January 1829;
Branwells Blackwoods magazine, June 1829;
Branwells Blackwoods magazine, July 1829.
- immagine 4
Anche Emily ed Anne scrissero libri in miniatura simili a questi, ma le loro copie, ahimè, non ci sono pervenute, non hanno superato la prova del trascorrere del tempo.
Immaginate Charlotte Brontee che, all'età in cui ancora le fanciulle giocano, si preoccupava di forare con cura foglio per foglio i suoi libricini e di legarli infine insieme, senza arrecare loro danno alcuno, con un filo da ricamo riproducendo una rilegatura in brossura che ad un ricamo, davvero, somiglia; Branwell utilizzò un filo in lino più robusto e la sua rilegatura, che gli permetteva di accatastare un foglio alla volta dopo averlo scritto, non rivela la grazia che usò sua sorella, ma ciò non toglie prestigio ai piccoli, grandi tesori di questo artista in nuce che sarebbe diventato poeta e pittore, anche se, distrutto dalla dipendenza dall'alcool e dall'oppio, si spegnerà a soli 31 anni ( potete leggere il post che ~My little old world~ tempo fa dedicò a questo affascinante e contradditorio personaggio della storia della letteratura e dell'arte del XIX secolo per me ancora poco conosciuto ed apprezzato come meriterebbe cliccando QUI ).
- immagine 5
Vi chiederete a questo punto come questi venti 'juvenilia' abbiano potuto conservarsi ...
Ebbene, il marito di Charlotte, dopo la sua morte, vendette i piccoli volumi ad un collezionista che li diede a sua volta alla poetessa Amy Lowell, la quale ne fece dono alla Biblioteca Houghton nel 1925. proprio un anno prima della sua morte.
Il deterioramento che il tempo fisiologicamente ha impresso sul materiale cartaceo ha reso necessaria un'opera di minuzioso restauro e quindi questo intervento tecnologico affinché anch'essi non andassero perduti ed ora, grazie alla digitalizzazione, il tempo, per loro, è come se si fosse fermato ... anche se sfogliarli su di uno schermo non è mai come maneggiarli, l'emozione che donano, credetemi, è davvero grande !
Grazie anche questa volta per avermi seguita fino a qui,
miei adorati amici, lettori affezionati ed occasionali,
vi ringrazio di cuore e vi aspetto ... ancora ...
a presto 💕
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