Rescribal is a website I’ve created to give new life to writings which for one reason or another have been hidden from history, but have something to say to new audiences today
Its first project is the republication of Elizabeth Bond’s Letters of a Village Governess, a fascinating medley of a work published by subscription in 1814 by a woman who was trying to make a living as a schoolteacher in the Scottish Highlands, or more specifically the ‘Firthlands’of the north-east. Only a few copies of the book are known to survive, one of which I was lucky enough to pick up in the wonderful second-hand bookshop in Westleton, Suffolk, many years ago. Here will be the text of the book, with annotations and accompanying blog. Plan is to go live this June.
Also in the pipleline, a rare example of classical reader response from the 1720s, from a young man fresh from training as a Dissenting minister, improving his Greek by reading Homer’s Iliad alongside Alexander Pope’s recently published translation. This one has been hidden from history for a different reason – the notes he wrote are in shorthand, and no other transcription exists.
My first aim is simply to make these texts available, but web publication should offer new opportunities for context and commentary. At this stage this is the beginning of an exploration: who knows where it will lead. Many thanks to WordPress for making it possible. Now to get on with it …