Manuscript Studies
Teaching materials and collections
Dorothy K. Coveney collection of writing instruments
This collection of writing instruments was a gift to the Senate House Library by Dorothy Coveney’s husband shortly after her death in 1980. The gift also included her library of printed books and manuscripts, among which of note is a 15th century diurnal in Latin written in Bavaria in a German ‘bastarda’ script (Senate House Library MS 889).
Check here for a detailed description of the contents of this collection.
Short biography of Dorothy K Coveney
Dr. Dorothy K. Coveney (d. 1979) was one of the most gifted students of the medievalist and palaeographer Robert Priebsch (1866-1935), who was Professor of German Language and Literature at the University of London for over 30 years until 1931. Dorothy Coveney’s doctoral thesis in 1930, printed a few years later, was a very thorough descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts held in the library of University College, London. After completing her studies she was a Lecturer in German at the University College of Swansea until 1946.
She had long associations with the study and teaching of palaeography in London and had a keen interest in literary manuscripts of classical and medieval texts. She undertook serious palaeographical work on the Exeter Book, and wrote knowledgeably about the cataloguing of literary manuscripts. Dorothy Coveney was a passionate defender of palaeography as a properly taught subject and wrote a plea to universities in an article published in 1948. When the Palaeography Room at the Senate House Library was finally established in 1956, she regarded this as the fulfilment of her mentor’s ideals, and remained very closely attached to it until her death in 1979.
While at Swansea, she married Professor Norton Medlicott, who later became the Stevenson Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Editor-in-Chief of Foreign Offices documents relating to the Second World War. Together with Medlicott, she also edited two books on European politics.
Books and articles by Dorothy K Coveney
Bismarck and Europe. London: Edward Arnold, 1971.
A descriptive catalogue of manuscripts in the library of University College, London. London : Printed for University of London, University College, 1935.
The lion’s tale: an anthology or criticism and abuse. London: Constable, 1971.
‘The cataloguing of literary manuscripts’. In Journal of Documentation, vol. VI, 1950, pp. 125-139.
'Johannes Sintram De Herbipoli’. In Speculum, vol. XVI, 1941, pp. 336-339.
‘A plea for palaeography’. In The Universities Review, vol. 1, no.1, 1948, pp. 43-49.
‘The Ruling of the Exeter Book’. In Scriptorium, vol. XII, 1, 1950, pp. 51-55.
‘An Unpublished Seventh Century Uncial Fragment’. In Speculum, vol. X, 1935, pp. 41-46.
