George Ticknor Reads Spanish Literature by Taylor Carrington
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Leigh American Cultural Anxiety and the Beginnings of Hispanism: George Ticknor Reads Spanish Literature By Taylor Carrington Leigh B.A., The University of Georgia, 2006 M.A., The University of Georgia, 2011 M.A., Brown University, 2013 M.L.I.S., University of Rhode Island, 2016 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Philosophy in the Department of Hispanic Studies at Brown University Providence, Rhode Island May 2018 Leigh © Copyright 2018 by Taylor Carrington Leigh Leigh This dissertation by Taylor Carrington Leigh is accepted in its present form by the Department of Hispanic Studies as satisfying the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Date____________________ Mercedes Vaquero, Advisor Recommended to the Graduate Council Date____________________ Felipe Martínez-Pinzón, Reader Date____________________ Laura Bass, Reader Approved by the Graduate Council Date____________________ Andrew G. Campbell, Dean of the Graduate School iii Leigh CURRICULUM VITAE Taylor Carrington Leigh was born in Richmond, Virginia and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 2006 with dual bachelor’s degrees in History and Spanish. He subsequently lived in Argentina and returned to the United States to pursue a master’s degree in Spanish, which he earned from the University of Georgia in 2011. He also earned master’s degrees in Hispanic Studies (Brown University, 2013) and Library and Information Science (University of Rhode Island, 2016). Taylor currently works as an academic librarian and lives in the San Francisco Bay area of California with his wife and two children. iv Leigh ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The following dissertation would not have been possible without the love, support, and assistance of a variety of people. First, I would like to thank Professor Mercedes Vaquero for initiating this journey by suggesting that I pursue my interest in archives by exploring the Ticknor Library of Spanish and Portuguese Literature at the Boston Public Library. She further tantalized me by hinting that George Ticknor may have once been in possession of the unique extant codex containing the Poema de Mio Cid (c. 1200), the now- canonical Spanish medieval epic poem currently housed at the Biblioteca Nacional de España in Madrid. I had been interested in the PMC for years prior and in 2011 I completed a master’s thesis on the characterization of the Cid in the PMC, with specific regard to the medieval fortitudo-sapientia dynamic, as compared to his depictions in two earlier medieval Latin texts, the Carmen Campi Doctoris (c. 1083) and the Historia Roderici (c. 1160), and what those differing portrayals suggest about the PMC’s author’s, or authors’, ideology. I first visited the Boston Public Library with the intention of examining Ticknor’s materials relating to the PMC, however, after perusing the extensive collection of Spanish and Portuguese texts that Ticknor bequeathed to the library he co-founded in 1858, I began to more fully appreciate his significance within the realms of Hispanism and nineteenth- century American scholarship. Soon thereafter, I pored over Ticknor’s fascinating journals and collected correspondence and the rest, as they say, is history. In addition to Professor Vaquero’s expert guidance, I would also like to acknowledge all of the teachers and mentors in my life who have had a hand in developing my intellect and helping me find my way through the nerve-fraying quagmire that is academia. To Elizabeth Wright, I offer my most sincere thanks, not only for believing in me early on and v Leigh encouraging me to dream bigger, but also for constituting such a consummate model of scholarly enterprise. To Noel Fallows, my utmost regards for initiating me into the wild world of Spanish medieval literature and serving as a thoughtful counselor during my master’s thesis. And to Catherine Jones, who introduced me to French medieval literature and to the theoretical intrigues of Hans Robert Jauss, thank you. My sincere gratitude also goes out to those professors at Brown University who prompted me to read and think more profoundly, especially Laura Bass, Stephanie Merrim, Julio Ortega, Aldo Mazzucchelli, Paul Guyer, and the late Francisco Márquez Villanueva. During my tenure at Brown, I also had the good fortune of befriending Patricia Figueroa, Curator of Iberian and Latin American Collections at Brown University Libraries. Patricia helped mitigate my professional doubts by talking with me at length about her work, encouraging me to pursue my library interests, and, ultimately, introducing me to the inspirational individuals who make up the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM). I would also like to extend my most sincere thanks to all of the archivists and librarians who helped me navigate the collections of primary sources that form the basis of this dissertation. These individuals include the incredible staff at the Boston Public Library’s Rare Books Department; the Rauner Library, Dartmouth College; the Massachusetts Historical Society; and Harvard University Archives. Aside from patiently helping me track down crucial materials in their collections, and, in the case of the Rauner staff, providing me with excellent photographic equipment to capture and retain materials of particular value, all of these people displayed an earnest interest in my topic and warmly encouraged me in my study of Ticknor. Such encouragement is well placed given that these archivists and librarians are, in a very real sense, heirs of Ticknor, as he was one of the vi Leigh earliest American intellectuals to so vehemently advocate for the collection of primary materials and the establishment of libraries in the United States as prerequisites for America’s scholarly and cultural advancement. In any case, to those dedicated professionals I would like to say thank you and keep fighting the good fight! I refer, of course, to the ever- endangered duty of preserving and advocating for the historical record. To no one do I owe so great a debt, however, as I do to my steadfast and awe- inspiring wife, Mary Elizabeth Lacy Leigh. Due to my exceedingly active, ever-ranging intellectual curiosity, I admittedly wavered on more than one occasion in my devotion to seeing this project completed. In these worrisome moments of uncertainty, it was precisely Mary Beth’s encouragement that grounded me and helped me see the value of this project. Its eventual completion is, to a large extent, due to her recurring reassurances. In truth, my occasional oscillations were less the result of boredom in my subject matter as they were of extra-curricular goings-on. To repeat a refrain I have heard so often from academic types discussing the myriad unforeseen obstacles to their scholarly aspirations, life happens. Life has most exuberantly happened to me since the initial stages of this project. Soon after submitting the prospectus for this project, Mary Beth and I welcomed our first child, John Lyle Leigh, into our lives. And a few years later, our second child, Francita Louise, joined the party. To my two wonderful children, then, I would also like to extend my heartfelt thanks, not so much for allowing me the requisite time to complete this project, which they most certainly did not do, but rather, for never ceasing to brighten my days, always helping me keep my priorities straight, and inspiring me on a daily basis to be the best possible version of myself. Thanks, guys. vii Leigh TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1: 45 George Ticknor’s Reception of Spanish Literature CHAPTER 2: 86 George Ticknor’s Mediation of Spanish Literature CHAPTER 3: 133 The Poema de Mio Cid and the Advancement of American Culture CONCLUSION 180 APPENDIX: Images 202 WORKS CITED 233 viii Leigh LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. George Ticknor as a young man. Oil painting by Thomas Sully. Hood 202 Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. Figure 2. George Ticknor as an old man, with signature. 203 Figure 3. Bust of George Ticknor created by Martin Milmore at the Boston 204 Public Library. Figure 4. Statuette of Ticknor. Rauner Library, Dartmouth College. 205 Figure 5. Ticknor’s home on Park Street, Boston. 206 Figure 6. George Ticknor’s study and library. Park Street, Boston. Rauner 207 Library, Dartmouth College. Figure 7. Title page of Ticknor’s Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on the History 208 and Criticism of Spanish Literature, 1823. Figure 8. Title page of the first edition of Ticknor’s History of Spanish 209 Literature, 1849. Figure 9. The old building of the University of Göttingen and its library, 1815. 210 Figure 10. Harvard College in 1828, at the time Ticknor was Smith Professor of 211 French and Spanish Languages and Literatures. Figure 11. Madame de Staël (1766-1817). Print Collection, The New York Public 212 Library. Figure 12. Robert Southey (1774-1843). 213 Figure 13. Friedrich Bouterwek (1766-1828). 214 Figure 14. Simonde de Sismondi. Print Collection, The New York Public Library. 215 Figure 15. Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803). 216 Figure 16. Pascual de Gayangos (1809-1897) as a young man. Real Academia de 217 Historia. Figure 17. Pascual de Gayangos as an older man. 218 Figure 18. Invoice of books purchased for Mr. Ticknor by Obadiah Rich. 219 December, 1826. Massachusetts Historical Society. Figure 19. Letter from Fernando de Navarrete to Alexander H. Everett. August, 220 182?. Massachusetts Historical Society. Figure 20. Letter from Pascual de Gayangos to William H. Prescott. December, 221 1839. Massachusetts Historical Society. Figure 21. Title page from Pascual de Gayangos’s Historia de la literatura 222 española (1851), the Spanish translation of Ticknor’s History of Spanish Literature. Figure 22. First page of the extant codex containing the Poema de Mio Cid, c. 223 1200. Figure 23. The original building of the Boston Public Library, co-founded by 224 Ticknor in 1858, on Boylston Street, Boston.