Significant Trove of John Donne's Poetry Uncovered in Suffolk

The leather-bound volume, which numbers 265 pages (encompassing 139 poems) is the second manuscript of John Donne's writing to be unearthed in recent years, following a similar discovery in Westminster Abbey in 2017. At The Guardian, Alison Flood writes, "Dating back 400 years, the bound collection was kept for at least the last two centuries at Melford Hall in Suffolk. Sotheby’s expert Dr Gabriel Heaton was on a “standard checking visit” to the property when he found it in a box with other papers." From there: 

“Nobody knew about it … It was tucked away in a corner, collected with loose archival material around the house and not identified as being by Donne,” said Heaton. “I opened the box and came across this astonishing manuscript, opened it up and thought, ‘Hang on, that poem’s by John Donne … hang on, that’s also John Donne,’ and quite quickly realised it was a very very special and significant manuscript. It was a wonderful and exciting moment.”

Donne, the 17th-century priest and author of some of the English language’s most enduring poetry, from the Holy Sonnets to his love poems, was described by Ben Jonson as “the first poet in the World in some things”. But his work was, with a few exceptions, not available in print during his lifetime; Donne preferred it to be circulated among what Sotheby’s called an “exclusive coterie”, in written form.

Read more at The Guardian.