The Rev. T. R. O’Flahertie: Nineteenth-Century Bibliographer, Collector, and Editor of Donne’s Letters

Abstract

Although Theobald Richard O’Flahertie (1818–1894) is known today primarily as the former owner of an important early Donne manuscript, little attention has been paid to his life and his work as a Donne scholar and editor. This essay outlines O’Flahertie’s life, his collection of seventeenth-century editions of Donne’s writings, and his efforts to edit Donne’s letters. After detailing O’Flahertie’s background, the essay describes his collection of the early editions of Donne’s work, including a transcription of the Donne portion of his own meticulous library catalog (CUL Library, MS Add. 8692). Like others in the mid-nineteenth century, O’Flahertie shared the conviction that manuscripts were necessary to edit Donne and acquired several, notably the O’Flahertie MS now at Harvard. His efforts to collect information about Donne’s life and his works through the then newly established Notes and Queries reveals his meticulous correspondence with and influence on other Donne scholars. Attention is given to his working notebook for his editorial project, now at the Cushing Memorial Library at Texas A&M University—a copy of the second issue of Donne’s Letters to Severall Persons of Honour (1654) that contains O’Flahertie’s extensive annotations and glosses.