The Prof. Trevor Dadson donation on early modern literature, history and culture from Spain

On By europeancollectionsIn Historical collections, Spanish

The University Library has recently received a donation of several hundred books from the library of the late Professor Trevor Dadson (1947-2020). He was a British Hispanist whose expertise in Golden Age Spanish literature and history gained him worldwide recognition.

Princess of Éboli (Unknown author, via Wikimedia Commons)

Trevor Dadson was an Emeritus Professor of Hispanic Studies at Queen Mary University of London from 2004 to 2020. He was formerly a Professor of Spanish at Queen’s University Belfast from 1978 to 1990 and at the University of Birmingham from 1991 to 2004.

He graduated with a first-class degree in Spanish and Portuguese from the University of Leeds and moved to Cambridge in 1970 to study for his doctoral thesis. His links to Cambridge date back to Leeds, where Prof. Colin Smith (a Cambridge graduate who would later become Chair of Spanish at Cambridge) taught him about the Spanish poet Luis de Góngora and inspired his lifelong passion for Baroque poetry. For a list of books authored or edited by Prof. Dadson available within Cambridge libraries, click here.

Prof. Dadson completed his PhD at Cambridge in 1974 under the supervision of Edward M. Wilson, Professor of Spanish between 1953 and 1973. Wilson introduced Dadson to the obscure Golden Age poet Gabriel Bocángel y Unzueta, who would become the subject of his doctoral thesis (catalogue record here) and a personal favorite of Dadson’s (he would continue to write about him for the rest of his academic career). For a list of his books on Bocángel y Unzueta available at the Library, click here.

Some poetry titles from the library of Prof. Trevor Dadson

Below is a selection of literary titles from this donation already in the catalogue:

Some titles on bibliography from the library of Prof. Trevor Dadson

Prof. Dadson was also a distinguished bibliographer and historian. His library contained many catalogues of manuscripts held in Spanish libraries, catalogues of private libraries, of incunabula, of chapbooks, general bibliographies, books on reading and the history of the book, and books on printing in Spain and Portugal. The University Library has rich holdings in this area, but we were able to incorporate a respectable number of key titles that were missing from our collections. Here are some of the books on these topics already in the catalogue:

Some history titles from the library of Prof. Trevor Dadson

As a historian, he wrote extensively on the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain in the 17th century and on the Spanish Inquisition. He was also a keen biographer and editor of correspondence. His biography of the Princess of Éboli, written in collaboration with Prof. Helen H. Reed, using her correspondence and other source material to tell her story, remains one of the most authoritative works on this Spanish aristocrat to date (see Epistolario e historia documental de Ana de Mendoza y de la Cerda, princesa de Éboli / Trevor J. Dadson, Helen H. Reed (582:54.c.201.2)).

Some books on these topics catalogued so far include:

The processing of this donation is currently in progress, with over 300 items catalogued so far. Most of the books in the collection are in Spanish, with a small number in English, French, Italian or Portuguese. If you would like more information about this donation, please contact Sonia Morcillo, Hispanic Specialist, at hispanic@lib.cam.ac.uk

With thanks to María de los Ángeles Gimeno Santacruz, widow of Prof. Trevor Dadson, for making this donation possible.

Sonia Morcillo

One thought on “The Prof. Trevor Dadson donation on early modern literature, history and culture from Spain”

  1. Michael Moriarty's avatar Michael Moriarty

    I was a colleague of Trevor Dadson’s for many years at QMUL. He was a great scholar and it is a very good thing for the UL to be getting this donation.

    Reply

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