Bibliographer: Liz Cushing

Friendship in a Nunnery; or, the American Fugitive

A bar graph imaging the distance between what descriptive bibliography can and cannot tell us about a novel like Friendship in a Nunnery suggests that we think about how to describe traditional bibliographic description. 

Traditional Description

Friendship-titlepage.png

[GIBBES, Phebe]. Friendship in a Nunnery;| OR, THE| AMERICAN FUGITIVE.| CONTAINING| A full Description of the Mode of Education and| Living in CONVENT SCHOOLS, both on| the low and high Pension.| THE MANNERS AND CHARACTERS OF THE NUNS;| The ARTS practised on YOUNG MINDS;| And their BANEFUL EFFECTS on SOCIETY| at large.| BY A LADY.
London: J. Bew, Pater-Noster-Row, 1778.
I 263p; II 258p. 12mo.
Contents. Volume I. A1r blank,
A1v title, A2r dedication, B1r-M11v text
Volume II. A1r title, A1v blank, B1r-M8r text, M8v advertisement
Notes. Title page of each volume in British Library Copy quotes “Those who to Convents fly, will sadly find, That danger, vice and woe of every kind, Are surely met with there, not left behind,” and have “William Thomson” signature on page. Blank pages in both vols. 1 (A1r) and 2 (A1v) have “1607/3460” handwritten on page.

 

Experimental Description