Liber Psalmorum

1880

Special Collections BS 1422 1880

[Leipzig]: B. Tauchnitz

This Latin-Hebrew edition of the Psalms was presented to the University of Otago by Edward S. Dodgson, cousin to Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), on 10 November 1884. It is a sturdy volume, with gilt edges and a mottled suede cover. However, it is the endpapers that are striking. Dodgson was active in Basque and Manx studies, an inveterate letter writer to the newspapers, and an advocate of the Pan Celtic movement. Perhaps he commissioned the binder to produce this puke-making psychedelic marbled effect, a feature that is more disturbing than pleasing to view.