The Missing Letters J. R. R. Tolkien Received from Derek J. Price and R. M. Wilson: Addendum to “Further Notes on J. R. R. Tolkien’s Photostats of The Equatorie of the Planetis (MS Peterhouse 75.I)”

Abstract

In 2021, Andoni Cossio suggested cataloguing The Equatorie of the Planetis (MS Peterhouse 75.I, c. 1393) under “Section A” in Tolkien’s Library: An Annotated Checklist, by Oronzo Cilli. One year later, Cossio unearthed the exact list of MS Peterhouse 75.I folios J. R. R. Tolkien had once owned in the form of photostats (2022). In this second article, Cossio alludes the to the hypothetical existence of correspondence that Tolkien exchanged with Derek J. Price and R. M. Wilson during the preparation phase of Price and Wilson’s edition of The Equatorie of the Planetis (1955). New evidence gathered from Maggs Bros. Ltd. private archive (1991b), as well as auction (Phillips 1988; Sotheby’s 1995) and sales (Maggs Bros. Ltd. 1991a) catalogues demonstrate the existence of epistles and other material Tolkien received, though the brief, and often inaccurate, descriptions of the lots and items do not determine Tolkien’s exact contributions. However, the catalogues provide additional information about the timeline of Tolkien’s participation, and disclose that Price was the one to approach Tolkien in the first place. This note will elucidate those aspects and further complement Cossio’s (2022) article in other ways.

Keywords

• J. R. R. Tolkien; The Equatorie of the Planetis; MS Peterhouse 75.I; Derek J. Price; R. M. Wilson; C. T. Onions; Geoffrey Chaucer; Merton College; Middle English; Latin