Collection ID: 0002 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

William Nestell diary and commonplace book

Authors

• Nestell, William S

Other related names

• Kaplan, Arnold Harvey, 1939-, donor
• Kaplan, Deanne, donor

Call number

MS 56, Codex 043.1
(420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106-3703, University of Pennsylvania, Library at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 9978843220503681
• http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1336457314
• https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3pr7nd72

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania

Origin

Date

1816-1822

Summary

Collection of a few diary entries, a crew list, and numerous poems written by an English sailor. The diary entries describe San Sebastian, Spain; Bordeaux, France; and Buenos Aires, Argentina (p. 1-10). The entry about Buenos Aires describes a violent attack by a soldier on a Jewish vendor in a market (p. 5). The crew list for the voyage of the corvette Horatio to Buenos Aires is copied with W. S. Nestell listed as 1st master's mate (p. 30). The majority of the volume is filled with excerpts from poets and playwrights of the United Kingdom, including William Shakespeare, John Dryden (1668-1700), Edward Young (1683-1765), John Gay (1688-1732), Christopher Pitt (1699-1748), James Thomson (1700-1748), Nathaniel Cotton (1707-1788), William Cowper (1731-1800), Helen Maria Williams (1759-1827), Lord Byron (1788-1824), George Walker (1772-1847), and Thomas Moore (1779-1852). Plays include Macbeth, Shepherdess of the Alps, King Charles the First, Devil’s Bridge, and Retribution or the Chieftain’s Daughter. Many of the excerpts seem to be signed Guillermo, perhaps a signature of William Nestell, but most are by published poets. Some excerpts are marked with ports and dates and less frequently ships’ names, not in chronological order, such as Point Judith, Ship Robert Fulton; Savannah, 1821; New York, 1822; Buenos Aires, 1819; Ilio de la Plata, 1818, Ship Horatio; Equator, 1818, Brig Junius; Rio Janerio, 1819; Bota Foga, 1819, Brig Junius; off Cape Ortegal, 1816, Brig Lydia; Bordeaux, 1816, Brig Lydia; off Cape Hatteras, 1821, Ship Garrone; New York, 1822. Original pagination, 1-121, with multiple pages cut out at beginning and end and pages 13-14, 31-36, 75-76 cut or torn out. Folio volume with leather cover and spine title label Minutes, W. S. Nestell on upper cover in ink, marbled pastedowns, with Bakers Society written in ink on a label inside the lower cover (upside down, inside the former upper cover).

Notes

• A partial transcript is on file in the library.
   

Extent

1 volume (55 leaves)

Provenance

• Sold by University Archives (Wilson, Connecticut), 2021.
   
• Purchased for the Penn Libraries 2021 by Arnold and Deanne Kaplan (Collectify no. 2021.09.30.00001; 13.1941).
   

Subjects topical

• Jews--Argentina--Buenos Aires--History--Sources
• Jewish merchants--Argentina--Buenos Aires
• English poetry--18th century
• English poetry--19th century
• Buenos Aires (Argentina)--Description and travel
• Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France)--Description and travel

Genres

• commonplace books
• Manuscripts, English--19th century

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Library at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies MS 56, Codex 043.1: William Nestell diary and commonplace book are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  Metadata is ©2025 University of Pennsylvania Libraries and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License version 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. For a description of the terms of use see the Creative Commons Deed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode