[Rarebooks] fs: Attack on 19th Century Genealogy - 1865

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, ABAA]

>From our Just Catalogued pages-
<http://www.joslinhall.com/justcat.htm>
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[Burnett, George]. POPULAR GENEALOGISTS OR THE ART OF PEDIGREE-MAKING.
Edinburgh; Edmonston and Douglas: 1865. A broadside lambasting, and
point-by-point disassembly, of the veracity of Burke's Peerage by a
skilled genealogist and professional competitor.

Burnett, who was co-editor of "Woodward's treatise on heraldry, British
and foreign", was a very knowledgeable and careful student of genealogy
and heraldry, and proceeds to pick the accuracy of Burke's popular work
apart piece by piece with a zeal that is, at times, just a bit
unsettling... This is certainly an excellent example of how what we
perceive as the dusty, sedate world of Victorian Antiquarianism, all agog
over whether the cousin of some 14th century Earl was killed in 1389 or
1388, was really a viperous, winner-take-all, hardball game where the only
thing left of the losers were a few bones and perhaps a dusty pair of
pince-nez.

Burnett is not only aggrieved by the editorial shortcomings of Burke,
however. He seems to regard a large portion of the genealogical and
heraldic community of his day as incompetent at best and felonious at
worst. "It is a remarkable circumstance," he notes, "that side by side
with the laborious and critical genealogists, there should have sprung up
a set of venal pedigree-mongers, whose occupation consists in garbling
truth, and inventing falsehood, -a calling which they pursue with the most
untiring assiduity".

And then, of course, we get back around to Burke- "But it is unfortunate
indeed, that the easy credulity of Sir Bernard Burke should allow him to
be led blindfold by these obscure persons, whose most palatable fictions
he seldom shows the least hesitation in adopting". An intricate, obsessive
little book which many genealogists will no doubt find absolutely
fascinating. Hardcover. 5.5"x8", 108 pages, several b/w illustrations in
the text; blue cloth with gilt rules and spine title, as issued; light
cover wear, a little soil, but overall a very bright, nice copy. [05601]
$125.00


Illustration-
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