ORINDA
The Literary Manuscripts of Katherine Philips (1631-1664)

"A woman of excelling worth & vertues & of prodigious wit,

fruitfull in many incomparable poems...."
Sir Edward Dering
(British Library Add Ms 70887, f10v, 22 June 1664)

Katherine Philips, known to her contemporaries as "The Matchless Orinda", ranks as one of the most important early women writers.

She is remembered as a poet whose verse still speaks directly to readers on subjects such as marriage, relationships, happiness and loss; as a friend of the Cavalier poets; as a poet who had her verse set to music by Lawes and Purcell; as a writer who is much revered by modern feminists for her praise of Platonic friendship between women.

Philips is also known for being the hub of one of the more celebrated circles of friendship that existed in this period.

But above all, she is noteworthy for being one of the few 17th Century writers to leave behind a substantial body of manuscript evidence. This project brings together 27 manuscripts and 3 printed volumes from nine libraries in Britain and America. It includes:

The 10 key sources for her poetry (From the National Library of Wales - NLW775B & NLW 776B; From Cardiff Central Library - Cardiff Ms 2.1073; From the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin - Texas Pre-1700 Ms 151; From Worcester College, Oxford - Clarke Ms 6.13; From the Bodleian Library, Oxford - Ms Rawl Poet 65, Ms Rawl Poet 90 & Ms Rawl Poet 173; From the Folger Shakespeare Library - Folger Ms V.b.231; From the Beinecke Library, Yale University - Osborn b118)

The 3 key sources for her drama (NLW 776B, NLW 21867B and Folger Ms V.b.231)

Both of her posthumous printed works (Poems, 1667, and Letters from Orinda to Poliarchus, 1705)

A total of 9 verse miscellanies, making it possible to set her poetry in context (Cardiff Ms 2.1073; Worcester College Clarke Ms 6.13; Mss Rawl Poet 65, 90, 147, 173 & 246; Yale, Osborn b118 & b207)

A pair of manuscript song books setting her lyrics to music (Folger Ms W.b.515 & Ms V.b.197)

Other items featured are some early verses signed with her maiden name of Katherine Fowler; Excerpts from a Commonplace book kept by John Locke; The original autograph manuscript of John Aubrey’s Brief Life of Orinda; and manuscript poems from the Huntington Library and Hertfordshire County Record Office.

The existence of multiple versions of individual texts also offers scholars and students the opportunity to use this as a source to study the transmission of texts through manuscript circulation, and as an ideal test case for the editing of texts.