[PW] Bunyan and de Geideville -- and Ms Curt.

[Michael J. Lowrey]

On 3/9/07, Peter Macinnis <petermacinnis at ozemail.com.au> wrote:
> This is curiosity.
>
> Source: 306 of 'Scientific American', November 5, 1859:
>
> LITERARY LARCENY.—An extraordinary statement is in circulation in London
> respecting the 'Pilgrim's Progress', namely, that this celebrated work
> was not written by John Bunyan, but that the entire story is made up
> from an ancient manuscript. Miss Catherine Isabella Curt has published a
> translation, from a French manuscript (in the British Museum), of the
> "Pylegremage of the Sowle,' by G. de Geideville, a churchman who
> flourished in the fifteenth century. A translation of the original work
> was printed by Caxton in 1483, and Bunyan's 'Pilgrims Progress' is said
> to be nearly a verbatim copy of that extremely rare book.
>
> (NOTE: The source is Cornell's 'Making of America'.  I used their OCR
> and corrected it from an image file.  The names are all double-checked.)
>
> I have failed, so far, to trace any Web reference to this claim, or to
> de Geideville or to Ms Curt, and I am wondering (no more than that) what
> happened to the claim -- or even where it was made.  The local Proquest
> Historical Papers has nothing on de Geideville, there is no mention of
> this "scandal" in "The Times".

According to Google Books, there's something about this in the 1861
Annual Report of the American Historical Association, which I don't
have to hand.

-- 
Michael J. "Orange Mike" Lowrey

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food
and clothes."
     --  Desiderius Erasmus