Item 1960/1 - Four letters from Philip Grierson

4 items, paper

Four letters from Philip Grierson, in typescript, two with manuscript addenda. In the first letter, dated 3 November 1960 (a), PG responds to a proposal for a new book by IS, notes a forthcoming visit of IS to Cambridge, and invites IS to dine with him on the 26th. PG also notes that there are now three separate plans for a new book, of which the one proposed by IS has the most promise. There is a manuscript addendum in which PG uses a spelling error in the letter as a segue into one that he discovered in a tenth-century Italian source, resolving a question over a unit of weight called a "gradina", which turned out to be a "dragma". In the second letter, dated 13 November 1960 (b), PG mentions an enclosure, no longer attached, which sketches out a plan based on IS's scheme. In the third letter, dated 18 December 1960 (c), PG mentions another enclosure, again no longer attached, this time of a revised table of contents [for their proposed book]. He also states that, in response to some queries of IS on Scottish coinage, he is sending his entire folder of notes on Scottish gold. In the fourth letter, dated 29 December 1960 (d), PG relates that he took some work "home" to do over the holiday but spent his time reading a Russian book on astronomy; he also mentions a forthcoming trip to Belgium and makes arrangements to dine out with IS in Cambridge on the 14th. There is also a handwritten addendum in which PG asks IS if he will brunch with him on the 15th and then play a game of squash in the afternoon.