VIII.A.1.
VIII.A.1: Other Notebooks: Later Zurich Greek Notebook (1916–1917)
Material Description and Collation
The manuscript is a pocket-sized exercise notebook with blue paper covers and a black cloth spine, with a blank white paper label with scalloped edges pasted on the front cover recto. It consists of 48 leaves (96 pages) of ruled paper, with printed blue horizontal lines, double and single red vertical lines in the margins; the sheets are stitched three times with a single thread in the center and folded in half vertically to form the notebook. Joyce wrote on pp. [1r]–[5r], [6r] and [6v] in black ink and in lead pencil on p. [5v], with additions and/or corrections in black ink and lead pencil; the remaining 84 pages are blank. The notebook is similar to Buffalo MSS VIII.A.2 and A.4, both of which Joyce used in Zurich from 1915 to 1918.
Measurements
The manuscript measures 21.9 x 17.5 cm.
Pagination
The pages are not numbered.
Contents
Rodney Wilson Owen discusses Joyce’s Greek notebooks in detail in his James Joyce and the Beginnings of “Ulysses” (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1983; hereafter cited as Owen), pp. 96–104. According to Owen, pp. [1r]–[4v] contain unrelated colloquial Greek sentences, of which lines 4–7 on p. [2r] were copied from VIII.A.4, p. [16r]; the rest of p. [4v] and pp. [5r]–[6r] continue with vocabulary notes and Joyce copied a note from Paul Phocas with Easter greetings on pp. [6r] and [6v], (Owen, p. [99]). Owen describes this manuscript tentatively as "the most interesting of Joyce’s Greek manuscripts, particularly since it superficially promises to divulge entirely fresh biographical information" (100).
Dating
Owen has dated Joyce’s use of this notebook from late October 1916 to April 1917 (96).
Other Markings
There is stationer’s mark "30" (possibly the price) in the upper left corner of the label on the front cover recto in lead pencil.
Publication
This manuscript has been reproduced in black and white photo-facsimile on JJA 3.340–352.