Content:
A manuscript containing prose notes about science and the names of various scientific fields. Although Whitman was interested in sciene throughout his life, his most intense period of interest in the subject was during the late 1840s and 1850s. The small handwriting and small scrap of paper on which the note is written are also characteristic of Whitman's early writing (see Edward Grier,
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
[New York: New York University Press, 1984], 5:1998). The manuscript was therefore likely written in the late 1840s or the 1850s. The manuscript is pasted down to a backing sheet, making the verso inaccessible.
Content:
A prose note about Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375). According to Edward Grier, this scrap may have been part of a larger manuscript of notes about other Italian writers (see
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
[New York: New York University Press, 1984], 5:1858). The text Whitman quotes comes from the
Westminster Review
, American Edition, LI, (July 1849): 187 (see Stovall, "Notes on Whitman's Reading,"
American Literature
26, no. 3, [November 1954]: 361). This manuscript could therefore date from as early as 1849, although it was most likely written in the 1850s. The manuscript is pasted down to a backing sheet, making the verso inaccessible.
