British author (1893–1957) best known for her series of mysteries featuring fictional detective Lord Peter Wimsey. Substantial TLS signed “Dorothy L. Sayers,” five pages, 8 x 10, 24, Newland Street, Witham, Essex letterhead, January 31, 1949. Sayers types a lengthy letter to Dr. S. J. Curtis of the University of Leeds, discussing her views on Dante, scholarship, and philosophy, in part: “By the way, some people might fall on you for saying that Dante was ‘usually so well-informed.’ There are gaps in his information, on which certain critics (Mandonnet is one) are apt to lay stress. But he is generally pretty accurate about anything to do with theology. He mixes up Hugh Capet with his son, and mistakes a character in Terence for a real person, and that sort of thing; but I cannot believe that he just didn’t know that Siger was condemned for Averroism. Because he is clearly interested in Averroism, or he wouldn’t be at such pains to make his own orthodoxy evident on the crucial points. I’m glad you think that quotation an illuminating one. The really operative clause is, perhaps, qui ejus libros suscipiunt expondendso. I mean, those are the words which seem to define the responsibility of the scholar to his text. If you undertake to expound a text, it is your duty to expound that text, whatever you may think in your private capacity. To save you the trouble of hunting through Mandonnet for it, you will find it in Chapter IX. I haven’t noted the page ref., but it is just before the passage on Boethius of Dacia—on the right-hand page, I think, with the Latin text in a footnote. I don’t think you really need to make acknowledgments to me for pointing out something in the book you lent me yourself! But I am happy to be associated with the inquiry in any way. Would you be an angel and insert into my name the ‘L’ which distinguishes me from the Miss Dorothy Sayers who gives light entertainment with the balalaika? I always use that form of signature on title-pages, etc.” Scattered creasing and wrinkles, uniform toning, two rusty paperclip impressions to the first page and a faint impression to each subsequent page, and a trivial area of paper loss to the right edge of the first page, otherwise fine condition. Sayers was infamous for making people utilize her middle initial, as she believed it helped with the proper pronunciation of her last name. In this heady correspondence, the acclaimed author touches upon some of her favorite masters of western thought, including Siger of Brabant and Dante; Sayers considered her translation of the Divine Comedy to be her best work. Stunning content from the acclaimed mystery writer. RRAuction COA.
