Monday 20 October 2008

Bertolotto Books

Whilst researching the History of L. Bertolotto, I've been specifically looking for references to his book, "The History of the Flea with Notes and Observations" and have been using google books to get me a short list of books to track down at the local library.

There are several documents that make reference to the Bertolotto books and confirm the publishing dates of 1834 (French and English Editions), and St. Petersbourg, 1838.


There is also a reference to one of these books being sold at Sotherby in 1975, it would be interesting to know who bought it and what it sold for. The seller is listed as Ganthony (Robert) Bunkum Entertainments.

In addition I've been looking at the printers for the books. The American edition was printed by John Axford of 29 Ann Street, New York 1976. This is interesting because it is right next door to "Barnum's American Museum" which was located on the corner of Ann Street and Broadway. It suggests that Bertolotto may have met with Barnum at some point.

2 comments:

DADAPALOOZA said...

Bertolotto almost certainly performed at Barnum's museum. Several texts mention about a flea circus performing there-- and I've also seen some posters, (I believe in Jay's Journal of Anomalies, although it might also have been in one of the Barnum books) that showed a flea circus performing at Barnum's Museum.

FleaCircusDirector said...

Yes, I have seen references to Flea Circuses at the Barnum museum but none that mention L.Bertolotto by name, I'll double check Jay's Journal as its been a while since I read that.