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A Curious Case of Plagiarism in the Nineteenth Century: James Platt Jr and the Philological Society


James Platt Jr (1861–1910) is not often mentioned in relation to Anglo-Saxon studies. The main reason for his elusiveness is his involvement in a plagiarism case in the early 1880s that resulted in a reprimand from the Philological Society. While the affair has been discussed before on the basis of the correspondence of Pieter Jacob Cosijn (1840–1899) (see Bremmer 1991: xxi–xxiv), this article calls attention to other documents that shed a new light on the particulars of the case. These sources include a biography of Platt written by his brother, correspondence between Platt, Eduard Sievers (1850–1932), and Henry Sweet (1845–1912), as well as the minutes of the Philological Society meetings in which the case was discussed. Combined, these sources not only reveal the exact details of Platt’s plagiarism, but also highlight the role of correspondence in knowledge exchange and scholarly misconduct in the nineteenth century.