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Lady Victoria Welby-Gregory (1837-1912) was an English noblewoman and self-taught musician, artist, and philosopher of language. Welby-Gregory is most well-known for developing the theory of significs, which she defined in a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article as “the science of meaning or the study of significance.” Significs was closely related to other theoretical trends of the time, such as semantics, semiotics, and semiology.

Curated in association with Senate House Library, 19th and 20th Century Philosophy in Perspective contains 54 original monographs from Welby-Gregory’s personal library. It includes works by the likes of William James, Mary Everest Boole, Sir Henry Jones, and Henri Bergson on subjects as diverse as philosophy, theology, and philology. Many of the books feature substantive annotations made by Welby-Gregory herself.

The collection therefore provides students and researchers with an overview of several key debates in 19th and early 20th century Western philosophy, as well as an insight into the inner life of a pioneering female intellectual.

[E]very one of us is in one sense a born explorer: our only choice is what world we will explore, our only doubt whether our exploration will be worth the trouble.

Lady Victoria Welby-Gregory, Philosopher

Victoria Lady Welby (1837-1913) and Significs

Editorial Board

Professor Susan Petrilli Professor of Philosophy and Theory of Languages https://www.susanpetrilli.com/ Susan A. Petrilli is Full Professor of Philosophy and Theory of Languages at the University of Bari “Aldo Moro,” Italy; 7th Sebeok Fellow of the Semiotic Society of America; Fellow of the International Communicology Institute (ICI); vice-President of the International Association for Semiotic Studies. She has been acting as Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Psychology in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at The University of Adelaide, South Australia, since February 2016. Her principal research interests relate to such areas as Philosophy of Language, Semiotics, Ethics, General Linguistics, Translation Studies, Cultural Studies, Communication Studies.

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Insights

Lady Welby-Gregory’s personal library, which is held by Senate House at the University of London, contains approximately 1,500 books and 1,000 pamphlets on a wide variety of topics.

These items were donated by Welby-Gregory’s son, Sir Charles Welby-Gregory, in 1913, shortly after her death.

Many include Welby-Gregory’s extensive annotations, highlighting the philosophical origins of significs specifically and the evolution of her thinking more generally.

They also illuminate some of the major trends in 19th and early 20th century theology, philosophy, economics, education, science, and philology.

This collection comprises a carefully curated selection of books which are intended to provide students and researchers with an understanding of all three.

The books were published during the period 1856-1911.

They have been organised into six intuitive volumes: General Philosophy and Miscellaneous, 1880-1911; History, 1889-1909; Metaphysics, 1887-1909; Morality and Ethics, 1881-1907; Philosophy of Language, 1856-1906; and Religion and Theology, 1883-1906. This classification is informed by the original archival catalogue.

Important works by William James, Mary Everest Boole, Sir Henry Jones, Henri Bergson, and Andrew Lang are all included.