/ en /ms-383-and-margoliouth-mark-return-arabic-new-college-oxford MS 383 and Margoliouth: To Mark the Return of Arabic to ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Oxford Naide Gedikli Gorali & Jessica Rahardjo & Christopher Skelton-Foord Issue number (2024): 22 Notes category Library Manuscripts MS 383 Arabic David Samuel Margoliouth Qur'an Ottoman Turkish

2024 has seen the welcome revival of Arabic as a subject for undergraduate study at ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ after the subject had been discontinued for years. The current librarian has chosen to mark this by acquiring for the collections a fine, portable manuscript prayer book in Arabic (and Ottoman Turkish) dating from the very early 19th century. Our new MS 383 is now thus a signal juncture in the college’s history as the inaugural Margoliouth Fellow in Arabic spearheads Arabic’s revival here. That fellowship is named after a former student and fellow of our college, one of the most illustrious British orientalists in recent history.
 

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Oxford, MS 383, ff. 1v–2r

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

22NCN6 (2024) Gedikli Gorali, Rahardjo, & Skelton-Foord on MS 383.pdf1.73 MB ]]> Tue, 31 Dec 2024 04:48:50 +0000 Christopher 3259 at /botanist-warden-lunatic-fatal-prepossession-new-college-ms-382-context Botanist, Warden, Lunatic: ‘The Fatal Prepossession’ (²ÝÁñÊÓƵ MS 382) in Context Christopher Skelton-Foord Issue number (2024): 22 Notes category Library Manuscripts Charles Abbot John Oglander William Anthony Glynn MS 382 18thC history 19thC history

In April 2024 I acquired from a West Country antiquarian bookdealer a late 18th-century holograph manuscript volume, produced in the West Country by a celebrated ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ fellow also hailing from that region. A gilt-tooled, tree-calf bound quarto volume, its 113 paper leaves contain in a cursive script (appearance indicates a fair copy) three apparently unpublished literary works by him—and one since published—dedicated to the warden of ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Oxford. 

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Oxford, MS 382, f. 6r (list of characters)

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

22NCN5 (2024) Skelton-Foord on MS 382.pdf711.67 KB ]]> Tue, 31 Dec 2024 04:35:45 +0000 Christopher 3258 at /medieval-monster-mash-fantastical-creatures-new-college-librarys-manuscripts-twelfth-fourteenth A Medieval Monster Mash: Fantastical Creatures in ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library’s Manuscripts from the Twelfth to Fourteenth Centuries Jessica Hodgkinson Issue number (2024): 22 Notes category Library Manuscripts William de Brailes MS 322 MS 34 Boethius MS 264 MS 255 MS 116 MS 134 MS 174

Fantastical creatures and mythical monsters abound in medieval manuscripts. ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library’s spectacular collection of manuscripts plays host to a wide variety of weird and wonderful beings. As we draw upon the field of ‘monster studies’, what can these fantastical creatures reveal about the people who made and used the volumes in which these creatures are found?

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Oxford, MS 34, f. 77r

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

22NCN2 (2024) Hodgkinson on Medieval Monster Mash.pdf1.86 MB ]]> Tue, 31 Dec 2024 04:08:50 +0000 Christopher 3256 at /bede-and-bernard-birds-and-beasts-exploration-illuminated-initials-new-college-ms-308 Bede and Bernard, Birds and Beasts: An Exploration of the Illuminated Initials of ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ MS 308 Antje G. Frotscher Issue number (2024): 22 Notes category Library Manuscripts MS 308 The Venerable Bede Bodleian Library British Library National Library of Wales Pembroke ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Oxford

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library’s 12th-century Bede manuscript might be better described not as a masterpiece of Cistercian insular art, but rather as an astonishing collection of no less than 192 miniature masterpieces. How does our beautifully illuminated MS 308 relate to five other Bede manuscripts—one at The British Library, two at the Bodleian, one at Pembroke ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Oxford, and one at the National Library of Wales?

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Oxford, MS 308, f. 5r

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

22NCN1 (2024) Frotscher on MS 308.pdf1.3 MB ]]> Tue, 31 Dec 2024 03:56:14 +0000 Christopher 3255 at /newly-acquired-literary-manuscript-ms-381-autograph-copy-cyril-hares-when-wind-blows-1949 A Newly Acquired Literary Manuscript, MS 381: The Autograph Copy of Cyril Hare’s When the Wind Blows (1949) Christopher Skelton-Foord Issue number (2024): 21 Notes category Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark Cyril Hare Library Manuscripts MS 381 Letters

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ alumnus, Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark (1900–1958), is better known as the murder mystery writer—one of the luminaries of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction—who went by the penname ‘Cyril Hare’.  Seventy-five years since the first publication of Cyril Hare’s When the Wind Blows, I am delighted to be adding to our library’s collections the original holograph manuscript of this novel—now ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library’s MS 381.

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Oxford, MS 381, f. 48r [detail]

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

21NCN9 (2024) Skelton-Foord on Hare.pdf899.52 KB ]]> Mon, 29 Jul 2024 20:13:38 +0000 Christopher 3153 at /who-gave-same-their-daughter-identifying-ownership-new-college-oxfords-books-hours ‘who gave the same to their daughter . . .’: Identifying Ownership of ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Oxford’s Books of Hours Caitlín Kane Issue number (2024): 21 Notes category Books of Hours Library Manuscripts MS 160 MS 369 MS 371 MS 372 MS 323 MS 310

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library houses a remarkable collection of no fewer than seven books of hours within its manuscript collections.  These books of hours serve not only as religious texts, but also as windows into the personal devotions and family histories of their time, and thus deserve further scholarly attention.  The large number of personal touches, both intentionally written and worn away through use, allow us an opportunity to feel backwards and think about how these individuals, named or anonymous, used and appreciated these books as treasured objects, family records, connections to the divine, and, sometimes, as scrap paper.

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Oxford, MS 323, f. 118v [detail]

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

21NCN3 (2024) Kane on Books of Hours.pdf1.18 MB ]]> Mon, 29 Jul 2024 17:23:03 +0000 Christopher 3147 at /mappa-mundi-oxford-new-college-ms-274-and-aristotelian-theory-elements The Mappa Mundi in Oxford, New College, MS 274 and the Aristotelian Theory of Elements Alfred Hiatt Issue number (2023): 20 Notes category Library Manuscript Library Manuscripts MS 274 Pliny the Elder Mappa Mundi Maps Macrobius 14thC history Richard de Bury Aristotle

One of several intriguing features of MS 274 is the map of the world that appears prior to the manuscript’s copy of the first nineteen books of Pliny the Elder’s Natural History. It was clearly designed to express the Aristotelian theory that only the known world, comprising Asia, Europe, and Africa, protruded above the ocean, in opposition to theories that proposed the possibility of antipodal lands beyond and beneath the known world.

 

World map in a 12th-century English manuscript of Macrobius’s Commentary on the Dream of Scipio
Trinity ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Cambridge, MS R.9.23, f. 60v [detail]
© The Master and Fellows of Trinity ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Cambridge

 

Trinity ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Cambridge

20NCN2 (2023) Hiatt on MS 274.pdf365.62 KB ]]> Thu, 28 Dec 2023 19:11:38 +0000 Christopher 2920 at /tale-two-iliads-oxford-new-college-298-and-trinity-college-dublin-922 A Tale of Two Iliads: Oxford ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ 298 and Trinity ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Dublin 922 Mateu Portells Watson Issue number (2023): 20 Notes category Library Manuscripts Library Manuscript MS 298 Homer Trinity ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Dublin John Tzetzes

Of all the ancient texts that have shaped history, the Iliad is among the most widely read, copied, and studied. Whilst the broad impact of the Iliad across macroscopic physical and temporal spaces is well-documented, the propagation of the texts themselves may offer cultural and historical insights on a more microscopic scale, where individual scholars can be found leaving their mark on history and our understanding of Homeric work. This is a tale of two Iliads, Trinity ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Dublin MS 922 and Oxford ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ MS 298.

 

Trinity ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Dublin, MS 922, f. 31v [detail]
© The Board of Trinity ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Dublin

 

Trinity ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Dublin

20NCN1 (2023) Portells Watson on A Tale of Two Iliads.pdf464.77 KB ]]> Thu, 28 Dec 2023 18:42:21 +0000 Christopher 2919 at /very-inconsiderable-exceptg-they-are-hand-writing-so-great-man-provenance-isaac-newtons-manuscripts ‘Very inconsiderable exceptg that they are the Hand writing of so great a Man’: The Provenance of Isaac Newton’s Manuscripts at ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Oxford Frederik Dhondt Issue number (2023): 19 Notes category Isaac Newton Jeffrey Ekins Arthur Ashley Sykes Library Manuscripts MS 361 MS 361/1 MS 361/2 MS 361/3 MS 361/4

In 1872 a set of Issac Newton’s manuscripts was bequeated to ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Oxford by the Reverend Jeffrey Ekins. Although Newton scholars were well aware of this collection, its provenance is shrouded in mystery.

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Oxford, MS 361/2, f. 45v [detail]

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

19NCN5 (2023) Dhondt on Provenance.pdf1.45 MB ]]> Mon, 31 Jul 2023 13:35:04 +0000 Christopher 2765 at /andrew-holes-and-john-burgh-two-wykehamists-one-manuscript-collection Andrew Holes and John Burgh: Two Wykehamists, One Manuscript Collection David Rundle Issue number (2023): 19 Notes category Andrew Holes John Burgh Library Manuscripts

To reach Winchester ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, to where Andrew Holes was admitted in 1407, involved the first of the long journeys he undertook in his life: at his entry to the school, he was recorded as being the son of a knight of the Wirral. Holes moved to ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ in 1412 and was admitted a fellow on 30 October 1414. John Burgh entered Winchester in 1425 and ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ five years later. He was a fellow from 1432 until 1444, but he had already left Oxford a few years earlier.

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Oxford, MS 301, f. 1r [detail]

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

19NCN1 (2023) Rundle on Holes and Burgh.pdf1.25 MB ]]> Mon, 31 Jul 2023 11:24:46 +0000 Christopher 2761 at