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Journal article
Henry VIII and British Library, Royal MS. 2 A. XVI: Marginalia in King Henry's Psalter
The book which Henry VIII most heavily annotated is the manuscript Psalter Royal MS 2 A XVI held in the British Library. This note records and comments on one previously overlooked feature - the omission of numerous verses from Psalm 77. It also records the findings of a more detailed...Christie-Miller, Ian
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'Handsomely bound in cloth': UK Book Cover Designs 1840-1880
A review of the many varied cover designs made for cloth trade bindings, with reference to signed cover designs, together with a review of online resources for the further study of these.King, Edmund M. B.
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The British Library, Europeana 1914-1918 and the Memorialization of the Great War
Europeana 1914-1918 digitised a wealth of material in various formats (stories, films and historical material, manuscripts and printed items), all of which are directly related to World War I. A feature of the collection is that it brings together the holdings of cultural institutions (among them the British Library) and...Jenkins, Jeremy
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Sloane's Portuguese Books
This article aims to systematize and briefly analyse the collection of books printed at Portuguese presses which once belonged to Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753). Portuguese books (or Portuguese printing) are here defined as early books and other materials printed in Portugal (including overseas territories during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth...Costa, Júlio
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Writing-Tables and Table-Books
On the occasion of the British Library's purchase from the collection of Colonel W. A. Potter of the only known copy of a set of writing tables (or pocket notebook) issued by John Hammond and published in 1618, this paper describes this new acquisition and and surveys references to writing...Woudhuysen, H.R.
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The First Manuals of English History: Two Late Thirteenth-Century Genealogical Rolls of the Kings of England in the Royal Collection
The reign of Edward I (1272-1307) witnessed the creation of numerous genealogical rolls of the kings of England from Egbert to the reigning king, initially in Latin (for instance BL, Add. MS. 30079), but then more often in Anglo-Norman. As Thomas Wright first intuited in 1872, these much innovative aide-mémoire...Laborderie, Olivier de
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Journal article
Henry of Blois's Gift Lists in Add. MS. 29436: Why the Discrepancies?
Folios 46v-48r of Add. MS. 29436 contain two lists of the gifts donated by Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester (1129 – 71) to his cathedral church. The shorter list post-dates Bishop Henry's death, the longer list probably belongs to the last decade of his life. This article examines the...Munns, John
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Philip Harris: Accomplished Librarian and Acclaimed Historian of the British Museum Library
An appreciation of the life and work of the author of A History of the British Museum Library, 1753-1973 (London, 1998).Phillips, Andrew
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The Reading Room in Literature
A survey of references to the Reading Rooms of the British Museum Library from its foundation in 1753 to the 1960s, with some personal memories.Harris, P. R.
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A New Witness to Henry of Avranches's Vita Sancti Oswaldi in London, British Library, Cotton MS. Faustina B. VII
Cotton MS. Faustina B. VII. contains a previously unexamined piece of parchment inscribed with several verses taken from Henry of Avranches’ Vita Sancti Oswaldi, composed c. 1230. The article highlights the value of this textual witness in relation to the transmission of the Vita and discusses the function of the...Ispir, Cristian N.
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An Overlooked Connection of Anne Boleyn's Maid of Honour, Elizabeth Holland, with BL, King's MS. 9
BL, King's MS. 9 is one of only three Books of Hours with a connection to Henry VIII's second wife, the controversial Anne Boleyn. This prayer book provides an intimate insight into Henry VIII's courtship of Anne, but its historical significance does not end here. It has been hitherto overlooked...Zupanec, Sylwia Sobczak
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Journal article
The Bibliographical History of The Spectator
The bibliographical history of The Spectator 1712-2016 is a list of all complete editions and extracts in English (published in England, Scotland, Ireland, and the American colonies – later the United States of America) and French. It is intended to be comprehensive, but it may be that some extracts have...Bernard, Stephen
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A Collection of Georg Rhau's Music Editions and Some Previously Unnoticed Works
Georg Rhau (1488–1548) was an important figure in the Reformation, the beginning of which is celebrated in this quincentenary year. Rhau published for the famous German theologian, author and teacher Martin Luther (1483–1546) and his circle a substantial body of works, many of which enjoyed considerable popularity. A close friend...Charteris, Richard
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The Catholicon Anglicum (British Library, Add. MS. 89074): An Analysis of the Physical Evidence of its Production and Binding
On 27 February 2014, the British Library acquired the only known complete surviving copy of the Catholicon Anglicum, one of the earliest Middle English-Latin dictionaries, and thereby secured for the nation a key source for the study of English language and lexicography. The manuscript had been in the possession of...Freeman, James
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Journal article
Scribes, Kings, and a Roll Chronicle: Dating and Provenance of British Library, Add. MS. 30029
Created in a period of political transition, as England moved from the end of Henry III’s reign towards that of Edward I, British Library Add. MS. 30079 is an important witness to the historical events of the late thirteenth century. This manuscript was one of the first chronicle rolls written...Bellato, Giulia
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Journal article
The Annotated Amleth: Belleforest in the British Library
The account of Amleth in François de Belleforest’s Le Cinquiesme Livre des Histoires Tragiques is a recognized source for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The British Library copy of the Lyon 1576 edition (C.8.a.5) bears various manuscript annotations which reveal an early reader’s approach to Belleforest’s text: one possible author of these annotations...Casson, John
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Journal article
Tambimuttu: Re-Inventing the Art of Poetry Illustration
M. J. T. Tambimuttu, the much maligned Ceylonese editor of Poetry London and Editions Poetry London, was in fact consistently admired at home and abroad during the Second World War. Both his periodical and books were held in high esteem by his peers for their aesthetic innovations: his judicious commissions...Boselli, Sandra
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'The Most Bogus Ideas': Science, Religion and Creationism in the John Maynard Smith Archive
The science and religion question is one of continued interest in academia and in the non-academic public. In terms of biology, discussions almost inevitably revolve around evolution and (human) origins, contrasting Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by means of natural selection to the Biblical account of creation and origins in...Piel, Helen
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Disembodied: Additional MS. 8785 and the Tradition of Human Organ Depictions in Medieval Art and Medicine
While Bartholomaeus Anglicus’s De proprietatibus rerum – a popular medieval encyclopaedia describing the properties of ‘things’ – has attracted the attention of scholars for centuries, far less well known is the British Library’s unique copy in the Mantuan dialect. This manuscript, Additional MS. 8785, was translated by Vivaldo Belcalzer, an...McCall, Taylor
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Journal article
The Theodore Psalter and the Rebuilding of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem
The Byzantine decorated psalters form a particularly rich source of knowledge about cultural life. One such manuscript is the Theodore Psalter (London, BL Add. MS 19352), which was made in Constantinople in 1066. It is one of a group of psalters that have been studied in various contexts, including that...Hennessy, Cecily
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From West Country Farmers to W. H. Ireland, the Shakespeare Forger: The Previous Owners of Thomas Tusser's Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie (1599), BL, C.122.bb.40
This article examines the provenance of a rare sixteenth-century copy of Thomas Tusser’s Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie (Edinburgh, 1599), an agricultural manual that, unlike previous guides, was aimed at tenant farmers at the lower end of the social order. These rural farmers had relatively modest levels of literacy...Smith, Maddy
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Nautical Charts, Texts, and Transmission: The Case of Conte di Ottomano Freducci and Fra Mauro
The article addresses an unstudied nautical chart made by Conte di Ottomano Freducci in 1529 (British Library Add. MS. 11548) which is unusual for its long and non-traditional legends (descriptive texts). Following a discussion of what we know about Freducci and a survey of all his surviving works, I supply...Duzer, Chet Van
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A Fragmentary Draft as the Groundwork for Bloodthirsty 'Sir Cauline' in Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: British Library, Add. MS. 39547, f. 157v
This article takes a novel approach to Thomas Percy's draft on 'Sir Cauline' in his ballad collection Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, which is stored in the British Library (Add. MS. 39547, f. 157v). Very little attention has heretofore been paid to the conflation of the draft with the romance...Mihara, Minoru
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The Watermarks on the Northumberland Manuscript and Hand D: Research Findings and Reflections on the Shakespeare Authorship Question
Key manuscript documents relevant to the Shakespeare Authorship Question are examined for the watermarks on the paper. Manuscripts of ten contemporaries are examined, revealing that variations of a generic watermark of a pot were used by the paper manufacturers. Elements of this watermark are analysed and examples compared. This process...Casson, John
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Provenance Confirmed for the Dismembered Breviary of the Cathedral of Agen (1297-1313): Add. MS. 42132
The Breviary of the cathedral of Agen, one of the most monumental witnesses of illumination in the South-West of France around 1300, has been dismembered and is currently preserved in four different places. The Southern French origin of these fragments is beyond doubt, but the recent history of the manuscript...Nadal, Émilie
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The Riverside Mansions and Tombs of Agra: New Evidence from a Panoramic Scroll Recently Acquired by The British Library
The riverfront at Agra once formed one of the great sights of Mughal India. As well as the fort and the Taj Mahal, both banks of the River Yamuna were lined with great mansions, palatial garden houses and imperial gardens. When the Mughal capital was moved the Delhi in 1648,...Koch, Ebba ; Losty, J. P.
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The Shorthand of Robert Willis, Physician-in-Extraordinary to King George III
The shorthand used by Robert Willis in documents within the Library’s Willis Papers collection is identified as a system similar to William Fordyce Mavor’s late eighteenth-century Universal Stenography but departing from it in some key respects. Transcriptions are provided of BL, Add. MS. 41734 – Willis’s memorandum of events between...Underhill, Timothy ; Peters, Timothy
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J. G. Ballard’s ‘Crash! A Science Theatre Presentation for the ICA’: The context of a lost document recovered
In the spring of 1968, J. G. Ballard drafted an eight-page outline for a multi-media 'science theatre presentation' called 'Crash!' It was to be performed at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). Although the event was teasingly promoted in a full-page feature in the Sunday Mirror newspaper ('A Star Role...Beckett, Chris
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Recent Acquisitions: a Rare Work by Jacobus Tevius
Jacobus Tevius (Diogo de Tieve) is a key figure in the Portuguese Renaissance. This note describes the contents of his Epodon siue Ia(m)bicorum carminum libri tres [...] Ad Sebastianum primum, inuictissimum Lusitaniae Regem (Lisbon: Francisco Correia, 1565) and examines the author's contacts with courtly and scholarly circles in sixteenth-century Portugal...Taylor, Barry
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The Date and Context of Robert of Torigni's Chronica in London, British Library, Cotton MS. Domitian A. VIII, ff. 71r-94v
This article establishes a precise date and context for British Library, Cotton MS. Domitian A. VIII, ff. 71r-94v, a copy of Robert of Torigni’s Chronica that was despatched from Mont-Saint-Michel to the Norman abbey of Le Bec during the early 1180s. Based on a palaeographical and codicological examination of MS....Pohl, Benjamin
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Journal article
Black English in Britain in the Eighteenth Century
In eighteenth-century Britain, several works of imaginative literature by white authors included black characters speaking the form of English, largely a British West Indian creole, which would have been heard in everyday real life from members of the growing black population; samples are presented in chronological order.Paisey, David
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Willie King: One of Angus Wilson's 'Old Men at the Zoo'
From 1937 until 1955, when he left to write full-time, Angus Wilson worked in the Department of Printed Books at the British Museum. His 1961 novel, The Old Men at the Zoo, was a roman à clef based on many of the people he had known there. The character of...Wright, C. J.
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Eight Twelfth-Century Charters from the Norman Abbey of Saint-Étienne de Caen, c.1120–1204 (London, British Library, Add. Chs. 67574–67581) – A Catalogue and Commentary
This article provides the first comprehensive study and edition of eight original charters from the Abbey of Saint-Étienne de Caen in Lower Normandy (founded by William the Conqueror in 1063), kept today in the British Library (Add. Chs. 67574–67581). These charters form part of a larger diplomatic corpus that once...Pohl, Benjamin
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Forewarned and Forearmed: Contents of BL, Cotton MS. Titus A. XXV, ff. 94-105
Cotton MS. Titus A. XXV is a composite codex of several unrelated booklets, one of which has gone largely unnoticed and unexplored. The single gathering of ff. 94-105, preserves a fifteenth-century copy of political prophecy, five short pieces of prophetic and devotional material, and one of the three surviving examples...Geldof, M R
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The Letters of Shen Fuzong to Thomas Hyde, 1687-88
The earliest surviving direct correspondence of a learned nature between a Chinese person and an Englishman comprises several letters sent between May 1687 and February 1688 by a young Christian convert from Nanjing, Michael Shen Fuzong (c. 1658-1691), to the Oxonian oriental scholar and librarian Thomas Hyde (1636-1704). This correspondence...Poole, William
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Parody Playbills: The Politics of the Playbill in Britain in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Recent scholarship on the British culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has explored the theatricality of politics and the politics of theatre. This essay examines the parody, mock or spoof theatre playbill – an ephemeral text often used for political purposes – during general elections, in Britain in the...Gregory, James
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Embedded Marginalia in the Psalter and Hours of Humphrey de Bohun (British Library, Egerton MS. 3277)
The phrase 'embedded marginalia' refers to images on the pages of medieval manuscripts that are beyond the text block in both a physical and conceptual sense but integrated nevertheless in the form and meaning of the page as a whole. This study is focused on the many examples of embedded...Sandler, Lucy Freeman
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The Incunabula of Sir Charles Frederick
This study identifies the twenty-two incunables collected by the politician and antiquary Sir Charles Frederick (1709-1785) and listed in the sales catalogue of his library.Rhodes, Dennis E.
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A History of the British Library Slavonic and East European Collections: 1952-2004
Using and complementing material gathered as part of the British Library Slavonic and East European Department oral history interviews project, this article studies the provision of Slavonic and East European materials in the British (Museum) Library since the establishment of the Slavonic Department in 1952.Grba, Milan
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Raja Jivan Ram: A Professional Indian Portrait Painter of the Early Nineteenth Century
The painter Jivan Ram is referenced in 19th-century European publications on India, but little of his work was known from actual examples. He was the first Indian artist totally to abandon the traditional techniques of Indian miniatures and instead to work fully in European techniques of oil painting and portrait...Losty, J. P.
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An Unusual Position of Watermarks in an Italian Eighteenth-Century Paper
Positions of watermarks in laid paper can vary, but normally fall within a few patterns. This note examines the watermarks in the paper used in two quarto books in the British Library printed by G. F. Mairesse and G. Radix of Turin in 1713 and 1717. These watermarks fall in...Dumontet, Carlo
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Journal article
Whose Acquisitions Policy? Panizzi and his Predecessors
Among his many accomplishments Sir Anthony Panizzi is generally credited with devising the acquisitions policy that led to the superior position of the British Museum amongst world libraries. A notable document was his 'On the Collection of Printed Books at the British Museum' of 1845. However, he was not without...Sternberg, Ilse
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Journal article
Books Fit for a King: The Presentation Copies of Martin Bucer's De regno Christi (London, British Library, Royal MS. 8 B. VII) and Johannes Sturm's De periodis (Cambridge, Trinity College, II.12.21 and London, British Library, C.24.e.5)
This article discusses the presentation copies of two sixteenth-century works, Martin Bucer’s De regno Christi and Johannes Sturm’s De periodis, both of which were sent in fine copies by Bucer to John Cheke in 1550. The covering letter that accompanied these books survives today at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, whilst...Pohl, Benjamin ; Tether, Leah
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Cornelius Cardew’s Music for Moving Images: Some Preliminary Observations
Cornelius Cardew’s music for moving images has so far not been written about. This might be owing to the lack of access to primary sources (films and documentaries, scores and other relevant materials). This contribution gives an overview of Cardew’s ‘film music’ projects, and considers sketches, manuscript music and other...Gresser, Clemens
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W. Somerset Maugham’s Letters to Lady Aberconway in the British Library
The Western Manuscripts collection of the British Library possesses a series of original letters from W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) to Christabel, Lady Aberconway (1890–1974) that has not been registered in bibliographies of Maugham’s manuscripts and private letters. Maugham’s biographers only mention the relationship between the two correspondents as fellow dinner...Lee, Lilith
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The Bestiary in British Library, Royal MS. 2 C. XII and its Role in Medieval Education
The process of medieval education is still very obscure to us, and indeed very little is known about how texts were used in schools. This is particularly true of the role and function of the influential genre of medieval bestiaries in the process of educating novices and pupils in cathedral...Dines, Ilya
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A Place for Music: John Nash, Regent Street and the Philharmonic Society of London
The founding of the Philharmonic Society of London (from 1912 'Royal') has long been understood only in the simplest terms: in 1813 thirty musicians started a regular orchestral concert series to present the best classical works for select audiences. Two centuries later, a fresh look at circumstances and documents, some...Langley, Leanne
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Royal MS. 20 B. XX: Alexander the Great and the Voice of the Master. Interpretation and Astrology in a Medieval Manuscript
Royal MS. 20 B. XX is a small but lavishly illuminated copy of the French prose Alexander romance made in the 1420s. Its iconography is remarkable in the medieval tradition for a number of scenes in which the illuminator has concentrated on themes of divination by means of astrology and...Pérez-Simon, Maud
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Frechulf of Lisieux's Historiarum libri XII, I.ii.17 in Royal MS. 13 A. xxii
Royal MS. 13 A. xxii contains a copy of Paul the Deacon's Historia Langobardorum, a short text commonly attributed to Josephus, and an eleventh-century Latin poem. Despite the attribution of the penultimate text to Josephus, it is actually the opening section of Frechulf of Lisieux's Historiae I.ii.17 (lines 1–101). Though...Major, Tristan
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Psalterium in quatuor linguis: Hebraea, Graeca, Chaldaea [i.e. Ethiopic], Latina (Cologne, 1518). Baltic Trade and Cultural Connections: Evidence from the Paper
The archiving and study of images of the watermarks in the British Library’s three copies of Psalterium in quatuor linguis: Hebraea, Graeca, Chaldaea [i.e. Ethiopic], Latina (Cologne, 1518) enables close comparison to be made of the make up of the books. Access to the Bernstein on-line database of watermarks indicates...Christie-Miller, Ian
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Feo Belcari's Rappresentazione di Abramo Offset in Phalaris's Epistolae: Adventures of a Florentine Incunabulum
How did offset text from Feo Belcari's Rappresentazione d'Abramo find its way onto four pages of the British Library's copy of Phalaris's Epistolae (IA.29368) printed in Naples c. 1474? This article identifies the source of the offset text as the Florence 1490 edition now in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale (Palatino...Newbigin, Nerida
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St Edward’s Chair in the Queen Mary Psalter
The Queen Mary Psalter (British Library, Royal MS. 2 B. VII), probably made c. 1310-20 for a royal recipient, is among the most lavishly illuminated manuscripts produced in late medieval England. This study focuses principally on a single picture in the Psalter’s Old Testament preface showing the prophet Nathan’s reproof...Smith, Kathryn A.
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The Dawson Turner Collection of Printed Ephemera and Great Yarmouth
This article provides an introduction to an important collection of printed ephemera held at the British Library and created by Dawson Turner (1775-1858). This ten-volume collection was acquired by the British Museum in 1859 and 1873 and is significant as it includes a wealth of material relating to life at...Boneham, John
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The Opening of the Impeachment of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, June to September 1715: The 'Memorandum' of William Wake, Bishop of Lincoln
July 2015 is the tercentenary of the opening of the impeachment of Robert Harley, earl of Oxford, for high treason and criminal misdemeanours together with three other leading figures of Harley's ministry of 1710-14: Bolingbroke, Ormond and Strafford. William Wake, bishop of Lincoln since 1705, and soon to be promoted...Jones, Clyve
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Reflections on 'The Annotated Amleth: Belleforest in the British Library': The Identity of the Annotator
This study discusses the authorship of the manuscript annotations in the BL copy of François de Belleforest's Le Cinquiesme Livre des Histoires Tragiques (C.8.a.5).Casson, John
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Some Italian Eighteenth-Century Books Acquired by British Travellers in Italy
This article studies three Italian eighteenth-century books acquired in Italy by three British travellers: Sir Charles Frederick (1709-1785), Joseph Trapp (c. 1716-1769) and I. Teckel.Rhodes, Dennis E.
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Constructing Saint Louis in John the Good's Grandes Chroniques de France (Royal MS. 16 G. VI)
In the 1330s a new, revised, densely illuminated copy of the Grandes Chroniques de France was made for the John, the dauphin of France who would be crowned King John the Good in 1350. Containing a twice-revised text and over 400 one- and two-column wide illuminations, the chronicle breaks from...Hedeman, Anne D.
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Michael Renshaw: A Society Figure in War and Peace
For someone who was far from the public eye, Michael Renshaw had a remarkable circle of friends, from the aristocracy, politics, and the arts. The letters he received, donated to the British Library in 2008, not only cast light on the lives of their famous writers and some of the...John-McAlister, Michael St
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In a Bind: Pratt's Qui Tams and the Bookbinders' Dilemma
The BL's Jaffray Collection contains rare copies of two qui tam cases brought in 1811 and 1812 by Robert Pratt, a member of the London Society of Journeymen Bookbinders. The cases were among the last attempts to uphold the Elizabethan statute of apprentices. They offer telling insight into a trade...Hill, Jonathan E.
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Paris National and International Exhibitions from 1798 to 1900: A Finding-List of British Library Holdings
The series of exhibitions which were held in Paris from the end of the eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth gave rise to a rich collection of publications, often illustrated, ranging from maps and guide books to catalogues, official reports and volumes of reflections. This article gives a brief history...Daniels, Morna
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Additions to the Library of William Dowsing (1596-1668): A Reformation Tract Volume Reassembled
This article identifies several volumes from the library of the seventeenth-century puritan William Dowsing (1596-1668). Dowsing is primarily known for the campaign of iconoclasm which he conducted in East Anglia between late 1643 and 1644 and for the journal in which he kept a detailed record of these activities. This...Roberts, Dunstan
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The Manuscripts of Jan van Naaldwijk’s Chronicles of Holland, Cotton MSS. Vitellius F. XV and Tiberius C. IV
London, British Library, Cotton MSS. Vitellius F. XV and Tiberius C. IV are the autograph manuscripts of two chronicles of Holland by Jan van Naaldwijk, the son of a Dutch nobleman, written between 1513 and c. 1520. Renewed investigation of the manuscripts shows they came into the possession of Sir...Levelt, Sjoerd
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A Royal Crusade History: The Livre d'Eracles and Edward IV's Exile in Burgundy
The English King Edward IV (1442-83) had multiple political, familial, and cultural connections with the Flanders-based court of Burgundy headed by Duke Charles the Bold, including Edward's sister Margaret of York's marriage to Charles, Edward's induction into the Burgundian Order of the Golden Fleece, and his five-month exile in Burgundy...Donovan, Erin K.
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Intelligent by Design: The Manuscripts of Walter of Whittlesey, Monk of Peterborough
This article examines two important fourteenth-century manuscripts containing historical and other texts from Peterborough Abbey, both made for a monk named Walter of Whittlesey (Add. MS. 37958 and Add. MS. 47170). It reviews the biographical evidence for Whittlesey, the muddied issue of his role in the manuscripts' production, and also...Luxford, Julian
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The National Printed Archive from Panizzi’s Time to the Digital Era
We have tended to view the modern development of the national research library and printed archive in the West in terms of a sequence of conspicuous innovators: Panizzi, Althoff and Harnack , Putnam and Evans, Francis and Hookway. Such a sequence can be best understood if it is seen as...Willison, I. R.
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Humfrey Wanley and the Harley Collection
In the field of manuscript studies, the name Humfrey Wanley (1672-1726) is well known. Scholars have long recognized his achievements as Anglo-Saxonist, antiquarian, palaeographer, cataloguer, and librarian to Robert Harley and his son, Edward, 1st and 2nd earls of Oxford, who created one of the most outstanding private libraries in...Jackson, Deirdre
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Destroyed, Damaged and Replaced: The Legacy of World War II Bomb Damage in the King's Library
In the early hours of 23 September 1940, an incendiary bomb fell on the East Wing of the British Museum, damaging an important part of the King's Library Gallery and destroying many of the books collected by King George III. A contemporary assessment estimated that 124 volumes (96 works) had...Edwards, Adrian S.
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Matthew Paris, Visual Exegesis, and Apocalyptic Birds in Royal MS. 14 C. VII
This article argues that the prefatory maps in Royal MS. 14 C. VII act as a visual distillation of the vast system of emblems in the margins of the other Chronica Majora manuscripts. Recently, scholars have discussed Matthew Paris’s visual marginalia as reading devices and finding aids that distill sections...Kim, Dorothy
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Harley MS. 3469: Splendor Solis or Splendour of the Sun – A German Alchemical Manuscript
‘Splendor Solis or Splendour of the Sun’ is one of the most beautiful and well known illuminated alchemical manuscripts. The text survives in many witnesses dating from the early sixteenth to the nineteenth century, of which Harl. MS. 3469 is definitely the most famous and best preserved example. Yet the...Völlnagel, Jörg
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Accounts of Debates in the House of Commons, March-April 1731, Supplementary to the Diary of the First Earl of Egmont
John Perceval (1685–1748), 1st Viscount Perceval and (from 1733) 1st Earl of Egmont, was an assiduous recorder of his own life and times. His diaries, published by the Historical Manuscripts Commission from manuscripts in the British Library, are the best source for parliamentary debates at Westminster in the 1730s. For...Hayton, D. W.
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The Making of L'Abreujamen de las estorias (Egerton MS. 1500)
L’Abreujamen de las estorias (BL, Egerton MS. 1500) is an Occitan diagrammatic chronicle executed in Avignon in 1321-24. It is composed of synchronic tables, regnal lists and genealogical diagrams, and is illustrated with more than sixteen-hundred miniature busts. Written instructions, corrections, sketches and unfinished miniatures attest to different stages in...Botana, Federico
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The Westminster Tournament Challenge (Harley 83 H 1) and Thomas Wriothesley's Workshop
On the twelfth and thirteenth of February, 1511 Henry VIII held a tournament to celebrate the birth of his first son, Prince Arthur. The tournament is famously immortalized in the Westminster Tournament Roll (London, College of Arms, Westminster Tournament Roll) – a 60-foot long vellum roll that was painted soon...Walker, Alison Tara
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The Discovery of a Watermark on the St Cuthbert Gospel using Colour Space Analysis
Watermarks on paper attached to substrates through which light cannot pass can be observed by converting a high resolution digital image of the region into a suite of colour spaces. An image is comprised of a variety of layers or textures which can be separated. This allows pixels of interest...Duffy, Christina
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Understanding a Selection of Medical, Theological and Poetic Diagrams in a Thirteenth-Century Book of Biblical Commentaries: British Library, Harley MS. 658
British Library, Harley MS. 658 is a miscellany of study aids for the Bible from the early thirteenth century, bound together with a collection of scientific, poetic and theological diagrams. The texts were written by different scribes probably at separate times and places, but, apart from two texts at the...Corran, Emily
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The Problem of Death: Dr Maurice Ernest and his Longevity Library
Maurice Ernest (ne Ernst, 1872-1955) was a notable student of human longevity. This article studies his life and his extensive library, which was donated to the National Central Library and is now in the British Library at Boston Spa.Evans, Lucy
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John Jaffray: Victorian Bookbinder, Chartist and Trade Unionist
John Jaffray (1811-1869) was a journeyman – a qualified binder – who did not own his own business but worked for others. His professional life as a finisher took him to numerous workshops in central London. He was also an historian of his trade, collecting ephemera and the memories of...Marks, P. J. M.
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A Donizetti Manuscript in the Zweig Collection
Stefan Zweig's collection of music manuscripts, donated to the British Library in 1986, contains autographs by some of the major canonical composers of European history; from Bach, Mozart and Beethoven through to Wagner and Strauss and Schoenberg. A piece by Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) in the collection, which does not seem...Scobie, Christopher
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Journal article
John Wilson Croker's Image of France in the Quarterly Review
Political developments in France provided a substantial topic for British periodicals during the first half of the nineteenth century. The most sustained comment came from the Rt Hon. John Wilson Croker, a close associate of the Duke of Wellington, Canning and Pitt, who was Secretary to the Admiralty from 1809...Morphet, David
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Journal article
Some Greek Gospel Manuscripts in the British Library: Examples of the Byzantine Book as Holy Receptacle and Bearer of Hidden Meaning
The Gospel book is by far the most numerous, and hence the most important and characteristic, genre of book production in Byzantine culture. A detailed survey of the surviving material in the British Library carried by the author provides an overview of the Byzantine perception of the Gospel book, and...Takiguchi, Mika
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Journal article
The Printed Books of the Cotton Family and Their Dispersal: Additions
As a supplement to the author’s ‘The Printed Books of the Cotton Family and Their Dispersal’, in Giles Mandelbrote and Barry Taylor (eds.), Libraries within the Library: The Origins of the British Library’s Printed Collections (London: British Library, 2009), pp. 43-75, the present article identifies five copies and adds two...Tite, Colin G. C.
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Journal article
Newly Catalogued Pamphlets from the India Office Library Collection
This note records the recent cataloguing of a collection of pamphlets received by the India Office Library during the 1920s and 30s, nearly 75% of which are new to the British Library.Pickett, Catherine
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Journal article
Monastic Learning in Twelfth-Century England: Marginalia, Provenance and Use in London, British Library, Cotton MS. Faustina A. X, Part B
BL, Cotton Faustina A.x is a composite manuscript consisting of a late Anglo-Saxon copy of Ælfric’s Grammar and Glossary (Part A) and an early 12th-century copy of the Regula Sancti Benedicti in Old English (Part B). This study attempts to shed new light on the question of the composite’s provenance...López, Francisco José Álvarez
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Journal article
Near Vermilion Sands: The Context and Date of Composition of an Abandoned Literary Draft by J. G. Ballard
The literary archive of J. G. Ballard at the British Library includes an unpublished story set in the environs of Vermilion Sands, a fictional desert resort that is the exotic location of nine stories Ballard wrote between 1956 and 1966. The stories were subsequently collected and published as 'Vermilion Sands'...Beckett, Chris
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Journal article
An Unidentified French Incunable: Sir John Mandeville, Le lapidaire en francoys, [Lyon, c. 1495-1496]
The British Library's copy of the Lapidaire en francoys attributed to Sir John Mandeville, previously dated [c. 1530], can be shown on typographical grounds to be an incunable edition printed in Lyon c. 1495 or 1496. The book is printed with a very peculiar Lyon bastarda type whose printer is...Shaw, David J.
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Journal article
A Lost Manuscript of the 'Rymes of […] Randolf Erl of Chestre'
The first ever reference to Robin Hood as a literary character, in William Langland’s Piers Plowman, refers to ‘rymes of Robyn Hood and Randolf Erl of Chestre’. The reference to ‘Randolf’ has intrigued literary historians, as no medieval narrative verse is known to survive which features Ranulf, earl of Chester,...Spence, John
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Journal article
A Genealogy of the Kings of England in Papal Avignon: British Library, Egerton MS. 1500
This article examines the use of Anglo-Norman genealogical rolls in Fra Paolino Veneto’s L’Abreujamen de las estorias (Eg. MS. 1500), a diagrammatic world history that was composed in the Occitan vernacular in papal Avignon, circa 1321-1326 (see eBLJ articles by Botana and Ibarz). That such documents were available as a...Léglu, Catherine
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Journal article
A Medieval Psalter 'Perfected': Eighteenth-Century Conservationism and an Early (Female) Restorer of Rare Books and Manuscripts
Many medieval manuscripts suffered from antiquarian zeal during the eighteenth-century revival of interest in medieval art: enthusiasts often augmented their own albums and private collections by removing attractive illuminations from manuscript pages, leaving wounded books in their wake. Less familiar is the restorative work of their contemporaries, a small number...Drimmer, Sonja
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Journal article
The Evolution of George Hakewill’s Apologie or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God, 1627-1637: Academic Contexts, and Some New Angles from Manuscripts
This article examines aspects of the genesis and textual evolution of George Hakewill’s celebrated Apologie or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God, published in three ever-expanding editions in 1627, 1630, and 1635. Rather than comparing the three printed texts, however, this study instead focuses first on the political...Poole, William
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Journal article
Past, Present and Future for Thirteenth-Century Wales: Two Diagrams in British Library, Cotton Roll XIV.12
British Library Cotton Roll XIV.12 presents a rich vision of British history from the perspective of its thirteenth-century maker. Over nearly sixteen metres of surviving parchment, human history from Adam and Eve to the reign of William Rufus is presented through an intricate combination of texts and imagery. This article...Cleaver, Laura
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Journal article
Robert Harley and the Myth of the Golden Thread: Family Piety, Journalism and the History of the Assassination Attempt of 8 March 1711
The myth has persisted amongst historians that the life of Robert Harley was saved by the golden embroidery in the waistcoat that he was wearing at the time of the assassination attempt with a penknife by the marquis de Guiscard on 8 March 1711. This myth is examined and traced...Jones, Clyve
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Journal article
A Fourteenth-Century Register of Freizins Rents from Erfurt (British Library, Add. MS. 24637)
Add. MS. 24637 is a register of specially-privileged Freizins rents collected by the archbishop of Mainz at Erfurt from the years 1351-1358. Other registers in the series from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are preserved at the Landeshauptarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt in Magdeburg, and consequently the British Library manuscript has been overlooked...Pope, Ben
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Journal article
Daniel Foote, M.D., of Cambridge: The Evidence in Print and from the Sloane Collection
This article introduces the physician and translator Daniel Foote (1629-1700), predominantly though his little-examined manuscripts in the Sloane Collection. Foote survives in the scholarly memory principally as the translator of the unpublished ‘Observations’ of Francis Mercury Van Helmont (1682) and sometimes as a contributor to a dispute in the Royal...Thorley, David
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Journal article
Bob Cobbing, Visual Art Works (1942-73): A Preliminary Survey
Amongst the papers of Bob Cobbing at the British Library are two lists the poet compiled of his visual art works. Taken together, the lists record 153 works produced between 1942 and 1973. Information from these two documents has been collated to generate a single list, prefaced by an introduction...Beckett, Chris
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Journal article
A Scottish Whig View of the Character of Robert Harley,Earl of Oxford, in 1713
The character and personality of past politicians are difficult to discover. In the absence of a dairy or intimate letters the best source is often a description by a third party, but in early modern British history these can be rare. Such evidence, however, is often difficult to use because...Jones, Clyve
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Journal article
'A Poor Jonah': John Osborne's Roads to Freedom
While recent years have seen increasing critical engagement with British theatre in the years preceding John Osborne's Look Back in Anger, few writers have concentrated on the theatre of Osborne himself before 1956. However, the emergence in the British Library's collections in 2009 of two play-scripts written by Osborne and...Andrews, Jamie
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Journal article
The Metamorphoses of a Late Fifteenth-Century Psalter (Harl. MS. 1892)
This article examines in detail a psalter for the use of Sarum executed in Rouen c. 1490-1500, to which a series of unexpected additions have been made. These include sections painted in the style of the Netherlandish Dark Eyes Masters and added leaves in various hands copied after engravings by...Yvard, Catherine
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Journal article
The Golden Treasury: 150 Years On
The success of the Golden Treasury was immediate and enduring. Buoyed by adroit advertising and burgeoning national literacy, its enthusiastic reception by critics and public led to four editions within the lifetime of its originator, Francis Turner Palgrave, and eventually to a prominent place in schools, households, and indeed the...Spevack, Marvin
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Journal article
Underground London: From Cave Culture Follies to the Avant-Garde
London has had a long love affair with grottos, cellars, and caves. Based on the G. Creed collection, a superb discovery in British Library collections of fourteen large folio volumes on taverns in England and Wales, this essay traces the history from eighteenth century follies like Pope's grotto, to the...Harskamp, Jaap
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Journal article
Edward Angelo Goodall (1819-1908): An Artist's Travels in British Guiana and the Crimea
It is fair to say that Edward Angelo Goodall is one of Victorian Britain's lesser known artists. He hailed from a family of artists and had a relatively successful artistic career, exhibiting regularly. Yet he never seemed quite able to emerge from the shadows cast by a more successful brother...St John-McAlister, Michael
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Journal article
J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection
This essay highlights a recent re-discovery at The British Library: an extra-illustrated copy of George Walter Thornbury's The Life of J. M.W. Turner, London, 1862 (Tab.438.a.1). Thornbury is still a standard source for the history of this great British artist, but this unique copy enhanced with over 1,600 portraits, views,...Myrone, Felicity
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