Volume 1

A summary catalogue of Western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

  • Bodleian Library
Date:
1895-1953
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A summary catalogue of Western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    10. Voyages and Travels. 11. Political Tracts. 12. The[ologica]l tracts. But it was apparently not until the time of Owen’s successor, John Price, that listing was begun {c. 1771). This list (known as the ‘Old List’), which now survives only in a later copy (c. 1810), runs from i to 1156 arranged as follows: 1-159 classical 160-210, 261-71 medicine and botany 211-60, 272-505 law (282-321 Statutes of institutions) 506-19 wills and other ecclesiastical instruments 520-1156 theology (755-S34 liturgies). The series must have extended further at one time, since a few numbers between 1156 and 1386 are known, but presumably these numbers had been rearranged by the time the extant copy of the Old List was made. The numbers of this series were written by hand on labels pasted at the foot of the spine: many have been lost or destroyed in rebinding. It will be convenient to explain here, out of chronological sequence, the dispersion of this early series. In 1789 the classical and biblical manuscripts were taken out with select manuscripts from other collections and put in the room later known as the Auctarium (B.N. Raw!., Auct. Raw!., Auct. G., Rawl. G). Four or five were put in Rawl. B. (r. 1810), one in Rawl. poet. {c. 1810), the majority in Rawl. A (1831) and C {c. 1844). Of those left Statutes became a separate class (Rawl. M), the Litur- gical manuscripts went into Miscell. liturg. (1860-77)^ were later classified as Rawl. liturg., and the oddments were incor- porated in Rawl. D. Acquisitions of single volumes were referenced into NE. This section was becoming full by the middle of the century, and about 1751 many of the manuscripts, including most of the Bernard collection, which had been put into it, were formed into a new series called Extra numerum. This proved only a tempor- ary expedient, and about ten years later the whole section was completely rearranged. It was given a new name ‘MSS. Bodley’, followed by a running number. The name was no doubt derived ^ Many of these lost their earlier shelf-marks and cannot be identified in the Old List owing to the vagueness of the descriptions,
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