Volume 1
A summary catalogue of Western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
- Bodleian Library
- Date:
- 1895-1953
Licence: In copyright
Credit: A summary catalogue of Western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Source: Wellcome Collection.
54/228
![This report has not survived, but no doubt the work of drawing it up devolved chiefly on H. O. Coxe, and when he succeeded as Librarian (i860) a fresh start was made. From April to August 1861 Macray was engaged hn clearing out several cupboards of Rawlinson MSS., arranging them and superintending binding; about 900 MSS.’ In the main they were probably added to Rawl. D, which he finally arranged in 1875. In 1865 he began the arrangement and the listing of Rawl. E, (Sermons), which were completed in 1875. Rawl. P., Holman and other Essex manuscripts, were arranged by him for the binder in March 1861.^ The Library possessed two very important collections of seven- teenth-century state papers, the Carte papers given 1753-78, and the Clarendon papers given 1759-85. The Carte papers were arranged by Macray for binding in 276 volumes, 1862.^ When the Clarendon papers were arranged and bound is not exactly recorded, but a considerable part of the series was bound c. 1840.^ A supplementary series was received from the Clarendon trustees in 1859, and was dealt with by Coxe, who also did other work on the papers, between 1858 and 1863. A smaller collection of papers relating to the English Church in the seventeenth century, the John Walker manuscripts, given in 1756, were arranged for binding by Macray in 1862. In 1875 the Curators called for another special report. On 27 November Benjamin Jowett moved that a committee be appointed for the purpose ‘of conferring with the Librarian on the expenses and management of the Library’. On i January 1876 Jowett wrote to the Librarian asking to have some returns prepared, together with a request for ‘an estimate of the number of manuscripts remaining to be catalogued’. The detailed return is not preserved, but in the report of the Committee (March 1876) it is stated that Of other [than Oriental] Manuscripts there are about 9000“^ in the * See S.C. iii. 178-82. Rawl. J. (Academica) and M (Statutes) are apparently older divisions than Madan supposed. The nucleus of them is found in the Old List. ^ It was in part a rebinding. ^ Diary of Sir F. Madden, 27 June 1842: ‘On the table in this (i.e. the Curators’) room I noticed also above 50 vols. folio of the Clarendon Papers, which have been recently bound in half-russia, but not very well done.’ MS. Eng. hist. c. 155, p. 168. ^ This figure was corrected by Coxe later (letter to the Vice-Chancellor, 9 June 1877) : ‘For 9000 we are to read 5000. The error arose from adding 3339 MSS. which](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29001250_0001_0054.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
