Transcript WISER : Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Thursday 13th May 2010 Michael Webb.

WISER :
Western Manuscripts in the
Bodleian Library
Thursday 13th May 2010
Michael Webb
Structure of today’s session
 Overview of manuscript collections in the Bodleian:
What are ‘Western MSS.?’
What does the Bodleian have?
Why are they in Oxford?
 How to discover the manuscript collections :
Catalogues and other finding aids
Online resources
What are Western Manuscripts?
 Manuscript
 from the Latin for ‘written by hand’
 Includes documents of all kinds – letters, diaries, charters,
manuscript books, typescripts, photographs, floppy disks, emails
 Western
 Written in the Western languages (Latin, Greek, Germanic,
Slavonic, Celtic)
 Oriental includes Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic etc)
Western MSS. and Special Collections
 The Western Manuscripts section forms part of
the Department of Special Collections in the
Bodleian Library
 Collections continuously built up since 1598,
through purchase, gift, bequest and loan
 Largest university collection in Europe
 Encyclopaedic collections supporting many
areas of scholarship
Why the Bodleian?
 First great public library (1598)
 No obvious place for historic archives: no British Library (1753); no
Public Record Office (early 19thC); no county record offices (1920s)
 Great collectors – books and manuscripts acquired especially after
Civil War
 Strong Associations of Oxford with the Church since the 17th C –
many great early collections made by churchmen (Rawlinson,
Tanner). Religious/political motives for collecting and preserving
state papers (Royalists v. Parliamentarians, Tories v. Whigs)
 Universities as repositories of treasures – only Oxford and
Cambridge until 1820s in England
 Political and literary connections of Oxford University – e.g. ‘Inklings’
(Tolkien, CS Lewis) and 25 PMs (including Gladstone, Asquith*,
MacMillan*, Wilson*, Thatcher, Blair)
* [papers in the Bodleian]
Overview of Western MSS. collections
in the Bodleian Library – great
strengths
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Medieval manuscripts
17th-century State Papers
19th and 20th-C political papers
Literary papers
Topographical/antiquarian collections
Everything else from 400 years of acquisition
Medieval MSS.
 10,000 volumes
Manuscript books
second largest collection in UK
single and multiple texts covering all aspects of
written culture
 Thousands of charters and rolls
 Oldest Western MSS. are Papyri in Ancient
Greek, from Graeco-Roman Egypt, 3rdC B.C. to
Late Roman and Byzantine
Images of Medieval MSS.
 Images – see link to Special Collections
Images via Bodleian Libraries
homepage
http://www.odl.ox.ac.uk/digitalimagelibrary/index.html
Early Modern MSS.
 17thC State Papers – Civil War and Restoration
 Clarendon, Rawlinson (Thurloe, Pepys), Tanner (Lenthall,
Sancroft), Carte (Butler, Sandwich) papers
 Astrological/medical papers of John Dee,
Napier, Forman late 16th-early 17th C
 Early Antiquaries – Dodsworth, Dugdale,
Stukeley
 Tudor and Stuart poetry – commonplace books
 Often found in huge miscellaneous named
collections (Ashmole, Rawlinson, Tanner, Laud)
Early Modern MSS. – some images
 Carte Manuscripts:
 Sandwich papers - MS. Carte 75, fol. 327
 Ormond papers – MS. Carte 1, fol. 334
 Fitzwilliam papers – MS. Carte 55D, fol. 631
 Rawlinson Manuscripts:
 Peter Mundy’s journal – MS. Rawl. A. 315
 James Nedeham (Surveyor of the King’s Works under Henry VIII)
accounts for Tower of London – MS. Rawl. D. 778
 Recent Early Modern accessions:
 James Nedeham’s accounts for manor of Greenwich - MS. Don. c. 206
 Mary Gofton Account Book Sandwich papers - MS. Carte 75, fol. 327
Topographical Collections – some images
 Gough collection – Richard Gough (d. 1809)
The ‘Gough Map’, the oldest surviving road map of
Great Britain, dating from around 1360
Gough Maps 201 – Stukeley drawings of Roman
antiquities
Gough Maps Oxfordshire – Iffley Church (detail)
Modern Political Papers – some images
 Asquith Papers
 Asquith to King George V on House of Lords issue
 Lloyd George resigns from the government over conduct of the
war, 1916
 Some examples on Special Projects page at
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/projects.html
Conservative Party Archive
Archive of the Conservative Central Office,
established 1870: 'to guide, inspire and coordinate the work of the party throughout
the country’
Mostly post-1945 material
 http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/cpa/
Literary MSS. – some images
Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’
Jane Austen’s ‘Henry and Eliza’
Still acquiring major Archives
Images from the Marconi Archive
Images from the Harcourt Papers
Aerial wire being raised by kite at Signal Hill, Newfoundland in 1901 in
order to detect the first transatlantic wireless signals from Poldhu,
Cornwall.
WMSS Catalogues
Online
Published
Unpublished (Reading Rooms only)
Specialist
Calendars
Online Catalogues
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Not comprehensive
Not available via OLIS or SOLO
Full descriptions (few) and Collection Level Descriptions
Bodleian WMSS including Rhodes House collections
(Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies
- BLCAS)
 Over 1000 CLDs
 Based on Archives Hub record
 Overview of Bodleian holdings – points to location of full
catalogues
 About 1800 in total – all catalogued collections comprising
two or more items
Online Catalogue of Western MSS.
 http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/onl
ine.htm
 Categories
 Medieval
 1500-1900
 Modern
 BLCAS
 Single Items
 Search facility
 searches across all the above sections
 searches for words in HTML pages (single, combinations,
exact)
Published Catalogues - Quarto
 ‘Quarto’ Catalogues
Published mid-19thC
deal with named collections acquired before 1760
Very detailed, but no contextual information
Some entries in Latin
Indexes names and places; no modern subjects
Published Catalogues - Summary
 ‘Summary’ Catalogues
Two series in several volumes
 Summary Catalogue of Western MSS. published from late
19th C to 1916 (covers mss. acquired from the foundation
to 1916)
 Summary Catalogue of Post-medieval Western MSS.
published 1991 (covers manuscripts acquired 1916-75)
Not much detail, but more contextual information
Indexes less detailed than earlier catalogues, though
more modern in standard – still Bodleian house rules
Published Catalogues - Special
 Several specialist published catalogues eg
 Medieval illuminated MSS.
 Oxfordshire collections
 Charters and Rolls
 Lyell
 List of all catalogues, published and unpublished
 Medieval
www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/library/specialcollections/catalogues/wmsspre1500
 Post-medieval
www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/library/specialcollections/catalogues/wmsspost1500
Unpublished Catalogues
 Continuation of Summary Catalogue
 Post-1975 Accessions
 Typescript catalogues in Reading Rooms (Duke Humfrey
and Special Collections Reading Room)
 Card Index in Duke Humfrey
 Focus of retrospective conversion
Using the Online Catalogues
 How to find if the Bodleian Library has the papers
you need
 National Register of Archives
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/default.asp
 Archives Hub
http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/
 Using catalogues of the papers
 Ordering and using manuscripts
Collection Level Descriptions (CLDs) –
the Archives Hub
 Archives Hub – “A national gateway to descriptions of
archives in UK universities and colleges”
http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/
 Search across Hub or limit to one repository
 Search by place, name, date or free text or combination
 Uses standard collection level index terms – LCSH and
NCA Rules (National Council for Archives)
 Available to search together with full catalogues on
WMSS online catalogues page, though only a word
search here
Other electronic resources
Oxford Digital Library
http://www.odl.ox.ac.uk/
Special Projects in WMSS.
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/projects.html
Exhibitions
Carte Project
Accessing the collections
 Justifiable need to access unique materials
 Bodleian Card – ‘A’ Status
 Recommendation from tutor, Dept administrator,
etc
You can’t always get what you want..
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Legal reservations – political papers
Uncatalogued collections
Conservation – selects and surrogates
MSS. on loan elsewhere
MSS. in the studio
Copies and intellectual rights
Where are Western MSS. read?
Old Bodleian, Duke Humfrey’s Library
 Early MSS., Vols and Theses
Special Collections Reading Room (at RSL)
 Modern and Archival collections
 Deposited collections
Manual ordering system – not ASR
Handling MSS.
 No white gloves
 Pencils!
 Foam Book Rests – Bodleian design
 On-site expertise: printed and human
 Laptops at any desk
Contact
[email protected]