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Ancient manuscripts summary listing 351- 400

March 2014: the descriptor [good/fair/poor/unusable] in square brackets following a manuscript's title indicates its current physical condition as assessed by Oxford Conservation Consortium in January-July 2014. Those in poor condition will not normally be produced for researchers, and those rated unusable not produced at all, until conservation treatment has been carried out in order to prevent further damage during consultation. Poor or unusable manuscripts may also not be fit to photograph safely, including by staff. If you do want to consult or request images from a manuscript that is not currently in a state to produce or photograph safely, please let us know - active research interest is of course a key factor in determining our conservation priorities.

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Digital images of the college's medieval manuscripts are placed online as they are created, usually on demand. Images are linked to from individual entries on these catalogue pages. The digitisation programme is shaped by researchers' requests rather than e.g. starting with MS 1, so if you require images for your research from a manuscript only partially photographed or not yet represented in the Flickr collection, please get in touch to have it added to the 'to-do' list.

351. Biblia Vulgata (C13). 13th century. [condition: good]

Parchment. 407 ff. 11 1/2 x 8 inches. 2 columns of 47 lines. (ff. 384–405 have 3 cols. of 49–50). Collation: i–xvi10 xvii8 xviii10 xix12 | i–xi10 | i–viii10 ix8 x16 xi2 (rest lost), 2 added leaves. Quires have catchwords, and sometimes are numbered at the foot of the last verso in roman figures. Several small hands, with red and blue capitals etc. and initials in red and blue filled with conventional foliage in green, yellow, and brown. The first leaf and one after 123 are lost, and 1 is partly tom out. 19th-cent. purple calf binding, but traces of a pattern on the fore-edge, probably medieval.

1–383v. Biblia vulgata.
Begins imperfect in the prologue Frater Ambrosius at: Philippus ostendit ei Iesum. Gen.-II Paralip. Esdras. Neemias. Iudith. Hester. Tobit. Iob. Psalter. Parab.-Ecclus. Proph. Maccab. (Oratio Manassis stands as preface to Esdras; Or. Salamonis at end of Ecclus.; Baruch vi and I Macc.i. 2–16 are omitted). 299v is blank. Evang. Paulinae. Hebr. ad Laodicensios. Acts. Epp. canon. Apoc.
The Prefaces are in their respective places (Paralip. Esdras Iob have none), and seem to offer nothing out of the ordinary. 237 is inserted to take Ierem. xxvi, omitted by the scribe; IV Reg. xv. 1–xvii. 17 is lost.

384–405v. Interpretationes Hebraicorum nominum: Aaz appreendens. . . . Breaks off, the rest lost: Saue digna vel elevata seu dignitas. Cf. MS 1.

406–7v are covered with lists of lessons, notes etc. in 15th-cent. English hands; among the latter is: Origenarius est custos glebe, id est Heyward.

On 406 is an erased note of pledging, presumably at Oxford: Caucio M. Roberti de ...exposita ciste de ... die Sancti Germani in . . . A.D. mcccolxxoviijo (?). There are numerous 15th- and 16th-cent. marginalia. On 354 scribbled: Johannes (16th); on 247 Richard Powell his booke Amen (so on 331) one thousand six hundred fiftie ten.
Bequeathed by Dr. George Coningesby in 1766; a note in his hand is pasted inside the front cover.

352. Sir John Banks, Attorney-General, versus John [Williams] lord bishop of Lincoln and others, in the Star Chamber in July 1637, for subornation of perjury. (C17) [condition: good]

76 ff. (wanting 1 and all after 77). 10¾ × 8 in. Well written. Modern purple calf binding.

Sir John Banks, Attorney-General, versus John [Williams] lord bishop of Lincoln and others, in the Star Chamber in July 1637, for subornation of perjury.
Begins imperfect in Lord Cottington’s judgment (John Rushworth, Historical Collections ii, 1680, 429): I promised brevitie, therefore I omitt. . . . The judgments of the Court continue to 63v; then follows an account of the case which perhaps originally stood first, of which the end is now lost. Another copy is in Oxford Corpus Christi Coll. 329. Our text seems rather fuller than Rushworth’s.

Probably, like the other volumes bound or rebound in this style, the bequest of Dr. George Coningesby in 1766.

353. Welsh. [Anthology of Welse Verse] Kywyddeu Kymraec. (ca 1540-50) Images online here and here. [condition: good]

About a.d. 1540–50. Paper watermarked a glove and small crown, on the cuff the letters PB. 175 ff., according to the contemporary foliation, which uses 150 twice and omits 155; but 1, 12, 64, 86, 97, 99, 101, 103, 104, 125, 137, 139, 144, 145, 165, 167, 174 are missing, two sheets (2 + 11 and 34 + 10) have changed places, and 87 is misbound at the beginning of the volume. 11½ × 8¼ in. Collation: i12 (wants 1 and 12) ii12 iii12 (wants 8) iv12 | v12 vi12 (wants 5) vii8 viii8 (wants 7) ix12 (wants 10 and 12) x12 (wants 2, 4, and 5) xi12 (wants 1 and 2) xii12 (wants 4) xiii12 (wants 4, 6, 11, 12) xiv12 xv6 | xvi14 (wants 13 and 14, perhaps blank). Fairly well written, nearly all apparently in the hand of Sir John Prise (syr Sion ap Rhys). 19th-cent. purple calf binding.

2–47v. [Anthology of Welsh Verse] Kywyddeu Kymraec.
2. Bedo Brwynllys. Y ddyn ar santaidd anwyd. . . .
3. Jevan Deulwyn. Marw ny wnaf mor wen yw nyn. . . .
4. Tydyr Alet. Serch y roes ar chwaer essyllt. . . .
5. Anon. (Hwnn neu Hwnn). Pand oer y penyd a wnn ? . . .
7. Howel Lhwyd ap y gof. Gwae vai hyn dyn noe dad. . . .
8–9. Dauydd ap Edmwnd. Y Rhiein wych ay rhoi’n wen . . .; Nyd ay vn a dyn anael . . .; Dydd da yr vwyna’r vy. . . .
10. Tudyr Alet. Medraf om pwylh madrodd om pen. . . .
11. Howel Dauydd ap Jeuan ap Rhys. Bym annwyl lhe bym unnos. . . .
13. Jeuan ap Tudur Penllynn. [Head lost] bym gennyd vy myd mewn modd. . . .
13v–15. [Welsh Triads and proverbial lore].
15v. Meistyr Hyw o Aberhodni. [‘Englyn i’r byd hwn.’]
16–17v. Dauydd Llwyd ab Einion Llegliw. Kreawdr mawr kroyw awdyr mwyn . . . [also on 34v].
18–19. Rhys Nanmor. Krist kaddwr wythved brenin diledog. . . .
20–22v. Lewys ap Richard alias Morgannwc. Y Tarw o’r mwnt eryr Môn. . .; Pwy’n dwyn gras penna dan gred. . . .
22v–23v. Thomas Vychan. Mab mair oren gair y vor gwys kedyrn. . . .
24. Lewys Morgannwg. Kywydd y syr Sion ap Rhys pan wnaethpwyd yn Varchog 1548. Drychaf goed oruchaf gynt. . . .
25. Iollo Goch. Teg oedd gynnyrch hygyrch hardd. . . .
26. Maestyr Harri. Jeuan mawl winlhan wynlhwyd. . . .
27. Jeuan Tew. Y vyn eiliw od ar vaes. . . .
28. Howel Davydd ap Jevan ap Rhys Llwyd ap Adam. Ewythr y bawb aeth yr bedd. . . .
29. Meistyr Harri Kydweli. Y gwr oedawc y gredir. . . .
29v. Wilym Gwyn a Sion ap Rhys.
30. Jevan Dew. Y meistr nys hammeu estrawn. . . .
32. Rys Nantmawr. Kaerludd vudd a chelvyddyd. . . .
34. David ap Edmund. Vwy vwy o serch mae vy swllt. . . .
34v. Dd. Lhwyd ap Einiawn Lhygliw. Kreawdyr mawr etc.[another version of the piece on 16].
35v and 38. Davydd Nanmor. ‘Englynion yr deuddeg arwyddion’ etc.
36. ‘Englynnion y Missoedd’ [unfinished].
39. Sion y Kent. Pond angalh na ddeallhwn. . . .
40. Jevan Deulwyn. Y gwr y gayff gyrry gwin. . . .
41. Dauydd Nanmor. Dysgais yn y modd y diskyn. . . .
42–43. [Welsh anecdotes.]
43. Epitaphium Ricardi regis Anglie III . . apud fratres minores Leicestrie [Latin].
44–46. Davydd Nanmor. Y ddauwr arglwyddiaidd . . .; Hawdd ammawr blaenawr y blaid. . . .
46. Jevan ap Rhedderch ap Jeuan Lhwyd. Awen y wnaeth mab maeth medd. . . .
48–164 were originally intended to serve as an alphabetical Commonplace-book, two letters of the alphabet being allotted to each quire. The entries, which are all in Latin, and some in Prise’s humanist hand, are not numerous; among them are:
60. A contemporary account of a circumcision-ceremony, witnessed in Rome by his friend Peter Vannes [see DNB] and Dr. Benet.
124. Under heading Privata vel Propria, records made by Prise of his marriage 11 October 1534 with Jane Williamson and of the births of their nine children, with the names of the sponsors of each (part of this is also given in Welsh on 6 and 6v). Printed, with an inventory of the contents of the MS, by Sir Thomas Phillipps in the Cambrian Journal iv (1857) 39–47.
141. The testament of William Tracy of Tracy alias Todingeton (Glos.) dated 10 October 1531 (see DNB xix. 1067).
The blank pages have been filled in with further Welsh verse:
52v–53v. Taliessin. Ef a wnaeth Panton ar lawr glyn Hebron. . . .
54. Dauydd Lhwyd ap Gruffydd. Dealh y rwy dalh yw y rai. . . .
55. Lhewelyn ap Meredydd ap Edynyvet. Gwae ni ddiweddi ddiddym. . ..
56. Gwilym ap Jevan Hên. Troes dyw’n vawr Trystan wy vi. . . .
57. Hyw Pennal. Tyvodd yn rhyd tayofwy. . . .
58. Tudyr Alet. Tref dayar wynedd ay drych. . . .
61. Llewelyn ap Owain. Kywir undal Kywreindeb. . . .
67. Jevan dy r Billwg. Tommas Kedwyd duw ymy. . . .
68. Jevan Gethin ap Jevan ap Lheysion. Gwddon dewi a goddef. . . .
69. [Syr Davydd Trevor] Kariad merched am kyryai. . . .
70–71. Jevan Deylwyn. Rhys a gynnail rhwysc Einion . . .; Kerais ddyn ievank hirwen. . . .
72v. Dauydd ap Gwilym. Tost oedd ddwyn trais kannhwynawl. . . .
73. Gruffydd Gryg. Davydd ap Gwilym ymmy. . . .
74. Madog Benvras.. Da ar veyrdd dewr o wr vy. . . .
78v. Iollo Goch. Hydol dof vy hoedl Davydd. . . .
79. [Davydd Llwyd ap Llewelyn ap Gruffudd] Hela a gayff dros heli ag on. . . .
81–82. Lewys Morgannwg (Awdwl y syr Sion Vab Rhys o waith Lewys Morgannwg, a.d. 1548).
82v. Gruffyth Hiraethog y Sir Joan fab Rhys.
85. Gruffydd ap Meredyd. Duw Sul eurlyw loyw bywieit arwyrein . . .; Dylyem pwyllhem kyn pelh ynyal yng. . . .
88v. Howel Surdevall [8 lines, partly in English]. Owr luck owr king owr lock owr kai. . . .
96, 98. Sion y Kent. Brycheiniawg bro wych annwyl . . ‘Gobeithiaw a ddaw yddwyf.’
130v–3 [later]. Sion Mawddwy. Kwyn Vychan kyfan i kofied y baich . . Kwynwn hyd y trwn trwy anian ar ol . . . [two holograph odes, on the deaths of Thomas Vaughan, fourth son of Sir William Vaughan of Porthaml, co. Brecon, 9 July 1590, and of his sister Ann Games of Aberbran].
Other additions include:
63. Almightie Ladie leding to have . . . [12 lines copied double, in English and Welsh spelling, cf. 88v; lines 1–4 recur on 87. They are part of IMEV, no. 2514; other MSS are cited in Nat. Lib. of Wales Journal viii (1953) 96, note 5].
77. De fidei Christiane propagacione. Excerpta e quodam libro Cronicarum vetusto apud Herefordiam incerti authoris. Licet per apostolos et alios. . . . The latest event recorded is the foundation of the see of Carlisle in 1133.
106–23. A treatise on Old-Welsh grammar and prosody, associated with the name of Einion Offeiriad; see G. J. Williams and E. J. Jones, Gramadegau’r Penceirddiaid (Cardiff, 1934).
127–30. Another text headed Kynghor y wr ddwyn y vuchedd yn galh ac yn gymedrol.
148–61v and 142–3v. Diaerhebion Kymraeg [a large collection of proverbs in alphabetical order]. A vo da gan dduw ys dir. / Achub maes mavr a dryc- varch. . . .
162v–3v. Commentacio mea Joannis Rhesei extemporalis qua conjicere tantum volui quid sit cause quod vulgo non ita integriter viuatur nunc ut olim. [An imperfect 17th-cent. transcript of this is here inserted.]
164. Notula excerpta ex anti quo quodam codice in Wallia litteris pene obliteratis et deletis pre nimia vetustate . . . [short Welsh annals, in Latin, a.d. 464–1175].
164v. Scripta anno Domini 1539 secundo Marcii. Memorandum quod nomina Cantredorum . . . sunt latius explicata . . . in fine cuiusdam libri veteris manu scripti Chronicorum [London bm Cotton Domitian viii] quem reliqui Herefordie anno Domini 1539. Then follows a transcript of the list of Welsh cantreds in the Red Book of the Exchequer, to which Prise says he obtained access by means of Thomas Solimannus (see DNB under Soulemont).
166–75 are part Vocabulary and part Index.

The compiler is Sir John Prise (? 1503–55), one of the visitors of the monasteries under Henry VIII, who after their dissolution acquired Brecon Priory and St. Guthlac’s, Hereford (see MS 271), and later wrote the Historiae Brytannicae Defensio (MS 260); see, besides DNB, N. R. Ker in The Library, 5th series, x (1955) 1–24.

The odes on 130v–3 suggest that the volume was still in Breconshire, perhaps at Porthaml, at the end of the 16th cent. Early scribbled names include 36 John Watkin, 40v and 175v John Watkins his booke, 52v Hugh Powell gent., 95 Jhon Thomas.Inserted in the front, together with a slip of parchment with 16th-cent. writing in Welsh, are notes on the contents by a much later owner. It came to the College in 1766 from Dr. George Coningesby, whose hand appears in it here and there. My account of this MS is deeply indebted to Mr. Evan D. Jones of the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, where a copy of it is kept as MS 9048.

Citations:

• Jones, ED. 'Llyfr amrywiaeth Syr Siôn Prys.' Brycheiniog VIII, 1962. 97-104.
• TH Charles-Edwards, ‘The Welsh bardic grammars on Litterae.’ Grammatica, Gramadach, and Gramadeg: Vernacular grammar and grammarians in medieval Ireland and Wales. Ed. Deborah Hayden and Paul Russell. John Benjamins, 2016. Ch 8, pp 149-160.
• Paul Russell, ‘Poetry by numbers: The poetic triads in Gramadegau Penceirddiaid.’ Grammatica, Gramadach, and Gramadeg: Vernacular grammar and grammarians in medieval Ireland and Wales. Ed. Deborah Hayden and Paul Russell. John Benjamins, 2016. Ch 9, pp.161-180.
  

354.The Memorandum-book of Richard Hill, citizen and grocer of London (born shortly before 1490). images here and here. Images of transcript here [condition: fair]

Citations:

• Furnivall, Frederick James. Caxton's Book of curtesye: printed at Westminster about 1477-8 AD and now reprinted, with two ms. copies of the same treatise, from the Oriel ms. 79, and the Balliol ms. 354. No. 3. Pub. for the Early English text society, by N. Trübner & co., 1868.
• [Richard Hill]. Songs, Carols and Other Miscellaneous Poems: From the Balliol Ms. 354. Ed. Roman Dyboski. Early English text society, 1908.
• Chambers, E. K., and F. Sidgwick. "Fifteenth Century Carols by John Audelay." The Modern Language Review 5.4 (1910): 473-491.
• Browning, D. C. Balliol College MS 354. B. Litt. Thesis. Balliol College, Oxford University (1935).
• Greene, Richard L. "The Traditional Survival of Two Medieval Carols." ELH 7.3 (1940): 223-238.
• Robbins, Rossell Hope. Secular lyrics of the XIVth and XVth centuries. Clarendon Press, 1955.
• Kilbride, K. M. (1933), MAN BE MERRY. New Blackfriars, 14: 1012–1018. doi: 10.1111/j.1741-2005.1933.tb03125.x
• More, T. The Complete Works of St. Thomas More, Volume 1, ed. Anthony S. G. Edwards, Kathleen Gardiner Rogers and Clarence H. Miller (New Haven, 1997), cxv–cxvii; the dating of the Balliol manuscript is discussed on p. xxvii; the edited text (based primarily on Balliol 354), is on pp. 31–43.
• Parker, David Reed. The Commonplace Book in Tudor London: An Examination of BL MSS Egerton 1995, Harley 2252, Lansdowne 762, and Oxford Balliol College MS 354. University Press of America, 1998.
• Wray, Alison. "Singers on the trail of ‘authentic’Early Modern English: the puzzling case of/æ:/and/ε." Transactions of the Philological Society 97.2 (1999): 185-211.
• Gillespie, Alexandra. "Caxton's Chaucer and Lydgate Quartos: Miscellanies from Manuscript to Print." Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 12.1 (2000): 1-25.
• Rogers, Janine. "Courtesy Books, Comedy, and the Merchant Masculinity of Oxford Balliol College MS 354." Medieval Forum 1 (2002)
• Gillespie, Alexandra. "Balliol MS 354: Histories of the Book at the End of the Middle Ages." Poetica 60 (2003): 47-63.
• Orme, Nicholas. Medieval children. Yale University Press, 2003.
• O’Donoghue, Bernard. "‘Cuius Contrarium’: Middle English Popular Lyrics." A Companion to the Middle English Lyric (2005): 210.
• Ogilvie-Thomson, Sarah J. The Index of Middle English Prose Handlist VIII: Manuscripts Containing Middle English Prose in Oxford College Libraries. Vol. 8. Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2007.
• Edwards, A. S. G., and M. T. W. Payne. "A New Manuscript of Thomas More's ‘Fortune Verses’." The Review of English Studies 60.246 (2009): 578-587.
• Thompson, JJ. 'The Memory and Impact of Oral Performance: Shaping the Understanding of Late Medieval Readers.'  Readings on Audience and Textual Materiality. Ed G Allen, C Griffin, M O'Connell. Routledge, 2015. pp.9-22.
• Richardson, Malcolm. 'Ends and Beginnings in London Merchant Epistolary Rhetoric, c. 1460–1520.' Public Declamations: Essays on Medieval Rhetoric, Education, and Letters in Honour of Martin Camargo, ed. by Georgiana Donavin and Denise Stodola, DISPUT 27 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2015) pp. 125–145. http://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/pdf/10.1484/M.DISPUT-EB.5.107452, accessed 29 September 2015.
• Chen, A. "Consuming Childhood: Sir Gowther and National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 19.3.1." JEGP, Journal of English and Germanic Philology 111.3 (2012): 360-383. Project MUSE. Web. 18 Aug. 2016. <https://muse.jhu.edu/>.
• Foster, M. "From Courtesy to Urbanity in Late Medieval England." Parergon 29.1 (2012): 27-46. Project MUSE. Web. 18 Aug. 2016. <https://muse.jhu.edu/>.
  

355. Nicholas Crouch (see MS 334), Diary for the years 1634-1672, with his College account for 1634-89 (reversing the volume).

Mid C17 [condition: good] Images online

249 + 46 ff. (including many blanks). 11¾ × 7¾ in. Original brown calf, with three-line border tooled in blind.

Nicholas Crouch (see MS 334), Diary for the years 1634–72, with his College account for 1634–89 at the end (reversing the volume). As Coxe says, ‘the entries are very few, having reference chiefly to his own movements, the state of the weather, etc.’

More about Crouch's MSS.

Citations:

• Pritchard, Allan. "According to Wood: Sources of Anthony Wood's Lives of Poets and Dramatists." Review of English Studies (1977): 268-289.

356 - 361. Late C17, Six thin paper books

Formerly separate and unbound, now bound together in 19th -century purple calf. 173ff. images online [condition: good]

The volume appears to have been through-foliated in the current binding, though only the first and last folio numbers of each text are noted. For the purposes of correct sorting of digital images, foliation has been completed. Blanks separating texts, and content pages/previous cover leaves of each text, are not included in the earlier foliation and have now been given the number of the preceding numbered folio with suffix x, y etc.

• 356. ff. 1r-27r of the volume. Treatise on the authority and interpretation of the Holy Scripture [so Coxe], beg. 'Since the longest life of man on earth is nothing in comparison...' Preceded by 5 4 blanks and a cover page, ff.000A-E. 27ff followed by 1 blank, 27x.
• 357. ff. 28r-35v of the volume. On a right rule of faith [so Coxe], beg. 'The peremptorie holding of some thinges that are not explicitely in the scripture...' 8ff followed by 2 blanks, 35x-y.
• 358. ff. 36r-77r of the volume. A dialogue concerning the men that may be and shalbe saued betweene Eusebius nd Timothie, beg. 'Euseb. God saue you Timothie, how faire your body and your soule...' 42ff folowed by 3 blanks, 77x-z.
• 359. ff.78r-136r of the volume. Dialogue between a Master and Scholar, on the honour due to God etc. [so Coxe], beg. Scholer: I pray you master tell me what God is. Master: He is the maker of all thinges... 58 ff followed by one cover page, 136x.
• 360. ff. 136r-166v of the volume. Petri Fonsecae e Societate Jesu Commentarius in primum librum Metaphysicorum Aristotelis Prooemium. De Aristotelis parentibus etc. Aristoteles, omnium consensu, Author noster... Mynors indexes these as 'lecture notes'. 31ff.
• 361. ff. 167r-173v of the volume. Samuel Woodford [1636-1701; see ODNB], original draft of a letter to John [Williams], bishop of Chichester, dated Hartley Maudit 20 August 1700, on inaccuracies in current editions of the Book of Common Prayer. With several memoranda. 7ff followed by 3 blanks, 174-176.

362. Herefordshire documents

(C17, not late. Bound with MS 363) [condition: good] images online

2–25v. (1) Historical transcripts relating to Herefordshire,, mainly taken (with some change of order) from the Liber Feodorum of a.d. 1302 in the Public Record Office, i. 281–340.
Cf. Testa de Nevill (1807) 62–73, and the modem edition Book of Fees i (1920) xxviii. The last entry is a Perambulatio comitatus Herefordiae, made under King John.  

26–31. (2) Modus tenendi Parliamentum.
Transcribed from a copy of the B class—see Miss D. K. Hodnett and Miss W. P. White in EHR xxxiv (1919) 209–15—in which c. xxvi was absent. It begins, the first leaf being lost, in the middle of c. iv: Custodi quinque portuum quod ipse rationabiles. The text is to be found in M. V. Clarke, Medieval Representation and Consent (1936) 374–84. 31v is blank.

32–67v. (3) Herefordshire, a list by parishes of the feudal tenures under Queen Elizabeth I, beg. Hundredum de Graytree in com. Heref. / Parochia de Rosse / Manerium de Rosse tenetur de domina Regina in capite per seruicium militare. . . .
1, originally blank, has some early notes, naming people and places in Herefordshire.
Probably, like the other MSS of Hereford interest, the bequest of Dr. George Coningesby, 1766.

363. Rex v. Bishop of Chester, a note of the case at Lancaster Assizes in August 1722. [condition: good] images online

Mid 18th cent. 12 ff. 13¾ × 8 in. Bound with MS 362.

On 1 is. This is a true Transcript of the Original lodged in the University Archives by Dr. Francis Gastrell the Learned and worthy Bishop of Chester. From which it is evident the Court-Party was afraid of trying the Merits of the Cause, which the Bishop had before in his printed Case in 1721 lay’d open in so clear and convincing a manner. Witness my hand, George Coningesby.

11 and 12 are blank.

The bishop (see DNB)had aroused the gratitude of Oxford and Cambridge by refusing to institute as Warden of the College at Manchester a royal nominee who had only a Lambeth degree in divinity.

Doubtless bequeathed by Dr. Coningesby in 1766; it is the last MS described in Coxe’s Catalogue.

364. Hebrew. Pentateuch (the beginning lost), Ruth, Canticles, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther and the Haftaroth. (Dated AM 5063 = AD 1303.) [condition: good]

365. Arabic. Halbat al Mujallī, a commentary by Abu 'l-Yumn Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Amīr Hājj al-Halabī on Munyat al-musallī, a well-known treatise on prayer by Sadīd al-Dīn al Kāshgarī (Dated Safar 1125 = February.March AD 1713) [condition: good]

366. Amharic. Contents not described. Inside the front cover is: 'Amharic MS, purchased of Abyssinian Monks at Jerusalem, and presented to the College, 1880, by Rev GJ Chester.' [condition: fair]

367. Antidotarium. (C11) [condition: good] images online here

368. Persian. Sa'dī, Būstān. (Colophon dated 7 Dhu 'l-Qa'da 801 (11 July 1399, but this appears to be an 18th century transcript.) [condition: good]

369. Persian. Hafiz, Dīwān. (Apparently 18th century) [condition: good]

370. Persian. Sa'dī, Gulistān. (Dated 28 Rabī' ii 958 = 5 May 1551) [condition: good]

371. Armenian. 'Armenian Songs' (wth a few in Turkish), a list of 84 titles is inserted in the MS. (C18, first half) [condition: poor]

372. Armenian. 'Book of Prayers.' (C18 or 19) [condition: poor]

373. Armenian. 'Breviary or Book of Hours.' (C18 or 19) [condition: fair]

374. Turkish, in Armenian characters. 'Service-book for the Mass.' (C18) [condition: fair]

375. Armenian. 'Treasury of Truth, comprising (1) brief collection of Christian teaching, (2) translation of Cardinal Borromei's will, copied by the hand of George son of Haji Feduhi AD 1766' with 'a collection of prayers and hymns to the Virgin, etc.' (C19) [condition: good]

376. Arabic Koran. (Probably C16) [condition: fair]

377. Hebrew The Book of Esther, with the prayers on a separate slip of parchment wrapped round the stick. (C17 or 18) [condition: good]

378. Ethiopic. Prayers of the Virgin Mary. [condition: fair]

379. Letts' Colonial Rough Diary and Almanac for 1893, kept from 1 January to 18 May, while on a mission to Uganda, by Captain Melville Raymond Portal (Commoner of the College 1875-9); at the end is a telegram announcing his death from fever on 27 May. [condition: fair]

380. Thirty Sermons by the Revd Henry Fisher Fellow and benefactor of the College (MS 401). According to a note in the front cover, they were written as his statutory lectures for delivery in the College chapel, where he was parelector in 1713, and repeated in the Devonshire churches of Hemyock, Uffculm and Kentishbeer, and the Dorset churches of Bere Regis, Winterbourne Kingston, and Turners Puddle, at various dates down to 1762. transcript of contents pages by RABM, 1928. [condition: good]

381. An Old-English Glossary, compiled in his own hand by Henry Sweet (Commoner of the College 1869-73) and dated on the title-page 1 August 1878. [condition: good]

382. Hebrew. Old Testament, with additions - Neubauer (see MS 364) no 2542. (AM 5251 = AD 1491) images online here [condition: fair]

383. Octavien de St Gelais, French translation of Ovid's Heroides. (Late C15) images here. [condition: good]

384. Book of Hours (Use of Sarum) (C15) [condition: fair] images of miniatures only here.

385. Pali. 1-9. A Kamma-vācā, one of the common catechetical manuals of Buddhism (published by O Frankfurter, Handbook of Pali 1883, 141-50.) 10-21. Another, imperfect at end (apparently the text published from an Eton College MS by GLM Clauson, Journal of the Pali Text Society 1906-7, 1-8). [condition: fair]

386. Pali. Part of the Vinaya-pitaka, a canonical work on monastic discipline, being the Pācittiya and Sekhiya, which complete the Bhikkunī-vibhanga (edited by H Oldenberg, Vinaya-pitaka iv, 1882, 1-207.) [condition: fair]

387 - 392 Original holograph texts of the later poems of Robert Browning (honorary fellow of the College 1867), written out on quarto paper with a varying amount of subsequent correction, and used as printer's copy. Contents:

387. Robert Browning, Balaustin's Adventure (published 1871) ff.1-104; f 105 blank; Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society (published 1871) ff 106-175; Fifine at the Fair (published 1872) ff.176-264. 6 blank + 264 ff.[condition: good] digital images available on request

388. Robert Browning, Red Cotton Night Cap Country (published 1873) ff.1-141; The Inn Album (published 1875) ff.142-245. 6 blank + 245 ff. [condition: good] digital images available on request

389. Robert Browning, Aristophanes' Apology (published 1875) ff.1-199; The Agamemnon of Aeschylus (published 1877) ff.200-264. 6 blank + 264 ff. [condition: good] digital images available on request

390. Robert Browning, Pacchiarotto: and How he worked in Distemper (published 1876) ff.1-113; La Saisiaz: The Two Poets of Croisic (published 1878) ff.114-191. 6 blank + 191ff. [condition: good] digital images available on request

391. Robert Browning, Dramatic Idyls (published 1879) ff.1-51; Dramatic Idyls, second series (published 1880) ff.52-105; Jocoseria (published 1883) ff.106-183. 183ff. [condition: good]

392. Robert Browning, Ferishtah's Fancies (published 1884); Parleyings with certain People of importance in their Day (published 1887). 238ff. [condition: good] digital images available on request

393. Original autograph letters and papers relating to Robert Browning. Condition: good - contents disbound, conserved and fasciculed by OCC, summer 2014.

• thirty letters of the years 1887-9, for the most part written jointly by the poet and his sister Sarianna to his son Robert Wiedemann Barrett Browning, jointly with his daughter-in-law Fannie;
• 9 letters from Sarianna to Fannie;
• 2 letters from Benjamin Jowett to RBB Browning after his father's death, and 1 from him to Miss Browning, giving the history of a suggestion that her brother should stand for the Oxford Professorship of Poetry;
• 2 letters and a 'newspaper' in Italian written by RBB Browning when a small child.

Detailed listing here.

394. Original letters written to the novelist George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), or to Charles Lee Lewes, on the death of George Henry Lewes (28 November 1878). [condition: good]

395. Original letters written to Claude Montefiore (commoner of the College 1878) during the years 1877-93. The writers are: Mark Pattison (2), Arnold Toynbee, Matthew Arnold, Leonard Montefiore, Thomas Hill Green, Benjamin Jowett (13). There is also a printed burlesque poem, composed by George Nathaniel (Marquess) Curzon for a meeting of 'The Souls', 9 July 1890. [condition: good] Detailed listing here.

396. Guard-Book containing five leaves of an early C14 noted Sarum Breviary, written in two columns of 28 lines with large red and blue flourished capitals (ed F. Procter and C Wordsworth (Cambridge 1882), i, col. dclxxiii and following.) Images online here. [condition: good]

397. Anonymous commentary on the Inferno and Purgatorio of Dante, rather roughly written in Italian in a C17 hand. [condition: good]

398. Anon, A short Historical Account of the Church of God from the Beginning of the World to the present time divided into seven Ages.[condition: poor] images online

399. Brierwoodi Notae: notes on logic, in Latin. (early C17?) [condition: good] images online

400. Liber Statutorum Collegii de Baliolo, a pocket-copy of the College Statutes, neatly written on parchment in the early 17th century, with additional entries responcting College livings down to the early 18th century. [condition: fair]

MSS 1-50

MSS 51-100

MSS 101-150

MSS 151-200

MSS 201-250

MSS 251-300

MSS 301-350

MSS 351-400

MSS 401-450

MSS 451-475

- Anna Sander