MSS. Don. (Donations)


Manuscripts presented to the Library by or through the Friends of the Bodleian since their foundation in 1925.

Shelfmark MS. Don. a. 11
Summary Catalogue no. Not in SC (late accession): no description available
Summary of contents Twelve leaves of several finely illuminated Franciscan (?) Antiphoners.
Language Latin
Origin Italian, Pisa
Date 14th century, middle and late
Material parchment
Decoration Historiated and decorated initials. Boders.
Provenance Illuminated by the 'maestro dei cartigli', who painted Pisa, Bibl. Capitolare Cor. ABCD; the master of Pisa, Bibl. Capitolare Cor.E.8; and a painter who worked on Pisa, Bibl. Capitolare Cor.B.4 and C.6. Until 1997 this item was Dep. a. 52. Given by Mrs. Elizabeth Saint, 1997.
Bibliography
A. C. de la Mare, 'Further Italian Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library', in La miniatura italiana tra gotico e Rinascimento, E. Sesti (ed.), I, 1985, Deposits I, p. 140, figs. 7-9 (fols. 23v, 19r, 5v)


Shelfmark MS. Don. b. 5
Summary Catalogue no. Not in SC (late accession): description unpublished, only available in Library
Summary of contents Noted Missal ('The Buckland Missal'). Use of Sarum.
Language Latin
Origin English
Date 14th century, c. 1370-1380 (?)
Material parchment
Decoration Fine borders, historiated and other initials. (P&A iii. 668, pl. LXV)
Provenance Dedication of church of Adderbury, Oxon., 14th century; obits of Richard Holcot [of Buckland] and John Pyrle; dedication of St. Mary's, Buckland, Berks., 15th century; Sir Robert Throckmorton, bt., of Buckland House (bookplate, c.1725); John Meade Falkner (1858-1932), Durham, sale at Sotheby's 13 Dec. 1932, lot 293; presented by Sir John Noble, bart.
Bibliography
S. J. P. van Dijk, Handlist of the Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford, 7 vols. in 8, 1957-60 (unpublished typescript), I, 130


Shelfmark MS. Don. b. 6
Summary Catalogue no. Not in SC (late accession): description unpublished, only available in Library
Summary of contents Missal ('The Closworth Missal'). Use of Sarum.
Language Latin
Origin English
Date 15th century, third quarter
Material parchment
Decoration Fine miniatures, border, initials. Good penwork borders, initials (perhaps foreign (?)). (P&A iii. 1095, pl. CII)
Provenance The original penwork decoration includes the motto 'Disce pati. Patitur qui vivit' and others; the dedication of parish church of Closworth, Somerset, added to the calendar; J. & J. Leighton, Catalogue of Manuscripts (1912), item 217, with pl; John Meade Falkner (1858-1932), sold at Sotheby's 13 Dec. 1932, lot 295; presented to the Bodleian by Sir John Noble, bart.
Bibliography
S. J. P. van Dijk, Handlist of the Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford, 7 vols. in 8, 1957-60 (unpublished typescript), I, 164b


Shelfmark MS. Don. b. 31
Summary Catalogue no. Not in SC (late accession): description unpublished, only available in Library
Summary of contents Fragment of a choirbook containing polyphonic music (Agnus dei). See also MS. Don. b. 32.
Language Latin
Origin English
Date 15th century, c. 1420-1430
Material parchment
Decoration Drawing. Initials.
Provenance Sotheby's 22 June 1982, lot 5.
Bibliography
Margaret Bent, 'A lost English Choirbook of the fifteenth century', a paper read at the International Musicological Society Congress at Copenhagen in 1972, and published in their Report in 1974, pp. 257-262
Bodleian Library Record, 11, no. 2, May 1983, 110-14, with pls. of both sides


Shelfmark MS. Don. b. 32
Summary Catalogue no. Not in SC (late accession): no description available
Summary of contents Fragment of the same choirbook as MS. Don. b. 31 (motets).
Language Latin
Origin English
Date 15th century, c. 1420-1430
Material parchment
Provenance William Niven, F.S.A., J.P., A.R.E. (d. 1921); Sotheby's 25 April 1983, lot 117.
Bibliography
Bodleian Library Record, 11, no. 3, Nov. 1983, 187
Sotheby's 25 April 1983, lot 117, with pl.


Shelfmark MS. Don. c. 13
Summary Catalogue no. Not in SC (late accession): description unpublished, only available in Library
Summary of contents John Wyclif, with lyrics by Richard Rolle (?), Sermons on the Sunday Epistles and Gospels, etc.
Language English, Northern dialect
Origin English
Date 14th century
Material parchment
Decoration Red initials with simple decoration.
Provenance Upper cover with paper label printed 'M | 148' in lower left corner; Sir F. A. T. C. Constable, bart., his sale, Sotheby's 6 Nov. 1899 and the following day, lot 268 (with cutting), bought by Quaritch for £40 10s.; Quaritch letter dated 13 Nov. 1899; Herbert Watney (booklabel in the fitted box); 'Presented to the Bodleian by Herbert Watney ... February 1931'.
Bibliography
Sotheby's, 6 Nov. 1899, lot 268
Friends of the Bodleian, 6th Annual Report, 1930-31, 15-16, pls. I, IV
B. D. Brown, 'Religious Lyrics in MS. Don. c. 13', Bodleian Quarterly Record, 7, 1935, 1-7 and frontispiece


Shelfmark MS. Don. c. 93
Summary Catalogue no. Not in SC (late accession): description unpublished, only available in Library
Summary of contents Contemporary copy by James Gresham of the inquisition post mortem of John Paston.
Language Latin and English
Origin English
Date c. 1466
Material parchment
Provenance Given by Theodore Hofmann, 1968.
Bibliography
N. Davis (ed.), Paston Letters and Papers, II, 1976, pp. 554 ff.
Summary catalogue of post-medieval western manuscripts, no. 38960


Shelfmark MS. Don. c. 168
Summary Catalogue no. Not in SC (late accession)
Summary of contents See Windrush Deeds on-line catalogue.


Shelfmark MS. Don. d. 85
Summary Catalogue no. Not in SC (late accession): description unpublished, only available in Library
Summary of contents Psalter and Missal excerpts ('The Whetenal Psalter').
Language Latin
Origin English
Date 15th century, early
Material parchment
Decoration Fine borders, historiated and other initials by Johannes. Fine drawings added (one coloured), 15th century, beginning, in the same style as stained glass in All Saints, North Street, York. Good border, historiated initial, fol. 11, added, 15th century, middle (P&A iii. 803, pl. LXXVI-VII)
Provenance A member of the Whetenal family of Norfolk (added arms: vert, a cross engrailed argent, with a crescent for difference; an Oliver Whetenall was vicar of Besthorpe, Norfolk, from 1445-69); Francis Blomefield, 1728; 'Honest' Tom Martin; Michael Wodhull, 1781; Howel Wills, Florence; Charles Fairfax Murray; Sir R. Leicester Harsmsworth, his sale at Sotheby's 16 Oct. 1945, lot 2076.
Bibliography
Notable Accessions: Guide to an Exhibition Held in 1958, Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1958, no. 17 (mistakenly cited as MS. Don. d. 95)
S. J. P. van Dijk, Handlist of the Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford, 7 vols. in 8, 1957-60 (unpublished typescript), II, 115
Manuscripts at Oxford: an exhibition in memory of Richard William Hunt (1908-1979), Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1980, no. XVII. 3, figs. 44, 49


Shelfmark MS. Don. d. 176
Summary Catalogue no. Not in SC (late accession): no description available
Summary of contents Catasto of Cistercian nunnery of Sta. Giuliana, Perugia.
Language Latin and Italian
Origin Italian, Perugia
Date 1498 and later
Material parchment, paper
Decoration Miniature on fol. 3v. Penwork initial on fol. 4r. Marginal drawings.
Provenance Swann Gallery, New York, sale 11 Oct. 1979, lot 242, bought by Quaritch and presented to the Library through the Friends of the Bodleian.
Bibliography
A. C. de la Mare, 'Further Italian Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library', in La miniatura italiana tra gotico e Rinascimento, E. Sesti (ed.), I, 1985, no. 9, p. 132, fig. 3 (fol. 3v)


Shelfmark MS. Don. d. 186
Summary Catalogue no. Not in SC (late accession): no description available
Summary of contents Valuation of benefices and monastic property in the Archdeaconry of Oxford, as estimated in the Taxatio Nicholai of 1291.
Language Latin
Origin English, Oxford (?)
Date 15th century, second half
Material parchment
Provenance 'Gylbertus Bylby', prior of the Cistercian abbey of Rewley, Oxford, before 1480; with notes by Thomas Barlow (Bodley's Librarian 1652-60); Thomas Cole, Steward of Merton College; inscribed by Anthony Wood, 1670, who transcribed the MS. in that year (the transcription is now MS. Rawl. C. 910); 'from the effects of T Roper Esq.'; R. G. Routh Esq. (headmaster of Bromsgrove School, Worcestershire); bought from the School by the Bodleian, 1985.


Shelfmark MS. Don. e. 120
Summary Catalogue no. Not in SC (late accession): description unpublished, only available in Library
Summary of contents Book of Hours, mutilated ('The Pudsay Hours'). Use of Sarum.
Language Latin
Origin Flemish
Date 15th century, after 1450
Material parchment
Decoration Borders, initials.
Provenance Pudsay family (numerous inscriptions), from the early 16th century to at least 1749; J. Rawling Wilson, 1835; purchased from a Newcastle bookseller by Captain Francis du Cane; presented to H. A. Littledale, a descendant of the Pudsays, in 1858; given to the Bodleian by Miss O. Littledale, 1973.
Bibliography
J. Raine, 'The Pudsays of Barford', Archaeologia Aeliana, n.s. 2, 1858, 175-176; [other related material is in MS. Don c. 145, and Don. e. 818]
Bodleian Library Record, 9, no. 3, Dec. 1974, 135
B. C. Barker-Benfield, Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford: Concordance of Bodleian Shelfmarks for vols. 1-3 and Addenda, Oxford, 1974, 56


Shelfmark MS. Don. e. 128
Summary Catalogue no. Not in SC (late accession): no description available
Summary of contents Jerome, Letters, pt. I.
Language Latin
Origin English
Date 15th century, c. 1450-1460 (?)
Material parchment
Decoration Decorated initial on fol. 1r. Plain blue initials.
Provenance Copied in humanistic script by Robert Flemmyng; perhaps given by him to Lincoln College after 1474, and later alienated; Thomas Weld of Lulworth castle (bookplate); bought, 1980.
Bibliography
Bodleian Library Record, 10, no. 4, Feb. 1981, 254-6
Manuscripts at Oxford: an exhibition in memory of Richard William Hunt (1908-1979), Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1980, no. XXI. 6, fig. 65


Shelfmark MS. Don. f. 30
Summary Catalogue no. Not in SC (late accession): no description available
Summary of contents Old Testament Books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Ecclesiasticus.
Language Latin
Origin Italian, Venice (?)
Date 15th century, c. 1470-1480
Material parchment
Decoration Illuminated initial and border on fol. 1r. Simple blue and red initials.
Provenance Bought from Laurence Witten Rare Books by Bodley's American Friends, 1978.
Bibliography
Laurence Witten Rare Books, cat. 8, no. 17, with pl. (fol. 45r)
A. C. de la Mare, 'Further Italian Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library', in La miniatura italiana tra gotico e Rinascimento, E. Sesti (ed.), I, 1985, no. 16, p. 136


Shelfmark MS. Don. f. 33
Summary Catalogue no. Not in SC (late accession): no description available
Summary of contents Book of Hours. Use of Angers.
Language Latin
Origin French
Date 15th century
Material parchment
Decoration Seven miniatures. Borders. Numerous initials in gold on coloured ground.


LwM 12 November 2003