Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester (1390-1447) was the youngest brother of
King Henry V. His major donations to the University of Oxford, made between
1439 and 1444, amounted to over 280 manuscripts, including classical and
humanistic texts as well as Biblical, theological, legal, and medical texts
relevant to the University curriculum. To house the collection a new library
room was built over the Divinity School then under construction: the room
opened in 1488 and still bears the name Duke Humfrey's Library. But by the
middle of the 16th century the books had been dispersed and the room
disfurbished, as a result partly of financial under-provision and partly of
religious censorship; and it remained in this state until Sir Thomas Bodley's
refoundation of the library at the end of the century. Of Humfrey's donations
to Oxford, only about fifteen manuscripts are known to survive, including three
in the Bodleian (which bear this shelfmark): see A. C. de la Mare and Stanley
Gillam, Duke Humfrey's Library and the Divinity School
1488-1988 (exhibition catalogue, Bodleian Library, 1988).
| Shelfmark |
MS. Duke Humfrey b. 1 |
| Summary Catalogue no.
|
32386 |
| Summary of contents |
John Capgrave, Commentary on Exodus. |
| Language |
Latin |
| Origin |
English |
| Date |
c.
1440
|
| Material |
paper |
|
|
| Decoration |
| Good miniatures, fine border and historiated inital (defaced).
Diagram. (P&A iii. 902)
|
|
|
|
|
| Images |
| Catalogue image |
Vol. 6, p. 148 |
| Catalogue image |
Vol. 6, p. 149 |
| Manuscript image |
fol. 114r Cherubim holding 'propriatory' (cover) over Ark. Exodus xxv,
10-27
|
|
|
| Bibliography |
| 2001 |
|
| Middle English poetry: texts and
traditions. Essays in honour of Derek Pearsall, ed. A. J. Minnis (York
Manuscripts Conferences: Proceedings Series, 5), York & Woodbridge, etc.:
York Medieval Press,
2001, p. 276n.
|
|
| 1997 |
|
| Anne Hudson, 'Visio Baleii:
an early literary historian', in The Long Fifteenth
Century: essays for Douglas Gray, eds. Helen Cooper & Sally
Mapstone, Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1997, pp. 313-329, at p. 324
|
|
| Peter J. Lucas, From author to
audience: John Capgrave and medieval publication, Dublin: University
College Dublin Press,
1997, pp. 23, 30-2, 34-5, 48 n. 15, 57,
61-4, 72, 74, 285
|
|
| 1996 |
|
| M. C. Seymour, John Capgrave
(No. 11 in Authors of the Middle Ages, English Writers of the Late Middle Ages,
vol. III, Nos. 7-11), Aldershot & Brookfield, Vermont: Variorum,
1996, pp. 195-256, at pp. 216 [16], 240-1
[40-1], 248 [48], 253 [53]
|
|
| Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic
Manuscripts 1390-1490 (A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the
British Isles, 6), 2 vols., London: Harvey Miller Publishers,
1996, I, pp. 66 n. 18, 69 n. 13; II, pp.
163, 219
Bodleian shelfmark: BDH = R. Pal.
|
|
| 1995 |
|
| Peter J. Lucas, 'An author as copyist of his own work:
John Capgrave OSA (1393-1464)', in New science out of old
books: studies in manuscripts and early printed books in honour of A. I.
Doyle (eds. Richard Beadle & A. J. Piper), Aldershot: Scolar Press,
1995, pp. 227-248, at p. 230
|
|
| 1992 |
|
| The History of the University of
Oxford, vol. II, Late Medieval Oxford, eds.
J. I. Catto & Ralph Evans, Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1992, p. xxxii [list of unprinted sources]
|
|
| 1988 |
|
| Albinia C. de la Mare, 'Manuscripts given to the
University of Oxford by Humfrey, duke of Gloucester', Bodleian Library Record, 13 no. 1 (
1988), pp. 30-51
|
|
| Shelfmark |
MS. Duke Humfrey d. 1 |
| Summary Catalogue no.
|
2934 |
| Summary of contents |
Pliny the Younger, Epistles.
|
| Language |
Latin |
| Origin |
Italian, Milan |
| Date |
before Feb. 1443/4 |
| Material |
parchment |
|
|
| Decoration |
| Good initials. (P&A ii. 697) |
|
|
|
|
| Images |
| Catalogue image |
Vol. 2 Part 1, p. 552 |
| Manuscript image |
fol. 37r Opening text of Book IV of Pliny the Younger, Epistles.
|
|
|
| Bibliography |
| 1997 |
|
| Cynthia M. Pyle, Milan and Lombardy
in the Renaissance: essays in cultural history (Università degli Studi -
Parma, Istituto di Filologia Moderna, Testi e Studi, Nuova serie, Studi 1),
Rome: La Fenice Edizioni,
1997 [reprinted articles], p. 37
|
|
| 1991 |
|
| David Rogers, The Bodleian Library
and its treasures 1320-1700, Henley-on-Thames: Aidan Ellis,
1991
Bodleian shelfmark: BDH = R
|
|
| 1990 |
|
| [Exh. Cat.], The Bodleian Library
and its treasures ... September 17 - October 14, 1990, Tokyo: Tokyo Fuji
Art Museum,
1990, no. 4 [fols.
49v-50r]
|
|
| Shelfmark |
MS. Duke Humfrey d. 2 |
| Summary Catalogue no.
|
Not in SC (late accession): no description
available
|
| Summary of contents |
Palladius, De agricultura,
verse translation (attrib. Thomas Norton) made for Humfrey, Duke of
Gloucester.
|
| Language |
English |
| Origin |
English |
| Date |
1442-3(?) (after 1439, before 1447) |
| Material |
parchment |
|
|
| Decoration |
| Illuminated initials, one (fol. 1r) with the arms of Duke Humfrey,
and penwork initials; translator's preface and epilogues written in a scheme of
alternating colours.
|
|
|
|
Provenance |
Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester (1390-1447), with his arms, and an
inscription probably in his hand; inscribed 'William Hodgkin', 'Georg Hodgkin'
and 'Fly:(?) Hodgkin', all probably 17th-century (fol. 119v); James West, M.P.
(c. 1704-72), signed 'J. West 1767' (fol. ii
r); sixth Earl Fitzwilliam, of Wentworth
Woodhouse, by 1862; William Charles de Meuron, seventh Earl Fitzwilliam (d.
1943), with his bookplate and the Wentworth Woodhouse shelfmark 'Z.I.22';
allocated to the Bodleian in 1984 in lieu of capital transfer tax.
|
|
|
|
| Manuscript image |
fol. cover Binding: portrait inscribed 'Jaqueline Dutchess of Bavaria
countess of Holland, Zeeland and Hainault, wife to Humfrey Duke of Glocester
1497'.
|
| Manuscript image |
fol. 1r Heading, De preceptis rei rustice capitulum primum, is
followed by 8-line initial incorporating the arms of Duke Humfrey:
C('onsideraunce is taken at prudence'). Duke Humfrey's arms, quarterly France
and England, a bordure argent.
|
|
|
| Bibliography |
| 2001 |
|
| Middle English poetry: texts and
traditions. Essays in honour of Derek Pearsall, ed. A. J. Minnis (York
Manuscripts Conferences: Proceedings Series, 5), York & Woodbridge, etc.:
York Medieval Press,
2001, pp. 276-7, 278
|
|
| 1999 |
|
George R. Keiser, 'Practical books for the gentleman', in
The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, vol.
III, 1400-1557, eds. Lotte Hellinga & J. B.
Trapp, Cambridge
1999, pp. 470-494, at p. 484 and nn. 48,
50
SCWMSS archive: = REFS. CXIII.16 [copy of this article
only]
|
|
| 1995 |
|
| George R. Keiser, 'Serving the needs of readers: textual
division in some late-medieval English texts', in New
science out of old books: studies in manuscripts and early printed books in
honour of A. I. Doyle (eds. Richard Beadle & A. J. Piper),
Aldershot: Scolar Press,
1995, pp. 207-226, at pp. 209-10
|
|
| Exh. Cat., Summer Exhibition of
important recent accessions 19 June to 26 August 1995, Oxford: Bodleian
Library,
1995, p. 7 no. 45
|
|
| 1985 |
|
| A. C. de la Mare, 'Duke Humfrey's English Palladius (MS.
Duke Humfrey d. 2)', Bodleian Library Record, 12,
no. 1, Oct. 1985, 39-51, figs. 1-4 (fols. xviiiv-xixr, xxi
v-1r, 53r, and upper cover of binding); a
photographic facsimile is MS. Eng. poet. d. 27 (Summary
Catalogue, no. 31502).
|
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