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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2014

Patrick J. Horner
Affiliation:
Professor of English at Manhattan College
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Summary

While the inspiration – and the first donations – for a university library at Oxford may be traced back to Duke Humfrey of Gloucester in the fifteenth century and the impetus for the restoration of the space above the Divinity School and the origins of the current collection, of course, to the philanthropic leadership of Sir Thomas Bodley in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the prominence of the Bodleian Library as an archival repository was only fully established by the number, size, and importance of donations that came to the library in the course of the seventeenth century. Among the first were those of the Earl of Essex, Thomas Roe, the Earl of Pembroke's Barocci manuscripts, Sir Kenelm Digby, and Archbishop William Laud; later came those of Robert Burton, John Selden, and Lord Fairfax. Along with these came other important, but less noteworthy, additions among which are the Hatton and e Musaeo collections, the subject of this handlist.

The Hatton manuscripts are associated with the Hatton family that traces its lineage to Sir Christopher Hatton (1540–1591), a courtier and confidant of Queen Elizabeth I, who served as Chancellor of England and Chancellor of Oxford University. While Sir Christopher was himself a patron of literature (Edmund Spenser gave him a copy of the Faerie Queene), the family interest in books and antiquarian matters rests primarily with Sir Christopher's cousin and eventual heir, the first Baron Hatton of Kirby (1605–1670).

Type
Chapter
Information
The Index of Middle English Prose
Handlist XXI: Manuscripts in the Hatton and e Musaeo Collections, Bodleian Library, Oxford
, pp. xiii - xv
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2014

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  • Introduction
  • Edited by Patrick J. Horner, Professor of English at Manhattan College
  • Book: The Index of Middle English Prose
  • Online publication: 05 April 2014
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  • Introduction
  • Edited by Patrick J. Horner, Professor of English at Manhattan College
  • Book: The Index of Middle English Prose
  • Online publication: 05 April 2014
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by Patrick J. Horner, Professor of English at Manhattan College
  • Book: The Index of Middle English Prose
  • Online publication: 05 April 2014
Available formats
×