A Descriptive Catalogue Of The Medieval Manuscripts Of Merton College Oxford

Merton College, Oxford, one of the oldest colleges in the University, was founded in 1264. Its library contains some 328 complete medieval manuscript books (plus several hundred fragments in, or extracted from, the bindings of early printed books), dating from the ninth to the late fifteenth century. Most of them came to the College before the Reformation, and are the remains of its medieval collection, part of which was chained in the library, part in circulation amongst the Fellowship. Together with the College's surviving medieval archive, which includes no fewer than twenty-three book-lists, this material provides an important window on intellectual life at the University of Oxford between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, and on the manufacture, acquisition and use of the books that supported it. This first catalogue of the medieval manuscripts since 1852 offers full and detailed descriptions of each item, supported by a colour frontispiece, 50 colour plates, and 107 black and white plates. Its introduction provides the first detailed history of Merton's medieval library, including an account of the building and design of the College's 'Old Library', built in the 1370s, western Europe's oldest library room still in use today; and the volume is completed with four appendices (including a comprehensive set of extracts from the College's medieval account rolls referring to its books and library) and two indexes.

Conveys a vivid picture of the intellectual world of medieval Oxford, not only in terms of what texts were available but of how books were produced, acquired and cared for. [It] proves so informative about the lives of books that it will surely become a fruitful resource for future scholars, and not only those concerned with the medieval university. ASSOCIATION for MANUSCRIPTS and ARCHIVES in RESEARCH COLLECTIONS NEWSLETTER A substantial amount of information is provided for each manuscript in a format which is easy to understand and concise. The catalogue is also well illustrated, with a number of colour and black-and-white plates. TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT.