Add MS 35213

CATALOGUES OF MANUSCRIPTS and Printed Books, temp. Jas. l., being part of a bundle of catalogues from the Fairfax collection at Leeds Castle.

1. Catalogue of printed books and manuscripts [belonging to John Dee, the astrologer, ob. 1608], now widely dispersed. Another list of this library (dated 1583, when it was larger) is in Harley MS. 1879, f. 20, and was printed (so far as the MSS. are concerned) by J. O. Halliwell for the Camden Society, 1842. f. 1.

2. Catalogue of a fine collection of about 270 manuscripts, chiefly historical or theological, but including several interesting English works, being the same library of which there is a list in Harley MS. 1879, ff. 1-10. In neither case is the owner mentioned. While at least thirty or forty volumes can be certainly identified among the Cotton MSS., and several in the Arundel, Harley and Theyer (now Royal) collections, a quite equal number are certainly not in the Museum collections. A distinctive mark of this library seems to be an inscription in a kind of shorthand cypher, see e.g. Cotton MSS. Yesp. D. v., Vesp. D. xix. and Claud. C. vi., Arundel MS. 231, Harley MS. 3173. Marginal notes mention Lord Carew [George Carew, 1st Baron, 1605, cr. in 1626 Earl of Totness] and Lord William [Howard?] as borrowing books. f. 5.

3. Autograph memoranda by Sir Robert Cotton about his MSS., resembling those in Harley MSS. 1879 and 6018. They include:-

(a) "A catalogue of such books as Sir Robert Cotton had of one Jacob Chaloner," apparently a note in answer to some official enquiry respecting Sir William Dethick's books. f. 33;-(b) Books borrowed from Patrick Young and another person whose name is torn off. f. 34;-(c) Extracts from the old MS. catalogue of the Cotton library, as contained in Harley MS. 6018, comprising various nos. between 38 and 73. f. 35;-(d) Another fragment of a catalogue, in which, however, the numbers do not correspond to Harley MS. 6018, nor can all the MSS. be accounted for. f. 37;-(e) A note of some imperfect books. f. 41;-(f) "A note of such books and bundells of paper in the lower study that ar not inserted in the catalodg." This includes a mention of the coins. f 42. At the end (f. 44) is a note in another hand.

4. A classed catalogue of a library of printed books (1495-1595), written on slips and pasted in under various headings. f. 46. Paper; ff. 84. Early XVIIth cent. Sold at the Leeds Castle sale in 1831, lot 113. Belonged to Sir Tho. Phillipps (MS. 10,701, salecat. 1898, lot 400). Folio.