Add MS 46911

SMITH'S CATALOGUE OF COTTON MSS

'Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Cottonianæ ... 'by Thomas Smith (Oxford, 1696). Printed. Inserted is the following material in the autograph of Humfrey Wanley (whose annotations also appear throughout the Catalogue passim), viz.:-(1) Report on the Cotton Library presented to the Trustees of the Library appointed under the Act 12 and 13 William III, cap. 7 [1701], by Matth[ew] Hutton, John Anstis and Humfrey Wanley, the three persons selected by the Trustees to inspect the Library, 22 June 1703. ff. 1, 2;-(2) Catalogue of the Cotton Charters, etc., drawn up presumably in the course of the inspection. ff. 128-130. (In Harl. MS. 7647 (formerly Add. MS. 4998), ff. 1-126, is another copy in an unidentified hand). Another copy of Smith's Catalogue with similar inserted material in Wanley's autograph (viz. the report of 1703, the catalogue of charters and the annotations) is preserved in the Department of Printed Books (press-mark, 125.l.11); this second copy was that presented to Sir Nathan Wright, Lord Keeper (1700-1705) (his armorial bookstamp from the original binding is laid down on the verso of the upper cover) and one of the Trustees. (For ownership of the present MS. see below). A third copy, formerly in the possession of Thomas Grenville (now Department of Printed Books, G. 150 (1)), has copies of (1) and (2) inserted (but lacks the annotations, except for Wanley's additions xxvii-xxxii to Smith's list (pp. 158-159) of missing MSS.) in the autograph of William Thomas, Steward to Robert Harley (1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer 1711), Speaker of the House of Commons (1701-1705) and one of the Trustees (see note by Thomas at beginning of transcript); this was made (at a date not determinable) presumably from Harley's own copy, which is preserved in Oxford, Bodl. MS. Add. D. 28 (S.C. 30308). Paper; ff. iii+130. Folio. On f. i are some notes by Sir Frederic Madden, Keeper of Manuscripts 1837-1866, made probably at the time of acquisition in 1855. The present copy is that presented to Sir John Holt, Lord Chief Justice, and one of the Trustees of the Cotton Library ex officio (his armorial bookplate, dated 1702, is on f. ii). The volume subsequently belonged to Charles Stuart, Baron Stuart de Rothesay (d. 1845), whose arms are on the late 17th-century black morocco gold-tooled binding (sale-cat., Sotheby's, 4 June 1855, lot 1143). Incorporated from the Departmental Library.