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Sloane MS 807

Record Id:

040-002113159

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002112337

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000547.0x0003bd

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Sloane MS 807

Title:

Physician's folding almanac

Scope & Content:

Contents:

Physician's portable almanac, including a calendar (ff. 1-8) and tables of eclipses of the sun and moon. The tables include dates from 1444 to 1519.

One of 29 English folding almanacs, of which 10 are in the British Library: see Carey, Folded Almanac (2003).

Decoration:

Calendar tables in colours, silver and gold, each with an initial in gold on a blue and pink ground, with leaf sprays in green and gold (ff. 1r-8v). Circular diagrams in colours with gold (f. 9v). Tables and circular diagram in red and brown (ff. 10r-11r).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Sloane Collection

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002112337
040-002113159

Is part of:

Sloane MS 1-4100 : Sloane Manuscripts

Sloane MS 807 : Physician's folding almanac

Hierarchy:

032-002112337[0822]/040-002113159

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Sloane MS 1-4100

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

6 parchment folios, each folded into 8 parts

Digitised Content:

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Sloane_MS_807 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1440

End Date:

1450

Date Range:

c. 1444

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to use this manuscript.

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 255 x 225mm (120 x 60 when folded).

Foliation: ff. 1-11 (6 folded leaves; half of one leaf is blank and unfoliated (images numbered 8ar and 8av) ).

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Folded separate leaves, sewn together at the lower edges with two outer parchment covers to which triangular tabs are attached, with a holes for a cord.

Custodial History:

Origin: England.

Provenance:

The format, with the two outer parchments containing holes for a cord, suggests that this was a reference work designed to be suspended from a physician's girdle.

Sir Hans Sloane (b. 1660, d. 1753), baronet, physician and collector.

Purchased as part of the Sloane collection from Sloane's executors and incorporated into the newly founded British Museum in 1753.

Information About Copies:

Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.

Publications:

Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Sloanianae (Manuscripts 1-1091), ([London: British Museum], no date), no. 807.

Linne R. Mooney, 'English Almanacks from Script to Print', in Texts and their contexts: papers from the Early Book Society , ed. by John Scattergood and Julia Boffey (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997), pp. 11-25 (p. 17).

The Kalendarium of John Somer, ed. by Linne R. Mooney (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998), pp. xi, 48, 53, 68 (manuscript 'S2').

Hilary M. Carey, 'What is the Folded Almanac? The Form and Function of a Key Manuscript Source for Astro-medical Practice in Later Medieval England', Social History of Medicine, 16 (2003), 481-509 (p. 506).

Pamela Robinson, 'A 'very curious Almanack': the gift of Sir Robert Moray FRS, 1668', Notes & Records of the Royal Society, 62 (2008), 301-14 (p. 308).

J. P. Gumbert, Bat Books: A Catalogue of Folded Manuscripts Containing Almanacs or Other Texts, Bibliologia, 41 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2016), no. 46, pp. 166-67.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)