Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts
The University Library owns more than 50 medieval and renaissance manuscripts. It also holds the deposited collections of National Museums Liverpool (Mayer MSS) and the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool (Radcliffe MSS).
The three collections are a witness to the cultural and educational life of Liverpool from the late nineteenth century onwards. The University's collection in particular reflects the taste and aspirations of the City's wealthy benefactors, and the generosity of the families wishing to commemorate their lives.
The medieval manuscripts in all three collections are fully described in N.R. Ker's catalogue of Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries and in the exhibition catalogues detailed below. Many have survived in their medieval bindings. There are also collections of early deeds described separately.
Provenance
The donors of the University's collection are:
- Thomas Glazebrook Rylands (1900 bequest)
- John W. Hughes (1903 gift)
- Sir Charles Sydney Jones (presented in 1913, 1922 and 1946; gift from his library 1945)
- May Rathbone (gift 1917)
- J.P. Postgate (bequest 1926)
- Gregson Institute (transfer 1938)
- Clara Hornby (gift 1944)
- Miss C.G. Coltart (gift 1945)
- Stella Permewan (gift 1948)
- Mrs Harold Cohen (gift 1949)
- Sir Adrian Boult (gift 1950)
- Robert G. Morton (gift 1969)
Brief descriptions
LUL MS.F.2.1: Bible. French. Mid 13th century. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.2.2: Psalter and Hours (Brigittine use). Netherlands. Late 15th/early 16th century. Contemporary binding. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.2.3: Psalter. Italian. Late 15th century. Contemporary binding. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.2.4: Psalter. Northern French. Early 15th century. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.2.5: Bible. English. Mid 13th century. 18th-century binding. Gregson Institute (transfer 1938).
LUL MS.F.2.6: Book of Hours (use of Rome). Italian. Early 16th century. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.2.7: Book of Hours (use of Paris). French. 14th/15th century. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.2.8: Book of Hours (use of Chartres). French. Late 15th century. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.2.9: Breviary (Carthusian use). French. Mid 15th century. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.2.11: Lectionary. Dutch. Late 15th century. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.2.12: Erfurt Carthusians, Commonplace book 'Rapularius'. German. Mid-late 15th century. Contemporary binding. Purchased.
LUL MS.F.2.13: Nicolaus de Auximo, Supplementum Summae Pisanae. Italian, 1474. (1937). Modern binding. Purchased.
LUL MS.F.2.14: Book of Hours (use of Chalons-sur-Marne). French. Late 15th century. Contemporary binding. C.G. Coltart (gift 1945). More... (pdf)
LUL MS.F.2.15: Book of Hours (use of Utrecht). Netherlands, 1551. Contemporary binding. C.G. Coltart (gift 1945).
LUL MS.F.2.16: Indulgences. Rome, 1533. Red plush binding. C.G. Coltart (gift 1945).
LUL MS.F.2.17: Bible. Northern French. Mid 13th century. 18th-century binding. May Rathbone gift.
LUL MS.F.2.18: Book of Hours (use of Paris). French. Mid 15th century. Gregson Institute (transfer 1938).
LUL MS.F.2.19: Book of Hours (use of Rome) French (North-Eastern). Early 15th century. 19th-century binding. Hughes gift. More... (pdf)
LUL MS.F.2.21: Book of Hours (use of Paris). French. Mid 14th century. Sydney Jones (1913).
LUL MS.F.2.22: Book of Hours (use of Rome). Northern French. Late 15th century. Sydney Jones gift (1945).
LUL MS.F.2.23: Book of Hours (use of Rome, Franciscan calendar). Italian. Late 15th century. Sydney Jones (presented 1922, bought from Henry Young & Son, 1922).
LUL MS.F.2.24: Book of Hours (use of Evreux). French. 15th/16th century. Sydney Jones (gift (1945).
LUL MS.F.3.2: Jacobus Curlus, In Terentium et Strabonem. Naples, c.1459. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.3.3: St Ambrose, De officiis ministrorum. Italian. Mid 15th century. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.3.4: Quaestiones super Donatum minorem. Italian, 1490. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.3.5: Aulus Gellius, Noctes atticae. Italian. Mid 15th century. J.P. Postgate (bequest 1926)
LUL MS.F.3.6: Ovid, Heroides. Italian or Spanish. Late 14th century. J.P. Postgate (bequest 1926).
LUL MS.F.3.8: L. Bruni, De Studiis. Italian. Mid 15th century. (c. 1900). Purchased.
LUL MS.F.3.9: Gradual (Dominican use). French. Late 15th century. Sydney Jones (gift 1945).
LUL MS.F.3.10: Petrus Lombardus, Sententiae. French. Mid 13th century. Sydney Jones (1913).
LUL MS.F.3.13: Gregorius, De cura pastorali. Germany. Early 13th century. Contemporary binding. Morton (gift 1969).
LUL MS.F.3.14: Book of Hours (use of Sarum). England. Late 14th/15th century. Morton gift (1969).
LUL MS.F.4.1: Parvum volumen, cum apparatu. Italian. Early-mid 13th century. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.4.2: Antiphoner (use of Rome). Italian. Early 14th century. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.4.3: Diogo Homem, Atlas of portolan charts. Portuguese, c.1561. Contemporary binding. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.4.4: Missal (Salzburg use). South German. Late 15th century. Contemporary binding. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.4.5: Petrarch, Rime (fragment). Italian. Mid 15th century. Bound with Lives and Miracles of St Jerome. Italian. 15th-16th century. Contemporary binding? Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.4.6: Marsilius de Inghen, Abbreviata libri physicorum Aristotelis. Italian, 1463. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.4.7: Philippus Cancellarius, In Psalmos, etc. French. Early 13th century. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.4.8: William Langland, Piers Plowman. English. Early 15th century. Clara Hornby (gift 1944).
LUL MS.F.4.9: William of Nassyngton, etc. English. 14th/15th century. Sydney Jones (presented 1946).
LUL MS.F.4.10: Chastising of God's Children, etc. English. Late 15th century. Contemporary binding. Mrs Harold Cohen (gift 1949).
LUL MS.F.4.11: Registrum brevium [Formulary of original and judiciary writs]. English. Late 14th century. Stella Permewan (gift 1948).
LUL MS.F.4.12: Canterbury Diocese. Proceedings of courts. Bound 1566-86. Stella Permewan (gift 1948).
LUL MS.F.4.13: Officium coronae domini, etc. Italian. Early 14th and early 15th century. Sir Adrian Boult (gift 1950). More... (pdf)
LUL MS.F.4.17: Portolan chart. Majorcan, c.1530. Rylands bequest.
LUL MS.F.4.18: W. Peraldus, Summa de vitiis. Richard Fishacre, Commentarius in librum quartum Petri Lombardi Sententarium. English. Late 13th century. Purchased.
LUL MS.F.4.19: Missal (use of Rome). Italian. Late 15th century. Contemporary binding. Sydney Jones (gift 1945).
LUL MS.F.4.20: Gregorius IX, Decretales. French, 1290. Morton gift (1969).
LUL MS.F.4.22: G. de Hoylandia, etc. Germany. Mid 14th century. Contemporary binding. Morton gift (1969).
Medieval manuscript highlights
LUL MS.F.4.13: Feast of the Crown of Thorns
This Antiphonal may have been produced for the church of Santa Maria della Spina in Pisa, which was given that name in 1333 after receiving a relic of the Crown of Thorns. Read more... (pdf)
LUL MS.F.2.14: Nativity scene
Illuminated miniature from a late fifteenth-century French Book of Hours, with richly decorated borders including animals and grotesques. Read more... (pdf)
LUL MS.F.2.19: Adoration of the Magi
The background pattern of gold filigree in this Book of Hours is associated with the "Gold Scrolls" group working in western Flanders in the early 15th century. Read more... (pdf)