A catalogue of the manuscripts in the Cottonian Library deposited in the British Museum

Folio (424x261 mm). XV, [1], 618, [76] pp. Lacking the half-title. Text of the catalogue in English and Latin printed in two columns. Index printed in three columns. Contemporary sprinkled half calf, lettering piece on spine, panels in marbled papers (worn and rubbed). Some occasional foxing and staining, but a good copy from the Macclesfield Library (with its engraved bookplate and embossed stamps).

One of the three collections acquired by the British government to form the British Museum Library, the library of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1571-1631) is “arguably the most important collection of manuscripts ever assembled in Britain by a private individual” (C.J. Wright, Sir Robert Cotton As Collector: Essays on an Early Stuart Courtier and His Legacy, London, 1997). Presented by his grandson, Sir John Cotton to the nation in 1701, it fell victim to a disastrous fire in 1731, when 212 of 958 manuscripts were destroyed or badly damaged. The library, which was transferred to the British museum in 1757 and contains spectacular treasures like the Lindisfarne Gospels, two of the contemporary copies of the Magna Charta, and the only surviving manuscript of Beowulf, was the result of Cotton's forty-year research and effort to preserve manuscript materials, principally relating to England's history and governmental affairs. Located in Cotton House in the Palace of Westminster, the library was housed in a narrow room and had an unusual arrangement. A bronze bust of a historical personage, including Augustus Caesar, Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Nero, Otho, and Vespasian, was placed at the head of each bookcase. In total, there were fourteen busts, and the shelf marks were thus formed by bust name, shelf letter and volume number. Joseph Planta, principal librarian at the British Museum, revised Smith's original catalogue of 1696, extending the number of entries from 6,000 to c. 26,000 and adding a substantial index.

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