Tag: Library

Library Treasure

Hertford College Library’s Michaelmas Term 2023 rare books display included a selection of items that have recently been worked on by the library team. Over the past year the team have also been preparing the collection for the library’s renovation project, packing up material for specialist storage.

The display was curated by Sophie Floate (Rare Books Cataloguer), Alice Roques (Librarian) and Katherine Knight (Assistant Librarian).

Guard book of 15th century fragments, Hertford College MS 41

Two page opening of MS41 showing part of Versor's commentary on Aristotle. Two columns of manuscript text per page with an illuminated letter on each. Additional marginalia surrounds the columns.

Examples of different sized items attached via guards to the guard book

This is a guard book – a book with ‘guards’ or stubs that various loose sheets are attached to. Bound in 1954, this guard book contains various manuscript (i.e. handwritten) fragments from works made in the 15^th century. Some of these pieces were treated as scrap material and recycled, probably in Oxford, into later bindings for other books. Finally, at a later date, they were rescued from these bindings and preserved in this guard book.

Thanks to the work of Sophie Floate, Hertford’s rare book cataloguer, and the Bodleian Special Collections team, information about this guard book is now available in the free public website that lists manuscripts in Oxford. This means it will be easier for researchers from all over the world to discover.

The volume includes a beautiful section of Johannes Versor’s 15th century Commentary on Aristotle and other works in Latin, German and Italian. There are a number of illuminated initials at the beginnings of columns in Versor’s work, showing very finely detailed and colourful patterns with gold.

View the record for this manuscript in the online Medieval Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries catalogue

Cyrano de Bergerac, The Comical History of the States and Empires of the Worlds of the Moon and Sun, trans. Archibald Lovell, (London, 1687)

Book open to show printed title page and engraved title image of the Comical History.

Close up of page showing text and music score

Hertford’s rare books cataloguer, Sophie, has also been working on the college’s early printed book collections to create online records that meet modern standards. This means that information is being added to the SOLO website about each book, including descriptions of bindings, additional handwritten notes (marginalia) and details of previous owners (provenance). The data is publicly available and searchable, making it easier for our collections to be discovered by researchers.

This book is an English translation of a set of works first published by Cyrano de Bergerac in French. They are recognised as some of the earliest works of science fiction and an influence on authors like Hertford alumnus Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver’s Travels).

The book was owned by Katherine Blount, who has recorded her name, a date and the price at the front of the book. Sophie’s cataloguing uncovered this previously unrecorded information and she shared her findings further in a blog post for the Early Modern Female Book Ownership project. Subsequent work by other researchers has uncovered further books owned by Blount in other collections, including a manuscript collection of sermons by John Donne (a Hertford alumnus) now housed in the St Paul’s Cathedral Library.

View the record for this book in the online SOLO library catalogue

Set of Astrological Works, 17-18th century

Handwritten contents list of 11 items in bound volume.

Title page of 'Magick & Astrology Vindicated' (1651)

Hertford’s early printed book collections contain a very wide array of subjects. Along with standard theological and classical works, there are also many scientific, geographic and popular texts. Many of the books were owned by other people before they became part of Hertford’s collections. It was common for multiple short works to be gathered together and bound into a single book. Sometime booksellers intentionally sold sets of works bound together but many others were bought individually and bound in an entirely unique combination by their owner. This item is a collection of books about astrology. Each item has its own individual description on the SOLO library catalogue.

The book includes a fold out item showing a hand-coloured, illustrated timeline of the world that goes back to biblical times and into the future. This is a particularly rare item. One other copy is known to exist in the British Library according to the English Short Title Catalogue website.

As well as cataloguing items on SOLO, relevant information about Hertford books is also added to the internationally shared English Short Title Catalogue, which includes works from over 2,000 libraries around the world.

See all items in this volume in the online SOLO library catalogue

Thomas Hyde, De Ludis Orientalibus Libri Duo, (Oxford, 1694)

This history of chess and other games was written by Thomas Hyde (1636-1703), who was a scholar and translator of Asian and Middle Eastern languages and the Bodleian’s Librarian. It has engraved and woodcut pictures and diagrams and is written primarily in Latin but includes excerpts in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Sanskrit and Chinese. The book was made in Oxford, on printing presses in the basement of the Sheldonian Theatre.

This copy of the book was loaned to the Oxford University Press Library by Hertford College, along with many other books printed in Oxford. As a result, these books were missed out of the previous printed catalogue of the Hertford collections that was made in the mid-20^th century. These books were catalogued as a priority in the library’s current cataloguing project and records for them are now available in Oxford’s online catalogue, SOLO.

View the record for this item in the SOLO library catalogue

Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, (London, 1613)

Illustrated frontispiece to Poly-Olbion showing a seated woman decorated in a map of England and with sea in the background.

Page of Poly-Olbion with a poetic description of the illustrated frontispiece.

Poet Michael Drayton (1563-1631) collaborated with engraver William Hole and historian John Selden on this 15,000-line poem. The poem tells the story of England and Wales in a series of songs dedicated to counties. The history, legends and geography of the counties are described by transforming natural topological features into characters in a story. Hole contributed engraved maps and Selden provided notes to explain the verses.

Selden (1584-1654) was a student at Hart Hall (a forerunner to Hertford College) and was in his twenties when he wrote the Poly-Olbion’s annotations. He went on to have a career as a lawyer, MP, linguist and historian. Selden was a major collector of books and bequeathed 8,000 books to the Bodleian Library.

View the record for the Poly-Olbion in the online SOLO library catalogue

What has happened to Hertford’s rare books?

Hertford’s rare book collections (and most archives) are temporarily being stored offsite in specialist conservation storage as part of the library building project. Every book sent offsite over the past 12 months has gone through a special process to prepare it for storage. This work has been done by the library staff, with additional support from a brilliant team of trained student employees and volunteers.

Items have been:

Graded for condition and categorised by size.
Gently cleaned using a brush to remove surface dust and dirt.
Details recorded in a temporary database.
Title pages and other unusual features photographed.
Tied using cotton tape (ribbon made out of cotton, not sticky tape!) if parts were damaged.
Wrapped in archival tissue paper.
Placed in a suitable acid-free archival box. Larger books had custom-made boxes that fit them individually.
Securely transported to the specialist storage.

Whilst in offsite storage the use of these resources will be minimised to reduce the risk of damage during transport. Cataloguing and a small number of research consultations and displays will continue.

The Secretum Secretorum of Louis the Great

Post author By
Post date 14 December 2023
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Hertford’s rare books cataloguer, Sophie Floate, writes about one of the library’s oldest items: Hertford MS 2. This beautifully illuminated 14th century manuscript was commissioned by King Louis the Great of Hungary.

Hertford College Library has a small number of medieval manuscripts, currently housed at the Bodleian. Hertford College MS 2 is a copy of the ‘Secretum Secretorum’, a pseudo-Aristotelian work with an uncertain background. It purports to be, in part, a series of letters from Aristotle to Alexander the Great, advising him on matters of leadership, statecraft along with a miscellany of medical, health and astrological information. Though early translations claim to be from a lost Greek original, it is now thought more likely to be an Arabic work composed during the 10^th century, known as ‘Sirr al-asrā’. Though it purports to be translated by Yahya ibn al-Bitriq, this is also doubtful. The text of the copy at Hertford was certainly translated from the Arabic by Philip of Tripoli in the 12^th century. By the 14^th century, when this manuscript was produced, the work was very widely read in medieval scholarly circles and there are believed to be over 300 extant medieval copies today.

Hertford College MS 2 was commissioned by Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Croatia (and later Poland) from 1342-1382. Louis succeeded his father as King when he was only 16 and launched many military campaigns during his reign. He evidently showed some interest in cultural affairs too, as after his occupation of Naples he had King Robert’s library brought to him. He commissioned this manuscript and another, the ‘Illuminated Chronicle’ (now in the National Széchényi Library in Budapest), which were both produced in a Hungarian workshop. Miklόs Meggyesi, son of Hertul the court painter of Louis, has traditionally been identified as the illuminator, though there is no real evidence for this.

Many manuscripts copies of ‘Secretum Secretorum’ have illuminations depicting either Aristotle or Alexander, or both, but the Hertford manuscript depicts King Louis instead, on the first folio. It is a ¾ length portrait within an illuminated letter ‘H’; Louis is shown holding a sword and sceptre while his shield has the ostrich-headed crest associated with his reign.

In the lower margins of the page are diamond-shaped heraldic coat of arms – the Hungarian coat of arms on the left, those of Arpad and Angevin in the middle, with those of Poland of the right. Stylistic analysis and comparison with the ‘Illuminated Chronicle’ date this manuscript to the 1360s.

The manuscript has some marginal annotations in a contemporary hand and it has been suggested by Laura Fabian (in her article ‘L’image du roi sage en Occident au XIVe siècle et un exemple concernant la Hongrie à l’époque angevine : le Secretum secretorum de Louis le Grand de Hongrie’, 2018) that these might have been by Louis’ official biographer, John of Küküllő, since he quotes several passages from the ‘Secretum Secretorum’ in his work ‘Chronica Hungarorum’ and some of the passages marked ‘NB’ with a manicule in the manuscript match the sections quoted.

How it came to leave Louis I’s library is unclear; in fact, its journey is completely unknown until it came into the possession of Edmund Hall, a priest who had matriculated at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1636. Hall left Oxford before finishing his degree in order to fight with the Parliamentarians, returning to Oxford in 1647 after the army became too radicalized for his Presbyterian views. He was the author of several pamphlets and was once imprisoned for his criticism of the government. It’s not clear why he gave this manuscript to Magdalen Hall in 1658 but he is listed in the Benefactors Book as giving the manuscript along with several printed books. The manuscript has marginal notes in a 17^th century hand, presumably that of Hall.

Example page with marginalia in 17th century hand at bottom

Now that this item has been added to the Medieval Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries catalogue, it can be more easily found by researchers. We hope that this will lead to further research into the item and its history.

A Very Serviceable Library

Post author By Katherine
Post date 1 February 2023
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Hertford’s Library has gradually grown over the past two centuries. As the college prepares for a major library rebuild project to create a library fit for the 21^stcentury we look back over some of the key developments in its history.

1820: Magdalen Hall’s dreadful fire

Magdalen Hall was based in a site adjacent to Magdalen College on Oxford’s High Street from its foundation in the late 15^th century to the early 19^th century. A fire in their buildings on the High Street proved the catalyst for its move to Catte Street.

Newspaper cutting entitled 'Destruction of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, by Fire'.

‘I have just time to inform you, that a dreadful fire broke out in Magdalen Hall…this morning, about three o’clock, which totally consumed the whole range of buildings, consisting of about eighteen sets of rooms, in three hours… No lives were lost. All the furniture, books, &c. destroyed. It is supposed to have originated in the room of a young man over the common rooms…’
Source: Morning Chronicle, 11 Jan 1820

Following this fire, which was caused by a student who left a candle burning and fell asleep, Magdalen Hall moved onto the crumbling Catte Street site of Hertford College (previously Hart Hall). In 1874 Magdalen Hall legally became a college of Oxford University and revived the name Hertford College. In the subsequent 200 years the library collections have moved around the sites as storage requirements and members’ needs have changed. The library has never had a purpose built space on the Catte Street site.

Source: Skelton, Oxonia Antiqua Restaurata (1843)

1908: A new chapel

Architect T.G. Jackson designed the new chapel, bridge, dining hall and spiral staircase at Hertford in the early 20^thcentury.

On these plans you can see the new chapel design on the right and the small old chapel on the left, which is now the library. Behind the original chapel is a toilet block (now the site of the library staff office)! Initially the old chapel remained as a single large library room, which would have been a very well lit space.

Building plans for the college in the 20th century, with the chapel pictured. — T.G. Jackson’s architectural drawing for the new Chapel.

‘…Chapel is becoming so famous that the local guides, who used to dismiss Hertford in a single sentence, have found it necessary to add a new speech to their repertoire and to extend their itinerary. This is a mixed blessing, but we may set against it the great though very secular advantages which have resulted from the evacuation of the Old Chapel, which, by the abolition of the ‘horse box’ and the addition of a gallery, has been converted into a very serviceable Library. There is room in it for a surprisingly large number of books, and tables have been provided for the accommodation of readers, who are now admitted at most hours of the day.’
Hertford College Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1910)

Architectural plan of the original chapel before conversion into the library — Jackson plan of the original chapel before conversion into the library

Black and white picture of interior of original Hertford Chapel, looking towards the altar with choir benches on either side — Interior of original Hertford Chapel before it became the library building

Black and white picture of 19th century view of Old Buildings Quad, with rounded top of Radcliffe Camera visible behind stone buildings of quad. — Interior of original Hertford Chapel before it became the library building

The Library keeps on growing

Demand for study space and bookshelves continued right through the 20^th century (and still does today). In the 1960s a library extension was built onto the old building. The space, including the old building, was split into two floors, creating a light-filled first floor and a very dark ground floor. Further extensions were added in the basement levels in the nineties and noughties to meet the continued demand for more space.

Hertford is planning a library rebuild to support many future generations in their academic studies. This project will create additional accessible individual and group study areas, space for the modern book collections, and specialist storage and consultation space for the special collections.

The Early Modern Library

Treasured Donations

Resources and links

Information about our upcoming library renovation project

Rare Books and Archives at Hertford

Hertford Archives’ guide to the history and records of Hart Hall, Magdalen Hall and Hertford College

Tags 19th century, 20th century, Chapel, Library, Magdalen Hall

Guard book of 15th century fragments, Hertford College MS 41

Cyrano de Bergerac, The Comical History of the States and Empires of the Worlds of the Moon and Sun, trans. Archibald Lovell, (London, 1687)

Set of Astrological Works, 17-18th century

Thomas Hyde, De Ludis Orientalibus Libri Duo, (Oxford, 1694)

Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, (London, 1613)

What has happened to Hertford’s rare books?

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Further reading

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1820: Magdalen Hall’s dreadful fire

1908: A new chapel

The Library keeps on growing

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Resources and links