Dugdale Manuscripts

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 161 MSS. Dugdale 1-49
  • Dates of Creation
      15th-17th century
  • Language of Material
      Latin, English, French, and Old English (ca.450-1100).
  • Physical Description
      49 shelfmarks

Scope and Content

Dugdale's manuscripts, including historical and genealogical notes and extracts partly relating to Warwickshire. The manuscripts include Latin, English, French, Anglo-Norman and Old English.

Administrative / Biographical History

William Dugdale, a Warwickshire man born in 1605, began his literary work about 1625 as a local antiquary, although his History of Warwickshire was not published until 1656. His career in the dignified and leisured Office of Arms (Blanch Lyon 1638, Rouge Croix 1639, Norroy 1660) allowed him to undertake a series of literary projects, the scale of which would have staggered a less rapid and indefatigable worker. Further details are given in the Dictionary of National Biography.

Access Information

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card (for admissions procedures see http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/specialcollections).

Note

Collection level description created by Emily Tarrant, Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts.

Other Finding Aids

Falconer Madan, et al., A summary catalogue of western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford which have not hitherto been catalogued in the Quarto series (7 vols. in 8 [vol. II in 2 parts], Oxford, 1895-1953; reprinted, with corrections in vols. I and VII, Munich, 1980), vol. II, nos. 6491-6536, vol. V, nos. 25275.

Custodial History

The manuscripts were bequeathed by Dugdale to the Ashmolean, where they arrived on 29 June 1686.

Subjects