Early 17th-century Miscellanea from the Library of Sir Henry Spelman

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 161 MSS. Eng. hist. c. 241-2, c. 272; Dugdale 51
  • Dates of Creation
      Early 17th century
  • Language of Material
      English.
  • Physical Description
      4 shelfmarks

Scope and Content

Four volumes of early 17th-century miscellanea, from the library of Sir Henry Spelman, including:  

  • Papers relating to English religious houses
  • Papers relating to English monastic houses
  • Miscellanea including extracts from early French monastic cartularies and transcripts from Cheshire deeds
  • Transcripts of miscellaneous historical pieces of the 16th and 17th century, many concerning Spain, Roman Catholicism, and the defence of the Netherlands

Administrative / Biographical History

Sir Henry Spelman (? 1564-1641) was a historian and antiquary. 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).

Acquisition Information

The volumes were bought by the Library in 1936 and 1943.

Note

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

Other Finding Aids

M. Clapinson and T.D. Rogers, Summary Catalogue of Post-Medieval Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford. Acquisitions 1916-1975. (Oxford, 1991), vol. I, nos. 39867-70.

The volumes are described in detail among the Gurney manuscripts in Historical Manuscripts Commission 27: 12th report (1891) app., part ix, 145-7, 153, 155-6.