The collection includes early literary works which were collected from various sources by Viviande Sola Pinto, and other material showing his research interests. It does not include any generalcorrespondence received by Pinto or any academic or administrative papers which would help toexplain the significant role he undoubtedly had in University College Nottingham and, from 1949, inthe University of Nottingham. The following elements make up the principal items in thecollection.
Manuscript quarto volume, in limp vellum, bearing in indistinct hand the identification 'SamuelBrentniell his book Anno Dom. 16[??]'. It seems to have been originally used as a commonplace book,with pages divided into columns and some clearly headed by words in Latin, in alphabetical order.Much of this text is in Latin or, occasionally, Greek, in very compressed hand, possibly for studentreference. There are several hands present, and apparently several purposes of writing.
At some stage the volume has been turned upside down, and copies of poems fill what werepresumably empty spaces. The handwriting is extremely small and cramped throughout the volume andconsiderable research would be required to make a thorough analysis of the contents. Named authorsof copied texts include: Stephen Duck, Richard Savage, Mr Garrick, Mr Marriot, Mr Doddes, MrsBellamy, and John Lockman. A leaf of paper in a 19th-century hand containing a poem to 'Meliora' isenclosed (MS 141/1).
Manuscript volume, in detached boards with marbled covers; undated but apparently early 19thcentury; index at end. The first section is entitled 'Rowallan Manuscripts'. It opens with amanuscript copy of 'The Historie and Descent of the House of Rowallane', a family history publishedin 1825 and compiled from papers written by Sir William Mure sometime before his death in 1657. Therest of the volume consists of songs, epitaphs, sonnets, poems and elegies which may have beentranscribed from manuscripts of the Mure family. The named poems are: 'Love and Ressoune', 'Beautie'sEpitaph', 'Dido and Aeneas', 'The Joy of Tears', 'The Challenge The Reply', and 'The Whigg'sSupplication', the last by Samuel Colvil.
The volume has been in the possession of D. Donaldson, who added several pencil annotations toit, and Thomas Lyle. Enclosed in the volume are two letters to Pinto from members of the ScottishTert Society in 1939 concerning the volume (MS 141/2).
Manuscript volume bound in red leather, compiled between about 1740 and 1791, in the hand of oneunidentified author. It contains poetic songs, epitaphs and sonnets on a variety of subjects. It isnot known whether any of this poetry was composed by the compiler of the volume. Some are identifiedas copies of poems appearing in manuscripts at Westminster Abbey and Queens College Oxford andsonnets of Shakespeare, while others seem inspired by literature and historical works read by thecompiler and events and places that he or she visited. They include poems about love, fortitude,poetry, Bewdly, Sir Richard Greenvile, and cock fighting. The volume also contains the copy of adescription of making tar water by Bishop Berkeley (MS 141/3).