Cambridge Library Collection - History of Printing, Publishing and Libraries
9 primary works • 28 total works
M. R. James (1862-1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served both as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and many of his stories reflect his academic background. His detailed descriptive catalogues of manuscripts owned by colleges, cathedrals and museums are still of value to scholars today. In this ground-breaking book, first published in 1899, James analysed 482 manuscripts in the renowned Parker Collection at Cambridge for evidence of their provenance. James argued that by discovering what books were owned by individual English monasteries in the middle ages, historians could better understand medieval English intellectual life. He established the origin of nearly 200 of the books, and the results of his investigations (one volume, for example, belonged to Thomas Becket) still make fascinating reading today.
Lists of Manuscripts Formerly in Peterborough Abbey Library
by Montague Rhodes James
Published 5 July 2011
M. R. James (1862-1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served both as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and many of his stories reflect his academic background. His detailed descriptive catalogues of manuscripts owned by colleges, cathedrals and museums are still of value to scholars today. First published in 1929, this book lists over 300 separate volumes which were part of the library of Peterborough Abbey before the Dissolution. James reconstructs this list from sources including lists of books bequeathed to the Abbey, ancient catalogues, and extant books which can be identified as belonging to the library in the medieval period. He also provides a short analysis of his sources. Now reissued, this book will be welcomed by librarians and researchers alike.
M. R. James (1862-1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served both as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and many of his stories reflect his academic background. His detailed descriptive catalogues of manuscripts owned by colleges, cathedrals and museums are still of value to scholars today. James' catalogue of the extensive manuscript holdings of Gonville and Caius College was first published in two volumes in 1907-8, and a supplement appeared in 1914. Now reissued in two volumes, it will be welcomed by librarians and researchers alike.
M. R. James (1862-1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served both as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and many of his stories reflect his academic background. His detailed descriptive catalogues of manuscripts owned by colleges, cathedrals and museums are still of value to scholars today. James' catalogue of the extensive manuscript holdings of Gonville and Caius College was first published in two volumes in 1907-8, and a supplement appeared in 1914. Now reissued in two volumes, it will be welcomed by librarians and researchers alike.
A Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts in the University Library, Aberdeen
by Montague Rhodes James
Published 20 January 2011
M. R. James (1862-1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and later as Provost of Eton. His detailed descriptive catalogues of manuscripts owned by colleges, cathedrals and museums are still sought after by scholars today. This catalogue, originally published in 1932, describes just over 80 medieval manuscripts. Thirty of them, mostly later medieval works on canon law or the history of Aberdeen, came to the library from King's College. The remainder, many from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and regarded as more important by James, belong to the Marischal College collection, which originated in a 1624 bequest and contains several manuscripts formerly owned by St Paul's Cathedral, London. James describes their structure, content, provenance and decoration, and the book is illustrated by 27 plates.
The Manuscripts of Westminster Abbey
by Joseph Armitage Robinson and Montague Rhodes James
Published 5 February 2012
Joseph Armitage Robinson (1858-1933) was an internationally regarded scholar of early Christian texts, as well as an influential churchman, theologian, historian and pioneer of Anglican-Catholic ecumenical dialogue. While he was Dean of Westminster, he collaborated with the outstanding medievalist and palaeographer M. R. James, then Provost of King's College, Cambridge, on this study, originally published in 1908. It documents the history of the library at Westminster Abbey and its accompanying scriptorium from 1060 to 1660, the original library having been dispersed at the dissolution of the monasteries and its successor destroyed by a fire in 1694. The authors present surprisingly detailed information, compiled from surviving sources, about the buildings, furniture and holdings of the library, its administration, the budget for buying and restoring books, and acquisitions from gifts and legacies. James even succeeds in identifying some manuscripts once owned by Westminster that have survived in other collections.
Bibliotheca Pepysiana: Volume 3, Mediaeval Manuscripts
by Montague Rhodes James
Published 29 August 2010
Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was a student of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and bequeathed his personal library of 3000 volumes to the College on condition that the contents remained intact and unaltered; they remain there, in his original bookcases, to this day. In the early twentieth century, a project to produce a complete catalogue was begun, and four volumes were published between 1914 and 1940. Volume 3 lists 51 volumes of medieval manuscripts, some of them consisting of several items bound together. The author, the outstanding palaeographer and prolific writer of catalogues M. R. James, remarks on the almost total absence of Latin liturgical and theological manuscripts, and calls attention to the historical, literary and scientific writings in English and French, several picture-books, an interesting 'scrapbook' and a unique copybook from 1400 included in Pepys' collection. This book continues to be a valuable resource for medievalists and Pepys scholars alike.
M. R. James (1862-1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served both as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and many of his stories reflect his academic background. His detailed descriptive catalogues of manuscripts owned by colleges, cathedrals and museums are still of value to scholars today. This two-volume catalogue contains James' description of the manuscript holdings of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and will be welcomed by librarians and researchers alike.