Descriptive Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts of Pembroke College, Cambridge
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The collection of medieval manuscripts at Pembroke College is an important one. Its most striking feature is that the majority of MSS 1-120 came from the abbey of Bury St Edmunds, as the gift of Thomas Smart in 1599.
The collection of medieval manuscripts at Pembroke College is an important one. Its most striking feature is that the majority of MSS 1-120 came from the abbey of Bury St Edmunds, as the gift of Thomas Smart in 1599. Included among them is the famous 'Bury Gospels' (MS 120). It is one of the largest groups of monastic manuscripts to survive as an ensemble. The rest are, for the most part, the remains of the College's own medieval library, and have been little studied. In addition there are some twenty post-medieval acquisitions, including two splendid Anglo-Saxon Gospel Books.
The main part of this catalogue contains individual, detailed descriptions of some 300 MSS and several hundred binding fragments. The descriptions are preceded by an Introduction outlining the history of the collection, and are accompanied by 130 colour plates. The collection was last catalogued by M. R. James in 1911, and over a century later, this publication both updates his account, and brings to bear modern techniques of manuscript study.
Because of the Covid pandemic, the final check on MSS 235-327 was carried out after this book had been printed, and considerable additional details were discovered. This is available as a supplement to the Catalogue, which can be downloaded from the website of Pembroke College Library: https://www.pem.cam.ac.uk/college/library/manuscript-catalogue-supplement.
RODNEY M. THOMSON is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the University of Tasmania.