Catalogue of a portion of the collection of manuscripts known as the "Appendix," made by the late Earl of Ashburnham, from whose printed catalogue the descriptions are taken, together with an important text of the later version of Wycliffe's English Bible . [ Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, auction catalogue, sale date: 1 May 1899 ].

Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge.

Published by Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London, auction catalogue for the sale held on 1st May 1899, 1899

Beige printed wrappers, small 4to, 100 pp. 177 lots. The sale comprised a large part of the manuscripts Henry Yates Thompson had bought from The Earl of Ashburnham, as recounted by Frank Herrmann in his "Sotheby's -Portrait of an Auction House": "[Henry Yates Thompson had the courage to lay out the seemingly enormous sum of £30,000 - and he was certainly not in the Morgan class of millionaire - in May 1897, for what was known as the Ashbumham Appendix . Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878) was.an avid collector of books and manuscripts. By the bulk-purchases of three great collections, those of Libri, Barrois and Stowe, in a period of only two years, between 1847 and 1849, he had acquired 3,600 manuscripts for an outlay of £22,000. Other manuscripts which he purchased singly over a much longer period, from 1844 to 1877, were collectively termed the Appendix . Among them were the Lindau Gospels, a ninth-century manuscript in a contemporary jewelled binding, the St. Omer Psalter, a famous cycle of York Miracle Plays, a host of important early Italian manuscripts and a tenth-century Spanish text of Beatus Super Apocalypsum: some two hundred and fifty manuscripts in all. For various reasons the 5th Earl decided to sell much of his father s library in the 1890s. The Lindau Gospels went to Pierpont Morgan for £10,000. Yates Thompson bought the rest. He rapidly disposed of four-fifths of this purchase. The English Biblical manuscripts went to the John Rylands Library in Manchester and two hundred volumes were sold at Sotheby s in a first sale on 1 May 1899 (177 lots) and in a second on 11 May 1901 (19 lots). " Wrappers darkened, minor edgewear, textblock slightly pulled at spine, otherwise Good. Seller Inventory # ABE-58419

Bibliographic Details

Title: Catalogue of a portion of the collection of ...
Publisher: Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London, auction catalogue for the sale held on 1st May 1899
Publication Date: 1899
Binding: Soft cover
Edition: 1st Edition