The Medieval Manuscripts of Gillyatt Sumner

In 2018 Mitch Fraas contacted me with a query, explaining that,

"I found myself down a rabbit hole looking for more on an English collector named Gillyatt Sumner (d. 1877). I wonder if you've run across him before? De Ricci gives him (as G. Sumner) as the provenance of two mss. one at Houghton (Ms. Lat 27) and another at LC (Ms. Ac. 271 - De Ricci vol. 1, p184, no.17). Likewise, Ker gives him in the provenance of about a dozen entries [recorded in the Schoenberg Database]"

I could not remember having seen the name before, but a bit of Googling produced a startling hit:

CHARGE OF SODOMY. – Gillyatt Sumner, an old man with white hair, who has resided at Woodmancy, near Beverley, and a young man named Crabtree, from Bradford, were charged with committing sodomy. The charge was made by a boilermaker in the employ of Messrs Samuelsons, named Jones. Holgate, who with prisoners and some others, had occupied beds on Wednesday night in a room at the Regatta Tavern, High-street, with several witnesses were examined, and the case was adjourned until to-morrow (Friday). 
(The Hull Packet and East Riding Times; issue 3989.) [1]

My curiosity piqued, I went to the British Library to consult a microfilm of the very rare auction catalogue of Sumner's collection:

Catalogue of the very Valuable Collection of Old Manuscripts (many beautifully illuminated), Deeds, Documents, and Scrolls [...] and a valuable library of about 5,000 vols. of Antique & Modern Literature [...] collected (with great care during a period extending over 60 years) by the late Gillyatt Sumner, Esq., of Woodmansey, near Beverley [...] which will be sold [...] by Mr. Christopher Greensides [...] on Wednesday, the 31st October, 1877, and two following days [...]

It has some notes added at the beginning. I took photos and sent them to Mitch, who transcribed parts, including this:

"Amongst Yorkshire Oddities of the first rank ought certainly to be placed the former owner of this volume which sold at his sale. Gillyatt Sumner was a most curious collector, as the Catalogue of his Books, Deeds, Manuscripts & Curiosities which follows sufficiently shows. They produced nearly £3000. He was a most eccentric Man & having no good will to the Beverley Corporation collected the Catalogues in this volume of the effects of Bankrupt & Insolvent Members of that body to which he has prefixed notes on the Title pages. Having been Churchwarden of Beverley Minster he availed himself of the opportunities the office afforded to become possessed of curiosities in the way of Furniture &c. He was upwards of 80 when he died. As a Collector he was omnivorous. What he could not find room for in his house, old Furniture, Books &c, he buried in his Garden. He kept everything that came into his hands from Old Charters to Quack Doctor’s Advertisements & the Bags which were sold in Lots were the most extraordinary sweepings up of Rubbish & really curious Articles ever seen. For a disgraceful offence, which he committed, he suffered several Months imprisonment."

The manuscripts were sold on the final day of the three-day sale. Post-medieval manuscripts are mixed together with medieval ones, and the very brief descriptions often make the date uncertain, so it is not possible to be sure how many medieval ones there were, but the overall arrangement seems to have been post-medieval MSS first, followed by books and documents of local interest (relating to Beverley, Hull, Hedon, etc.), with medieval codices beginning around lot 521:

521    Glosse ordinarie in Eplas Sancti Pauli Apostoli ad Romanos, ad Corinthos, et Galatians
(A very neatly and distinctly executed MS., of about 500 pages in columns, folio, with fine Gothic headlines, and a number of very curiously formed large initials in colours, bound in original hog skin, with clasps; inscription, Monasterii Wiblingen)

This should be identifiable, but I have not been able to do so yet (it does not seem to be listed under Wiblingen in Krämer & Bernhard, Handschriftenerbe des deutschen Mittelalters, 1989).

I have made a transcription of the relevant parts of the catalogue and have put in separate page here under a new heading on this blogsite: 'Dispersed collections' (see lower right of the main page), which I aim to revise and improve in the near future.

Next week I'll discuss where Sumner got many of his manuscripts from. 

[1] Since 2018 several more sources of information have become available, including several more newspaper accounts, providing considerably more detail, such as: https://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/1860news.htm