All Ashburnham Manuscripts Catalogues Available Online

In a couple of previous posts (here and here) I discussed the privately-printed catalogues of the hugely important collection of medieval manuscripts formed by Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham at his stately home, Ashburnham Place:

A bit like his contemporary Sir Thomas Phillipps, he could be extremely irascible, but while Phillipps was usually helpful to scholars wishing to see his manuscripts, Ashburnham did not want visitors. The serial publication of Phillipps's catalogues, in parts, was famously disorganised (as detailed in the first volume of A.N.L. Munby's Phillipps Studies, 1951) making complete copies very rare. The publication of Ashburnham's catalogues was not messy, but distribution was limited, and it is not easy to find copies outside major research libraries.

In my previous posts I said that only the Libri and Appendix portions of the catalogue were available online, but I now find that a three-volume set at Cornell, including the previously-unavailable Barrois manuscripts catalogue, and the Index volume, has been digitised and is available through the Haithi Trust.

"BRAUNSCHWEIG", The Ashburnham Price-Code

One price-code missing from the excellent The Price-Codes of the Book-Trade: A Preliminary Guide, by "Exhumation" [i.e. Ian Jackson] (Berkeley, 2010),

and thus apparently unrecorded, is that of the man who, besides Sir Thomas Phillipps, formed the largest and most important private collection of medieval manuscripts in 19th-century England, namely, Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham (1797–1878).

Ashburnham Appendix and other catalogues

In response to the post about the Ashburnham-Libri manuscripts catalogue, one reader asked me about catalogues of the other Ashburnham manuscripts. The catalogues privately printed by Ashburnham himself are still not all available online, but each is represented online by at least one copy of the relevant auction catalogue.

Barrois
Catalogue of the Portion of the Famous Collection of Manuscripts, the Property of the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Ashburnham, Known as the Barrois Collection ... Which Will be Sold by Auction ... Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge ... 10th day of June, 1901, and Four Following Days: 

• a lightly annotated copy at the Robarts Library, University of Toronto
• a copy at Cornell University

There are also various related publications, notably:

Guglielmo Libri Catalogues Online

Anyone not familiar with Count Guglielmo Bruto Icilio Timoleone Libri-Carucci dalla Sommaia (1802-1869) will have no trouble finding biographies online, including Wikipedia's. The title of his full-length biography gives a good indication of the reasons for his fame and notoriety: P. Alessandra Maccioni-Ruju and Marco Mostert, The Life and Times of Guglielmo Libri (1802-1869), Scientist, Patriot, Scholar, Journalist and Thief: A Nineteenth-Century Story (Hilversum, 1995).

The catalogue of the Libri Collection of the 4th Earl of Ashburnham is online: A Catalogue of the Manuscripts at Ashburnham Place: Comprising a Collection Formed by Professor Libri (London, [n.d.])

The auction Catalogue of the Extraordinary Collection of Splendid Manuscripts, Chiefly Upon Vellum, in Various Languages of Europe and the East, formed by M. Guglielmo Libri, the Eminent Collector, who is Obliged to Leave London in Consequence of Ill Health, and for that Reason to Dispose of his Literary Treasures ... which will be Sold by Leigh Sotheby & John Wilknson ... Monday, 28th of March, 1859, and Seven Following Days ... is available online in at least four different copies:

• a lighly annotated copy in the Taylor Institution, Oxford
• a copy in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich
• a second copy in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich
• a colour scan of the copy in the Institute of Medieval Studies, University of Toronto