Microfilms

Publishers'

announcements

World Microfilms Publications, 62 Queen's Grove, London N.W.8 6ER, have recently published two important MS. collections in microfilm.

The la'brary of the Inner Temple. Manu. scripts and Early Printed Works, includes the following:

The Petyt Collection 155 reels ¢4.250 The Barring, ton Collection 21 reels $595 Records &the Inner

Temple 7 reels $215 The Mifford Collection

&Legal Manuscripts 25 reels 8695 Miscellaneous/Additional

Manuscripts 48 reels $1.395

The 772 volumes of manuscripts in the Inner Temple Library, dating from the twelfth to the twentieth century, are rich in material of historical, legal and literary interest. The largest and most significant group is the Petyt Collection, many &the 386 volumes of which consist of transcripts from public records that were made in the seven- teenth century and earlier. Among the most important are transcripts of parliamentary history and the history ofthe City of London- particularly as a number of the originals have

since been lost and these transcripts provide the most authentic copi~. Noteworthy manu- scripts and origin~h include: a Cartulary of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury, auto- ,graph letters by Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, Mary and Elizabeth I; and the earliest kncv, n book of Forms in Ecclesiastical Cause.s.

The Barrington and other collections consist mainly of legal manuscripts and books. Significant examples include: the original Brief of Thomas Egerton (the solicitor general) in the proceedings against Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1586; the opinions, briefs etc. of Lord Redesdale as solicitor general and attorney general 1786-1800; a Year Book for Michaelmas Term 26-7 Edward I (otherwi~ unknown).

256 reels of 35mm positive microfilm. Price $6,995.

Winchester College. (Warden and Fellows' Library) : Mediaeval Manuscripts Collection to the Year 1600,

The Warden and Fellows' Library of Winchester College dates back to the founding of the college in 1382 by William of Wykeham. Evidence from original sources shows the library growing mainly from the munificence &such benefactors as William of Wykeham, Robert Heete, William Moryn, Thomas Symes, Sir Robert Cecil, the Rev. Peter Hall and others. In early fifteenth-century In- ventories and Bursar's Account Rolls, there is a certain amount &documentary evidence for the history of the library.

The lib1 ary has recently been re-catalogued by the present Fellow~' Librarian, together with the manuscripts :(up to the year 1600)

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which are the subject of this present publica- tion. Some of the early manuscripts are no longer at the library, but the rest make up the main part of this collection. Among them is the Life of Thomas Becket by his chaplain William FitzStephen of Canterbury - the earliest known biography, written twenty years after Becket's death.

The present Fellows' Librarian, Paul Yeats- Edwards, has compiled ~, Brief histonj and catalogue, which includes the following in- formation on each manuscript: author; title; provenance and history; references in printed catalogues or other lists; and approximate folio size. This is available free on request.

16 reels, one in colour, of 35mm positive microfilm. Price $575.

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