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Manuscripts of Jacques Philippe D'Orville

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Manuscripts of Jacques Philippe D'Orville. His chief collections were made with a view to editing Theocritus and the Greek Anthology. The bulk of the manuscripts are not ancient, and largely consist of collations in printed books, and transcripts and notes, with many papers of Scipio and Alberico Gentili, and much of D'Orville's own correspondence.

Dates

  • Creation: 9th-18th cent.

Extent

67.98 Linear metres (618 boxes)

Language of Materials

  • Latin
  • Greek, Ancient (to 1453)
  • Dutch; Flemish
  • French
  • German
  • English
  • Italian

Preferred Citation

Oxford, Bodleian Libraries [followed by shelfmark and folio or page reference, e.g. MS. D'Orville 1, fols. 1-2.]

Please see our help page for further guidance on citing archives and manuscripts.

Full range of shelfmarks:

MSS. D'Orville 1-618

Collection ID (for staff)

CMD ID 12906

Abstract

Manuscripts of Jacques Philippe D'Orville (1696-1751), classical scholar.

Biographical / Historical

Jacques Philippe D'Orville (1696-1751), classical scholar, was born at Amsterdam of a French Protestant family, and educated at the University of Leyden. From 1723 to 1729 he travelled in France, England, Italy and Germany, with the object of acquainting himself with the remains of classical literature and art and with the best living scholars. He was at Oxford 18-26 August 1718, 28 July-3 September 1725, and 13-15, 18-19 June 1751. From 1730 to 1742 he was Professor of History, Eloquence and Greek at Amsterdam, being succeeded by Petrus Burmannus the younger, with whom he edited the Miscellaneae Observationes in auctores veteres et recteiores, 1732-9. From 1740 to 1751 D'Orville edited alone Miscellaneae Observationes creticae novae. Both series contain many references to the D'Orville manuscripts, which had been gradually acquired.

D'Orville's other chief works were an edition of Charito (1750, 1783) and his Sicula, a history of Sicily (1762-1764, posthumously printed).

Other Finding Aids

Falconer Madan, et al., A summary catalogue of western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford which have not hitherto been catalogued in the Quarto series (7 vols. in 8 [vol. II in 2 parts], Oxford, 1895-1953; reprinted, with corrections in vols. I and VII, Munich, 1980), vol. IV, nos. 16879-17496.

Our best descriptions for medieval items in this collection are in Medieval Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries under MSS. D'Orville.

Custodial History

D'Orville's only surviving son Jean was born in 1734, and to him the whole collection passed at his father's death in 1751. Eventually it was trasferred to London, passed to a grandson also named Jean, and was sold to J. Cleaver Banks.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The collection was purchased almost intact from J.Cleaver Banks for £1025, a sum raised by subsidiary items to about £1095, in 1804.

Related Materials

See also MSS. D'Orville 620-633 for the additional D'Orville Manuscripts.

For papers relating to Gentili Alberico, see Papers of Sir Thomas Erskine Holland, (MSS. Eng. misc. c. 125-126; Ital. c. 20).

Title
Manuscripts of Jacques Philippe D'Orville
Status
Published
Author
Collection Level Description by Emily Tarrant, EAD version 2019 by Kelly Burchmore
Date
EAD version 2019
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Bodleian Libraries Repository

Contact:
Weston Library
Broad Street
Oxford OX1 3BG United Kingdom