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Casaubon Manuscripts

 Collection

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Casaubon's Greek manuscripts, including correspondence.

Dates

  • Creation: 16th-17th century

Extent

5.28 Linear metres (48 boxes)

Language of Materials

  • Greek, Ancient (to 1453)
  • Greek, Modern (1453-)
  • Latin

Preferred Citation

Oxford, Bodleian Libraries [followed by shelfmark and folio or page reference, e.g. MSS. Casaubon 1].

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

Full range of shelfmarks:

MSS. Casaubon 1-17, 19-48, 51-53, 59-61

Collection ID (for staff)

CMD ID 12851

Abstract

Casaubon Manuscripts

Biographical / Historical

Isaac Casaubon, famous as a classical scholar, was born at Geneva in 1559 and was professor of Greek there from 1580 to 1596, when he was made professor of languages and letters at Montpellier University. He removed from Montpellier to Paris in 1599-1600, and in 1604 was appointed keeper of the Bibliothèque Royale. After the murder of Henri IV in 1610 and upon receipt of an official invitation from the Archbishop of Canterbury, he settled in England, where he died in 1614. He visited Oxford the year before his death, and spent a fortnight reading in the Bodleian Library. Further details are given in the Dictionary of National Biography.

Other Finding Aids

Full descriptions, in Latin, are in Henry O. Coxe, Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae pars prima recensionem codicum Graecorum continens (Oxford, 1853; reprinted with corrections, 1969).

Brief one-line descriptions, with shelfmarks and short titles, are in 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. II, nos. 3947-3967.

Custodial History

Casaubon's papers were collected and preserved after his death by his younger son, Meric Casaubon, DD and prebendary of Canterbury. Meric Casaubon died in 1671 and bequeathed his father's journal or Ephemerides to the chapter library of Canterbury Cathedral, and the bulk of the remainder of his father's papers, including six volumes of Adversaria, to the Bodleian Library, but they were not received until 1673.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Bequeathed by Meric Casaubon and recieved in 1673.

The following items were recorded in the Summary Catalogue as "lost" or "unidentified" at the time of cataloguing:

  1. 3964: Mappa Imperii Turcici, 16th-17th century, Not Casaubon: now lost.

SC no. 3967j (recorded in the Old Catalogue but not identified):

  1. 47d. 'Epistola Gallico Sermone ab Is. Casaubono conscripta, de Jesuitis in Gallia, dimid. Sched.'
  2. 56. 'Duae Is. Casauboni Epistolae Eruditissimae, quarum prior ad Josephum Scaligerum, posterior ad I. Lipsium scribitur, 1 Sched.'
  3. 65b. 'Theodori Canteri Epistola ad Is. Casaubonum, dimid. Sched.' (Thos. Hearne has preserved a copy of this in MS. Rawl. Q. d. 14, p. 61.)

Separated Materials

MSS. Casaubon 18, 49-50, 54-58 are printed books described on SOLO.

Title
Casaubon Manuscripts
Status
Published
Author
Collection Level Description by Emily Tarrant; EAD version 2020 by Alice Whichelow
Date
EAD version 2020
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