Manuscripts collected by Sir Thomas Roe. Of the collection, 27 are Greek (chiefly theological), one (no. 257) Hebrew, one (no. 272) Arabic, and one (no. 266) Latin: no. 18 is now two volumes.
Dates
- Creation: 10th-17th century
Extent
3.30 Linear metres (30 boxes)
Language of Materials
- Greek, Ancient (to 1453)
- Hebrew
- Arabic
- Latin
Preferred Citation
Oxford, Bodleian Libraries [followed by shelfmark and folio or page reference, e.g. MS. Roe 1, fols. 1-2].
Full range of shelfmarks:
MSS. Roe 1-17, 18a-b, 19-29
Collection ID (for staff)
CMD ID 13432
Abstract
Manuscripts collected by Sir Thomas Roe.
Biographical / Historical
Sir Thomas Roe was born in 1580 or 1581, and matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1593, but took no degree. On March 23, 1604/5 he was knighted, and in 1614 began his official journeys to the East which made him famous. From that year to January 1617/8 he was Ambassador to Jehângîr, the Mogul emperor of Hindustan, and from September 1621 till the summer of 1628 to the Turkish Court. In October 1640 Roe was elected a burgess of the University in Parliament, and died on November 6 1644. 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), Roe 1-29.
Other Finding Aids
The illuminated manuscripts in this collection are described in detail in I. Hutter, Corpus der Byzantinischen Miniaturenhandschriften. Oxford Bodleian Library, 4 vols. (Stuttgart, 1977-1982).
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. II, nos. 247-275.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The manuscripts were presented to the Library by Roe in 1628, according to an inscription placed in each manuscript, which records that it was brought from the East and presented to the Public Library [the Bodleian] 'in gratitudinis suae erga Matrem Academiam perpetuum testimonium', but the manuscripts actually arrived with the Barocci Collection about the end of May 1629, see Macray's Annals of the Bodleian, 2nd ed. (1890), pp. 70, 72. 242 coins were also given by Roe's widow in 1644 by his desire.
Subject
- Title
- Roe 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
Weston Library
Broad Street
Oxford OX1 3BG United Kingdom
specialcollections.enquiries@bodleian.ox.ac.uk