Manuscripts by Thomas Traherne

Archive Collection
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  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 161 MSS. Eng. th. e. 50-1; Eng. poet. c. 42; Lat. misc. f. 45
  • Dates of Creation
      17th century
  • Language of Material
      English, and Latin.
  • Physical Description
      4 shelfmarks

Scope and Content

Four manuscripts by Thomas Traherne, consisting of:  

  • 'Centuries of meditations', with Traherne's corrections
  • 'Meditations and devotions' on the festivals of the Church, including prayers and poems by Traherne and others (in Traherne's hand)
  • The 'Dobell folio' containing poems by Traherne and a commonplace book of Thomas Traherne, mainly on ethical and religious subjects
  • Notebook belonging to Philip Traherne, 1655, used mainly by Thomas Traherne

Administrative / Biographical History

Thomas Traherne (1637-1674) was a religious poet and mystic. Details are given in the Dictionary of National Biography.

Access Information

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card (for admissions procedures see http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/specialcollections).

Acquisition Information

The manuscripts were bought from P.J. Dobell in 1952.

Note

Collection level description created by Emily Tarrant, Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts.

Other Finding Aids

M. Clapinson and T.D. Rogers, Summary Catalogue of Post-Medieval Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford. Acquisitions 1916-1975. (Oxford, 1991), vol. II, nos. 46709-12.

Bibliography

See T. Traherne, Centuries, poems, and thanksgivings, ed. H.M. Margoliouth (2 vols., Oxford, 1958).