Clarendon Press Manuscripts, Oriental

This material is held atBodleian Library, University of Oxford

  • Reference
    • GB 161 MSS. Clar. Press b. 1-5, c. 1-3, d. 1, 5-11, 13-19, 57, e. 1-2, 4, 6-30
  • Dates of Creation
    • 6th?-18th century
  • Name of Creator
  • Language of Material
    • Coptic.
  • Physical Description
    • 27 shelfmarks

Scope and Content

This collection comprises material owned or compiled by C. G. Woide. It contains Woide's own correspondence, transcripts, and collations, as well as transcripts made by earlier and contemporary Coptic scholars - Paul Ernest Jablonski, Maturin Veyssire La Croze, Christian Scholtz and Andreas Birch, and five volumes of early Sahidic fragments, including some leaves of a Graeco-Sahidic codex of the Gospels of Luke and John, written in uncials, of the seventh century.

Administrative / Biographical History

Charles Godfrey Woide (1725-90) was an oriental scholar. The Clarendon Press, at Oxford, published his Egyptian lexicon (1775) and grammar (1778). See the Dictionary of National Biography for details.

The collection also includes transcripts by Coptic scholars Paul Ernest Jablonski (1693-1757) and Christian Scholtz (1697-1777), see the Neue Deutsche Biographie; Maturin Veyssire La Croze (1661-1739), see the Dictionnaire de Biographie Franaise; and Andreas Birch (1758-1829), see the Dansk Biografisk Leksikon.

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.bodley.ox.ac.uk).

Acquisition Information

The Clarendon Press deposited the collection on revocable loan in the Bodleian in 1885. The deposit, with some additions made after 1885, was converted into a gift in 1922.

Note

Collection level description created by Susan Thomas, Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts.

Other Finding Aids

A manuscript catalogue of Woide's Sahidic fragments, MSS Clar. Press b. 1-5, d. 1, by H. Hyvernat (1887) is available, shelfmarked MS. Clar. Press d. 'O'. The remainder of the manuscripts are described in a draft catalogue by Falconer Madan, shelfmarked MS. Clar. Press d. 58.

See also M. Clapinson and T.D. Rogers, Summary Catalogue of Post-Medieval Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford. Acquisitions 1916-1975. (Oxford, 1991), vol. I, nos. 38004-165.

Custodial History

After Woide's death, delegates of the Clarendon Press purchased the Coptic section of his Library.

Related Material

Clarendon Press manuscripts in western languages are kept separately by the Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts (MSS. Clar. Press b. 6, b. 9-11, c. 1-23, c. 25-6, c. 28, c. 30-41, d. 2-58, e. 1-37, e. 39-60, e. 62, f. 1-2).