34 grants for 2008.
An imperfect copy of an unidentified early 16th cent. edition of the Decretales of Gregory IX. Sixteen formerly blank leaves at the beginning of the volume contain Welsh poetry added by 'Lewis Johnes', including an early cywydd attributed to Siôn Tudur (c.1522-1602)
The autograph MS of Jude the Obscure, one of the greatest and most controversial of Hardy's novels, was presented to the Fitzwilliam Museum by the author in 1911. Hardy was obliged to make numerous alterations, preserved in the MS, for the serial publication in Harper's New Monthly Magazine in 1894-95.
A notebook containing an incomplete scheme for the natural classification of vascular plants by John Hope, Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden and Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Edinburgh. The notebook is an important addition to the substantial collection of Hope's papers held by the Royal Botanic Garden.
119 deeds and documents, 13th cent - 1698, relating chiefly to Mascy property in Warrington, with a wealth of early topographical and place-name information.
The unique copy of a work by William Smith (1769-1839), the pre-eminent English geologist of his time, long believed lost.
The Glasgow firm of Templeton/Stoddard was the most important manufacturer of high-quality carpet in the British Empire. Its carpets were to be found in public buildings throughout the world; it carpeted the liners Titanic and Queen Mary, and supplied the carpets for the coronation ceremonies of 1911, 1937 and 1953.
A rare book by the journalist Michael Fry describing his experiences in Germany up to 1934. It contains an analysis of Nazism, the role of Hitler, and observations on 'The Jewish Question' and concentration camps. It was withdrawn by the publishers for legal reasons and very few copies survive.
Grant by Queen Mary I of lands in northern Flintshire to John David ap Griffyn ap Llewelen, 9 May 1554, with an initial portrait miniature of the Queen.
A 'particular book' of James Nedeham, Clerk and Surveyor of the King's Works, 1539-40, recording detailed accounts for works at Greenwich, Westminster Hall, Windsor Castle, Woking Palace and elsewhere.
Nine quarto volumes of diaries and commonplaces of William Fleming of Rowe Head, Pennington (1770-1829), a prosperous and literate yeoman farmer living in a small village near Ulverston, Lancashire.
About 180 letters written over four decades by Iris Murdoch, the novelist and philosopher to the writer and philosopher Denis Paul, her Oxford contemporary and lifelong friend.
Over 500 letters received by John Jefferys, lawyer and Town Clerk of Bath, 1760-1800. As well as letters dealing with Corporation business, there many letters from his private clients engaged in the financing of building and development projects in Bath, most notably William Pulteney
132 letters from Samuel Palmer to Richard Redgrave (1804-88), painter and founder of the Etching Club; his wife Rose (1811-99); their daughters Frances (1845-1932) and Evelyn (1849-1942); and his brother Samuel Redgrave (1802-76), art critic and civil servant.
An inscribed presentation copy of the second edition, containing Wordsworth's preface and a cancel rectifying the omission of fifteen lines of Wordsworth's 'Michael' from the book. Only eight copies of the second edition with the cancel are known to exist.
Piero Cavalli was the foremost Italian opera composer of the mid-17th century, and Erismena was first performed in Venice in 1655. The present MS, dating from c.1670 and in its original goatskin binding, contains the text in English translation.
A map of the lands of Anthony Fowle in the parishes of Wythiham and Retherfield, in ink and colour on vellum. John Pattenden of Lamberhurst was a noted mapmaker in East Sussex and Kent.
Maristow, seat of the Lords Roborough, was bought in 1798 by Manaesseh Masseh Lopez, only son of Mordecai Rodriguez Lopez, a Sephardic Jew who made a fortune in the sugar plantations.
Designs, patterns and other papers relating to the Poole Pottery from the 1920s, complementing the main Poole Pottery Archive held by the Dorset History Centre.
(1) A portrait drawing of the Exeter builder-architect James Stowey, signed 'C[harles] Coffin Nepos delt. Exeter Sept.
The Royal Proclamation of 13 August 1660 requiring persons possessing the 'wicked and traitorous' books of John Milton and John Goodwin to deliver them to the county sheriffs to be publicly burnt by the hangman at the next assizes.
A catalogue of the antiquities and ethnological remains assembled by the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher, the foundation of the Jesuit Roman College's famous Museum. The Catalogue's contents, particularly in the field of Egyptology, relate closely to the University Library's own Museum collections.
Robert Pullen (d.1146) was an outstanding English churchman, one of the first recorded lecturers in the University of Oxford and the first English cardinal. Archbishop Bancroft bequeathed one of the three surviving MSS of his sermons to Lambeth Palace Library in 1610.
A volume of 180 vellum leaves serving as a key to John Probert's maps of Doddington and Broughton, the two seats of the Delves Broughton family, already held by Cheshire and Chester Archives.
A previously unknown archive of the late Poet Laureate, comprising over 200 files and boxes of manuscripts, letters and diaries, including material relating to Birthday Letters, published in 1998, Hughes's collection of poems about his relationship with his first wife, Sylvia Plath.
Transcripts of rentals and custumals of manors in the barony of Lewes and other documents relating to Lewes, 1440, 1535-c.1635, compiled by John Rowe, a lawyer (d.1639). The book was published by the Sussex Record Society in 1928.
Ralph Radcliffe, a Lancashire gentleman, bought the Carmelite Priory of Hitchin shortly after its surrender in 1539, and the family subsequently amassed a considerable estate in North-West Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire The archive includes over 200 medieval title deeds, court rolls, rentals, surveys, bailiffs' accounts and inventories, pa
The oldest surviving English Roll of Arms, containing 324 coats of arms arranged in 54 rows, painted on a green background, six shields to a line, representing about one-quarter of the English baronage at the time of its composition. The knight's name is written above most of the shields.
Correspondence and papers of the Green Family of Knutsford, Cheshire, including 16 letters from Elizabeth Gaskell to Mary Green. Her husband, Henry Green, was from 1827-72 Minister of Brook Street Unitarian Chapel, Knutsford, the town immortalised by Mrs Gaskell as 'Cranford'.
Original manuscripts, drafts, letters, diaries and notebooks of Samuel Beckett (1906-89), and a large library of printed books related to him, collected by Professor Knowlson, Beckett's friend and authorised biographer.
A hitherto unknown late medieval manuscript on vellum containing fourteen different types of decorative alphabets, ranging from simple letters in Gothic script to large coloured anthropomorphic initials, and two sets of different types of borders.
Publications and ephemera relating to Stefan Lorant (1901- 97), the pioneering Hungarian-American filmmaker, photojournalist, and author, collected by Michael Hallett, Lorant's biographer, between 1990 and 2007; and Michael Hallett's own collections relating to other photojournalists active from the 1920s to the present day.
The political papers and correspondence of Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth (1757-1844), Home Secretary and Prime Minister, and some earlier family papers.
RSM Barlow's letters give a detailed account of the Waterloo campaign and of the battle itself, 18 June 1815. He rode ahead of his Regiment in the battle to indicate the path of advance and engaged a French Cuirassier officer in hand-to-hand combat, disabling him and forcing him to surrender.
Hogarth wrote to John Kirby on 7 June 1754 advising him on handling a controversy about perspective, a subject on which Kirby, an artist, architect and topographical draughtsman, was an expert. Autograph letters of Hogarth are extremely rare.