SION COLLEGE: ENGLISH MANUSCRIPTS

The Sion English manuscripts range from 14th and 15th century texts to 20th century diaries and correspondence. Included are Wycliffite Old and New Testaments, alchemical works of George Ripley and others, the minutes of the Presbyterian Provincial Assembly of London 1647-60, an augmentation book of the Committee for the Reformation of the Universities 1650-2, works of the mathematician Nathaniel Torporley (1564-1632), the 'sacra privata' of Thomas Wilson (1663-1755), Bishop of Sodor and Man, and the correspondence and papers of William Scott (1813-1872), a prominent advocate of tractarianism in London. Many items relate to the London clergy and to Sion College and its Library, including historic catalogues and the Book of Benefactors. Alongside works on church history, theology, liturgy and biblical studies are more diverse works on English and continental history, thought and affairs of various periods.

Four of the English manuscripts were sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977. The sale catalogue is available at Lambeth Palace Library at Z999.S5. In total five English manuscripts are missing from the sequence: L40.2/E15 (Thomas Bray) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 76). Purchased by H.P. Kraus and dispersed: see Kraus sale catalogue 152, 'The Reverend Thomas Bray, D.D., 1656-1730, founder of the American public library system, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; a selection from his papers; together with a group of American manuscripts' (New York, 1978) - copy in Lambeth Palace Library at Z6616.B7. The bulk of the papers thus dispersed passed to the University of Maryland. See Lambeth Palace Library MS. 4503 ff. 2-4 for a portion of this manuscript acquired by the Library in 2002. L40.2/E21 (Joye's School minute book, 1717-1787). At Guildhall Library c.1953, and now at London Metropolitan Archives. L40.2/E23 (Chaucer) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 73). Now owned by Professor Toshiyuki Takamiya, MS 22 (N. R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries: V. Indexes and addenda, ed. I.C. Cunningham and A.G. Watson, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2002, p. 19); the Takamiya collection is on deposit in the Beinecke Library, University of Yale. L40.2/E41 (Thomas Bennet and Henry Clements, booksellers, memorandum book) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 75). It is now at the Bodleian Library. Cf. 'The notebook of Thomas Bennet and Henry Clements, 1686-1719: with some aspects of book trade practice', by Norma Hodgson and Cyprian Blagden. (Oxford University Press for the Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1956). Copy at Z1008.09. L40.2/E76 (Langland, Piers Plowman) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 74). Now owned by Professor Toshiyuki Takamiya, MS 23; the Takamiya collection is on deposit in the Beinecke Library, University of Yale. Microfilm available at Lambeth Palace Box 682

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