Physical description

Form:

Codex.

Paper.

Collation difficult to determine because of tight binding.

Text transcribed on rectos only. The quatrains are transcribed with one or two stanzas per page, each stanza preceded by a Roman numeral, each page headed by a decorated bird, flower, or insect.

Scott-Elliot and Yeo distinguish "various sizes and styles, including Gothic and mirror-writing" in this manuscript. Italic and cursive capitals are the most common forms. The mirror-writing includes examples of both Roman (fol. 37r, quatrain LIX) and italic (fol. 38r, quatrain LX).

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In addition to the decorated title-leaf and dedication, each recto in the sequence of quatrains has been decorated with a bird, flower or insect above the text. The edges of the folios have been gilded.

Brown calf leather, repaired. Gold-tooled on covers and spine. Covers tooled with a pattern of leafy roundels enclosing flowers, interspersed with acorns, within a double rule. There are holes for ties on the front and back boards (ties missing).

Manuscript unfoliated. One flyleaf + 76 leaves. Notice of Esther Inglis tipped in between fols. 75 and 76.

Folded notice tipped in between fols. 75 and 76, mentioning extant calligraphic MSS by Esther Inglis held at Edinburgh Castle and the University of Oxford, including a French translation of the Psalms dedicated to Queen Elizabeth (probably Christ Church College Oxford MS 180, though the details do not match exactly). Refers to Mary Pilkington, Memoirs of Celebrated Female Characters, 1804

good

Provenance

Prepared by Esther Inglis for presentation to "Monseigneur de Hayes".

Owned by J. Adams (signature on back pastedown in a nineteenth-century hand). Later owned by Mrs Florence Edwards, and sold at Sotherby's in 1953 (24 July, lot 131).

Bought by the Newberry Library at Sotheby's, 1953.