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RALPH HANNA AND THORLAC TURVILLE-PETRE, EDS. The Wollaton Medieval Manuscripts: Texts, Owners and Readers. University of York in association with Boydell & Brewer: York Medieval Press, 2010.
This large-format volume is a product of the AHRC-funded research into the Wollaton Library Collection which followed on from the University of Nottingham's Heritage Lottery Fund purchase of ten medieval manuscripts and forty-three early printed books in 2007. These books formed part of the Middleton Collection, a collection sold by the tenth Lord Middleton (together with the Wollaton estate) from 1924 on; the remaining family archive and remnants of the library were transferred to the University from 1947. The collection originated at Wollaton Hall (now Council property near Nottingham) in the time of Francis Willoughby the Builder (1546-1596), but a fire in 1687 led to the transfer of the muniments to their other house, Middleton Hall in Warwickshire. There Francis Willoughby the Naturalist (1635-1672), with his friend, fellow-naturalist and dialect recorder, John Ray, annotated and rudimentarily catalogued them. Almost unknown, the Wollaton Library Collection deserves the thorough and rather splendid format and scholarship provided by the publication of this book.
There are three Parts: Studies, The Catalogue, and Illustrations. The second and third Parts reflect the book's primary raison d'etre as a catalogue of the collection, as well as its links with the 2010 University of Nottingham exhibition "Saints, Sinners and Storytellers" and its attendant conference. Part I provides seven...