Eton Pote 407 (Eton College Library, Eton College)

Pote Collection

Note on existence:The binding (with title) and the content of the detached text block seem to be unrelated.

Summary of Contents: 1 copy of an unidentified prose text in Arabic on metaphysics.

Title: Unidentified prose text in Arabic on metaphysics

Language(s): Arabic

Colophon details: Date: Undated Scribe: Anonymous.

Note concerning work: The work is not Margoliouth's "Abridgement the of Khamsa of Nizami" which he seems to have drawn from Polier's title on the binding. However the text within (which, rather tellingly, is not attached to the binding) is a prose text in Arabic on metaphysics which is missing the start and the end.

References

Margoliouth no. 48 (shelf/item: 16/8)

Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum (3 vols.) C. Rieu 1879-1883 p.564 [BL Add. 7729]

Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstânî, and Pushtû Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library E. Sachau and H. Ethé 1889 col.487, no. 585 [Bodl. Ouseley 274 and 275]

Physical Description

Form: codex

Extent: c. 120 folios.

Dimensions (leaf): 28.8 × 17.8 cm.

Dimensions (written): 20.8 × 10.4 cm.

Foliation: Not foliated or paginated.

Layout

17 lines per page.

Ruled in double red with a blue outer. Rubrications in red.

Hand(s)

Scribe: Anonymous.

Binding

Brown leather, European style. Watermarked paper doublures. Condition: The folios are detached from the binding and the text does not match Polier's title indicating that the binding and the folios within are unrelated. Dimensions: 28.5 × 17 × 1.8 cm. Unboxed. Polier's number: 1022.

History

Note on existence:The binding and the textblock (which is detached) do not match in that Polier's title on the binding (Persian poetry) bears no relation to the text within (Arabic metaphysics). Margoliouth reports but does not remark upon this inconsistency.

Origin: Undated.

Provenance and Acquisition

The "Pote Collection" arrived in England from India in 1790 and was divided between the Colleges of Eton and King's, Cambridge, with the second half alphabetically going to Eton. Both halves of the collection are now housed in Cambridge University Library on permanent loan. Most if not all of the manuscripts had previously been owned by Colonel Antoine-Louis Henri Polier (1741–1795).

Gift of Edward Ephraim Pote (d.1832) in 1788.

Record Sources

Manuscript description based on D.S. Margoliouth, Catalogue of the Oriental Manuscripts in the Library of Eton College, Oxford, 1904 enhanced with additional descriptions and corrections by Shiva Mihan.

Availability

All manuscripts of the Pote Collection are on permanent loan at Cambridge University Library. Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card for admissions procedures consult Cambridge University Library. Contact near_eastern@lib.cam.ac.uk for further information on the availability of this manuscript

Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World