Persian MS 346 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Two Persian texts on musicology, the second illustrated.
Contents
Physical Description
Inscription: Folio 1a pencilled: Resala Surud
Treatise on Music.
Bookplates: Left paste-down: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with shelfmark ‘2/J’.
Binding
Rebound for Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford by Fazakerley of Liverpool, as per their stamp along the head of final left flyleaf a side (f. iva).
Resewn on 4 recessed cord supports, laced into the boards, with front bead double-core decorative endbands sewn in white and red silk threads at head and tail. Covered in European style, half-bound in dark blue morocco-grained goatskin leather. Sides faced with British-made dark blue moirée Spanish patterned marbled paper over-printed with gold veins. Endpapers of European handmade paper with ~1 mm between laid lines and ~28 mm between chain lines.
gilt single fillet lines outline where the paper sides overlap the leather. Spine palleted with single fillets upon the bands and head and tail in gold with thick blind lines on both sides of the bands.
Titled:
‘TARJAMA-I NĀD PURĀN PERSIAN MS Nº 347 ABOUT A. D. 1800.’
210 × 163 × 19 mm.
Binding in excellent condition.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Possibly formerly owned by British East India Company Persian interpreter Turner Macan (1792–1836). While this volume lacks his signature as found on other volumes that he formerly owned, the title ‘422 Rasala Surud a Treatise on Music, with a Few Pen and Ink Drawings.’ appears in the auction catalogue of his oriental manuscripts that his family sold through Robert Harding Evans (1777–1857) in London on 12 Dec. 1838 (p. 20, lot 422), where London bookseller William Straker (fl. 1831–1856) purchased it for 11 shillings.
Probably purchased from Straker along with at least one other volume now held in the Rylands, (Persian MS 203) by scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865).
After Bland's death, London antiquarian dealer Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) sold his oriental manuscripts to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in 1866.
Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford (1847–1913).
Bequeathed by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1908 to the John Rylands Library.
Persian MS 346A
Contents
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 column, with 13 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear black nasta‘līq with subheaders in red.
History
Persian MS 346B
Contents
Folio 105 left blank.
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 column, with 13 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in a comparatively small and hasty black nasta‘līq script with subheaders in red.
History
Additional Information
Record Sources
Bibliographical description based on an index created by Reza Navabpour circa 1993, derived from a manuscript handlist by Michael Kerney, circa 1890s and his Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, 1898.
Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2020 with reference to the volume in hand, and in consultation with Dr. Katherine Butler Schofield, King's College London, regarding the text and its contents.
Availability
To book an in-person or online appointment to consult the manuscript, visit Using the Special Collections Reading Rooms. For any other enquiries please email uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk.
Funding of Cataloguing
Iran Heritage Foundation
The John Rylands Research Institute
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