Persian MS 362 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Written in 1 column with variant numbers of lines. Hand-ruled by Charles Fox in various formats.
Folios 1 to 4 and possibly others bound in upside-down.
Hand(s)
Written in clear, neat taḥrīrī-nasta‘līq by Charles Fox.
Decoration
Margins: Double-ruled in red throughout by Charles Fox.
Inscriptions: Folio 102b numbered:
‘286
3’
corresponding with Jospeh Butterworth Bulmer Clarke's 1835 catalogue entry.
Bookplates: The Left pastedown bears the ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ bookplate with shelfmark ‘2/K’, and ‘Bland MSS No. 582’ with the name and number crossed out and ‘Persian’ and ‘362’ written aside.
Binding
Probably uniformly rebound as a deluxe set for former owners Rev. Adam Clarke or his son Jospeh Butterworth Bulmer Clarke, whose 1835 catalogue describes them as ‘bound in Morocco’.
Evidently oversewn on 4 raised cords laced into pasteboards. Made endpapers of predominantly green 'Spanish' waved-patterned marbled endpapers adhered to added at Edges trimmed then finely sprinkled with red earth and polished. Prefabricated headbands of rolled black cloth adhered to head and tail. Covered in full dark hunter green coloured goatskin leather.
161 × 101 × 23 mm.
Binding in good condition, with slight abrasion in the joints by the bands, headcaps and lower corners.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Apparently given by Fox to Methodist minister Rev. Adam Clarke (1762–1832) after whose death, his son Jospeh Butterworth Bulmer Clarke (d. 1855) inherited the volumes and describes them in a catalogue published in 1835.
The next year on 20 June 1836, Clarke's son auctioned his father's collection through the London firm of Sotheby & Son where bookseller William Straker (fl. 1831–1856) purchased it for £7 1 shilling.
Probably sold by Straker to scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865), after whose death, London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) sold his oriental manuscripts in 1866 to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880).
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.
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 2023 with reference to the volume in hand.
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.
Bibliography
Funding of Cataloguing
Iran Heritage Foundation
The John Rylands Research Institute
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