Persian MS 845 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 to 2 columns with 14 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear black nasta‘līq.
Decoration
Headpiece: Opening folio 1b bears a scalloped domed headpiece with gilt palmette foliate scrollwork on an ultramarine ground and an uninscribed central cartouche, and four vertical radiating lines.
Carpet Pages: Opening folios 1b to 2a extensively illuminated and ruled.
Ruling: Text margins ruled in gold outlined with thin single internal and double external black lines, and surrounded by single red and blue lines.
Inscriptions: The second right flyleaf a side (f. iia) bears the title in below Swinton's seal in his hand, as well as a pencilled note:
‘Sold in Dr. Scott's sale for £3-15’.
Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘F/4’, and white label bearing an earlier Lindesiana class mark ‘Persian MSS No. 51’, with the number crossed out and ‘845’ written aside.
Binding
Probably bound in a hybrid British-Indian style in the Indian subcontinent
Ivoury wove endpapers added to the beginning and end, then resewn at two stations, unsupported. Edges trimmed, and chevron endbands of yellow and black threads twined over round cores at head and tail. Covered in full diced 'Russia' leather over pasteboards. Interior doublures lined with maroon-coloured goatskin leather, their excess widths adhered as hinged connecting the cover to the text block, with strips of paper zig-zag cut along one edge applied over top to disguise the joins. Flyleaves of flocked dark gray paper stiff-leaved with ivoury wove.
275 × 174 × 54 mm.
Handle binding with caution. In poor condition, with the spine delaminating joints breaking, and extensive wear to the edges.
1: A small rectangular seal impression with the name of a former owner Sulaymān, intaglio-carved in one nasta'liq script line, double-ruled, possibly date ‘14’ and regnal year ‘’ :
‘۴ سلیمان ۱۴ ’
11 × 14 mm.
2: A large rectangular seal impression of former owner Captain Archibald Swinton, intaglio-carved in nasta'liq script in two stacked lines, double-ruled, dated 1174 AH (1760–61 CE):
‘ارچبالد سوینتن رستم جنگ بهادر ۱۱۷۴’
21 × 26 mm.
3: (Spine) Swinton's arms blocked in gold on a skiver leather label adhered to the upper panel of the spine, features a boar tethered to an oak tree:
18 × 17 mm.
Accompanying Material
Manuscript accompanied by a 19th-century protective slipcase with walls and flap of claret-coloured artificially embossed straight-grained morocco goatskin leather, and the boards faced with medium brown calfskin, with the board margins blind-tooled with triple fillet lines.
275 × 175 × 55 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Subsequently acquired by Captain Archibald Swinton (1731–1804), who served in the East India Company from 1752 to 1766, initially as a surgeon then later as an interpreter and emissary for Lord Robert Clive (1725–1774), the first Governor of the Bengal Presidency. After amassing a significant collection of manuscripts and works of art, he returned to Britain where he evidently commissioned the rebinding of other disparate volumes together with this one as a set, as evinced by his Anglo-Persian seal impression, bookplate, and arms blocked in gold upon the uppermost spine panel.
After his death, James Christie Jr (1773–1831) sold Swinton's collection in London on 6 June 1810 (p. 11, no. 55), where an individual named ‘Polhill’ purchased it for £1-5s-0d.
Subsequently acquired by orientalist Jonathan Scott (1574–1829), after whose death, his family inherited then sold his library through S. Leigh Sotheby on 15 Jun. 1850 (p. 6 no. 43) where bookseller Henry George Bohn (1796–1884) purchased it for £3, 15 shillings.
Probably thereafter sold by Bohn to scholar George Cecil Renouard (1780–1867) as per an unsigned note in his hand stating it to be one of Scott's manuscripts.
After Renouard's death, booksellers Williams & Norgate acquired Renouard's oriental manuscripts and sold fourteen volumes to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) on 9 Apr. 1867 for £7, 9 shillings. That, or possibly acquired by Bernard Quartich from the subsequent sale of the remainder of Renouard's library at Sotheby's on 12-14 November 1867, then sold to Lindsay.
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, Manchester.
Record Sources
Bibliographical description based on an index created by Reza Navabpour circa 1993, derived from a manuscript catalogue by Michael Kerney, circa 1890s, concisely published as 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
The Soudavar Memorial Foundation
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