Photographs and photostats, many annotated, and manuscript material relating to early church drama, covering 8th-16th century manuscripts collected from throughout Europe. The collection includes a manuscript of the song Doochary with music by Smoldon. The Music of the Medieval Church Dramas by W. L. Smoldon, edited by Cynthia Bourgeault was published by Oxford University Press in 1980.
Smoldon , William L. , d 1974 , writer and composerTwo fragments of leaves containing parts of the sequences 'Eia Recolamus laudibus piis digna' and 'Natus ante secula dei filius' for Christmas on the first leaf; and 'Festa christi omnis christianitas celebret' for Epiphany on the second. The manuscript was probably written in South-west Germany in the 14th century.
UnknownLeaf from a choirbook dating from the 14th century.
UnknownSL V 14 contains holograph letters, 1800-1821 from James Hogg to William Laidlaw and Sir Walter Scott. SL V 15 is a notebook, c1813, containing a manuscript of a collection of Scots ballads entitled The Jacobite and National Songs of Scotland, mostly written by James Scott, with notes made by Sir Walter Scott.
Hogg , James , 1770-1835 , poetCompositions by Stephen and George Elvey as well as Highmore Skeats, the younger and the elder, c1815-1840?
Elvey , family Skeats , familyManuscript book of psalm and hymn tunes, written in the early 19th century, with later, possibly 20th century additions.
UnknownLeaf, foliated LXX in a late 16th century hand, from an Antiphoner, containing part of the office for the Commemoration of St Paul (30 Jun). Written in Spain (or possibly Italy) in the late 16th century.
UnknownFragment of a leaf from an antiphoner, formerly a fly-leaf in a binding, containing part of the common of a martyr. The fragment was written in north-east France in the 13th or 14th century.
UnknownThree vellum leaves, formerly paste-downs in the binding of of Omnia Opera by Angelo Ambrogini, called Poliziano (Venice, 1498), which was rebound in the twentieth century (Ref: Incunabula 1498 Strongroom), details as follows:
- Leaf from a noted Missal, of Hereford Use, with part of the epistle, gradual, gospel, offertory, secret, communion and post-communion of the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany, and the introit, epistle, gospel and secret of the 4th Sunday. The antiphons 'Timebunt gentes', 'Dextem domini' and 'Mirabantur omnes' have their musical notation. The fragment was written in Hereford, England, in the late 12th century. It is inscibed and extensively annotated by Maurice Birchinshaw (d 1564), and inscibed by Nathaniel Evans in the 17th century. It was later used as a cover for a manorial extent, and inscibed in a 16th-17th century hand 'A court of [surve]igh for the mannour of Much Markl (i.e. Much Marcle, Herefordshire], 35 of Eliz [1592/3]', and 'Extent of survey de Man. de Mark[le]'.
- Bi-folium from an Antiphoner, with responds and versicles for the following feasts: St Mary Magdalene (22 Jul), St Peter ad vincula (1 Aug), St Laurence (10 Aug), Assumption of the Virgin (15 Aug) and Octave of the Assumption (22 Aug>). The fragment was written in the late 13th century.