PHILLIPPS, Thomas.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Catalogus manuscriptorum Frederici, comitis de Guilford. A handlist of 212 manuscripts originally belonging to Frederick North, fifth earl of Guilford, bought by Sir Thomas Phillipps at auction in December 1830. It includes a collection that North had acquired from the Bibliotheca Mattei in Rome.This list is separate from Phillipps's main catalogue, the Catalogus librorum, which is numbered 1-23837. The list is undated, but the paper is watermarked "1834", suggesting that it was printed soon after Phillipps's acquisition of the manuscripts. It appears that these items were never renumbered for inclusion in the main Catalogus.Frederick North (1766-1827) had gathered a substantial collection of manuscripts during his years of residence abroad, mainly in Corfu, the material mostly focusing on Italian history and literature. "He had planned to give his collections to the Ionian University of which he was the founder and first Chancellor, but died before he could put his plan into effect, and his heirs disposed of them in eight sales in London. At the sale of the manuscripts and from the booksellers subsequently Phillipps bought over 1,560 items from this library" (Munby, p. 43).Provenance: Martin Schøyen.

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