MS. Add. A. 89 - Thirty-Nine Sermons or Drafts of Sermons

GEMMS Manuscript ID
GEMMS-MANUSCRIPT- 265
(old series: GEMMS-MANUSCRIPT-118)
Title
Thirty-Nine Sermons or Drafts of Sermons
Shelfmark
MS. Add. A. 89
Creation Date
ca. 1595 - 1625
Repository
Bodleian Library
Contents Note

The Bodleian Catalogue notes that these sermons are in English and Latin. The manuscript contains Oxford bidding prayers (f.224v) along with some Latin disputations (likely the Latin materials on ff. 225r-227v and f. 224r). Many of the sermons in this manuscript begin in English but conclude in Latin. The Latin is sometimes (but not always) an added prayer.

Material Features

The manuscript comprises 246 leaves, in a cloth case. The outside of the cover states, "Volume of MS. Sermons of Dr. South's," but the Bodleian cataloguer regards this ascription as "absurd," since South lived from 1643 until 1716. From f. 198r on, the sermons are copied from the other end of the book and are written upside down.

Associated People
Provenance

The Bodleian cataloguer conjectures that the sermons may have been written by a Westminster and Christ Church man, attached perhaps as chaplain to Archbishop Tobie Matthew at both Durham and York. The Bodleian cataloguer conjectures that the author may be John Calf hill (Calfield) (d. 1619) who was perhaps Archbishop Matthew's cousin. However, Rosamund Oates has recently made the argument that this sermon notebook was created by Tobie Matthew for himself and his chaplains, and that the scribe was most likely a secretary of Matthew's. See Rosamund Oates, Moderate Radical: Tobie Matthew and the English Reformation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), ch. 3.

Acquisition

The Bodleian bought these sermons for 10 pounds on December 15, 1864, from E. Rimmell as Tobie Matthew's autograph sermons.

Source of Data

Jeanne Shami; Lucy Busfield; Bodleian Library Summary Catalogue, vol. 5; Rosamund Oates, Moderate Radical: Tobie Matthew and the English Reformation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), ch. 3.

Sermons Contained
GEMMS record created
November 28, 2015
GEMMS record last edited
July 15, 2024