19 May 2017

The Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts Given by John Claymond

John Claymond (d.1537), first President of Corpus Christi College,
as depicted on his funerary brass in the College Chapel
Books in Hebrew in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, fall into three groups. There are miscellaneous printed books acquired at a variety of dates ranging from the first years of the College's existence, to 21st-century electronic versions. There are also a few miscellaneous manuscripts acquired from various sources, mostly before the 18th century. For the present we will look at the third, most important, group: the seven 13th-century English manuscripts given to the College by John Claymond, the first President. They have been described as "the most important collection of Anglo-Hebrew manuscripts in the world".

Each of these seven deserves a separate blog post, but we will provide here a brief overview.