BOUND MANUSCRIPTS
Finding Aid for the Bound Manuscripts.
Middle Eastern Manuscripts: An interesting sample of Arabic and Persian manuscripts contribute to the library's non-European holdings and includes among other works several nineteenth century copies of the Qur'an, a sixteenth century copy of the Rubay-iyat of Omar Khayyam, 'Ali ibn Ani Talib's Kitab nahj' al-balaghah (1662), the "Diary of a journey from Damascus to Istanbul" (1768), the Gulistan-I Sa'di (1799) and Huseyin ibn Isma'il's Mecu'a-'I Vefeyat (1919).
Mediaeval and Renaissance Manuscripts: Chief among these treasures of European art and literature is the Codex Torontonensis, a copy of the four gospels, penned in Byzantium around the year 1050, and still in its original boards; several mediaeval breviaries and Books of Hours from France, Germany, and the Netherlands; fourteenth century French and English legal texts; a 1407 copy of Albertus de Saxonia's Questiones in Aristotelis De coelo; a 1507 copy of Bernardo de Avancino's Rime istoriche de fatti di Giulio PP. II.; a fifteenth century copy of Fiocco's Fenestella de Romanorum magistratibus; and Ricius' De regibus Galliae, Hispaniae . (1503). Many of these works remain in their original bindings and provide excellent examples for the study of the development of print culture, and the various media used to communicate thought.
Early Modern European Manuscripts: This heading covers bound manuscript items originating from continental Europe and the British Isles from approximately 1600 to 1800. Areas of concentration include legal texts, Slavic liturgical books, astrological, medical, philosophical, scientific, and theological treatises, as well as commonplace books, cook books, lecture notes, prose and poetry, and travel journals. Among the more important items are the Galileo collection of manuscripts, including several holographs belonging to the scientist himself, and other works from the pens of his contemporaries and associates. The theological and scriptural concerns of the Reformed Protestant tradition are well represented in the Forbes Collection, while early modern medicine is reflected in the lecture notes, casebooks, and handbooks of the Hannah Collection. The Stanton Collection is a rich resource for anyone interested in Portuguese poetry, prose, and history. De Gouvea's 1664 Asia extrema, for example, details the activities of the Portuguese Jesuits in China, and is written on Chinese paper. Isaac de Sequeyra Samuda's Viriadas, a mid-eighteenth century poem devoted to the struggle of the Lusitanians against the Romans, is a remarkable example of the Portuguese tradition of epic poetry, with this example written in 1465 stanzas.
Medieval and Early Modern Hebrew Manuscripts.
The Library possesses a small but significant collection of Hebrew manuscripts, most of them in the Friedberg Collection of Hebraica. Among the most important are a tenth century copy of Halakhot pesukot, a legal compendium, fragments of the Mishnah and Talmud from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, several Bibles, including a complete Pentateuch (tenth-twelfth centuries) and a complete Bible (Toledo, 1308), a nearly complete manuscript of the Zohar (fifteenth century), several Rashi manuscripts (thirteenth to fourteenth centuries), and other biblical, legal, grammatical, philosophical and liturgical texts. There is also a small collection of Genizah fragments and a collection of Yemenite manuscripts, mainly of biblical and liturgical texts, dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. One final item of interest is an eighteenth century scroll of the Tikkun Leil Shavuot, a liturgy devised for the first night of the feast of Shavuot (Weeks), consisting of excerpts from the Pentateuch meant to be read by those participating in an all-night study vigil commemorating the receiving of the Torah, celebrated on that holiday.
Modern European Manuscripts: The library also has a fine representation of manuscripts from continental Europe and the British Isles dating from approximately 1800 to the present. Principal areas of concentration include works of heraldry and genealogy, literary drafts, poetry, travel diaries, legal documents, scrapbooks, lecture notes, and collections of correspondence. Handwritten treatises and notes, such as those dealing with nineteenth century midwifery and the treatment of women's ailments, convey an immediacy of insight into the medical concerns of the period. Among the more noteworthy literary treasures is the hand-corrected typescript of D.H. Lawrence's Women in love, and corrected proofs for three of Charles Darwin's books. In a direct line with the masters of mediaeval illumination, the library also boasts Alberto Sangorsky's richly decorated 1916 copy of Robert Browning's poem, In a Gondola.
Canadian Manuscripts: The Fisher Library makes every effort to extend the knowledge of Canadian cultural materials, including the manuscripts of Canadians. Besides holograph copies of works by Susanna Moodie and Stephen Leacock, the collection also includes the records of industry, such as John Leitch's "Records of ships built by Collingwood Shipyards Ltd, 1902-1943", the 1858 Hudson's Bay Company "Servants' debt book" from Temiscamingue, the 1894 plans for the Hanlan Hotel Property on Toronto Island, Mcnab's "Historical narrative of the inception and development of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada", and the Letterbook belonging to Hamilton's Kennedy, Parker & Co., a nineteenth century firm that imported English, French and American dry goods. The natural history of the country is also well-documented in items such as Bransby's "Watercolours of Canadian Wildflowers" which covers the period from 1915-1920; William Colgate's "Botanical Notebook" for the years 1913-1923; and Robert Merriman's "Bird Journal" (1921-1934). Also included are numerous historical manuscripts, including Matthew Cocking and Samuel Hearne's journals describing their respective travels, LuSueur's "Life of William Lyon Mackenzie", Dr John Meig's account book and record of treatment from Stanstead, Quebec (1837-1838), as well as World War I diaries.
