Hello from England, LMU!

The library is very happy to have a guest blogger this week, LMU senior Michael Madrinkian, who is writing to us from London:

Hello from England, LMU!  It’s my third day since coming here to research for my senior thesis.  I began work on the project at the beginning of the summer, and have finally made it here.  My research involves an anonymous, 16^th century manuscript, held by our own Hannon Library’s special collections.  The manuscript, entitled The Riche Cheyne, contains all of the Biblical books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.  The order of the verses, however, has been cleverly rearranged so that each verse has some connection to the verse before it, i.e. a common word or phrase. 

Although the Cheyne is dated 1589, there is no indication of who the author actually is.  On the cover there are the initials E. C., although there is no way to tell if they refer to the owner or the binder.  The only evidence of its provenance is a note pasted to the inside cover saying that it was “found” (probably meaning stolen) in St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.  The manuscript, which was acquired from some unknown donor, had been a mystery to the library for quite some time; no one even knew what was inside it, since it was written in old, Elizabethan shorthand that is extremely hard to decipher.  So, I decided to take up the challenge, and try to find out what this really was.  I spent the summer transcribing the script, and discovered what was inside for the first time.

As I was starting to investigate the origins of the manuscript, I realized that what I really needed was to go to where it all started, England, in order to carry out the research.  Since no grants were available, I presented my project to several different departments, asking for the funds for the trip.  Within a couple of months I had all the money I needed from both the Library and the Honors Program, and set out on a two-week voyage to England. 

I have now spent my first two-and-a-half days in Oxford, studying at the incredible Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.  Getting my Bodleian card, I went down through the long underground tunnel into the library’s new, sophisticated “Gladstone Link.”  I poured through books on bindings to see if I could find anything that seemed to match.   I also looked up famous book collectors from the Cheyne’s time period, looking for the E. C. initials.  But none of this work revealed anything useful.

I did have a theory that, because the manuscript was religious and highly academic, the writer was probably some kind of religious official.  I went into the Bodleian’s stunning Duke Humphry’s special collections library, with vaulting wooden ceilings and walls filled with ancient books as far as the eye can see.   There I found microfilms (manuscript images on a film reel) of the Episcopal Registers of all the English Bishops through the Renaissance.   Looking at their handwriting, I tried to find a match for the Cheyne.  Several handwriting samples from the late 16^th century period were surprisingly similar, but none of them seemed to be an exact match.  What that did tell me, however, was that I was very likely correct in assuming that it was a religious official, and was on the right track.

Finished for now in Oxford, I am making my way towards London…

If you're interested in taking a look at The Riche Cheyne for yourself, you can come to the Department of Archives & Special Collections, located on Level 3 of the William H. Hannon Library.  All you need to do is make an appointment by phone (310-338-5710), email (Special.Collections@lmu.edu), or in person, one business day in advance, and bring a photo ID!

Comments

[Kristine Brancolini]

Hi Michael: Thanks for the update on your trip! We are extremely grateful for your interest in the library's mystery manuscript. I hope that you are successful in your quest to discover the author of The Riche Cheyne, but whatever the outcome it will have been an academic adventure! Can't wait for your next report...

[Heather Wolfe]

The Folger Shakespeare Library has a similar work: Folger MS V.a.519 (http://shakespeare.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=185247). We will compare the hand in the image above to our copy!