Manuscripts

Shahnameh

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Description: A 17th century Persian copy of Shahnameh or Book of Kings, a Persian epic poem by Firdawsī. With 70 full-page paintings, and 4 chapter-headings in blue and gold heightened with rose.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 17th century
Call number: mssHM 53
Creator: Firdawsī(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Provenance unknown. In library as of February 1931. Volume has two bookplates: "Ex Libris Robert Hoe" and "Bateman of Middleton Hall by Youlgrave in the County of Derby." It is presumed that Henry E. Huntington purchased this in the Robert Hoe sale, 1911-1912.

Leaf from the Qur'an and one leaf from a Persian poem

Manuscripts

One illuminated calligraphy leaf from the Qur'an, in Arabic with red interlineations translating the text into Persian (Farsi), with an autograph date of circa 1790 in pencil. One illuminated leaf of a Persian poem: "Poem on Beauty and Love," in Arabic, with gold decoration, dated 1265 A. H. [1847].

mssHM 64536-64537

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Omeros

Rare Books

A poem in seven books, of circular narrative design, titled with the Greek name for Homer, which simultaneously charts two currents of history: the visible history charted in events -- the tribal losses of the American Indian, the tragedy of African enslavement -- and the interior, unwritten epic fashioned from the suffering of the individual in exile.

660861

[Piers Plowman; Mandeville; Troilus; etc., middle of the 15th century]

Manuscripts

Collection of Middle English texts, comprised of Langland's Piers Plowman in the B-text with substantial readings from A and C; a defective version, subgroup B, of Mandeville's Travels; the Middle English poem Susannah; "The legend of the Three Kings" an excerpt from John of Hildesheim's Historia Trium Regum; Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde; and a translation of Peter Ceffons' Epistola Luciferi ad Cleros.

mssHM 114

[Brut chronicle, middle of the 15th century]

Manuscripts

A legendary and historical chronicle of England named after its first hero, Brutus, a descendent of Aeneas and the epic founder of Britain. It begins with Brutus' conquest of Albion and continues through the death of Henry V and the assumption of the crown by Henry VI. Also includes an epitome of English history, a prophecy and medical recipes.

mssHM 136

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The Uruguay (a historical romance of South America) : the Sir Richard F. Burton translation, Huntington Library manuscript HM 27954

Rare Books

"The Brazilian epic poem 'O Uraguai,' first published in Lisbon in 1769, caught the imagination of Sir Richard F. Burton during his service as Her Majesty's consul in Santos between 1865 and 1868. The great translator of the 'Arabian Nights' and of Camoen's 'Lusiads' saw in this poem a tragic depiction of the theme of cultural conflict so prominent in his own work. Burton's verse translation, both a faithful rendering of the original and a worthy achievement in its own right, is still the sole English version. This edition finally brings the translation to light...This edition is based on the manuscript now in the Huntington Library. It includes the translator's preface, his biography of Gama, and his critical analysis of the poem, along with the original Portuguese text. An introduction by the editors discusses the historical and literary context of the poem and relates the curious history of the manuscript, revealing new aspects of the life and thought of the most famous translator in modern British letters"--dust jacket.

635941

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Pescador : poem

Manuscripts

Poem entitled "Pescador," and a note by "Santiago" (presumably the author of the poem) to "Ysabelita" regarding the poem. With English transcription of poem and note.

mssHM 84257

Shahnameh

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Leaf from the Qur'an and one leaf from a Persian poem

Omeros

[Piers Plowman; Mandeville; Troilus; etc., middle of the 15th century]

[Brut chronicle, middle of the 15th century]

The Uruguay (a historical romance of South America) : the Sir Richard F. Burton translation, Huntington Library manuscript HM 27954

Pescador : poem