Edward Hannes came up to Christ Church in 1682, and took his BA in
1686, the year that he produced this catalogue. He presumably
offered it as a gift in lieu of the expected financial donation to
the library. In the same period, he was also making a reputation
for himself as one of Christ Church’s Latin poets. He received
his MA in 1689; the following year he was professor of chemistry,
but his later career was as a medic. It is not only the last leaf
that shows the continuing use of this catalogue. Only some of the
notes inserted at the versos were provided by Hannes at the time of
production (eg fol. 5v, 6v). Others are later additions, mainly by
Charles Brent.
Contents: Cataloguer's introductory note (f. 1r). Note to f. 4r (f.
3v). Greek coins (f. 4r). Roman republican coins (ff. 5r-8v). Roman
imperial coins (ff. 9r-53r). 'Nummi incerti' (ff. 56r-57r). Index
(f. 63r-63v). Additional entries (f. 65r).
Extent: ff. 65. 190 × 150 mm.
Layout: Unruled, the pages creased to create an offset column to
the left of the text, 20/24 mm. from the spine on the recto. The
column is reserved for the identification of the metal of the coin
and a number. The description then extends across the recto, nearly
to the fore-edge.
Hand: Written in one italic script with some secretary
letter-forms.
Binding: Leather over pasteboards, sewn on four thongs, with a
simple pattern of fillets forming a rectangle with a fleuron at
each corner. End-bands in orange and green. Marks of a chain staple
on upper board towards lower part of fore-edge.
Location note: On deposit at the Ashmolean Museum, Heberden Coin
Archive, as Arch. Coll. 10.
Additional information: For a detailed description by David Rundle
and other recent updates, please see
www.chch.ox.ac.uk/library-and-archives/digital-library.
Provenance: The catalogue gives evidence of the changing shape of
the collection, both with the small donations mentioned on the last
leaf, and in annotations to the main listing. Some of the notes
inserted at the versos were provided by Hannes at the time of
production (eg fol. 5v, 6v) but others are later additions, mainly
by Charles Brent. Rare interventions are by another contemporary
hand in pencil (eg fol. 12v, 29v). The marks of a chain-staple
visible on the upper board inform us that the catalogue was stored
in the library, where the coins themselves were then kept. In 1940,
the coin collection was placed on deposit with the Ashmolean Museum
and the papers relating to the collection, including this catalogue
(like Christ Church MS 691), migrated with it. It was given its
present shelfmark in April 2018.
