Richard Rouse, UCLA professor emeritus of history, and Mary Rouse, former editor of Viator and, with Richard, author of five books and numerous articles on medieval manuscripts and libraries, have given the first installment of their collection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts to the Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections. The gift of 113 manuscripts, 78 manuscript leaves and documents includes examples of nearly every type of manuscript and offers scholars a broad picture of manuscript culture in the later Middle Ages and Renaissance.

"We are deeply honored by the gift of this stunning collection from Richard and Mary Rouse," said University Librarian Gary E. Strong. "Its contents will be invaluable to researchers exploring the history of the book and printing as well as subjects ranging from literature to science."

Individual items come from Bohemia, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, with texts in Latin as well as in Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian and Middle English. They cover subjects including history, law, medicine, music, pastoral care, philosophy, science and theology. The earliest item dates from the ninth century and the latest from the 17th century, with the majority coming from the period 1200 to 1500.

"Having studied and written about the production of medieval manuscripts and about the libraries through which they passed, we feel that we are very fortunate to have been able to form a collection of medieval manuscripts ourselves," the Rouses said. "We have always shared its contents with our students and wish that it continue to be useful for teaching as well as for research. It is a pleasure for us to know that our gift will be cared for at UCLA. And we look forward to adding to it."

Among the more remarkable manuscripts in the gift is an illuminated parchment roll eight feet long containing the genealogy of the kings of England from Aethelbert, first king of Kent (589–610), to Richard II (1377–99). It was written in England shortly after Richard II's accession and probably was meant to be displayed on a wall.

The collection contains a number of significant individual sheets. Among these is a rare survival of a German calligrapher's advertisement dated 1568 including, next to a text written in a flamboyant script brushed with gold, the Lord's Prayer written in German in a space the size of a nickel to show off the calligrapher's skill.

The gift also includes a number of charters and a substantial number of leaves from 12th‑ and 13th-century manuscripts that were cut up and recycled as binding reinforcement and pastedowns in early printed books.

Illuminated manuscripts are represented in both codices and leaves, including the work of two 13th-century Italian illuminators of Bibles, the late-14th-century Italian painter known as the Master of the Brussels Initials and the Genoese painter Ugo Alexandrinus. Examples of illuminations from England, France, Germany and the Netherlands also are included.

Almost every manuscript in the collection illustrates some aspect of manuscript production, since that was a theme of the Rouses' graduate teaching, research and publication during their long careers at UCLA. Significant among these are an Italian bifolium from the early 14th century with a corrector's record of payment in the margin and an early 13th-century collection of sermons in unbound, unsewn quires to show the leaves of a manuscript as a scribe would assemble it. A rare itemized account on the back of a charter records the cost to the donor of the parchment, the ruling and the writing. An official manuscript, perhaps unique, of a grant in 1467 by Louis XI permits the booktrade confraternity to raise their annual dues after the Hundred Years' War to meet the expenses resulting from the "great wars famines, deaths, and other pestilences in our said city of Paris."

Many of the manuscripts in the gift can be seen in the online exhibit of selections from the Rouse Collection at http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/rouse/rouseindex.htm.

About the Department of Special Collections

The UCLA Department of Special Collections was created in 1946 to administer the UCLA Library's rare and unique materials in the humanities and social sciences. Recognized today as one of the country's top special-collections departments, it is supported by the circulating holdings of the Charles E. Young Research Library, where the department now resides.

The department provides primary resources for instruction and research in the humanities and social sciences. The principal academic programs it serves are art history; classics; comparative literature; English; French; Germanic languages; history; Italian; lesbian, gay and bisexual studies; Near Eastern languages and cultures; philosophy; political science; sociology; urban planning; and world arts and cultures.

The department's collections and programs encompass rare books and pamphlets from the 15th through the 20th centuries; extensive manuscript holdings; drawings, including original architectural drawings; early maps and atlases; and photographs, prints and paintings.

Collections also contain artifacts, audiotape and videotape recordings, oral history transcripts, phonograph records, postcards, and posters.

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