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Sixteenth-century materials at the Huntington are embedded in an extensive and varied collection that ranges from medieval times to the present and encompasses political and social history, literature, science, art, cartography, and bibliography. Although Continental and Latin American materials may be found in the Library, particularly in the history of science and cartography, the primary emphasis is Anglo-American. The core collections were acquired during Henry E. Huntington’s brief but spectacular collecting career, which began in 1904 and ended with his death in 1927. Three of the collections purchased during this time form the heart of the Library’s sixteenth-century manuscript holdings:

Huntington Library ms. HM 160 fol. 29. Reproduced by permission of the Huntington Library

• Hastings Family Papers (ca. 50,000 pieces; ca. 1100-1892). The collection documents the history of an important Midlands family. Estate papers, accounts, court records, household books, inventories, and correspondence are included. The correspondence has been microfilmed by Harvester Microform and the handlists published by the List and Index Society (Special series, v. 22). A representative selection of manuscripts from the collection was calendared in four volumes by the Historical Manuscripts Commission in 1928-47 as Report on the Manuscripts of the Late Reginald Rawdon Hastings.
• Egerton Family Papers (ca. 13,000 pieces; ca. 1150-1803; also referred to as the Ellesmere manuscripts). The Bridgewater House Library, of which the Egerton Family papers form a part, was assembled by Sir Thomas Egerton, Baron Ellesmere, the sixteenth-century jurist and statesman, and his descendents. Special strengths of the collections are literary manuscripts and political and legal papers, including notes of materials that no longer survive, such as the Henrician Council Registers. Copies of the 10-volume handlist have been deposited at the Cambridge University Library and at the British National Archives.
• Stowe Collection (ca. 350,000 pieces; ca. 1175-1919). Papers of the Grenville, Temple, Nugent, and Brydges families. The sixteenth-century portion documents the Temple family’s transition from yeomanry to gentry. In-house cards and handlists provide access to this massive collection.

Significant single manuscripts from the period include a number of commonplace books (microfilmed by Adam Matthews Publications) and plays. Some highlights of the play collection are the Towneley Cycle (late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century), the Chester mystery cycle (1591), and Bale’s autograph of King Johan (ca. 1538, ca. 1558-1560). The Library also has an important collection of portolan atlases, most notably the Vallard atlas of 1547. The archives of Battle Abbey contain both pre- and post-dissolution materials that are useful for the study of land tenure and paleography.

Among the Huntington’s rare book collections, the incunables and the early English books are well known to scholars, and images of many of the Huntington copies are available through the Early English Books microfilm set or Early English Books Online. However, it is less well-known that of the 11,000 sixteenth-century printed books at the Huntington, about 6500 are Continental, with about 2500 coming from Italy and about 1400 from France. Substantial additions to this collection were made with the recent acquisition of the Francis Bacon Library (which contained 132 sixteenth-century books as well as some Bacon manuscripts) and the Burndy Library of the History of Science and Technology (with about 700 sixteenth-century books, mostly Continental). The Library continues to actively pursue both print and manuscript materials in the period; legal history and the history of science are special areas of interest.

The Library’s manuscript holdings are described in the following published catalogues:

• Guide to British Historical Manuscripts in the Huntington Library. (San Marino: The Huntington, 1982)
• Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library. (San Marino: The Huntington, 1989)

Some of the materials listed in these catalogues are also represented in the online catalogue at catalog.huntington.org, along with items more recently added to the collections. All of the Library’s printed books are also represented in the online catalogue, and the English titles have been reported to the English Short Title Catalogue. Applications for reading privileges may be found at www.huntington.org/LibraryDiv/MainLibadmit.htm.