Editing Cotton library (section)

==History==
===Origins===
At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, official state records and important papers were poorly kept, and often retained privately, neglected or destroyed by public officers. 

The Cotton family were prominent in [[Shropshire]], and their seat at [[Alkington, Shropshire|Alkington]], and they were connected to the polymath and sixteenth century statesman [[Rowland Hill (MP)|Sir Rowland Hill]] who published the [[Geneva Bible]];<ref>{{Cite web |last=nortoninhales |date=2017-06-02 |title=History of Norton Parish |url=https://www.nortoninhales.org/single-post/2017/06/01/history-of-norton-parish |access-date=2023-11-20 |website=nortoninhales |language=en}}</ref> and by the seventeenth century Sir Robert Cotton came to hold, and subsequently bound, over a hundred volumes of official papers. There is a theory that the curious incident of the 1643 [[Wem#Civil_war|Battle of Wem]] was the output of concerns of both sides to secure the Library of Old Sir Rowland at [[Soulton Hall]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Radio Shropshire - Listen Live - BBC Sounds |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_shropshire |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=www.bbc.co.uk |language=en-GB}}</ref> 

By 1622, his house and library stood immediately north of the [[Houses of Parliament]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol3/pp491-502|title=Old and New London|publisher=Cassel, Petter & Galpin|year=1878|volume=3|location=London|pages=491–502|chapter=LVIII: The Royal Palace of Westminster|quote=Strype thus mentions Cotton House: "In the passage out of Westminster Hall into Old Palace Yard, a little beyond the stairs going up to St. Stephen's Chapel, now the Parliament House" (that is, the present House of Commons), "is the house belonging to the ancient and noble family of the Cottons, wherein is kept a most inestimable library of manuscript volumes found both at home and abroad." Sir Christopher Wren describes the house in his time as in "a very ruinous condition."}}</ref> and was a valuable resource and meeting-place not only for antiquarians and scholars but also for politicians and jurists of various persuasions, including [[Edward Coke|Sir Edward Coke]], [[John Pym]], [[John Selden]], [[John Eliot (statesman)|Sir John Eliot]], and [[Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford|Thomas Wentworth]].

Such important evidence was highly valuable at a time when the politics of the realm were historically disputed between king and Parliament. Sir Robert knew his library was of vital public interest and, although he made it freely available to consult, it made him an object of hostility on the part of the government.  On 3 November 1629 he was arrested for disseminating a pamphlet held to be seditious (it had actually been written fifteen years earlier by [[Robert Dudley (explorer)|Sir Robert Dudley]]) and the library was closed on this pretext. Cotton was released on 15 November and the prosecution abandoned the following May, but the library remained shut up until after Sir Robert's death; it was restored to his son and heir, [[Sir Thomas Cotton, 2nd Baronet, of Connington|Sir Thomas Cotton]], in 1633.<ref>{{Cite book|title=John Selden's Formative Years|last=Berkowitz|first=David Sandler|publisher=Folger|year=1988|isbn=978-0918016911|location=Washington|pages=268ff}}</ref>

Sir Robert's library included his collection of books, manuscripts, coins and medallions. After his death the collection was maintained and added to by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton (d. 1662), and grandson, Sir John Cotton (d. 1702).<ref name=":0" />

===Gift to the nation===
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = British Museum Act 1700
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of England
| long_title            = An Act for the better Settling and Preserving the Library kept in the House at Westminster, called Cotton-house, in the Name and Family of the Cottons, for the Benefit of the Publick.
| year                  = 1700
| citation              = [[13 & 14 Will. 3]]. c. 7
| territorial_extent    = [[England and Wales]]
| royal_assent          = 12 June 1701
| commencement          = 30 December 1701{{efn|name="start"|Start of session.}}
| repeal_date           = 30 July 1948
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = [[Statute Law Revision Act 1948]] 
| related_legislation   = {{ubli|[[British Museum Act 1706]]}}
| status                = Repealed
| original_text         = https://www.british-history.ac.uk/statutes-realm/vol7/pp642-643
| collapsed             = yes
}}
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = British Museum Act 1706 
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of England
| long_title            = An Act for the better securing her Majesty's Purchase of Cotton House in Westminster.
| year                  = 1706
| citation              = {{ubli|[[6 Ann.]] c. 30{{efn|This is the citation in ''[[The Statutes of the Realm]]''.}}|[[5 Ann.]] c. 30{{efn|This is the citation in ''[[The Statutes at Large]]''.}}}}
| territorial_extent    = [[England and Wales]]
| royal_assent          = 8 April 1707
| commencement          = 3 December 1706{{efn|name="start"}}
| repeal_date           = 30 July 1948
| repealing_legislation = [[Statute Law Revision Act 1948]]
| related_legislation   = {{ubli|[[British Museum Act 1700]]}}
| status                = Repealed
| original_text         = https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000033905846&seq=683
| collapsed             = yes
}}
Sir Robert's grandson, Sir John Cotton, donated the Cotton library to [[Great Britain]] upon his death in 1702. At this time, Great Britain did not have a national library, and the transfer of the Cotton library to the nation became the basis of what is now the [[British Library]].<ref name=":0" /> The early history of the collection is laid out in the introductory recitals to the British Museum Act 1700 ([[13 & 14 Will. 3]]. c. 7) that established statutory trusts for the Cotton library:

<blockquote>Sir Robert Cotton late of Connington in the County of Huntingdon Baronett did at his own great Charge and Expense and by the Assistance of the most learned Antiquaries of his Time collect and purchase the most useful Manuscripts Written Books Papers Parchments [Records] and other Memorialls in most Languages of great Use and Service for the Knowledge and Preservation of our Constitution both in Church and State which Manuscripts and other Writings were procured as well from Parts beyond the Seas as from severall Private Collectors of such Antiquities within this Realm [and] are generally esteemed the best Collection of its Kind now any where extant And whereas the said Library has been preserved with the utmost Care and Diligence by the late Sir Thomas Cotton Son of the said Sir Robert and by Sir John Cotton of Westminster now living Grandson of the said Sir Robert and has been very much augmented and enlarged by them and lodged in a very proper Place in the said Sir Johns ancient Mansion House at Westminster which is very convenient for that Purpose And whereas the said Sir John Cotton in pursuance of the Desire and Intentions of his said Father and Grandfather is content and willing that the said Mansion House and Library should continue in his Family and Name and not be sold or otherwise disposed or imbezled and that the said Library should be kept and preserved by the Name of the Cottonian Library for Publick Use & Advantage....<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/statutes-realm/vol7|title=Statutes of the Realm |publisher=Great Britain Record Commission|year=1820|editor-last=Raithby|editor-first=John|volume=7: 1695–1701|pages=642–643|chapter=An Act for the better settling and preserving the Library kept in the House at Westminster called Cotton House in the Name and Family of the Cottons for the Benefit of the Publick |type=Rot. Parl. 12 § 13 Gul. III. p. 1. n. 7|chapter-url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46991}}</ref></blockquote>

The acquisition of the collection was better secured and managed by the British Museum Act 1706 ([[6 Ann.]] c. 30),<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/pp63095177#page/n679/mode/2up An Act for the better securing Her Majesties Purchase of Cotton House in Westminster.]</ref> under which the trustees removed the collections from the ruinous Cotton House, whose site is now covered by the [[Houses of Parliament]]. It went first to [[Essex House (London)|Essex House]], [[Strand, London|The Strand]], which, however, was regarded as a fire risk; and then to [[Ashburnham House]], a little west of the Palace of Westminster. From 1707 the library also housed the [[Old Royal Library]] (now "Royal" manuscripts at the British Library). Ashburnham House also became the residence of the keeper of the king's libraries, [[Richard Bentley]] (1662–1742), a renowned theologian and classical scholar.

===Ashburnham House fire===
[[File:CottonGenesisFragment26vAbrahamAndAngels.JPG|thumb|right|The [[Cotton Genesis]] was badly damaged in the Ashburnam House fire.]]

On 23 October 1731, fire broke out in Ashburnham House, in which 13 manuscripts were lost, while over 200 others faced severe destruction and water damage.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.uky.edu/~kiernan/eBeo_archives/articles90s/ajp-pms.htm | title=Their Present Miserable State of Cremation }}</ref> Bentley escaped while clutching the priceless ''[[Codex Alexandrinus]]'' under one arm, a scene witnessed and later described in a letter to [[Charlotte Clayton, Baroness Sundon|Charlotte, Lady Sundon]], by [[Robert Freind]], headmaster of [[Westminster School]]. The manuscript of ''[[The Battle of Maldon]]'' was destroyed, and that of ''[[Beowulf]]'' was heavily damaged.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Library: An Illustrated History|last=Murray|first=Stuart A. P.|publisher=Skyhouse|year=2009|isbn=978-1616084530|location=Chicago}}</ref> Also severely damaged was the Byzantine [[Cotton Genesis]],<ref name=":0" /> the illustrations of which nevertheless remain an important record of Late Antique [[iconography]]. One of the collection's two original [[Exemplified copy|exemplifications]] of the 1215 [[Magna Carta]], ''Cotton Charter XIII.31A'', was shrivelled in the fire, and its seal badly melted.<ref name="mc">{{cite book |editor1-last=Breay |editor1-first=Claire |editor1-link=Claire Breay |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=Julian |title=Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy |publisher=The British Library |location=London |year=2015 |pages=66, 216–219 |isbn=978-0712357647 }}</ref>

[[Arthur Onslow]], [[Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)|Speaker of the House of Commons]], as one of the statutory trustees of the library, directed and personally supervised a remarkable programme of [[Conservation and restoration of parchment|restoration]] within the resources of his time. The published report of this work is of major importance in bibliography.<ref name="Commons1732">{{cite book|author=Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons|title=A Report from the Committee Appointed to View the Cottonian Library|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3pbAAAAQAAJ|year=1732|publisher=House of Commons}}</ref> Copies of some of the lost works had been made, and many of those damaged could be restored in the nineteenth century. However, these early conservation efforts were not always successful: bungled attempts to clean the Magna Carta exemplification rendered it largely illegible to the naked eye.<ref name="mc"/><ref>{{cite web |last=Duffy |first=Christina |title=Revealing the secrets of the burnt Magna Carta |url=http://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/revealing-the-secrets-of-the-burnt-magna-carta |publisher=British Library |access-date=13 October 2023 |archive-date=18 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160618145117/http://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/revealing-the-secrets-of-the-burnt-magna-carta |url-status=dead }}</ref> More recently, advances in [[multispectral]] photography have enabled imaging specialists at the [[British Library]] led by Christina Duffy to scan and upload images of previously illegible early English manuscripts damaged in the fire.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Duffy|first1=Christina|title=Revealing hidden information using multispectral imaging|url=http://blogs.bl.uk/collectioncare/2013/07/revealing-hidden-information-using-multispectral-imaging.html|website=British Library: Collection Care|access-date=18 September 2017}}</ref> Images will form part of [[Fragmentarium]] (Digital Research Laboratory for Medieval Manuscript Fragments),<ref>{{cite web|title=Digital Research Laboratory for Medieval Manuscript Fragments|url=http://fragmentarium.unifr.ch|website=Fragmentarium|access-date=18 September 2017}}</ref> an international collaboration of libraries and research institutions to catalogue and collate vulnerable manuscript fragments, making them available for research under a [[Creative Commons]] [[public domain license]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Dunning|first1=Andrew|title=Fragmentarium and the burnt Anglo-Saxon fragments|url=http://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2017/09/fragmentarium-and-the-burnt-anglo-saxon-fragments.html|website=British Library: Medieval Manuscripts|access-date=18 September 2017}}</ref>

===British Museum and Library===
In 1753 the Cotton library was transferred to the new [[British Museum]], under the Act of Parliament which established it.<ref name=":0" /> At the same time the [[Sloane Collection]] and [[Harley Collection]] were acquired and added, so that these three became the museum's three "foundation collections". The Royal manuscripts were donated by George II in 1757.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/manuscripts/closedcollections/index.html|title=Manuscripts: Closed Collections|website=British Library|access-date=2016-03-02}}</ref> In 1973 all these collections passed to the newly established British Library. The British Library continues to organise its Cottonian books according to the famous busts.<ref>Murray, Stuart. 2009. The library: an illustrated history. Chicago, ALA Editions</ref>