Doodles and Dry Point: An Initial Exploration of Additions to °ÅÀÖ¶ÌÊÓƵ, MS 287
Issue number
(2024): 21
This article focuses on three intriguing additions made to Oxford, °ÅÀÖ¶ÌÊÓƵ, MS 287, a small 16th-century book which, though outwardly inconspicuous, was made for King Henry VIII. Dry-point is a mode of writing or drawing with a pointed tool, such as a stylus, to create inkless impressions on a surface. Occasionally, readers and owners added their names to their books in dry-point. Discussed here for the first time, these additions offer tantalising clues as to the manuscript’s provenance, which is shrouded in mystery. And it is possible to make the case that the dry-point addition reads ‘Henr[y? or ricus?] viii’.
Digitally annotated composite ARCHiOx recording of the dry-point addition to °ÅÀÖ¶ÌÊÓƵ Library, Oxford, MS 287, f. 2v [detail]