A Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts in the University Library, Aberdeen ISBN: 9780511920127 Platform/Publisher: Cambridge Core / Cambridge University Press Digital rights:Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited
M. R. James (1862-1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and later as Provost of Eton. His detailed descriptive catalogues of manuscripts owned by colleges, cathedrals and museums are still sought after by scholars today. This catalogue, originally published in 1932, describes just over 80 medieval manuscripts. Thirty of them, mostly later medieval works on canon law or the history of Aberdeen, came to the library from King's College. The remainder, many from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and regarded as more important by James, belong to the Marischal College collection, which originated in a 1624 bequest and contains several manuscripts formerly owned by St Paul's Cathedral, London. James describes their structure, content, provenance and decoration, and the book is illustrated by 27 plates.
M. R. James was born in Goodnestone, Kent, England on August 1, 1862. He was an English mediaeval scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905-1918) and of Eton College (1918-1936). He is best remembered for his ghost stories which are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature.
He began writing his ghost stories as an entertainment for his friends; he would read these stories each year at Christmas to his colleagues at King's College. The earliest of these tales include Canon Alberic's Scrap-book and Lost Hearts, both of which were later collected in his first anthology of supernatural fiction, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904). Perhaps his single greatest story is the profoundly disturbing Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad (1904). He died on June 12, 1936.
