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	Morrison's Manuscript Catalogue	PAGES Table of Contents History of Collection Description of Collection Morrison's MS Catalogue Williams Report UCL Shelfmark Index Catalogue Addenda Lost and Found Subject Index Title Index Name Index Preface Index Imprint Index

Index of Catalogue Numbers

Notes

This page provides an index of the sequential catalogue numbers (referred to as 'RM' numbers) that seem to represent the earliest attempt to catalogue Morrison's collection of Chinese books.

These numbers, which range from "1" through "916" are found on the covers of most of the items in the Morrison Collection, as well as being recorded against the appropriate entries in Morrison's Manuscript Catalogue.

The numbers found on the covers of the actual Morrison Collection books were written in by John Williams (1797-1874) in 1854, when he was employed by University College London to produce a report on the contents of the Morrison Chinese Library (the handwriting of the numbers matches that of catalogue slips produced by Williams for some of the items in the collection). In contrast, the catalogue numbers recorded against the entries in Morrison's Manuscript Catalogue are in an unknown hand, neither that of Morrison or Williams, and seem to have been added to the catalogue sometime during the period that the Morrison Collection was housed at UCL. It is clear that Williams did not devise the system of catalogue numbers himself, as in a number of instances he notes "n.c." ("not in catalogue") on an item instead of the appropriate catalogue number, when in fact Morrison's Manuscript Catalogue does include a corresponding title entry and catalogue number. On the other hand, it is equally clear that Williams cannot have used the extant manuscript catalogue as his only source for these numbers, as Morrison's Manuscript Catalogue does not provide an accurate inventory of all the possible numbers between 1 and 916: six titles in the catalogue have numbers which are incorrect (conflict with the numbers of other titles), whereas the actual books give the correct numbers; eight titles have no number, whereas the actual books do have numbers (nos.163, 199, 244, 280, 305, 404, 405, 796); three books have numbers (nos.187, 450, 797), whereas neither the numbers or the titles are recorded in the catalogue; and eight numbers are neither present in the catalogue or on any of the extant books (nos.117, 195, 275, 434, 486, 716, 907, 912). This suggests that Williams derived the 'RM' numbers from a catalogue other than the extant manuscript catalogue compiled by Morrison (MS 80823). I believe that Williams's source for the catalogue numbers was the now lost catalogue that Morrison is recorded to having been preparing for publication during his sojourn in England between 1824 and 1825 (see Memoirs of the Life and Labours of Robert Morrison vol.2 pp.295-296). The fifty or so catalogue slips prepared by Williams generally follow the descriptions given by Morrison in the extant manuscript catalogue, and may well have been copied out by Williams from entries in the lost draft publication catalogue.

In general, the 916 'RM' numbers each represent a different work or a distinct edition of the same work, with duplicate copies of the same edition sharing the same number. However, there are some exceptions, where different editions of a work are given the same number, or duplicate copies of the same edition are given different numbers.

In the index below, the "Morrison Catalogue Entry" column gives the Chinese title of the entry, the keyword under which the title is entered (in parentheses), and the catalogue number of the entry (in square brackets). The "Identification" column gives the callmark of any items that can be identified with the catalogue entry, and, if present, the catalogue number written on the cover by Williams is given in square brackets (some items have "n.c.", being Williams' abbreviation for "not in the catalogue").

The following appendices are provided :

1. Identified Titles with Unknown RM Number
2. Unidentified Titles
3. Unidentified Roman Catholic Titles
4. Non-Existant Titles

The table below lists the eight titles recorded in MS 80823 that have been identified in the SOAS collection, but for which the original sequential catalogue number is neither noted in the manuscript catalogue, nor recorded on the front cover of the actual items (or the front cover has been lost).

This table lists those titles recorded in MS80823 that have not yet been identified, excluding unidentified Roman Catholic titles.

This table lists those seven titles recorded in MS80823 as Roman Catholic publications. None of these items have yet been identified.

This table lists those titles which are recorded in MS80823, but which either never belonged to Morrison's collection, or which were returned to China or Malacca whilst Morrison was still alive.