| Level | Series |
| Finding Number (Click this to view full catalogue structure) | CMS/MS |
| Title | CMS manuscript collection |
| Extent | 56 items |
| Date | [17th century]-[c 1897] |
| Description | Bibles, prayer books, and other Christian literature written in languages other than English. Also including an illuminated Qur'an, English translations of works written in other languages, grammars, vocabularies, notes and reference works.
Twelve of the items, all relating to Kiswahili language, are known collectively as the 'Sparshott manuscripts' (/MS 5-16). [Rev Thomas Henry Sparshott, CMS missionary to East Africa].
Associated languages: Amharic; [?Arabic]; Chinese; English; Ethiopic; Fulah; Galla; Haida; Hausa; Hebrew; Kiswahili; Luganda, Nyika; Nupe; Hausa; Tamil; Taveta; Timneh; [?Turkish Arabic]; Vei; Yoruba. |
| Arrangement | The manuscripts are held as one series under a single running number sequence. Several Persian manuscripts originally held as part of this sequence are not available for consultation in Cadbury Research Library as they were passed to the India Office Library (now British Library: Asian and African Studies, GB 059). The original numbering of the sequence has been retained and so there are now gaps in the numbering where the following manuscripts no longer form part of this series ([information supplied from the CMS catalogue 'Catalogue of series of Manuscripts' compiled by Rosemary Keen, CMS Archivist].
The following items are no longer held as part of the CMS manuscripts collection:
CMS/MS29: Persian manuscript, 1879/1880: relating to Sir Ronald Thomson, British Ambassador to Persia [Iran] about negotiations with Mirza Hasain Khan; possibly concerning limitations of boundary after the Afghan war 1879-1880: A. H. 1297;
CMS/MS38: Persian manuscript, nd: Martyn's translation of bible;
CMS/MS45-48 [Persian manuscript said to be by Henry Martyn]: Genesis; Exodus; Jeremiah and Lamentations; Habakkuk - Malachi ; includes an Arabian Nights type story in front of MS 45 (4 volumes) |
| Access Conditions | Some material is closed for conservation reasons. Details are given in the catalogue at file level. |
| Access Status | Partially closed |
| Related Material | CMS/G/Y/A5/21: the Kenya Mission correspondence in the records of the CMS General Secretary's Department includes material relating to languages of East Africa, T. H. Sparshott, Johannes Rebmann and Ludwig Krapf. |