Henry Bradshaw

Henry Bradshaw (2 February 1831 – 10 February 1886) was a British scholar and librarian.

Henry Bradshaw was born in London, England, the son of Joseph Hoare Bradshaw, a banker. He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow in 1853. After a brief spell from 1854 to 1856 as an Assistant Master at Saint Columba's College, Dublin, he accepted an appointment in the Cambridge University Library as an extra assistant.

Bibliographical work When he found that his official duties absorbed all his leisure he resigned his post, but continued to give his time to the examination of the manuscripts and early printed books in the library. There was then no complete catalogue of these sections, and Bradshaw soon showed a rare faculty for investigations respecting old books and curious manuscripts.

Celtic and Waldensian texts In addition to his achievements in black-letter bibliography he threw great light on ancient Celtic language and literature by the discovery, in 1857, of the Book of Deer, a manuscript copy of the Gospels in the Vulgate version, in which were inscribed old Gaelic charters. This was published by the Spalding Club in 1869. Bradshaw also discovered some Celtic glosses on the manuscript of a metrical paraphrase of the Gospels by Juvencus. He made another find in the Cambridge library of considerable philological and historical importance; Cromwell's envoy, Sir Samuel Morland (1625–1695), had brought back from Piedmont manuscripts containing the earliest known Waldensian records, consisting of translations from the Bible, religious treatises and poems. One of the poems referred to the beginning of the 11th century, though the manuscripts did not appear to be of earlier date than the 15th century. On this Morland had based his theory of the antiquity of the Waldensian doctrine, and, in the absence of the manuscripts, which were supposed to be irretrievably lost, the conclusion was accepted. Bradshaw discovered the manuscripts in the university library, and found in the passage indicated traces of erasure. The original date proved to be 1400. Incidentally the correct date was of great value in the study of the history of the language.

Administration

Bradshaw allowed his attention to be divided over many areas, and wrote little that has lasted. He was elected (1867) university librarian, and as dean of his college (1857–1865) and praelector (1863–1868) he was involved in further routine duties. Besides his discoveries in bibliography, he improved the standard of library administration. His papers on antiquarian subjects were edited by Francis John Henry Jenkinson in 1889.