David Swan's "Bibliotheca Swaniana"

The identity of the owner of this collection was a mystery until Scot McKendrick found that one of several 'Bibliotheca Swaniana' manuscripts in the Burney collection at the British Library bears the name David Swan in the same handwriting. They typically have a description of a front flyleaf, parchment flyleaves with horizontal red lines, and tree-calf bindings. All seem to have a date in the early 1790s:

Manuscripts from the collection include:

• ? Bloomington, Indiana, Lilly Library: Bible, s. xiii, Bibliotheca Swaniana 1793; olim C. L. Ricketts MS. 6 (de Ricci, Census, p. 618)
• Durham, University Library, Add. MS. 754: Poor Caitiff, c.1400-1425. 'Bibliotheca Swaniana 1792'
• Livorno, Biblioteca dei Cappuccini, Ar.8.10; Noted Missal, s.xi2; "Bibliotheca Swaniana - 1792"
• London
  • BL
    • Add MS 15334
    • Burney MS. 13
    • Burney MS. 216
    • 
      
  • ?? Christie's, 25 June 1986, lot 212: Cicero and Sallust
  • St. Peter upon Cornhill (on deposit since 1948 at the Guildhall Library as MS 4158^A): Bible, s. xiii/xiv; gilt tree-calf binding; Bibliotheca Swaniana 1791 (see Ker, MMBL, I, pp. 262-3).
  • Sotheby's, 26/1/59 lot 53: Augustine, Sermons, etc.
  • Sotheby's, 15/6/59, lot 149
• New York
  • Public Library, MS 134: New Testament, s. xiii, bound in red velvet; Bibliotheca Swaniana 1790; formerly Wilberforce Eames, MS 10 (de Ricci, Census, p. 2314; Supplement,p. 315)
  • Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.519: Reginald Peacock, The rule of Christian religion, 1443, bound in English tree calf c.1790; sold by King, London, 17 March 1799, lot 68 (de Ricci, Census, p. 1465)
• Oxford
  • Bodleian
    • MS. Lyell 21: Ranulf Higden, Polychronicon, s. xiv-xv, bound in late 18th-cent. tree calf; Bibliotheca Swaniana 1792
    • MS Lat. th. e. 38; Miscellaneous theological tracts; s. xii2'Bibliotheca Swaniana 1792'
• Paris, BnF n.a.l. 694 (olim Phillipps 23241), Quintillian etc.; Bibliotheca Swaniana 1793
• Princeton University, MS Kane 50: Boethius, De arithmetica, de musica, de geometria, s. xii-xiii, bound in English tree calf; Bibliotheca Swaniana 1793; formerly Grenville Kane MS 50 (de Ricci, Census, p. 1898)

Whereabouts unknown
• olim Duke of Sussex Collection, Glossed Canonical Epistles, 13th/14th cent.; Bibliotheca Swaniana, 1794

Souces checked:

• Ker, MMBL, I-IV
• Bodleian, Sum. cat.
• Lyell cat.
• P&A, A&T
• Wormald & Giles
• Hunterian, Glory of the page
• de Ricci, Census, and Supplement
• Beinecke cat., I-III
• Houghton cat., I
• Newberry cat.
• LOC cat., I-II
• Huntington cat.
• Claremont colleges cat.
• UCLA cat.
• Notre Dame cat.
• New Zealand cat.
• Australia cat.
• Bodmeriana, MSS francais cat.