u/BuckyRainbowCat

Everyone always asks about the Library of Alexandria, but I’m interested in a different and more recent library fire. Sir Robert Cotton’s manuscript collection famously formed the nucleus of what is today the British Library. At some point, it was stored in the perhaps-too-aptly-named Ashburnham House, where it suffered a fire. Some manuscripts survived with fire damage, most famously perhaps the one containing Beowulf, but others were lost completely. Are there records of what was lost? Do we know if the contents of any of the lost manuscripts had been transcribed or summarized elsewhere prior to the fire?