In the north-east corner of St. Mary's Church, a church full of
nooks little known to ordinary visitors, is a dark vaulted chamber
(dark, because its windows have been built up), whose doors,
when opened, only now reveal the abiding-place of the University
fire-engines. Here of old sat the Chancellor of the University,
surrounded by the Doctors and Masters of the Great Congregation,
in a fashion which was formerly depicted in the great west
window of St. Mary's Church, and is still represented on the
University seal, and which, in the early part of the last century,
was adopted by Dr. Richard Rawlinson as his book-plate,
being engraved from the impression attached to his own diploma
in Civil Law. Above this chamber there is another, lighted by four
windows, containing forty-five feet in length and twenty in breadth,
and now assigned as the lecture-room of the Professor of Law.
Here was begun about 1367, and finally established and furnished
in 1409, the first actual University Library, called after
Bishop Thomas Cobham, of Worcester, who about 1320 (seven
years before his death) had commenced preparations for the
building of the room and the making provision for its contents[1].
Wood tells us that before this time there were indeed some
books kept in chests in St. Mary's Church, which were to be
lent out under pledges, as well as some chained to desks,
which were only to be read in situ; but this University chest soon
gave way to the formal Library, as, at a later period, another
University chest was lost in funded investments and a banker's
balance[2]. Another precursor of the general Library was found in
the collection bequeathed to Durham College (on the site of which
now stands Trinity College) in 1345 by one of its founders, the
earnest lover and preserver of books, Philip of Bury; he of that
charming book, that 'tractatus vere pulcherrimus,' the Philobiblion.
He,—who apostrophizes books as the masters who teach
without flogging or fleecing, without punishment or payment; as
ears of corn, full of grain, to be rubbed only by apostolic hands;
as golden pots of manna; as Noah's ark and Jacob's ladder, and
Joshua's stones of testimony and Gideon's lamps and David's
scrip, and who says that in the noblest monasteries of England
he found precious volumes defiled and injured by mice and worms,
and abandoned to moths,—gave strict injunctions for the care of
the large collection, gathered from all quarters, with which he
enriched his College[3]. It was to be free for purposes of study to
all scholars, who might have the loan of any work of which there
was a duplicate, provided they left a pledge exceeding it in value,
but for purposes of transcription no volume was to go beyond the
walls of the house. A register was to be kept, and a yearly visitation
was to be held[4]. Some of these books, on the dissolution of
the College by Henry VIII, are said to have been transferred to
Duke Humphrey's Library, and some to Balliol College.
The Librarian of Cobham's Library was also entitled Chaplain
to the University, and as such was ordered, in 1412, to offer
masses yearly for those who were benefactors of the University
and Library, and was endowed with half a mark yearly, as well as
with £5 issuing from the assize of bread and ale, which had been
granted to the University by King Henry IV, who was also a
principal contributor to the completion of the Library, and is
therefore to this day duly remembered in the Bidding-Prayer at
all the academic 'Commemorationes Solenniores.' But no trace
remains of the devotional and sacred duties once attaching to the
office, and laymen have been eligible to it from the time of
Bodley's re-foundation. The old regal stipend, however, amounting
at last to £6 13s. 4d., continued to be paid to the Librarian,
until in 1856, by the revised code of statutes, various small
payments were consolidated; it is found entered in the annual
printed accounts up to that year.
But not a score of years had passed after Cobham's Library
had been actually completed and opened before the building of a
room more worthy of the University was commenced. In 1426
the University began to erect the present noble Divinity School
for the exercises in that faculty; but as their own means soon
failed they betook themselves to all likely quarters to procure
help. And Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, the patron of all
learning[5], and the fosterer of the New School of theological
thought, the protector of Pecock, responded so liberally to the
petition of the University for aid to the fabric of their Material
School, that he is styled (says Wood) in the Bedell's Book its
Founder, while the roof to this day perpetuates his memory among
the shields of arms of benefactors with which its graceful pendants
terminate. His gifts of money for the School were quickly
followed by still larger gifts of books for the Library. Between
the years 1439 and 1446 he appears to have forwarded about
600 MSS, which were for the time deposited in chests in Cobham's
Library. The first donation, consisting of 129 volumes,
was forwarded in November, 1439. The letter of thanks from
Convocation is dated the 25th of that month, and on the same day
a letter was sent to the House of Commons, to the 'ryght worshypfull
syres, the Speker, knyghtes, and burges (sic) of the
worshepfull parlament,' informing them that the Duke had magnified
the University 'with a thousand pounds worth and more
of preciose bokes,' and therefore beseeching their 'sage discrecions
to considere the gloriose gifts of the graciose prince ...
for the comyn profyte and worshyp of the Reme, to thanke hym
hertyly, and also prey Godde to thanke hym in tyme comyng wher
goode dedys ben rewarded.' Statutes for the regulation of the
gift were made on the same day, prayers appointed, and provision
made for the observance of the Duke's obit[6]. A catalogue of 364
of the MSS. is printed, from the lists preserved in the University
Register, p. 758, vol. ii. of Rev. H. Anstey's Documents Illustrative
of Social and Academic Life at Oxford, published in the series
of Chronicles issued by the Master of the Rolls. The extent of
these gifts rendered the room at St. Mary's quite insufficient for
the purpose to which it was assigned, and the University therefore,
in a letter to the Duke, dated July 14, 1444, informed him of
their intention to erect a more suitable building, of which (as a
delicate way, probably, of bespeaking his aid towards the cost,
as well as of testifying their gratitude for past benefactions) they
formally offered him the title of Founder. In the subjoined note
is given an extract from this letter (copied from the Register of
Convocation), which is interesting from its description of the inconveniences
of the old room, and the advantages of the new
site[7]. And this new building, first contemplated in A.D. 1444
and finished about 1480, forms now the central portion of the
great Reading-Room, still retaining its old advantages of convenience
and of seclusion 'a strepitu sæculari.'
The Duke's MSS. were, as became the object of his gift, very
varied in character. With works in Divinity are mingled in the
catalogue a large number in Medicine and Science, together with
some in lighter literature, amongst which latter are found no less
than seven MSS. of Petrarch and three of Boccaccio. Some
additional MSS, being 'all the Latyn bokes that he had,' together
with £100 towards the completion of the 'Divyne Scoles,' which
the Duke had intended to bequeath, but the formal bequest of
which was prevented by his dying intestate in 1447, were subsequently
procured, although with considerable difficulty[8]. But
only three out of the whole number of his MSS. are now
known to exist in the present Library. One of these is a fine
copy of books iv.-ix. of Valerius Maximus, with the commentary
by D. de Burgo, and with an index by John de Whethamstede,
Abbot of St. Alban's (now marked, Auctarium, F. infra, i. 1[9]);
the second is a translation by L. Aretine of the Politics of
Aristotle (marked, Auct. F. v. 27); and the third, the Epistles
of Pliny (Auct. F. ii. 23). The first bears the Duke's arms;
the second has an original dedication to him by the translator;
the last (which was restored to the University by Dr. Robert
Master, Oct. 30, 1620) contains his own autograph. Six MSS.
now in the British Museum, which formerly belonged to the
Duke, are described in Sir H. Ellis' Letters of Eminent Literary
Men, (printed by the Camden Society,) pp. 357-8. Two of
these appear in the List of Humphrey's benefaction to Oxford;
for Harl. 1705, which is a translation of Plato's Politics by Peter
Candidus, or White, who gave it to the Duke, is doubtless the
book entered at the end of the List as 'Item, novam traductionem
totius Politeiæ Platonicæ;' while Cotton, Nero. D. v., the
Acts of the Council of Constance, appears at fol. 67. Another
of these six MSS, Harl. 988, is an anonymous commentary on
the Canticles[10], which formerly belonged to Sir Robert Cotton, and
which contains an inscription by him intended to commemorate
his returning it to the University Library in 1602. It came into
Harley's possession amongst Bishop Stillingfleet's MSS, all of
which were bought by him. A letter from Wanley to Hearne,
in which the book is mentioned, is preserved in the Bodleian in
a Rawlinson MS. (Letters xvii.) under date of Oct. 13, 1714,
Hearne's reply to which is printed by Sir H. Ellis, ubi supra;
while Wanley's rejoinder is also found in the above MS, dated
Oct. 27, in which he says, 'As for my Lord's MS. of the Canticles,
designed for the Bodleyan Library by Sir Robert Cotton, I know
not how you find it to have once belonged to Humphrey, duke of
Gloucester. My Lord has indeed two of his books, which we
know to have been his, for certain; because one of them (which
was given to his Lordship) hath a note therein of his hand-writing,
and the other hath his armes and stile on the outside, as also
his library-mark. This last (which was bought of Sir Simonds
D'Ewes), together with the Cotton MS. of the Canticles, I besought
his Lordship to give to the University for your Library,
and I hope his Lordship will do so in a little time.' Another
of the Duke's books, being Capgrave's Commentary on
Genesis, which occurs in the second list of those given to the
University, is now in the library of Oriel College. One volume,
containing, among other philosophical treatises, Plato's Phædo,
Timæus, &c., with the Duke's autograph, 'Cest livre a moy Homfrey
duc de Gloucestre' (given to him by an Abbot of St. Alban's) is
in Corpus Christi College, 243. And a copy of Wickliffe's Bible,
in two volumes, which bears Humphrey's arms, is amongst the
Egerton MSS. (617-8), Brit. Mus.
The large increase of treasures which these benefactions brought
to the University probably caused the first institution of a formal
Visitation. On Nov. 29, 1449, we find that Visitors were appointed
by Congregation for the purpose of receiving from the
Chaplain an account of the books contained in the Library[11].
Duke Humphrey was followed in the good work of the Divinity
School and Library by another whose name still retains its place
in the formal list of benefactors, Bishop Thomas Kempe, of London,
who, besides contributing very largely in money towards the
completion of the former, sent some books to the latter in 1487,
some seven years after the new room had been finally completed
and opened for use. But Antony Wood (in whose pages records of
other benefactors may be found) tells us that very few years
passed before the Library began to lose some of its newly-acquired
treasures; for Scholars borrowed books upon petty and insufficient
pledges, and so chose to forfeit the latter rather than return
the former[12], while tradition reported that Polydore Virgil, the
historian, being at length refused any further opportunities of abstraction,
obtained a special licence from Henry VIII for the
taking out any MS. for his use! From this traditionary report
Sir H. Ellis, in his introduction to a translation of Virgil's history,
printed for the Camden Society in 1844, endeavours to vindicate
his author's reputation, but more by conjecture than evidence.
In 1513 a Chaplain and Librarian was elected, named Adam
Kirkebote[13]. The new Librarian, soon after, supplicated Congregation
that on Festival Days he should not be bound to open
the Library before twelve o'clock; a practice which, commencing
at that day, does still unto this (the Library on Holy Days during
Term being now not opened until the conclusion of the University
sermon, at eleven o'clock) witness to the religious spirit which
pervades all the old institutions of Oxford. In 1527, when one
Flecher was Chaplain, it is recorded[14] that 'Magister' Claymond
(doubtless the President of Corpus Christi College, of that name)
was permitted by vote of Congregation to take Pliny's Natural
History out of the Library. In 1543 Humphrey Burnford was
elected Chaplain on Oct. 31, in the room of — Whytt, deceased[15].
It was probably during his tenure of office that the
Library was destroyed. For in 1550 the Commissioners deputed
by Edward VI for reformation of the University visited the Libraries
in the spirit of John Knox, destroying, without examination,
all MSS. ornamented by illuminations or rubricated initials
as being eminently Popish, and leaving the rest exposed to any
chance of injury and robbery. The traditions which Wood has
recorded as having been learned at the mouths of aged men who
had in their turn received them from those who were contemporaneous
with the Visitation, are abundantly confirmed by the well-known
descriptions of Leland and Bale of what went on in other
places, and therefore, although no direct documentary evidence of
the proceedings of the spoilers is known to exist, we may believe
that Wood's account of pillage and waste, of MSS. burned, and
sold to tailors for their measures, to bookbinders for covers, and
the like, until not one remained in situ, is not a whit exaggerated.
One solitary entry there is, however, in the University Register
(I. fol. 157a), which, while it records the completion of the
catastrophe, sufficiently thereby corroborates the story of all
that preceded, viz. the entry which tells that in Convocation on
Jan. 25, 1555-6, 'electi sunt hii venerabiles viri, Vice-cancellarius
et Procuratores, Magister Morwent, præses Corporis Christi,
et Magister Wright, ad vendenda subsellia librorum in publica
Academiæ bibliotheca, ipsius Universitatis nomine.' The books
of the 'public' library had all disappeared; what need then
to retain the shelves and stalls, when no one thought of replacing
their contents, and when the University could turn an
honest penny by their sale? and so the venerabiles viri made a
timber-yard of Duke Humphrey's treasure-house.
But four years after the final despoiling of the Library
there was an undergraduate entered at Magdalen College,
who, by the good Providence which always out of evil brings
somewhat to counterpoise and correct, was to be moved by
the sight of the ruin and desolation to restore what his seniors
had destroyed, and to reconstruct the old Plantagenet's Library
on such a basis, and with such means for carrying
on its re-edification, that the glory of the latter house should
soon eclipse that of the former. All around him he doubtless
found traces of the recent destruction; his stationer may have
sold him books bound in fragments of those MSS. for which
the University but a century before had consecrated the
memory of the donors in her solemn prayers; the tailor who
measured him for his sad-coloured doublet, may have done it
with a strip of parchment brilliant with gold, that had consequently
been condemned as Popish, or covered with strange
symbols of an old heathen Greek's devising, that probably passed
for magical and unlawful incantations. And the soul of the
young student must have burned with shame and indignation
at the apathy which had not merely tolerated this destruction by
strangers, but had contentedly assisted in carrying it out to its
thorough completion. Himself a successful student, he became
eager to help others to whom thus the advantages of a library
were denied; and, for a while without fee or reward, undertook
a public Greek lecture in the Hall of Merton College, to which
college he had been elected in 1563[16]. And when, after years thus
spent in academic pursuits, Thomas Bodley betook himself to
diplomatic service abroad, he still, amidst all the distractions of
foreign and domestic politics, preserved his affection for the scenes
and the studies of his early familiarity. So, when the days came
wherein statecraft began to weary him and Courts ceased to charm,
his thoughts reverted to the place where, free from these, he might
still, although in a more private capacity, labour for the good
of the commonwealth; he remembered the room once precious
to students, 'scientiarum sedes,' as the University had called it
of old, but now destitute alike both of science and of seats.
'And thus,' says he himself, 'I concluded at the last to set up my
staff at the Library-door in Oxon; being thoroughly persuaded
that, in my solitude and surcease from the commonwealth-affairs,
I could not busy myself to better purpose than by reducing that
place (which then in every part lay ruined and waste) to the
publick use of students[17].' So therefore, on Feb. 23, 1597-8,
he wrote a letter to the Vice-Chancellor, offering that whereas
'there hath bin heretofore a publike library in Oxford, which,
you know, is apparant by the roome itself remayning, and by
your statute records, I will take the charge and cost upon me,
to reduce it again to his former use,' first by fitting it up with
shelves and seats, next by procuring benefactions of books, and
lastly by endowing it with an annual rent[18]. This offer being
accepted with great gratitude, other letters followed from him
in March, in which he desired that delegates should be chosen to
consider the best mode of fitting up the room, and mentioned an
offer on the part of his own College, Merton, to provide timber
for the purpose. Two years were spent in the carrying out of
this work and in the preliminary arrangements. Amongst these
preparations was the putting up the beautiful roof which to this
day is such an object of deserved admiration. It is divided into
square compartments, on each of which are painted the arms of
the University, being the open Bible, with seven seals[19], between
three ducal crowns, on the open pages of which are the words
(so truly fitting for a Christian School) 'Dominus Illuminatio
mea[20];' while on bosses that intervene between each compartment
are painted the arms of Bodley himself, being five martlets with
a crescent for difference, quartered with the arms of Hone (his
mother's family), two bars wavy between three billets; on a chief
the three ducal crowns of the University shield, 'quarum merito
gloriam ab Academia derivavit.' (Wake, Rex Platon. p. 12.) The
striking motto 'Quarta perennis erit' was assigned to Bodley
at the same time with this academic augmentation[21]. When, in
1610, the eastern wing of the Library was erected, a similar
roof was added, as was also done to the Picture Gallery (built
between 1613-1619); in the latter room the roof, having become
decayed and out of repair, was unhappily altogether removed in the
year 1831, and a plaster ceiling, divided into compartments, substituted.
A few of the panels of this roof have been preserved,
one bearing the figures of two cats, which used to be an object of
interest to juvenile visitors, and a series bearing the letters which
compose Sir Thomas Bodley's name, together with a portrait of
him upon a centre panel. A high-backed arm-chair, the Librarian's
seat of office in the Library, was formed out of oak from
the roof, and an engraving hangs in the Gallery which represents
the room before its change for the worse.
On June 25, 1600, Bodley wrote to the Vice-Chancellor,
mentioning that, as the mechanical work was now brought to
a good pass, he had begun to busy himself in the gathering
of books, and had provided a Register for the enrolment of
the names of all benefactors, with particulars of their gifts. This
Register (formerly, like all the books in folio, chained to its desk),
consisting of two large folio volumes, on vellum, now lies on a
table in the great room, and is an object of notice by most
visitors. The volumes are ornamented exteriorly with silver-gilt
bosses on their massy covers, on which are engraved the arms
of Bodley and those of the University, and interiorly in many
places with the donors' coats of arms painted in their proper
colours, and with various devices. Vol. i. extends from 1600
to 1688, containing 428 pages in double columns; and commences
with a printed record of the gifts for the first four years,
on pp. 1-90. The following printed title is prefixed: 'Munificentissimis
atque optimis cujusvis ordinis, dignitatis, sexus, qui Bibliothecam
hanc libris, aut pecuniis numeratis ad libros coemendos,
aliove quovis genere ampliarunt, Thomas Bodleius, eques auratus,
honorarium hoc volumen, in quod hujuscemodi donationes,
simulque nomina donantium singillatim referuntur, pietatis, memoriæ,
virtutisque causa, dedit, dedicavit.' A paragraph follows,
which mentions Bodley's own work of refitting and endowing, and
notes that his own large gifts are not entered because he hopes
throughout his life to make continually large additions. The
whole of this title is printed in the preface to James' first Catalogue,
issued in 1605, who was probably part-writer of it[22]. Wake
(Rex Platonicus, p. 120) speaks of the Register, 'aureis umbilicis
fibulisque fulgidum,' as always lying 'eminentissimo loco,' a prominent
object of notice to all who entered the Library. Vol. ii.
extends from 1692 to 1795, ending in the middle of the volume,
on p. 216; but there is reason to fear that there are many omissions
in the later portion of its period. Each volume has an
index of names. The gifts of the principal donors, as recorded
in this Register up to its close, are printed in Gutch's edition of
Wood's History, vol. ii. part ii. pp. 920-950. It will not be necessary,
therefore, to mention here the names of many, but of such
only as are 'e principibus principes.' From the year 1796 inclusive,
when the gifts of donors began to be entered in the annual printed
catalogues of purchases and statements of accounts, this MS.
Register ceased to be used.
Among the first and largest benefactors in the year 1600 occur
Lord Buckhurst (afterwards Earl of Dorset), the Earl of Essex,
Lords Hunsdon, Montacute, [editions of the Fathers], Lisle (afterwards
Leicester), Lumley[23], and William Gent, who gave a large
collection of books, chiefly medical.
Many volumes were given about this time by Bodley, which had
been collected in Italy by Bill, the London bookseller, who was
employed by Sir Thomas to travel on the Continent as his agent
for this purpose.
The famous copy of the French Romance of Alexander (now
numbered Bodl. 264) must have been one of the MSS. given by
Bodley himself at the commencement of his work, as it is found
entered in the printed Catalogue of 1605, but does not occur in
the Benefactors' Register. It is decorated with a large number
of beautiful paintings on a chequered background of gold and
colour; but its special interest lies in the illustrations at the foot of
about half the pages, which exhibit the most quaint and grotesque
representations of customs, trades, amusements, dress, &c., of the
time. Some of these were engraved by Strutt; and four specimens,
together with one of the larger miniatures illustrating the text, are
given by Dibdin in his Bibl. Decam. vol. i., where, at pp. 198-201,
he discourses, in his own peculiar fashion, on the merits of the
volume. A notice of the book may also be found in Warton's
Hist. of Engl. Poetry, edit. 1840, vol. i. p. 142. At f. 208 is the
following colophon, which is of much interest, as affording evidence
that the work of the painter occupied upwards of five years:—
'Che define li romans du boin roi Alixandre,
Et les veus du pavon, les accomplissemens,
Le Restor du pavon et le pris, qui fu perescript
Le xviiie ior de Decembre, lan M.ccc.xxxviii.
Explicit iste liber, scriptor sit crimine liber,
Xpristus scriptorem custodiat ac det honorem.
(In gold letters.) 'Che liure fu perfais de le enluminure au xviiie jour dauryl. Per
Jehan de grise, Lan de grace, M.ccc.xliij.'
This is followed by a continuation (of later date) of the
romance, in Northern-English verse, on seven leaves[24]; and lastly,
by a French Romance of the 'grant kaan à la graunt cite de
Tambaluc.' A scribe's name is given in the following lines on
f. 208, but in a hand apparently not that of any part of the book:—
'Laus tibi sit Christe, quoniam liber explicit iste.
Nomen scriptoris est Thomas Plenus Amoris[25].'
The earliest owner's name occurring in the volume is that of
'Richart de Widevelle, seigneur de Rivières,' recorded in an
inscription on the cover at the end, which proceeds to say that 'le
dist Seigneur acetast le dist liure lan de grace mille cccclxvi.
le premier jour de lan a Londres.' Rivers' own autograph follows
('Ryverys'), with some words in French, written in a perfectly
frantic scrawl. Subsequent owners were 'Gyles Strangwayes' and
'Jaspere Ffylolle' (whose signatures are engraved by Dibdin, ubi
supra), and 'Thomas Smythe[26].'
It is from this date that our notes on the history of the Library
can begin to assume an annalistic form. A gift of £20 from Herbert
Westphaling, Bishop of Hereford, was expended in the purchase
of books with great success; no fewer than thirty were obtained,
and amongst them were, 'Evangelia quatuor Saxonica, lingua et
charactere vetustiss.,' being the MS. from which John Foxe had
taken the text of the Saxon Gospels in the edition published at
the expense of Archbishop Parker in 1571, and which was subsequently
re-edited by Junius. It is now numbered, Bodl. MS. 441.
An early edition (qu. editio princeps?) of the Gospels in the Russian
language (now placed among the Bodley MSS. 213) appears among
some books given by Sir Henry Savile[27], whose brother-historian
and antiquary, William Camden, is also registered as the donor
of a few MSS. and printed books. Thomas Allen, M.A., of
Gloucester Hall, the astrologer, gave twenty MSS[28]; the rest of
his collection came subsequently to the Library, included in that
of Sir Kenelm Digby, to whom Allen had bequeathed it. One of
the twenty now given was an extremely curious volume, chiefly
written in the ninth century (marked Auctarium F. iv. 32), including
in its contents an original drawing (engraved in Hickes' Thesaurus,
p. 144) by St. Dunstan of himself as prostrate at the feet of the
throned Christ[29], a grammatical tract by Eutychius (or Eutex, as
the scribe calls him, while professing doubt as to the right form),
with Welsh glosses (noticed by Lhuyd in his Archæol. Brit. p. 226);
the first book of Ovid De Arte amandi, with similar glosses[30]; and
lections in Greek and Latin from the Prophets and Pentateuch,
amongst which is one from Hosea containing, in the Latin version,
a line or two unlike any known early version, (although faithful to
the Hebrew), but found also in a quotation in Gildas[31]. Capt. Josias
Bodley[32] gave an astronomical sphere and other instruments in
brass, which now stand in the south window adjoining the entrance
to the Library. But the great benefactor of the year was the
newly-appointed Librarian, Thomas James, who gave various
MSS., chiefly patristic (which, however, Wood says, 'he had taken
out of several College libraries'), and sixty printed volumes.
From the first preparation of the new foundation Bodley had
fixed upon James, then a Fellow of New College, as his Library-Keeper.
The volume of letters published by Hearne (from Bodl.
MS. 699) in 1703, under the title of Reliquiæ Bodleianæ, consists
chiefly of those which the Founder addressed to James while his
collection of books was in process of formation, but unfortunately
they have no dates of years, and Hearne printed them simply as
they came into his hands, without any attempt to determine their
order of sequence. We learn from these that James' salary at the
outset was £5 13s. 4d. quarterly; but almost at once he threatened
to 'strike' unless it were raised to an annual stipend of £30 or
£40, while at the same time he demanded permission to marry.
This latter requisition appeared particularly grievous to Bodley,
who had made celibacy a stringent condition in his Statutes, and
he forthwith expostulated strongly with his Librarian on these his
'unseasonable and unreasonable motions' (p. 52). The upshot,
however, was that Bodley, very unwillingly, consented to become
the 'first breaker' of his own institution, (which 'hereafter,' he says,
'I purpose to become inviolable,') and, for the love he bore to
James, allowed him to marry[33]. But it was not until the year 1813
that the Statute was altered and the Librarian released from his
obligation of perpetual celibacy, and even then, by a singular
and unmeaning compromise, it was ordered that he, as well as
the Under-Librarians, should be unmarried at the time of election.
The whole restriction was, however, finally removed on the revision
of the Statutes in 1856. But its infringement appears to have
been again tolerated, in one instance, at least, during the
last century, viz. in the case of Dr. Hudson. Hearne[34] enters
the following 'memorandum' of uncharitable hearsay gossip respecting
his quondam chief and friend: 'Dr. Hudson was married
when he was elected Librarian. His first wife was one Biesley.
That he hath now is his second. It is said that he was married to
this Biesley when he was Taberder of Queen's. The Dr. hath been
of a loose, profligate, and irreligious life, as I have often heard.
The family of the Harrisons he is married into now is good for
just nothing, being as stingy (if it can be) as himself.'
The largest pecuniary donor of this year was Blount, Lord
Mountjoy (afterwards Earl of Devon), who forwarded £100 to Sir
T. Bodley from Waterford; which were expended upon books in
most classes of literature, including music. Among various gifts
of MSS. were some Russian volumes from Lancelot Browne, M.D.,
and (together with Persian, Finnish, &c.) from Sir Rich. Lee,
ambassador in Muscovy. Lord Cobham gave £50 in money, with
the promise of 'divers MSS. out of St. Augustin's library in
Canterbury[35].' 'Biblia Latina pulcherrima,' 2 vols. fol. was given by
George Rives, Warden of New College. This is probably a huge
and magnificent specimen of twelfth-century work, now numbered
Auctarium, E. infra, 1, 2[36]. But the year was specially marked by
the donation of 47 MSS. (including some early English volumes)
from Walter (afterwards Sir Walter) Cope; and above all, by the
gift, from the Dean and Chapter of Exeter to their fellow-countryman
Bodley, of 81 Latin MSS. from their Chapter Library. By
what right they thus alienated their corporate property no one
probably cared to enquire; but, from the tokens of neglect still
visible upon the books, we may conclude that only by this alienation
were they in all likelihood saved from ultimate destruction: for
they nearly all bear more or less sign of having been exposed to
great damp, which in several instances has well-nigh destroyed the
initial and final leaves. Most of them are beautiful specimens of
early penmanship, ranging chiefly from the eleventh century to the
thirteenth; and amongst them is that precious relic of English
Church offices, the Service-book given to Exeter Cathedral by
Bishop Leofric in the reign of Edward Conf., described in the 'Registrum
Benefactorum' simply as 'Missale antiquissimum.' This
is happily perfect; in size a small and thick quarto volume, written
on very stout vellum, and containing 377 leaves. Four other
volumes (possibly more) were also gifts of Leofric to his Church;
they are now numbered Auct. D. II. 16 (the four Gospels),
Auct. F. I. 15 (Boethius and Persius), Auct. F. III. 6 (Prudentius),
and Bodley MS. 708 (Gregory's Pastorale.) They
each contain an inscription in Latin and Anglo-Saxon, varying
in expression, but all to the following effect (as in the last-mentioned
volume): 'Hunc librum dat Leofricus episcopus
ecclesiæ Sancti Petri Apostoli in Exonia ad sedem suam episcopalem,
pro remedio animæ suæ, ad utilitatem successorum suorum.
Siquis autem illum inde abstulerit, perpetuæ maledictioni subjaceat.
Fiat. Ðas boc gef leofric ƀ. into Scē petres minstre on exancestre
þær his biscopstol is. his æfterfiligendū to nittweorðnisse. [&] gif
hig hwa ut ætbrede hæbbe he ece geniðerunge mid eallū deoflum.
Ām̄.' To the MS. of the Gospels are prefixed very curious lists in
Anglo-Saxon of the lands, vestments, books, &c., given by Leofric
to his Church, and of relics given by King Athelstan (of which
another copy is preserved in the Missal); these lists are printed in
the Monasticon, and the titles of the books are given in Wanley's
Catalogue (p. 80).
The Library being now supplied with upwards of 2000 volumes,
it was solemnly opened on Nov. 8 (the day appointed for the
annual visitation,) by the Vice-Chancellor, with a procession of
doctors and delegates. Meeting them at the door of the room,
the Librarian hastily extemporized a short speech in honour of the
occasion, 'in qua,' as the University Register records, 'tribus ferme
versibus amplexus est omnia.'
Sir Walter Raleigh appears in this year as a donor of £50. He
is sometimes said to have procured for Oxford the library of
Hieron. Osorius, which was carried off from Faro in Portugal (of
which place Osorius had been bishop), when that town was
captured by the English fleet under the Earl of Essex in 1598.
Raleigh was a captain in the squadron, and probably influenced
the disposal of the books; but no direct mention has been found of
his name in relation to them. Sir William Monson, in the account
of the expedition given in his Naval Tracts, only says that the
library 'was brought into England by us, and many of the books
bestowed upon the new erected library of Oxford.' Eleven MSS.
were given by Sir Rob. Cotton, of which the list in the Register is
printed in Sir H. Ellis' Letters of Eminent Literary Men, issued by
the Camden Society in 1843 (p. 103). One of these (Auct. D. II.
14) is the MS. of the Gospels, traditionally believed to be one of
those two copies of the old Italic version sent by St. Gregory to
St. Augustine in Britain, which were preserved in St. Augustine's
Abbey, Canterbury[37]; of which the other now exists among Archbp.
Parker's MSS. in Corp. Chr. Coll. Cambr., No. 286. They are
both written in quarto, in uncial letters and double columns. Their
date may possibly be somewhat later than that which is traditionally
assigned; but at any rate they are certainly among what the historian
Elmham calls 'primitiæ librorum totius ecclesiæ Anglicanæ.'
On the last fly-leaf of the Bodley MS. is the following list of
English Priests' libraries. 'Þas bocas haueð Salomon pr̅st. þ̵is
þecodspel t{r}aht. [&] þemarty{r}luia [&] þe (erased) [&] þe æglisce salte{r}e
[&] þe c{r}ranc [&] ðe tropere [&] wulf mer cild þeatteleuaui ('Ad Te
levavi.') [&] pistelari [&] þe (erased) [&] ðe imnere. [&] ðe capitelari.
(word erased) [&] þe spel boc. [&] Siga{r} pr̅st. þelece boc [&] Blakehad
boc. [&] Æilmer ðe grete Sater. [&] ðe litle t{r}opere fo{r}beande. [&]
ðe Donatum. xv bocas Ealfric Æilwine. Godric. [&] Bealdewuine
ab̶b [&] Freoden [&] hu— (torn) [&] ðuregise.' Several leaves are wanting
at the beginning and one at the end; the book commences at
S. Matt. iv. 14, and ends in S. John xxi. 16. It now numbers 172
leaves, besides the fly-leaf, and contains 29 lines in a column; the
Cambridge MS. has 25 lines.
Two Russian MSS. were given in this year by John Mericke,
English Consul in Russia, and a collection of Italian books by Sir
Michael Dormer.
On June 20, letters patent were granted by James I, styling
the library by the founder's name, and licensing the University
to hold lands, &c., in mortmain for its maintenance, to an amount
not exceeding 200 marks per annum[38].
In the list of donors occur Sir Christopher Heydon, Sir Jerome
Horsey (whose gift includes a MS. of the Gospels in Russian, and
rolls containing forms of letters, &c., in the autograph of the Czar
Ivan Basilides), Sir Ralph Winwood (17 Greek MSS.), Robert
Barker the printer, and Sir Henry Wotton (a MS. of the Koran).
The bust of Bodley, which is seen in the large room, was sent
by Sackville, Earl of Dorset, the Chancellor of the University. It
attracted the notice of King James upon his entering the Library
on the fourth day of his visit to Oxford in August of this year,
who, upon reading its inscription, indulged in the very mild pun
that the Founder should rather be called Sir Thomas Godly than
Bodly[39]. And, looking on the well-filled cases, he said he had
often had proof from the University of the fruits of talent and
ability, but had never before seen the garden where those fruits
grew and whence they were gathered. He examined various MSS.
of the Holy Scriptures, and especially of the old English version,
as well as of the Ethiopic, on the authority of which, 'more suo,
summo cum judicio disceptavit.' Then, taking up Gaguinus' treatise
De Puritate Conceptionis Virg. Mar., printed at Paris in 1498,
he remarked that the author had so written about purity as if he
wished that it should only be found on the title of his book; and
said it had often been his desire that such objectionable writings
(especially on religious subjects) could be altogether suppressed
rather than be tolerated to the corruption of minds and manners.
He admitted, however, that probably there was no disadvantage
from their being stored up in collections of this kind. Moved to
a wonderful temper of liberality, the king then offered to present
from all the libraries of the royal palaces whatsoever precious and
rare books Sir T. Bodley, on examination, might choose to carry
away; and promised that the grant should be made under seal,
lest any hindrance should arise. It appears[40] that this (somewhat
hasty) grant was actually passed under the Privy Seal
about the beginning of November in the same year, and that
Bodley expected to carry off a great many MSS. from Whitehall.
Probably the full execution of his intentions was hindered, as
he himself appears to have suspected might happen; at any
rate, there is very little in the Library that tells of having come
from the royal collections, except a few folio editions of the
Fathers which once were in the possession of Hen. VIII, as his
arms stamped upon the covers testify[41], and three or four MSS.
which bear like evidence of having belonged to James I. Upon
leaving the room, after spending considerable time in its examination,
the king exclaimed that were he not King James he would be
an University man; and that, were it his fate at any time to be a
captive, he would wish to be shut up, could he but have the choice,
in this place as his prison, to be bound with its chains, and to consume
his days amongst its books as his fellows in captivity[42].
In this year appeared the first Catalogue of the Library, compiled
by Thomas James. It is a quarto volume, published by
Joseph Barnes at Oxford, consisting of 425 pages, with an Appendix
of 230 more; the Preface is dated June 27. The book is
dedicated to Henry, Prince of Wales[43]. It includes both printed
books and MSS. arranged alphabetically under the four classes of
Theology, Medicine, Law, and Arts, with lists of expositors of
Holy Scripture, commentators on Aristotle, Hippocrates, and
Galen, and in Civil and Canon Law. The legal and medical lists
were added at Bodley's special desire[44]. A continuation of this
classified index, embracing writers on Arts and Sciences, Geography
and History, is to be found in Rawlinson MS. Miscell. 730.
It was drawn up by James, after his quitting the Library, for the
use of young students in the faculty of Arts, in order to show his
continued interest in them and in the place of his old occupation.
In the preface he thus describes the arrangement of his book:
'Exhibeo, primo, libros distributos secundum facultates suas;
secundo, dissectos in minutissimas portiones vel sectiones, idque
alphabetice; tertio, habetis cognitos et exploratos auctores singulos
qui de singulis subjectis vel generatim vel speciatim scripserunt
libros, tractatus, epistolas; postremo, ne quid desit, habetis
editiones certas, et maxime ex parte ex pluribus selectas et
meliores, cito parabiles, digitos ad pluteos et pluteorum sectiones
intendendo.' This volume came into Rawlinson's possession
from Hearne, who notes in it: 'This MS. came out of the study
of Dr. Anthony Hall, of Queen's College, Oxford, who married the
widow of Dr. John Hudson, to whom this book once belong'd.'
Chinese literature began to make its appearance even at this
early date. Among the books bought with £20 given by Lady
Kath. Sandys were, 'Octo volumina lingua Chinensi,' while two
others, 'Excusa in regno et lingua Chinensi,' were bought, together
with the donor's own 'Historie of Great Britaine,' with a gift of £5
from John Clapham.
The books having some time since begun to crowd the room
provided for them, so that James, in his Preface to the Catalogue
of 1605, said there already seemed to be more need of a Library
for the books than books for the Library, the Founder commenced
in this year an extension of his building. On July 16
the first stone was laid of the eastern wing, and of the Proscholium,
or vestibule of the Divinity School, beneath; which were completed
by 1612, as in that year several donations were placed in the new
room[45]. An inscription in gold letters, in the front of this building,
commemorates Bodley's work; having become barely legible, it
has recently been restored to its pristine lustre by the care of
the present Librarian. The noble east window contains some
very curious and interesting relics in stained glass which were
presented to the Library (with numerous other fragments, which
adorn some of the other windows in the Library and partly fill
two of those in the Picture Gallery[46]), in 1797, by Alderman
William Fletcher of Oxford, a zealous local antiquary and Churchman
of the good old school. The three principal fragments represent:
1. Henry II, stripped naked, and suffering flagellation with
birch rods, at the hands of two monks, before the shrine of
Thomas à Becket. 2. The marriage (as supposed) of Henry VI
with Margaret of Anjou, representing, says Dr. Rock[47], that portion
of the ceremony which took place at the Church door; formerly
in a window of Rollright Church, Oxfordshire. There is no
evidence, however, to connect this representation with Henry VI,
and it has been conjectured to describe his marriage chiefly from
its corresponding in some very small degree to a representation
of that event, formerly at Strawberry Hill, and described and
engraved in Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, i. 36. It is probably
of an earlier date. 3. The doing homage by William, King of
Scotland, with his abbots and barons, to Henry II in York
Minster in 1171. Of the first of these, two coloured engravings,
and of the second, one, are found in a copy of Gutch's Wood,
which came to the Library from the same donor, Alderman
Fletcher, in 1818, illustrated with very numerous and curious
engravings and drawings, as well as enriched with some MS.
notes, and bound in seven large quarto volumes[48].
The large coats of arms appear to have been inserted in 1716,
as in the accounts for that year we find, 'For paynted armes in
the Library window, £5.' But one coat of arms was put up in
the year 1771, (q. v.)
It was in this year that the Library began to be enlarged with
the gift of copies of all works published by the members of
the Stationers' Company, in pursuance of an agreement made
with them by Bodley, which became the precursor of the obligations
of the Copyright Acts. On Dec. 12 the Company made
a grant of one perfect copy of every book printed by them, on
condition that they should have liberty to borrow the books
thus given, if needed for reprinting, and also to examine, collate,
and copy the books which were given by others. An order of
the Star-Chamber was made July 11, 1637, in confirmation of
this grant[49]. The proposal of such an agreement emanated from
the Librarian James; but in the effecting it Bodley says that
he met with 'many rubs and delays[50].' Ayliffe say[51] that the
agreement was very well observed until about 1640. He should
rather have said 'about 1630,' for in that year, in a paper of notes
made by the Librarian for the use of Archbishop Laud, as
Chancellor of the University (in which the mention of a gift of
books by Fetherston, a London bookseller, fixes the date), complaint
is made that the Company were very negligent in sending
their books, and it is suggested that a message from the Chancellor
might quickly remedy that neglect[52]. In 1642, Verneuil, the Sub-Libraria[53],
complained in the Preface to his Nomenclator, &c.,
of the neglect which had then begun; mentioning the names
of several benefactors, he adds: 'These have beene more
courteous than the Stationers of London, who by indenture are
bound to give the Library a copy of every booke they print.'
In the Visitation Order-Book, under the year 1695, is the
following 'memorandum' by Hyde, then Head Librarian: 'That
in November, 1695, a copy of the indenture between Sir Thomas
Bodley and the Company of Stationers, as also a copy of their
By-Law to inforce their particular members to complyance, was
sent up to the Master of the Company to be communicated
and publicly read to the Company once every year, as is in
the indenture expressed. The originall was also some years
agon carryed up and shewed to the Master and Wardens, because
some of them used to raile at the unjustness of the Act of Parliament
in forcing them to give a copy of each book to the Bodleian
Library; and therefore we shewed them that we had also another
antecedent right to a copy of each book printed by any member
in their Company. The Indenture mentions only the giving
of books new printed, but the By-law mentions books both
new-printed and also reprinted with additions[54]. We have been
told that Sir Thomas Bodley gave to the Company 50 pounds
worth of plate when they entred into this Indenture. But its
not mentioned in our counter-part. Every book is to be delivered
to the junior Warden within 10 dayes after its off from
the press, and we are to appoint somebody to demand them of
him. The obligation is upon every printer to give books; it
were to be wished it had been upon every proprietor; for the
proprietor must give them to us.'
The permanent endowment of the Library was commenced by
the Founder in this year, by the purchase, from Lord Norreys, of
the manor of Hendons by Maidenhead, worth annually £91 10s.;
to which he added 'certain tenements in London,' producing an
annual rent of £40. From the former, now called Hindhay farm,
in the parishes of Bray and Cookham, Berks, the Library receives
an annual rent, at the present time, of about £220; the latter, which
consisted of houses situated in Distaff Lane, were sold in 1853,
and the produce invested in £3455 10s. 3 per cent. Consols.
The first book which came from the Stationers' Company, in
pursuance of the Indenture made in Dec. 1610, was an anonymous
catechetical work printed in this year by Felix Kingston for
Thomas Man, entitled, 'Christian Religion substantially, methodicallie,
plainlie, and profitablie treatised.' It is now numbered
4o R. 34 Th., and a note in Bodley's own handwriting records its
presentation.
Twenty Arabic, Persian, and other MSS, were presented by
— Pindar, Consul at Aleppo of the Company of English Merchants,
whom Bodley three years previously had requested to
procure such books[55].
Among other minor matters which called forth the care of
Bodley, was the providing a bell for the purpose of giving notice
when the Library was about to be closed. After it had been
placed in the Library some accident appears to have happened
to it, since we read in one of his letters to James[56], 'As touching
the bell, I would have it cast again, and if my friends think it
good, made somewhat better.' In 1655 a bell-rope was bought
at the price of 1s. 4d. Of late years, however, the Founder's
bell had altogether disappeared, and the fact of its very existence
was unknown, while a small hand-bell, suggestive of a muffin-man,
and, more recently, a hand-bell taken from a Chinese temple at
Tien-tsin, and presented by Col. Rigaud, supplied its place. But
in July, 1866, in the course of moving some boxes and rubbish
buried under some stairs, a mouldy bell of considerable size was
dragged to light, which proved to be the missing bell of the
Founder. It was immediately put by the Librarian into the hands
of Messrs. White, of Appleton, Berks, who fitted it with a frame
and wheel; and now, restored to a conspicuous place in the great
room, it daily thunders forth an unmistakeable signal for departure.
Around it, in gold letters, runs the inscription:—'Sir Thomas
Bodley gave this bell, 1611.' The bell-founder's initials, W. S., are
accompanied by the device of a crown between three bells.
Another relic of Bodley's furniture is a massy iron chest, fastened
with three locks, two of which are enormous padlocks, for the
preservation of the moneys of the Library, of which the keys used
to be in the custody of the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors. This is
now exhibited in the Picture Gallery, on account of the extreme
beauty of the ironwork of the locks, which covers in its intricate
ramifications the whole of the inside of the lid. On the outside
are painted the arms of the University (with the older motto 'Sapientiæ
et Fælicitatis') and of Bodley.
Two large donations of MSS. were received during this year;
the one from the Dean and Chapter of Windsor (in imitation of
their brethren of Exeter), of 159 volumes, chiefly theological; and
the other of a large collection of scientific treatises, chiefly astronomical
and medical, about 120 in number, from Thomas Twine,
M.D., of Lewes.
The agreement that was entered into by the Stationers' Company
in 1610 having probably been found in some degree inoperative
from the absence of any penalty upon non-fulfilment, the
Company at the commencement of this year passed the following
ordinance, which made it obligatory on every one of their members
to forward their books to the Library. It is here printed (for the
first time) from the original, preserved in the University Archives,
marked A. 27[57].
'Vicesimo octavo Januarii 1611 nono regni regis Jacobi, at Stacõners
Hall, in Ave Mary Lane in London. Present, the Masters,
Wardens, and Assistants of the Company of Stacõners.
'Forasmuch as this Companye out of their zeale to the advancement
of learninge, and at the request of the right worshipfull Sir
Thomas Bodley, Knight, founder of the presente publique library
of the University of Oxford, beinge readye to manifeste their
willinge desires to a worck of so great pietye and benifitt to the
generall state of the Realme, did by their Indenture under their
common seale dated the twelveth daye of December in the eight
yeare of his Maj.ts raigne of England, Fraunce and Ireland, and
the foure and fortith yere of his raigne of Scotland, for them and
their successors, graunte and confirme vnto the Chauncellor,
Maisters, and Schollers of the Universitie of Oxford, and to their
successors for ever, That of all bookes after that from tyme to
tyme to be printed in the said Company of Stacõners, beinge newe
books and coppies never printed before, or thoughe formerly
printed yet newly augmented or enlarged, there should be freelie
given one perfect Booke of every such booke (in quyers) of the
first ympression thereof, towardes the furnishinge and increase of
the said Library; Nowe therefore, to the intent the said graunte
maie take due effect in the orderlie performance and execucõn
thereof, and that so good and godlie a worck and purpose maie
not bee disappointed or defeated by any meanes, It is ordayned by
this Company, that all and every printer and printers that from
tyme to tyme hereafter shall either for hym- or themselves, or for
any other, printe or cause to be printed any newe booke or coppie
never printed before, or although formerly printed yet newly
augmented or enlarged, shall within ten daies next after the
finishinge of the first ympression thereof and the puttinge of the
same to sale, bringe and deliver to the yonger warden of the said
Company of Stacõners for the tyme beinge one perfect booke
thereof to be delivered over by the same Warden to the recited use
to the handes of such person or persons as shalbe appoincted by
the said Chauncellour, Maisters and Schollers for the tyme beinge
to receive the same; And it is alsoe ordayned that every printer
that at any tyme or tymes hereafter shall make default in performance
hereof, shall for every such default forfeite and paie to the
use of this Company treble the value of every booke that he shall
leave undelivered contrarie to this ordenance; Out of the which
forfeiture, upon the levyinge and payment thereof, there shalbe
provided for the use of the said Librarye that booke for the not
delivery whereof the said forfeiture shalbe had and paid. And to
the intent all printers and others of this Company whome it shall
concerne maie take notice of this ordenance, and that any of them
shall not pretend ignorance thereof, It is ordeyned that once in
every yere at some generall assemblie and meetinge of the said
Company upon some of their usuall quarter daies, or some other
tyme in the yere at their discretion, this presente ordinance shalbe
publiquely read in their Hall, as other their ordenances are accustomed
to be read there
| 'John Haryson |
| 'John Norton, Mr. |
| 'Richard Field | } Wardens |
| 'Humphrey Lownes |
| 'Edward White |
| 'Humfry Hooper |
| 'Simon Waterson |
| 'William Leake |
| 'Robert Barker |
| 'Thomas Mane |
| 'Thomas Dawson |
| 'John Standishe |
| 'Thomas Adames |
| 'John Haryson[58] |
| 'Ri. Collins, Clerk of the Companie. |
'Havinge lately byn entreated, as well by the said Sir Thomas
Bodley, Knight, as by the Maister, Wardens, and Assistants of the
foresaid Company of Stacõners, to take some spetiall notice of this
their publique acte and graunte, and (in regard of our beinge of
his Maiestyes highe Comission in ecclesiasticall causes) to testifie
under our handes with what allowance and good likinge we have
thought it meete to be received, Wee doe not onlie as of merrit
comend it to posteritie for a singuler token of the fervent zeale
of that Company to the furtherance of good learninge and for an
exemplarie guift and graunt to the Schollers and Studients of the
Universitye of Oxford, But withall we doe promise by subscribinge
unto it, that if at any tyme hereafter occasion shall require that we
should help to maynteyne the due and perpetuall execucõn of the
same, Wee will be readie to performe it, as farre as either of our
selves thoroughe our present authoritie or by any whatsoeuer our
further endeavours it maie be fitlye procured.
- 'G. Cant.
- 'Jo. London
- 'Jo. Benet
- 'Tho. Ridley
- 'Tho. Edwardes
- 'G. Newmane
- 'John Spenser
- 'Richard Moket
- 'R. Cov. & Lich.
- 'Jhon Boys
- 'Char. Fotherbye
- 'Martin Fotherby
- 'John Layfeilds
- 'Jo. Roffens
- 'George Montaigne (sic)
- 'Robt. Abbott
- 'Henr. Hickman
- 'John Dix
- 'Willm. FFerrand.'
The death of the Founder occurred on Jan. 28, after long
suffering from stone, dropsy, and scurvy, for which he is said to
have been mis-treated by a Dr. Hen. Atkins[59]. Two volumes of
elegiac verses were thereupon issued by the University, of which
one (Bodleiomnema) was written entirely by members of Merton College;
the other (Justa Funebria Ptolemæi Oxoniensis) by members
of the University in general. In the latter collection are Latin
verses by Laud, then President of St. John's, and Greek verses by
Isaac Casaubon. Bodley was buried (according to his desire in
his will) in the chapel of his old College, Merton, on March 29,
with all the state of a public funeral. He bequeathed the greater
part of his property for the building of the east wing of the
Library and the completion of the Schools, appointing Sir John
Bennett and Mr. William Hakewill his executors. The former,
however, proved in some measure an unfaithful steward. When
prosecuted in Parliament in 1621, for gross bribery in his office
as Judge of the Prerogative Court, some of Bodley's money was
still remaining in his hands, and was mentioned in the charges
brought against him. For the due payment of a portion of this,
by annual instalments of £150, the University, on June 28, 1624,
accepted four bonds from him, witnessed by Thomas Coventreye,
Matthew Bennet, and Henry Wigmore; only one of these appears
to have been paid off, leaving an unpaid deficit of £450[60]. The
entry of this debt is carried on, together with the loan made to
King Charles I in 1642, in the Library accounts[61], from year to year
up to 1782, when by order of the Curators the entries were discontinued.
In the notice of the Library contributed (as it is said)
by Dr. Hudson to Ayliffe's Ancient and Present State of Oxford
(vol. i. p. 460), it is stated that the Library estate falls miserably
short by reason of 'the fraud of his [Bodley's] executor, the loan
of a great sum of money to Charles I in his distress, and by the
fire of London,' that event, doubtless, necessitating the rebuilding
of the houses in Distaff Lane.
Bodley was charged by some of his contemporaries, and
apparently with some justice, with sacrificing in his will the claims
of relatives and friends too much to the interests of the Library.
One Mr. John Chamberlain, a friend of Bodley, whose gossiping
letters to Sir Dudley Carleton, Alice Carleton, and others, are preserved
in the State Paper Office, does not spare his accusations on
this head. In a letter dated Feb. 4, 1613, he says that Bodley has
left legacies to great people, £7000 to the Library, and £200 to
Merton College, but little to his brothers, his old servants, his
friends, or the children of his wife, by whom he had all his wealth[62].
In another, dated June 23, 1613, he remarks that the executors
cannot excuse Bodley of unthankfulness to many of his relatives
and friends, he being 'so drunk with the applause and vanitie of
his librarie that he made no conscience to rob Peter to pay Paul[63].'
Some inferential corroboration of this is afforded by the following
curious paper preserved among Rawlinson's gatherings (now in
a vol. numbered Rawl. MS. Miscell., 1203), being no other than a
petition for relief addressed by the grand-nephew and grand-niece
of Bodley in the year 1712 (as appears from the Library accounts)
to the Heads of Houses and Curators of the Library, who appear
both officially and individually to have been very parsimonious in
their response:—
'To the Worshipful Mr. Vice-Chancellor and to all heads and
governors of Colleges and Halls within the famous University
of Oxon.
'The humble petition of William Snoshill of East Lockinge in the
county of Berks, labourer, and of Jane the wife of Thomas
Hatton of Childrey in the county aforesaid, labourer, sister of
the said William Snoshill,
'Humbly sheweth,
'That your Petitioners being the grand-children of the sister of
Sir Thomas Bodley, the munificent founder of the Bodleian
Library in your University, being now reduc'd to a poor and low
estate, do with all humility make bold to represent their distrest
condition to your consideration, hoping that out of your tender
pity and commiseration, and that regard you have for the pious
memory of so great a benefactor to your University, to whom your
poor Petitioners are so nearly allied, you will be pleas'd to consider
them as real objects of your charity and compassion, and thereby
you will lay an eternal obligation on them of praying for your
present and future happiness.
'William Snoshill
'Jane Hatton.
'We, whose names are subscribed to this Petition, are well
satisfied of the truth thereof.
- 'Thomas Paris, rector of Childrey
- 'John Holmes
- 'John Bell, vic. of Sparsholt
- 'John Aldworth, rector of East Lockinge
- 'Ralph Kedden, M.A., vicar of Denchworth, Berks.
'(Mem.) The Curators gave the Petitioners the sum of four
pounds out of Sir Thomas Bodley's chest. Dr. Altham, Hebrew
professor, and Dr. Hudson, Library-keeper, gave, each of them,
ten shillings.'
An alphabetical catalogue was prepared in this year by James,
but was not printed. The MS, in two small hand-books, remains
in the Library. It was ordered by the Curators, at the Visitation
on Nov. 13, that 6s. 8d. be paid quarterly to the Bedel of the
Stationers' Company as a gratuity for his trouble. MSS. were
received from Edw. James, B.D., who had been a contributor
already in the year 1601.
Various orders were made by the Curators at the Visitation on
Nov. 10, which are prefixed to the small MS. 'hand-catalogues'
made at that time for the use of those authorities. They resolve
that the catalogues of newly-published works issued at Frankfort
in each spring and summer shall be examined by them within one
week after their arrival. They make an attempt to obtain possession
of a gift of the Founder's giving, which had never yet reached
the place of its intended deposit. In 1609 it had been reported to
Convocation that there was about to be sent to the Library by Sir
T. Bodley 'toga ex lana agni Tartarici ζωοφυτον, magni quidam
valoris, ei data (ut in publica Bibliotheca conservetur) ab Richardo
Lee, milite, qui eandem dono recepit ab augustissimo Imperatore
Muscoviæ[64].' But the precious cloak had never yet arrived; the
Curators therefore resolve 'quod literæ scribantur ad exequutores
domini Fundatoris pro illo pretioso pallio ex zoophyto confecto, et
legato ad nos per Ric. Leigh, militem, olim legatum apud Imperatorem
Russiæ, et quod in cista ex ligno bene olenti, ad eam
finem comparanda, reponatur in archivis, munita sera affabre
facta; clavis permaneat semper apud Vice-Cancellarium vel ejus
deputatum, nec cuiquam illud inspiciendi vel contrectandi potestas
esto, nisi in præsentia eorundem.' At this Visitation Joseph
Barnes, the Oxford printer, appeared and promised to give a copy
of every book which he might print. Complaint was made that
the London Stationers had already begun to fail in the fulfilment
of their agreement.
On Aug. 29 the King visited the Library on his way to Woodstock,
and, asking for Fulke's Annotations on the Rhemish New
Test., pointed out the remarks at Rom. x. 15, on the calling of
ministers; 'deprehendit calumnias et imposturas quorundam pontificiorum
de ordine et vocatione ministrorum[65].' In 1620 the
editions of 1601 and 1617 of these Annotations were both in the
Library, as appears from the Catalogue of that year, but in Hyde's
Catalogue, published in 1674, only the edition of 1633 is found.
This is one out of various instances which prove that, by a great
miscalculation of literary value, later editions of a writer's works
were thought to supersede so entirely the earlier, that the latter
could be advantageously parted with. The Library has, however,
since become re-possessed of the earlier editions, that of 1601
having been presented in 1824, and that of 1617 having been
bought more recently. But the most remarkable example of this
mistaken alienation of books occurs with reference to the first folio
edition of Shakespeare. In the Supplemental Catalogue of 1635,
the folio of 1623 duly appears; but in the Catalogue of 1674 we
find only the third edition, that of 1664, which doubtless had been
thought to be sufficient as well as best; upon its arrival, therefore,
from Stationers' Hall, the precious volume of 1623 was
probably regarded as little more than waste-paper. Nor was it
until the year 1821, when Malone's collection was received, that a
copy was again possessed by the Library[66].
Richard Connock, auditor and solicitor to Prince Henry of
Wales, gave a MS. book of Horæ[67], which had formerly belonged
to Mary I, and afterwards to Prince Henry. The donor, in a note
prefixed, records that he gives the volume, 'not for the religion it
contains, but for the pictures and former royall owners' sake.' It
is a volume of the early part of the fifteenth century, in small
quarto, containing 224 leaves, and ornamented with very beautiful
illuminated borders and exquisite drawings in camaieu gris. Among
these is one of the martyrdom of Becket, which, doubtless in consequence
of the book being in the possession of the Princess
Mary, has entirely escaped the defacement and obliteration ordered
by her father to be made in all Service-books where the office for
S. Thomas of Canterbury occurred. The following inscription
(nearly effaced at its close by over-much handling in former years),
addressed by Mary to one of her ladies, whose name does not
appear, to whom probably she presented the book, occurs in the
blank portion of one of the leaves:—
'Geate you such riches as when the shype is broken, may
swyme away wythe the Master. For dyverse chances take away
the goods of fortune; but the goods of the soule whyche bee only
the trewe goods, nother fyer nor water can take away. Yf you
take labour and payne to doo a vertuous thyng, the labour goeth
away, and the vertue remaynethe. Yf through pleasure you do
any vicious thyng, the pleasure goeth away and the vice remaynethe.
Good Madame, for my sake remembre thys.
'Your lovyng mystres,
'Marye Princesse.'
This inscription (which does so much credit to its writer) was
first printed by Hearne at the end of Titi Livii Forojulien. Vita
Hen. V. (p. 228) and last, in Bliss' Reliquiæ Hearn. i. 105.
Mr. Coxe has noted (from Alstedii Systema Mnemonicum, 1610,
i. 705) that the latter part is taken directly and literally from
Musonius, while indirectly it comes from an oration by Cato[68].
Probably the first part may be traced to some similar source.
Another autograph inscription by Mary while Princess is found
in a small book (Laud MS. Miscell. i.) of private prayers in Latin
and English, which belonged to Jane Wriothesley, wife of Thomas
Earl of Southampton, and which she seems to have employed as
a kind of album. At f. 45a are these lines, which appear to form
a triplet, although not written in metrical form by the Princess:—
'Good Madame, I do desyer you most hartly to pray,
That in prosperyte and adversyte I may
Have grace to keep the trewe way.
'Your lovyng frend,
to my ... [power?]'
Unfortunately the conclusion, with the signature, has been cut
off. A couplet, signed by Queen Katherine Parr, has an equal,
and most regal, disregard of the restraints of metrical rhythm
(f. 8b.):—
'Madam, althowe I have differred writtyng in your booke,
I am no lesse your frend than you do looke.
'Kateryn the Quene KP.'
Other inscriptions are inserted by Margaret Queen of Scotland,
Mary Countess of Lennox and mother of Lord Darnley, and by the
Countess of Southampton's daughters, Elizabeth, Mary, and Anne.
James Button, Esq., of the county of Worcester, gave, on March
28, a curious relic of the ancient language of Cornwall, being
three Miracle-Plays of the Creation, the Passion, and the Resurrection,
in Cornish, contained in a MS. on vellum, small folio,
eighty-three leaves, written in the fifteenth century; now numbered
Bodl. 791. A copy on paper of the Play of the Creation, written
by John Jordan in 1611, is also in the Library, numbered Bodl.
219, which appears to have come from the library of King
James I, having the royal crown stamped on the parchment
cover, with the initials I.K. A second modern copy has also
been recently presented (in 1849) by Edwin Ley, Esq., of Bosahan,
Cornwall, which is accompanied by a translation by John Keigwyn,
made in 1695. The dramas were printed in two volumes at
the University Press, with a translation, notes, and glossary, by
Mr. Edwin Norris, in 1859.
Some MSS. were given about this time by the three sons
of Rich. Colf, D.D., and in 1618 twenty Greek volumes by Cecil,
Earl of Exeter.
At the beginning of May, James resigned the office of Librarian,
but not as Wood says, on account of his promotion to the Subdeanery
of Wells, since that took place in the year 1614. His
appointment to the rectory of Mongeham, Kent (also mentioned
by Wood), was in 1617. He continued, however, to reside in
Oxford, and dying there in August, 1629, was buried in New
College Chapel.
On the 9th of the same month of May, John Rouse, M.A.,
Fellow of Oriel, was elected James' successor. No account of
him is given by Wood, possibly from dislike of his Puritanical
principles, and of his continuing to hold office during the usurpation.
He appears to have discharged his trust in the Library
with faithfulness, and, at least, to have deserved some mention
at the historiographer's hands for the Appendix to the Catalogue
which he issued in the year 1635 (q.v.)[69] He is best known as
the friend of Milton, who, on Rouse's application to him for a
copy of his Poems both English and Latin, published in 1645,
in the place of one previously given by Milton which had been
lost, sent the volume, together with a long autograph Latin Ode,
dated Jan. 23, 1646 (-7), and bearing the following title: 'Ad
Joannem Rousium, Oxoniensis Academiæ Bibliothecarium, de
libro poematum amisso quem ille sibi denuo mitti postulabat,
ut cum aliis nostris in Bibliotheca publica reponeret, Ode Joannis
Miltonj[70].' The volume is now numbered 8o. M. 168 Art. A
facsimile of a considerable portion of the Ode (which Cowper
translated into English, and which is said to have been the
last of Milton's Latin poetical effusions) is given in plate xvii.
of Sam. Leigh Sotheby's sumptuous volume, entitled Ramblings
in the Elucidation of the Autograph of Milton, 4o. Lond. 1861;
and at p. 120 there is a facsimile in full of Milton's inscription
in another volume (4o. F. 56 Th.) which contains a collection of
the political and polemical treatises published by him in the years
1641-5. This latter inscription, which gives a list of the contents
of the volume, is addressed as follows: 'Doctissimo viro proboque
librorum æstimatori Joanni Rousio, Oxoniensis academiæ Bibliothecario,
gratum hoc sibi fore testanti, Joannes Miltonius opuscula hæc
sua in Bibliothecam antiquissimam atque celeberrimam adsciscenda
libens tradit, tanquam in memoriæ perpetuæ Fanum, emeritamque,
uti sperat, invidiæ calumniæque vacationem; si Veritati,
Bonoque simul Eventui satis litatum sit.' Warton tells the
almost incredible story, in his edition of Milton's Poems, that
about the year 1720 these two volumes were thrown out into a
heap of duplicates, from which Nathaniel Crynes, who afterwards
bequeathed his own collection to the Library[71], was permitted to
pick out what he pleased for himself; fortunately, however, he
was too good a royalist and churchman to choose anything that
bore the name of Milton, and so the books, despised and rejected
on both sides, by mere chance remained in the place of their
original deposit! Such an incident, if true, goes far to justify
the charges of ignorance and neglect of the Library which Hearne
in his Diary constantly brings against Hudson, the Librarian
at that time, and those whom he employed.
The second edition of the Catalogue was issued by James,
shortly after his resignation of his office, with a Dedication to
Prince Charles, and a Preface dated June 30. It consists of
539 quarto pages, in double columns. It abandons the classified
arrangement of the former Catalogue, and adopts that (followed
ever since) of one alphabet of names. James, in his Preface,
gives as his reason for this course, the frequent difficulty (already
experienced even in so small a collection) of deciding to what
class a book should be assigned, and the inconvenience resulting
from division of the works of the same author. He points out
the value of the Library to foreigners, who can there consult
16,000 volumes for six hours a day, excepting Sundays and
holidays[72]. As instances of the copiousness of its stores, he mentions
that there are to be found above 100 folio and quarto volumes
on Military Art, in Greek, Latin, and other languages; and that
there are 3000 or 4000 books in French, Italian, and Spanish.
He notes that heretical and schismatical books are not to be
read without leave of the Vice-Chancellor and Regius Professor
of Divinity; and makes some remarks on the method of keeping
a Common-place-book. He gives as the reason for his quitting
his post, his severe sufferings from stone and paralysis[73].
On June 4, King James presented the folio edition of his Works
as edited by Bishop Montague. The book (now marked B. 14.
17. Theol.) contains the following presentation inscription, written
and signed by Sir R. Naunton:—
'Jacobus Dei gratia Magnæ Britanniæ, Franciæ et Hiberniæ
Rex, fidei defensor, &c. Postquam decrevisset publici juris
facere quæ sibi erat commentatus, ne videretur vel palam pudere
literarum quas privatim amaverat, vel eorum seu opinioni seu
invidiæ cedere qui Regis Majestatem literis dictitabant imminui,
vel Christiani Orbis et in eo Principum judicia expavescere,
quorum maxime intererat vera esse omnia quæ scripsit; circumspicere
etiam cœpit certum aliquod libro suo domicilium, locum,
si fieri possit, semotum a fato, æternitati et paci sacrum.
Ecce commodum sua se obtulit Academia, illa pæne orbi
notior quam Cantabrigiæ, ubi exulibus Musis jam olim melius
est quam in patria, ubi a codicibus famæ nuncupatis tineæ absterrentur
legentium manibus, sycophantæ scribentium ingeniis.
In hoc immortali literarum sacrario, inter monumenta clarorum
virorum, quos quantum dilexit studiorum participatione satis
indicavit, in bibliotheca publica, lucubrationes has suas Deo Opt.
Max., Cui ab initio devotæ erant, æternum consecrat, in venerando
Almæ Matris sinu, unde contra seculorum rubiginem fidam illi
custodiam promittit, et contra veritatis hostes stabile patrocinium.'
The book, which was carried to Oxford by a special deputation,
consisting of Patrick Young, the Librarian at St. James's (to
whom £20 was given by the University for his pains), and others,
was received by the University with great ceremony. A Convocation
was held in St. Mary's Church, on May 29, at which
an oration was delivered by Rich. Gardiner, the Deputy-Orator,
and at which a letter of thanks was approved (which is printed
in Wood's Annals, ii. 336); from thence the Vice-Chancellor,
attended by 24 doctors in their scarlet robes, and a mixed
multitude of others, carried it in solemn procession to the Library,
where the keeper, Rouse, 'made a verie prettie speech,' says
Patrick Young, 'and placed it in archivis ... with a great deale
of respect[74].' The King was greatly pleased with the formality
and flattery with which his works were received, and the more
so 'because Cambridge received them without extraordinary
respect[75].'
Another gift in this year, presented by Thomas Nevile, K.B.,
eldest son of Sir H. Nevile, Knt., is thus described in the Register:
'Elegantissimum libellum diversa scripturæ genera continentem,
manu Esteris Anglicæ, characteribus exquisitis conscriptum.'
This is, doubtless, the MS. of the Book of Proverbs,
dated 1599, in which every chapter, as well as the dedication
to the Earl of Essex, is written in a different style of caligraphy,
which is now exhibited in the glass case nearest the entrance to
the Library. It is an extremely beautiful specimen of the handiwork
of Mrs. Esther Inglis, of whose skill the Library possesses
another and smaller specimen (Bodl. 987), consisting of some
French verses by Guy de Faur, Sieur de Pybrac, written for
Dr. Joseph Hall (afterwards the Bishop of Norwich), in 1617.
These are described in the account of Mrs. Inglis, in Ballard's
Memoirs of British Ladies. A third specimen of her work is
in the Library of Ch. Ch.: it is a Psalter in French, presented
to Queen Elizabeth in 1599, bound in embroidered crimson velvet,
set with pearls[76].
The Douay Bible of 1609 was presented by Sir Rich. Anderson,
and a Persian MS. of the Liturgy of the Greek Church by Sir
Thos. Roe. The first architectural model also was given in this
year; but unfortunately it is not now extant. Its description is as
follows: 'Clemens Edmonds, eques auratus, consilio Regis ab
epistolis, donavit egregium παραδειγμα quinque columnarum, nunc
primum inventum, secundum formam rusticam, ex alabastrite
singulari artificio confectum.'
A gift of £5 is noticeable as coming from the Girdlers' Company,
'Societas Zonariorum.' Sir Francis Bacon occurs as a
donor of books.
Delegates were appointed by Convocation to consider 'de
modulo frontispicii Bibliothecæ publicæ in parte occidentali versus
collegium Exon[77].'
'Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, and then Lord Chancellor of
England, would have borrowed Paulus Benius Eugubinus De
dirimend. Controvers. de Grat. et Lib. Arb., but was deny'd[78].'
The first theft of a book from the Library occurred in this year.
An account of it, with several others, will be found in a note to the
year 1654.
Andrew James, of Newport, Isle of Wight, is recorded to have
given 'duas capsulas in quibus asservantur scripta vetustissima,
exotici et ignoti characteris, alia stylo, calamo alia, in corticibus
exarata, ex orientalis Indiæ partibus allata[79].' An East India
merchant, John Jourdain, gave four Arabic MSS., and Bacon's
Works were presented by Peter Ince, a bookseller at Chester. It
appears from the Register that Joseph Barnes, the Oxford printer
and publisher, died in this year, as he bequeathed a legacy of £5.
Twenty-nine MSS., all of which, except three, are Greek, were
given by Sir Thomas Roe, who had previously been ambassador
in Turkey, and who afterwards sat, at the commencement of the
Long Parliament, as Burgess for the University, in company with
Selden. One of the three exceptions is an original copy of the
Synodal Epistles of the Council of Basle, with the leaden seal
attached; and another, a valuable Arabic MS. of the Apostolic
Canons, &c., which is noticed at length by Selden in the second
book of his treatise, De Synedriis Hebræorum. Roe proposed
that his books should be permitted to be lent out for purposes of
printing, on proper security being given; a proposition which was
accepted by Convocation[80]. Special licence of borrowing Lord
Pembroke's (the Barocci) and Roe's MSS. was granted by the
donors themselves to Dr. Lindsell (afterwards Bishop of Peterborough
and Hereford) and Patrick Young, the keeper of the
King's Library at St. James's. The latter is found, from the
Register of Readers, to have used his privilege as late as Feb. and
March, 1647-8, various volumes of Pembroke's MSS. being then
lent to him, together with some marked 'Archbp.', which were
doubtless Laud's[81].
The copy of Bacon's Essays (1625) which was presented by the
author to the Duke of Buckingham, was given to the Library by
Lewis Roberts, a merchant of London. It is now exhibited
among the curiosities in the first glass case, as a specimen of
binding, being clad in green velvet, embroidered with gold and
silver thread, with the head of the duke worked in silk. The same
donor also presented the copy of Bishop Williams' Funeral
Sermon on James I, which had been given to the same duke by
the author. Several other specimens of embroidered bindings are
preserved in the Library, which are all, it is believed, comprehended
in the following list[82]:—
1. A part of L. Tomson's version of the New Test., printed by
Barker, in 16o (in 1578?), now marked MS. e Musæo, 242. This
belonged to Queen Elizabeth, and is bound in a covering worked
by herself, with various mottos, e.g. 'Celum patria,' 'Scopus vitæ
Xpũs,' &c. And on a fly-leaf occurs this note in her handwriting:
'August[ine?]. I walke manie times into the pleasant fieldes of
the Holye Scriptures, where I plucke up the goodlie greene herbes
of sentences by pruning, eate them by reading, chawe them by
musing, and laie them up at length in the hie seate of memorie by
gathering them together; that so hauing tasted thy sweetenes I
may the lesse perceave the bitternes of this miserable life[83].'
2. Another of Elizabeth's bibliopegic achievements is the cover
of her own translation from the French of The Miroir or Glasse of
the synnefull Soule, executed when only eleven years old. She says
that she translated it 'out of frenche ryme into englishe prose,
joyning the sentences together as well as the capacitie of my
symple witte and small lerning coulde extende themselves;' and
prefixes a dedication, dated 'from Assherige, the laste daye of the
yeare of our Lord God, 1544,' in which, 'to our moste noble and
vertuous quene Katherin, Elizabeth her humble daughter wisheth
perpetuall felicitie and everlasting ioye.' The volume consists of
63 small quarto leaves, and has the queen's initials K. P. embroidered
within an ornamental border of gold and silver thread,
on a ground of blue corded silk. It is numbered Cherry MS. 38.
3. Dialogue de la Vie et de la Mort, trans. from the Italian by
J. Louveau, and printed in imitation of MS., second edit., 12o.
Lyon, 1558. Red velvet, embroidered with gold and silver thread.
A French inscription on a fly-leaf is in a handwriting resembling
that of Queen Elizabeth. Bodl. MS., 660.
4. A Testament in 16o, printed by Norton and Bill in 1625.
Very thick and clumsy embroidery: on one side, David, in a
flowing wig, playing on the harp, with a dog, dragon-fly, &c.; on
the other, Abraham, in a similar wig and with a falling collar,
stopped in the sacrifice of his son. There is a tradition that this
formed part of a waistcoat of Charles I; but it is not known on
what evidence it rests, nor does the material seem likely to have
been so employed. In the Douce collection. Exhibited in the
glass case at the entrance of the Library.
5. Bible, 8o Lond. 1639. Landscape, &c., worked in silk, with
embroidery in gold and silver thread. Arch Bodl. D subt. 75.
6. Prayer-book, New Test., and Metrical Psalms, 1630-1, bound
by the nuns of Little Gidding. Exhibited in the glass case.
Bought in 1866 for £10[84].
7. New Testament, printed at Cambridge in 1628, in 16mo. This
was the first edition printed there of any portion of the Authorized
Version, and only the second of any English translation[85]. The
binding of the Library copy (which was bought, in 1859, for five
guineas) is covered with silver filigree work.
Among Dr. Rawlinson's multifarious collections is a volume of
curious early specimens of worked samplers, humorously lettered
on the back, 'Works of Learned Ladies.'
The extremely valuable series of Greek MSS., called from its
collector the Barocci Collection, comprising 242 volumes, was
presented by Will. Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and Chancellor
of the University. The manner of its acquisition is recorded in
Archbp. Usher's correspondence. In a letter from Dublin of Jan.
22, 1628-9, Usher says: 'That famous library of Giacomo Barocci,
a gentleman of Venice, consisting of 242 manuscript volumes, is
now brought into England by Mr. Featherstone the stationer[86].'
He recommended that the King should buy it, and add to it
the collection of Arabic MSS. which the Duke of Buckingham
had bought of the heirs of Erpenius[87]. On April 13, 1629,
Sir H. Bourgchier writing to Usher, tells him that the Earl of
Pembroke has bought the collection, for the University of Oxford,
at the price of £700, and that it consists of 250 volumes[88]. It
was forwarded to the University with the following letter, which
is here copied from the Convocation Register, R. 24 (f. 9b.):—
'Good Mr. Vice-Chancelor,
'Understanding of an excellent collection of Greke
manuscripts brought from Venice, and thincking that they would
bee of more use to the Church in being kept united in some
publick Librarye then scattered in particular hands; remembring
the obligation I had to my mother the Universitie, first for
breeding mee, after for the honor they did mee in making mee
their Chancelor, I was glad of this occasion to repay some part
of that great debt I owe her. And therefore I sent you downe
the collection entire, which I pray present with my beste love to
the Convocation house. And I shall unfaynedly remaine,
'Your most assured freind,
'PEMBROKE.
'Greenewich, the 25th of May, 1629.'
The Earl was willing that the MSS. should, if necessary, be
allowed to be borrowed. And, in pursuance of this expressed
wish, Patrick Young had, in 1648, the use of various MSS. from
this collection, as we find from a memorandum at the end of
the Register of Readers in 1648-9. But one MS. suffered in
consequence considerable injury[89]. A further portion of the collection
(consisting of 22 Greek MSS. and 2 Russian), which had
been retained by the Earl, was subsequently purchased by Oliver
Cromwell, and given by him to the Library in 1654. There
they still bear the Protector's name; but, strange to say, no
entry of the gift appears in the Benefaction Book[90]. These are
all fully described in the first volume of the general Catalogue
of MSS., published by Rev. H. O. Coxe in 1853. A Catalogue
of the Barocci and Roe MSS., by Dr. Peter Turner, of Merton
College, beautifully written, filling 38 folio leaves, is bound up
among Selden's printed books, marked AA. 1. Med. Seld.
On Aug. 27, the Library was visited for the first time by
King Charles and his Queen, little anticipating under what circumstances
that visit would be repeated. He was received with an
oration by the Public Orator, Strode, a copy of which is preserved
in Smith MS. xxvi. 26, and which, in the exaggerated style of
the Court-adulation of the time, began with words that sound
blasphemously in our ears, 'Excellentissime Vice-Deus.' From the
Library the King ascended to the leads of the Schools; and
there discussed the proposed removal of some mean houses in Cat
Street, which then intervened between the Schools and St. Mary's
Church. A plan of the ground and buildings was made at his
desire, which was sent up to him at London.
Charles Robson, B.D., of Queen's College, who had been
Chaplain to the Merchants at Aleppo, gave a fine Syriac MS.
of the Four Gospels, which he had brought from the East; it
is now numbered Bodl. Orient. 361. Another MS. of his gift
has been by some mistake placed amongst the Thurston MSS.,
No. 13.
William Burton, the historian of Leicestershire, gave the original
MSS. of Leland's Itinerary (together with a transcript of some
parts) and of his Collectanea; the former filling seven volumes
in quarto[91], and the latter (including the book De Scriptoribus
Britannicis) four in folio. The Collectanea, after the death of
Leland, had been in the possession of Sir John Cheke, to whom
Edward VI entrusted the custody of Leland's papers; on his going
into exile in the reign of Queen Mary, he gave them to Humphrey
Purefoy, Esq., whose son, Thomas Purefoy, presented them to
Burton in the year 1612. The Itinerary was first published by
Hearne in 1710, in 9 vols.; the Collectanea in 1715, in 6 vols.;
the De Scriptoribus, by Ant. Hall, in 1709. The MS. of the
Itinerary is much stained and injured by damp; but it is no longer
in the perishable condition described by Hearne. There are,
besides, three transcripts of it in the Library; one, of part of
the book (Bodl. 470) is a copy (mentioned above) which was
made for Burton, and sent by him to Rouse, with a letter dated
'Lindley, Leic. 17 July, 1632,' in which he describes it as being
'written, though not with so fine a letter, yet with a judicious
hand.' He says that another part is 'now (as I heere) in the
hands of Doctor Burton, Archdeacon of Gloucester, which he
received by loane from a freind of mine, but never yet restored;
the which, I thinke, upon request he will impart unto you;' and
adds, 'Some more partes there were of this Itinerary, but through
the negligence of him to whom they were first lent, are embesiled
and gone.' He undertakes to send the three parts of the Collectanea
and the book De Scriptt. Angliæ, according to promise,
as soon as he has done using them. Another copy, made by
Burton himself in 1628, was given to Dr. W. Stukeley by Thomas
Allen, Esq., lord of Finchley, in June, 1758, and finally came
to the Library with Gough's collection. It is now numbered
Gough, General Topog. 2. It is injured by damp at the beginning,
but has been repaired by Stukeley. The third copy is a later
transcript, also in Gough's collection, and numbered General
Topog. 1.
A singular motto stamped upon the binding of two books, and
it may be of more, within a border of cornucopiæ, &c., attracts the
attention of the reader. The books are, vols. i. ii. of Du Chesne's
Historiæ Francorum Scriptores, 1636 (A. 2. 9. 10. Jur.), and Halloix's
Ecclesiæ Orientalis Scriptores, 1633 (G. 2. 3. Th.); the motto
is, 'Coronasti annum bonitatis Tuæ, Ps. 65. Annuo reditu quinque
librarum Margaretæ Brooke.' An explanation is found in an
entry in the Benefaction-Register under the year 1632 or 1633,
where we read as follows: 'D. Margareta Brooke, vidua, quondam
uxor Ducis Brooke, de Temple-Combe in comitatu Somerset,
armigeri defuncti, donavit centum libras, quibus perquisitus est
annuus reditus quinque librarum ad coemendos libros in usum
bibliothecæ in perpetuum.' Probably the books thus stamped
were the first that were bought after the final settlement of the
gift. The rent arises from land at Wick-Risington, in Gloucestershire,
and the sum duly appears to this day in the annual accounts
of the Library. In 1655, the then Librarian, Barlow, makes a memorandum
in his accounts that the University had not paid over
this rent for several years; in consequence of his calling attention
to this neglect, the arrears were paid up in 1658. At the same
time the rents of the houses in Distaff Lane were heavily in arrear.
A (second) gift from Sir Henry Wotton consisted of the copy of
Tycho Brahe's Astronomiæ instaurandæ mechanica, 1598, which
the author gave to Grimani, Doge of Venice, containing several
additional pages in MS. with two autograph epigrams; and also of
a MS. of the Acta Concilii Constantiensis, which had formerly belonged
to Card. Bembi, now numbered e Musæo, 25.
In this year Sir Kenelm Digby gave a collection of 238 MSS.
(including five rolls) all on vellum, uniformly bound, and stamped
with his arms, which still form a distinct series. They are, for the
most part, of the highest interest and importance, especially with
reference to the early history of science in England. Amongst
them are works by Roger Bacon, Grosteste, Will. Reade, John
Eschyndon or Ashton, Roger of Hereford, Richard Wallingford,
Simon Bredon, Thomas of New-market, and many others. They
also comprise much relating to the general history of England, and
are almost entirely the work of English scribes. Many of them
had previously belonged to Thomas Allen, of Gloucester Hall, who
himself was a liberal donor to the Library. [See p. 19.] Two
additional MSS., which formerly belonged to Digby, and which
each contain his inscription, 'Hic est liber publicæ Bibliothecæ
academiæ Oxoniensis, K.D.,' were purchased in 1825. One of
these, R. Baconis opuscula, was bought for £51; the other, a Latin
translation, by W. de Morbeck, of Proclus' Commentary on Plato,
for £31 10s. They are uniformly bound with the rest of the
series, and are numbered 235 and 236 respectively.
The donor stipulated that his MSS. should not be strictly confined
to use within the walls of the Library. Archbishop Laud
says, in the letter in which, as Chancellor, he announced the gift
to the University, 'hee will not subiect these manuscripts to the
strictnes of Sir Thomas Bodley's statutes[92], but will haue libertie
given for any man of woorth, that wilbee at the paines and charge to
print any of these bookes, to haue them oute of the Librarye vpon
good caution giuen; but to that purpose and noe other[93].' But he
afterwards left the University at liberty to deal as it pleased with
his MSS. in this particular, as well as in all other questions that
might arise concerning his books. In a letter to Dr. Langbaine,
dated Nov. 7, 1654, he says: 'The absolute disposition of them in
all occurrences dependeth wholly and singly of the University; for
she knoweth best what will be most for her service and advantage,
and she is absolute mistress to dispose of them as she pleaseth[94].'
He mentions in the same letter two trunks of Arabic MSS. which
he gave to Archbp. Laud to send to the University or to St. John's
College, but he never heard whether they reached their destination
or no. He promises also to send over some more MSS. from
France when he has returned thither; since, when the troubles of
the Rebellion drove him into exile, he had carried his library with
him. Upon the Restoration, however, and his own return to
England, he unfortunately left his books behind; and after his
death they were confiscated by the French King as belonging to
an alien, and subsequently sold. Doubtless the two MSS. acquired
in 1825 were among those to which his letter refers.
The first stone of the western end of the Library, with the Convocation
House beneath, was laid on May 13, 1634; it was fitted
up with shelves and ready for use by 1640. Selden's books were
placed here in 1659. The hideous great west window is a monument
of the bad taste of the time; it is much to be hoped that it
may some day be replaced by a window more worthy of its conspicuous
position, and affording a less marked contrast with its
opposite neighbour, the noble east window erected by Bodley
himself.
In this year Rouse issued an Appendix to the Catalogue published
in 1620, consisting of 208 pages in quarto, in double
columns, and containing, as he says, about 1500 authors. James,
on the title-page of his Catalogue in 1620, speaks of an Appendix
accompanying that issue; hence, probably, it is that the words
'Editio secunda' are placed on the title of the Appendix of 1635.
But, strange to say, no copy of the earlier Appendix can now be
found existing in the Library. At the end of the later one is
added [by John Verneuil, then Sub-Librarian,] an anonymous
enlarged edition (which was also sold separately) of James' Catalogus
interpretum S. Script, in Bibl. Bodl., with an Appendix of
authors who had written on the Sentences and the Summa, on the
Sunday-Gospels, on Cases of Conscience, on the Lord's Prayer,
the Apostles' Creed, and the Decalogue. A book giving an account
of all the copies of the Catalogue sold between 1620-47,
with the names of the purchasers, still exists, the latter part being in
the handwriting of Verneuil; but some leaves have been torn out
at the year 1635. It appears from this book that the price of
James' Catalogue was 2s. 8d., that of the Catalogue of Interpreters
6d., of the Appendix 2s., and of the whole series complete 5s.
The Register for these years presents a connected series of
benefactions on the part of Archbishop Laud.
On May 22, 1635, he sent to the Library the first instalment
of his magnificent gifts of MSS. which consisted of 462
volumes and five rolls. Among these were 46 Latin MSS.,
'e Collegio Herbipolensi [Würtzburg] in Germania sumpti A.D.
1631, cum Suecorum Regis exercitus per universam fere Germaniam
grassarentur.' Laud directs, in his letter of gift, that
none of the books shall on any account be taken out of
the Library, 'nisi solum ut typis mandentur, et sic publici et
juris et utilitatis fiant,' upon sufficient security, to be approved
by the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors; the MS., in such cases,
being immediately after printing restored to its place in the
Library[95]. This permission was acted upon in the year 1647-8,
when Patrick Young, the Librarian of the Royal Library at
St. James's, was allowed to have the use of several volumes[96].
In 1636, 181 MSS. formed the Archbishop's second gift, which
were accompanied by five cabinets of coins in gold, silver, and
brass, with a list arranged chronologically; an Arabic astrolabe,
of brass[97]; two idols, one Egyptian, the other from the West
Indies; and the fine bust of King Charles I, 'singulari artificio
ex purissimo ære conflatam,' which is now placed under the arch
opening into the central portion of the Library. This beautiful work
of art is believed by Mr. John Bruce, the learned Vice-President
of the Society of Antiquaries, who is engaged in researches into
the life and productions of Hubert Le Sœur, the artist of the
statue at Charing Cross, to be, (as well as the bust given by Laud
to St. John's College,) a specimen of the skill of that famous
craftsman. The existing arrangements of the Library being found
insufficient for such large accessions, the lower end was fitted up
in 1638-9 for the reception of Laud's books, for the cost of which
£300 was voted by Convocation[98]. In the following year, 555
more MSS. were received, together with a magical wand or staff,
and some additional coins. The wand is of dark polished wood,
2 feet 9 inches long, with a grotesquely-carved figure at the
head, apparently of Mexican workmanship: it is now kept in
one of the Sub-Librarians' studies. The last gift from the munificent
Chancellor of the University came in the next year, 1640,
and consisted of no more than 81 MSS.; for troubles were beginning
to gather now around the head of the Archbishop, and
the Library at Oxford felt the blows which were levelled at
Lambeth. This was accompanied with the following touching
letter:—
'Viris mihi amicissimis Doctori Potter, Vice-Cancellario, reliquisque
Doctoribus, Procuratoribus, necnon singulis in domo Convocationis
intra almam Universitatem Oxon. congregatis.
'Non datur scribendi otium. Hoc tamen quale quale est
arripio lubens, ut pauca ad vos transmittam, adhuc florentes
Academici. Tempora adsunt plusquam difficillima, nec negotia
quæ undique urgent faciliora sunt. Quin et quo loco res Ecclesiæ
sint nemo non videt. Horum malorum fons non unus est; unus
tamen, inter alios, furor est eorum qui sanam doctrinam non
sustinentes (quod olim observavit S. Hilarius) corruptam desiderant.
Inter eos qui hoc œstro perciti sunt quam difficile sit
vivere, mihi plus satis innotescit, cui (Deo gratias!) idem est vivere
et officium facere.
'Sed mittenda hæc sunt, nec enim quo fata ducunt datur scire.
Nec mitiora redduntur tempora aut tutiora querimoniis. Interim
velim sciatis me omnia vobis fausta et felicia precari, quo tuti
sitis felicesque, dum hic inter sphæras superiores stellæ cujuslibet
magnitudinis vix motum suum tenent, aut præ nubium crassitie
debile lumen emittunt.
'Dum sic fluctuant omnia, statui apud me in tuto (id est,
apud vos spero) MS. quædam, temporum priorum monumenta,
deponere. Pauca sunt, sed prioribus similia, si non æqualia, et
talia quæ, non obstantibus temporum difficultatibus, in usum
vestrum parare non destiti. Sunt vero inter hæc Hebraica sex,
Græca undecim, Arabica tringinta quatuor, Latina viginti et unum,
Italica duo, Anglicana totidem, Persica quinque, quorum unum,
folio digestum ampliori, historiam continet ab orbe condito ad
finem imperii Saracenici, et est proculdubio magni valoris. Hæc
per vos in Bibliothecam Bodleianam (nomen veneror, nec superstitiose)
reponenda, et cæteris olim meis apponenda, cupio, et sub
eisdem legibus quibus priora dedi. Non opus est multis donum
hoc nostrum nimis exile ornare, nec id in votis meis unquam
fuit. Hoc obnixe et quotidie a DEO Opt. Max. summis votis peto,
ut Academia semper floreat, in ea Religio et Pietas et quicquid
doctrinam decorare potest in altum crescat, ut tempestatibus
quæ nunc omnia perflant sedatis, tuto possitis et vobis et studiis
et, præ omnibus, Deo frui. Quæ vota semper erunt
'fidelissimi et amantissimi Cancellarii vestri,
'W. CANT.[99]
'Dat. ex ædibus meis
'Lambethanis, 6to Nov. 1640.'
The collection, which contains in the whole nearly 1300 MSS.,
comprises works in very many languages: Hebrew, Chaldee,
Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Armenian, Ethiopic, Chinese,
Russian, Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, Irish, Anglo-Saxon,
and English are all represented. It is impossible, in the
limits of this survey, to point out many of the treasures with
which the collection abounds; but that which is pre-eminently
styled 'Codex Laudianus' (numbered Laud, Gr. 35) must not, of
course, be omitted. It is a MS. of the Acts of the Apostles, in
quarto, consisting of 227 leaves, and containing the text in both
Greek and Latin, in parallel columns. Its date has been variously
fixed by critics, from the sixth to the eighth century; Mr. Coxe
places it towards the end of the seventh century, with whom
Dr. Tischendorf, who examined it in 1865, and for whom some
photographs of portions were executed, is believed to coincide.
Some leaves are wanting at the end, commencing at chap. xxvi.
29. It is the only MS. known to be extant which contains the
peculiar readings (in number 74) cited by Bede in his Commentary
as existing in the copy which he used; it has consequently been
conjectured, with much reason, that this was the very MS. which
he possessed. It was published by Thomas Hearne in 1715,
printed in capitals corresponding line for line with the MS., but
not with entire correctness; only 120 copies were printed, and
it is therefore one of the rarest in the series of his works. A
very fairly engraved facsimile of one verse (vii. 2) is to be found
in Horne's Introduction.
Another famous MS. (No. 636) is a copy of the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, which ends at the year 1154, and appears to have been
written in, and to have belonged to, the abbey of Peterborough,
from its containing many additions relating thereto. And a
third treasure calling for special mention is an Irish vellum MS.
(No. 610), which contains the Psalter of Cashel, Cormac's Glossary,
Poems attributed to SS. Columb-kill and Patrick, &c.[100] The
Greek MSS. of the collection are fully described in vol. i. of the
Catal. Codd. Bibl. Bodl., by Mr. H. O. Coxe, published in 1853;
the Latin, Biblical, and Classical, with the Miscellaneous, in Part I
of the second volume, published by the same gentleman in 1858;
the Oriental, in the various Catalogues of Uri, Nicoll, Pusey,
Dillmann, and Payne Smith.
One of the Würtzburg books rescued from the Swedish soldiery
is a magnificent Missal printed on vellum by Jeorius Ryser in
1481, with illuminated initials. On a fly-leaf is the following note:
'1481, Johannes Kewsch, vicarius in ecclesia Herb[ipolensi] hunc
librum comparavit propriis expensis, et pro omnibus, scil. pergameno,
impressura, rubricatione, illinatura, et ligatione, xviii. flor.'
Then follows a bequest, in his own hand, in 1486, of the book to
the successive vicars of St. Bartholomew, which is repeated at the
end of the 'Canon Missæ.' In the latter place four subsequent
possessors, from 1565 to 1580, have written their names, the last
of them adding, 'Omnis arbor qui non facit fructum bonum excidetur
et in ignem mittetur.' The Library reference is now
Auct. i. Q. i. 7.
A Bachelor of Arts and Fellow of St. John's College, one
Abraham Wright, published the results of his lighter reading in the
Bodleian in a little volume printed by Leonard Lichfield, which he
entitled, Delitiæ Delitiarum, sive Epigrammatum ex optimis quibusque
hujus et novissimi seculi Poetis in amplissima illa Bibliotheca
Bodleiana, et pene omnino alibi extantibus, ανθολογια.
On Jan. 25, 1639-40, died Robert Burton, of Ch. Ch., 'Democritus
junior,' and bequeathed out of his large library whatever
he possessed which was wanting in the Bodleian. A list of
the Latin books thus acquired is given in the Benefaction Book,
followed by this sentence: 'Porro [d. d.] comœdiarum, tragediarum,
et schediasmatum ludicrorum (præsertim idiomate vernaculo)
aliquot centurias, quas propter multitudinem non adjecimus.'
These latter were just the classes of books the admission of which
the Founder had almost prohibited, viz., 'almanacks, plays, and an
infinite number that are daily printed.' Even if 'some little profit
might be reaped (which God knows is very little) out of some of
our play-books, the benefit thereof,' said he, 'will nothing near
countervail the harm that the scandal will bring upon the Library,
when it shall be given out that we stuffed it full of baggage
books[101].' In consequence of this well-meant but mistaken resolution,
the Library was bare of just those books which Burton's
collection could afford, and which now form some of its rarest and
most curious divisions. In his own address 'To the Reader' of
his Anatomy of Melancholy he very fully describes the nature of his
own gatherings. 'I hear new news every day; and those ordinary
rumours of war, plagues, fires, inundations, thefts, murders, massacres,
meteors, comets, spectrums, prodigies, apparitions, of
towns taken, cities besieged in France, Germany, Turkey, Persia,
Poland, &c. * * * * are daily brought to our ears; new
books every day, pamphlets, currantoes, stories (&c.). Now come
tidings of weddings, maskings, mummeries, entertainments, jubilees,
embassies, tilts and tournaments, trophies, triumphs, revels, sports,
plays; then again, as in a new shifted scene, treasons, cheating
tricks, robberies, enormous villainies, in all kinds, funerals, burials,
death of princes, new discoveries, expeditions; now comical, then
tragical matters.' His books are chiefly to be found in the classes
marked 4o Art. (particularly under letter L), Theol., and Art. BS.
Amongst his smaller books is one of the only two known copies of
the edition of Venus and Adonis in 1602. He is specially mentioned
also in the preface to Verneuil's Nomenclator, 1642, as
being (together with Mr. Kilby of Linc. Coll., Mr. Prestwich, of
All Souls', and Mr. Francis Wright, of Merton) a donor of Commentaries
and Sermons. Besides his books, he bequeathed £100,
with which an annual payment of £5 was obtained. For some
time, however, this payment was subsequently lost; for in Barlow's
Accounts for 1655, after mentioning the receipt of £40 paid by
one Mr. Thomas Smith, occurs this 'Memorandum:—that the £40
above mentioned amongst the Recepta is a part of an £100 given
to the Library by Mr. Rob. Burton of Ch. Ch. It was first lent to
Mr. Thomas Smith, and he (by bond) was to pay to the Library
£5 per annum. He breaking, or very much decay'd in his estate,
and deade, this £40 was payd in by his executors, £50 more is to
be payd us by University Coll. (it was owinge to Mr. Smith, and
his executors assigned it over to us), and Dr. Langbaine hath in
his keepinge a bond of one Spencer for £10 more.' The latter
was paid in 1658, as appears from an entry, 'Recept. a Dno.
Spicer (sic) et Hopkins, ex syngrapha;' but the former was still
unpaid in 1660.
The famous 'Guy Fawkes' Lantern,' which is to this day such an
object of interest in the Picture Gallery to most sight-seers, was
presented to the University by Robert Heywood, M.A., Brasenose
College, who had been Proctor in 1639. It came into his possession
from his being the son of a Justice of the Peace who assisted
in searching the cellars of the Parliament House, and arrested
Fawkes with the lantern in his hand. In 1640 this Justice Heywood
was wounded by a Roman Catholic when, while still holding
office as a Justice for Westminster, he was engaged in proposing
the oaths to the recusants of that city[102]. The following inscription
is attached to it, engraved upon a brass plate: 'Lāterna illa
ipsa, qua usus est et cum qua deprehensus Guido Faux in
crypta subterranea, ubi domo Parlamenti difflandæ operam dabat.
Ex dono Rob. Heywood, nuper Academiæ Procuratoris, Apr. 4,
1641.' From being for many years exposed to the handling of
every visitor, it became much broken; but it has now for a long
time been secured from further injury by being enclosed in a
glass case.
In May an order was made by the Curators that no strangers
should have the use of any MSS. without finding sureties for the
safety of the same, in consequence of a suspicion that whole
pages had been in some cases abstracted. Hereupon a very
earnest, and, in sooth, indignant, remonstrance was presented to
the 'Curatores vigilantissimi' by the strangers then residing in
Oxford 'studiorum causa.' The original document is preserved
in Wood MS. F. 27, and is signed by eleven persons from Prussia
and other parts of Germany, six Danes, and one Englishman
(John Wyberd), a medical student. Some of these visitors are
found, by reference to the Register of Readers, to have been
students for a considerable time; the Baron ab Eulenberg, for
instance, having been admitted on Jan. 18, 1638-9, and one Ven,
a Dane, in 1633. The memorialists say that there is not even
the very slightest ground for attributing such an offence to any
of them, and that the Librarian himself candidly confesses that
it has never been proved to him that strangers have ever done
anything of the kind; they urge the difficulty of their finding
sponsors for their honesty when they themselves are strangers
and foreigners; they appeal to Bodley's own statutes as providing
sufficiently for the contingency by ordering the Librarian
to number the pages of a MS. before giving it out, and to
examine it when returned; they fortify their arguments by abundant
references to the civil law; they upbraid those who,—'internecino
exterorum atque advenarum odio æstuantes (O celebratam
Britanniæ hospitalitatem!),'—have originated the calumny;
and, finally, warn the Curators against giving occasion for suspicion
to the learned men of the whole world that 'doctos Angliæ
viros, priscæ hospitalitatis immemores, majori exterorum quam
Athenienses Megarensium odio flagrare.' The memorial is endorsed:
'De hac re amplius deliberandum censebant Præfecti
ult. Maii, 1641;' and no doubt the obnoxious order was soon
repealed. Half a century later, on Nov. 8, 1693, the order was
in a certain degree renewed: it was then enjoined 'that no one
be permitted to transcribe any manuscript, but such as have a
right to study in the Library.' The revival, however, was not due
to any revived fear of foreigners; the following reason is given
in a letter of information on Library matters from Dr. Hyde to
Hudson, his successor, written on the latter's appointment in
1701:—'Some in the University have been very troublesome in
pressing that their Servitors may transcribe manuscripts for them,
though not sworn to the Library, nor yet capable of being sworn;
wherefore the Curators made an order (as you will find in the
Book of Orders in the Archives) "that none were capable of
transcribing, except those who had the right of studying in the
Library," viz. Batchelors[103].' But no doubt this order also soon
became dormant, even if it were not definitely repealed.
'The Kinge, Jul. 11, 1642, had £500 out of Sir Th. Bodlyes
Chest, as appeares by Dr. Chaworthes acquittance in the same
box.' (Barlow's Library Accounts for 1657. MS.) This loan was,
of course, never repaid. It is regularly carried on in the Annual
Accounts up to the year 1782.
Nov. 30. 'At night the Library doore was allmost broken open.
Suspitio de incendio, &c.' (Brian Twyne's Musterings of the Univ.,
in Hearne's Chron. Dunst. p. 757.)
It must have been about the close of this year or beginning
of the next, while the king was in winter quarters at Oxford,
that the visit was paid to the Library, which is the subject of
the following well-known anecdote. It is here quoted from the
earliest authority in which it is found, viz. Welwood's Memoirs,
Lond. 1700. pp. 105-107:—
'The King being at Oxford during the Civil Wars, went one
day to see the Publick Library, where he was show'd among other
Books, a Virgil nobly printed and exquisitely bound. The Lord
Falkland, to divert the King, would have his Majesty make a trial
of his fortune by the Sortes Virgilianæ, which everybody knows
was an usual kind of augury some ages past. Whereupon the
King opening the book, the period which happen'd to come up
was that part of Dido's imprecation against Æneas, which Mr.
Dryden translates thus:—
"Yet let a race untam'd, and haughty foes,
His peaceful entrance with dire arts oppose,
Oppress'd with numbers in th' unequal field,
His men discourag'd, and himself expell'd,
Let him for succour sue from place to place,
Torn from his subjects, and his son's embrace.
First let him see his friends in battel slain,
And their untimely fate lament in vain:
And when at length the cruel war shall cease,
On hard conditions may he buy his peace.
Nor let him then enjoy supreme command,
But fall untimely by some hostile hand,
And lye unburi'd in the common sand."
(Æneid, iv. 88.)
It is said K. Charles seem'd concerned at this accident, and
that the Lord Falkland observing it, would likewise try his own
fortune in the same manner; hoping he might fall upon some
passage that could have no relation to his case, and thereby
divert the King's thoughts from any impression the other might
have upon him. But the place that Falkland stumbled upon was
yet more suited to his destiny than the other had been to the
King's, being the following expressions of Evander upon the untimely
death of his son Pallas, as they are translated by the same
hand:—
"O Pallas, thou hast fail'd thy plighted word,
To fight with reason, not to tempt the sword.
I warned thee, but in vain, for well I knew
What perils youthful ardor would pursue;
That boiling blood would carry thee too far,
Young as thou wert in dangers, raw to war.
Oh! curst essay of arms, disastrous doom,
Prelude of bloody fields and fights to come."
(Æneid, xi. 220.)'
There is no copy of Virgil now in the Library amongst those
which it possessed previously to 1642, which is 'exquisitely
bound' as well as 'nobly printed;' it is not therefore possible
to fix on the particular volume which the King consulted.
A small slip of paper, carefully preserved, is the memorial of an
interesting incident connected with the last days in Oxford of the
Martyr-King whose history is so indissolubly united with that of
the place. Amidst all the darkening anxieties which filled the
three or four months preceding the surrender of himself to the
Scots, King Charles appears to have snatched some leisure moments
for refreshment in quiet reading. His own library was no
longer his; but there was one close at hand which could more
than supply it. So, to the Librarian Rous, (the friend of Milton,
but whose anti-monarchical tendencies, we may be sure, had
always hitherto been carefully concealed) there came, on Dec. 30,
an order, 'To the Keeper of the University Library, or to his
deputy,' couched in the following terms: 'Deliver unto the bearer
hereof, for the present use of his Majesty, a book intituled, Histoire
universelle du Sieur D'Aubigné, and this shall be your warrant;' and
the order was one which the Vice-Chancellor had subscribed with
his special authorization, 'His Majestyes use is in commaund to
us. S. Fell, Vice Can.' But the Librarian had sworn to observe
the Statutes which, with no respect of persons, forbad such a removal
of a book; and so, on the reception of Fell's order, Rous
'goes to the King; and shews him the Statutes, which being read,
the King would not have the booke, nor permit it to be taken out
of the Library, saying it was fit that the will and statutes of the
pious founder should be religiously observed[104].'
Perhaps a little of the hitherto undeveloped Puritan spirit may
have helped to enliven the conscience of the Librarian, who, had
he been a Cavalier, might have possibly found something in the
exceptional circumstances of the case, to excuse a violation of the
rule; but, as the matter stood, it reflects, on the one hand, the
highest credit both on Rous's honesty and courage, and shows
him to have been fit for the place he held, while, on the other
hand, the King's acquiescence in the refusal does equal credit to
his good-sense and good-temper. We shall see that this occurrence
formed a precedent for a like refusal to the Protector in
1654 by Rous's successor, when Cromwell showed equal good
feeling and equal respect for law.
'When Oxford was surrendered (24o Junii, 1646) the first thing
Generall Fairfax did was to set a good guard of soldiers to preserve
the Bodleian Library. 'Tis said there was more hurt donne
by the Cavaliers (during their garrison) by way of embezzilling and
cutting off chaines of bookes then there was since. He was a
lover of learning, and had he not taken this special care, that noble
library had been utterly destroyed, for there were ignorant senators
enough who would have been contented to have had it so. This
I doe assure you from an ocular witnesse, E. W. esq[105].'
John Verneuil, M.A., Sub-librarian, died about the end of September.
He was a native of Bordeaux, and came into England as
a Protestant refugee shortly before 1608. In that year he entered
at Magdalene College, and was incorporated M.A. from his own
University of Montauban in 1625. Besides his share in the Appendix
to the Catalogue noticed under the year 1635, the following
small book of a similar kind in English was issued by him:
A Nomenclator of such Tracts and Sermons as have beene printed, or
translated into English upon any place or booke of Holy Scripture;
now to be had in the most famous and publique Library of Sir Thomas
Bodley in Oxford. This is the title of the second and enlarged
edition, which appeared in 1642 in a small duodecimo volume,
printed at Oxford, by Henry Hall. The first edition (which was
not entirely confined to books in the Library) was printed under
the author's initials by William Turner in 1637. Some books
communicated by friends are here cited, which would, says Verneuil,
have been accessible in the Bodleian, 'had the Company of
Stationers beene as mindfull of their covenant as my selfe have
beene zealous for the good of this our Library.' In an interesting
undated letter from Sir Richard Napier, Knt. (while apparently an
undergraduate of Wadham College, before 1630) to his uncle the
Rev. Richard Napier, which is preserved in Ashmole MS. 1730,
fol. 168, is the following curious passage relating to the facilities for
studying in the Library, which were afforded to him by Verneuil:—
'I have made a faire way to goe into the Library privately when
I please, and there to sitt from 6 of the clocke in the morneing to
5 at night. I have a private place in the Library to lay those
bookes and to write out what I list, without being seene by any,
or any comeing to me. I have made the second Keeper of the
Library [i.e. Verneuil] my friend and servant, who promised me
his key at all tymes to goe in privately, when as otherwise it is not
opened above 4 houres a day, and some days not att all, as on
Hollidays, and their eves in the afternoone, yett then by his
meanes I shall [have] free accesse and recesse at all tymes. He
hath pleasured me so farr as to lett me write in his counting house,
or his little private study in the great publick library, where I may
very privately write, and locke up all safely when I depart thence;
he will write for me when I have not the leisure, or will transcribe
any thinge I shall desire him, and if it be French translate it, for
that is his mother tonge.'
Probably the practice here mentioned of admitting readers by
favour into the Library at unstatutable times grew in the course of
years to a considerable height, or was found (as might naturally
be expected) productive of mischievous consequences, for on
Nov. 8, 1722, it was 'ordered by the Curators that no person
under any pretence whatsoever be permitted to study in the said
Library at any other time than what is prescribed and limited by
the Bodleian Statutes.'
Verneuil was succeeded in his office in the Library by Francis
Yonge, M.A., of Oriel College.
Milton's gift of his Poems. See under 1620.
At the end of the Readers' Register for 1647-8, 1648-9, is a list
of nine volumes 'olim surrepti,' of which five had been replaced by
other copies. Entries are made in the same place of some coins
which were given in 1648-50. At this period the Library appears
to have been well attended by readers; about twelve or fifteen
quarto and octavo volumes being daily entered, those of folio size
being accessible (as, in regard to a portion of the Library, is still
the case) by the readers themselves, and not registered because at
that time chained to their shelves. The register for the next years
(as well as those which followed, up to the year 1708) appears to
be lost, so that it cannot be ascertained whether this daily average
continued during the Usurpation; but thus far it seems that Dr. John
Allibond's description of the state of the Library as consequent on
the Puritan visitation of the University in 1648, is not borne out by
facts. For that loyal humourist, in his Rustica Academiæ Oxoniensis
nuper reformatæ Descriptio, which is supposed to commemorate the
condition of Oxford in Oct. 1648, writes thus of our Library:—
'Conscendo orbis illud decus
Bodleio fundatore:
Sed intus erat nullum pecus,
Excepto janitore.
Neglectos vidi libros multos,
Quod mimime mirandum:
Nam inter bardos tot et stultos
There's few could understand 'em.'
'The Jews proffer £600,000 for Paul's, and Oxford Library,
and may have them for £200,000 more[106].' They wished to obtain
the first for a synagogue, and to do a little commercial business
with the second. It is said in Monteith's History of the Troubles
(translated by Ogilvie, 1735, p. 473) that the sum they offered was
£500,000, but that the Council of War refused to take less than
£800,000: probably they afterwards increased this their original
bid to £600,000.
Philip, Earl of Pembroke, the Puritan Chancellor of the University,
gave a splendidly bound copy of the Paris Polyglott,
printed in 1645 in 10 vols.
John Rous, the Librarian, died in the beginning of April,
probably on April 3, as, the Statutes requiring the election of
Librarian to take place within three days of a vacancy, it
was on the 6th of that month that Thomas Barlow, M.A.,
Fellow of Queen's College, was unanimously elected to be Rous's
successor. At the same time certain orders were read in Convocation
which the Curators had made, for the formation by the
Librarian of a Catalogue of the coins and other rarities, providing
also that they should be regularly visited and verified by the
Curators every November[107].
A legacy of £20 from Rous to the Library is entered in the
Benefaction Register, under the year 1661, probably because it may
not have been actually received until that year.
Fifteen MSS., by Spanish authors, were given by Peter Pett,
LL.B., Fellow of All Souls' College; and a sacred Turkish vestment
of linen (e Mus. 45) on which the whole of the Koran is
written in Arabic, by Richard Davydge, an East Indian merchant.
'April last, 1654, my Lord Protector sent his letter to Mr. Vice-Chancellor
to borrow a MS. (Joh. de Muris) for the Portugal
Ambassador. A copy of the Statute was sent (but not the book),
which when his Highness had read, he was satisfy'd, and commended
the prudence of the Founder, who had made the place
so sacred[108].'
Cromwell's gift of MSS. See under 1629.
The death of John Selden occurred on Nov. 30[109]. By his will
the Library became possessed at once of his collection of Oriental
and Greek MSS., together with a few Latin MSS. specially designated,
as well as of such of his Talmudical and Rabbinical books
as were not already to be found there. It has generally been
supposed that no part of his library was received before the year
1659, and that none at all was actually bequeathed by Selden.
The account usually given (taken from Burnet's Life of Sir M.
Hales, p. 156[110]) is that Selden was so offended with the University
for refusing the loan of a MS., except upon a bond for £1000,
that he revoked that part of his will which left his library to the
Bodleian, and put it entirely at the free disposal of his executors,
and that they, when five years had passed, during which the
Society of the Inner Temple (to whom it was first offered) had
taken no steps to provide a building for its reception, conceiving
themselves to be executors not of Selden's passion but of his
will, sent it in 1659 to its original destination[111]. But it is clear
from Selden's will (as printed by Wilkins in his Works, vol. i.
p. lv.) that the books mentioned above were really bequeathed by
him to Oxford; a line or two appears to be somehow omitted,
by which the sense of the passage is lost, and in consequence of
which the name of the Library does not appear, but there is a
general reference to it both in the specification of such Hebrew
books as are 'not already in the Library,' and in the mention
of the 'said Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars' of the University
(although no previous mention of them occurs); while all other
books not thus conveyed are left to the disposal of his executors.
But a letter from Langbaine to Pococke, written from London
only three days after Selden's death, furnishes proof positive; for
there the former writes, as executor, that all the Oriental MSS.,
with such Rabbinical and Talmudical printed books as were not
already in the Library, and the Greek MSS. not otherwise disposed
of, are left to Oxford[112]. And in the Annual Accounts, under the
year 1655, we find the following entries:—
| Pro vectura codicum MSS. a Londino Oxoniam | £0 | 9s. |
| D. Langbaine pro expensis cum Londinum petiit, libros a Seldeno legatos repetiturus | 5 | 0 |
| D. Ed. Pococke eodem tempore in rem eandem Londinum misso. | 7 | 0 |
It is clear, therefore, that a portion of Selden's collection
came to the Library by his bequest immediately after his
death. And the reason why the whole was not bequeathed is
certainly not correctly stated by Burnet, nor even by Wood,
who says that he had been informed that it was because the
borrowing of certain MSS. had been refused. For the Convocation
Register shows that a grace was passed in Convocation,
on Aug. 29, 1654, which sanctioned the giving leave to Selden
to have MSS. from the collections of Barocci, Roe, and Digby
(these donors having either expressed an opinion, or distinctly
stipulated, that the rigour of the Library Statutes should sometimes
be relaxed), provided he did not have more than three at
a time, and that he gave bond in £100 (not £1000) for the
return of each of them within a year[113]. Had these conditions
been really the cause of Selden's taking offence, his executors
would hardly have stipulated, as they actually did, in their
own conditions of gift, that no book from his collection should
hereafter be lent to any person upon any condition whatsoever.
But there is certainly some obscurity hanging over
the matter, which probably may be dispersed by further investigation.
The writer of the sketch of the history of the Bodleian
prefixed to Bernard's Cat. MSS., after quoting Wood's
account, only says, when barely more than forty years had
elapsed, that he will not venture to speak rashly about the case
of the lending of books; as if it were already forgotten how the
facts stood. On the proposal to lend being first mooted, Barlow,
the Librarian, drew up a paper on the general question, in which
he opposed it both on the grounds of Statute and expediency;
the original MS. of which still exists in the Library. Selden was
at first mentioned in this paper by name, with distinct reference
to his application; but the name was subsequently crossed out
wherever it thus occurred, and the subject treated without any
personal reference[114]. In this paper the Librarian objects to the
proposal, firstly, on the ground of precedent, since, though the
University had power, with the joint consent of the Chancellor,
Heads of Houses, and Convocation, to lend books, yet it had
never thought fit to do so, except with regard to Lord Pembroke's
MSS.; secondly, on the ground that if the rule were once
broken, it would be impossible to refuse any person, without
incurring great odium, while the gratifying all applicants would
disperse into private hands the books intended for the public. He
then proceeds as follows:—
'3. Suppose 3 bookes at a time be sent to any private man, 'tis
true he is furnish'd, but 'tis manifestly to the prejudice of the
Publick, the University wanting those books while he has them;
so that if any forreigner coming hither from abroad desire to see
them, or any at home desire to use them, both are disappointed,
to the diminution of the honour of the University, in the one,
and the benefit it might have by those books, in the other. And
therefore it seems more agreeable to reason and the public good
(and the declared will and precept of our prudent and pious
Founder[115]) not to lend any books out of the Library; for by not
lending, private persons only want the use of those books which
are another's, whereas by lending, the University wants the use
of those books which are her own. Sure no prudent man can
think it fit to gratify particular persons with the publick detriment.
'4. The Library is a magazine which the pious Founder hath
fix'd in a publick place for a publick use; and though his charity
to private persons is such that he will hinder none (who is justly
qualify'd and worthy) to come to it, yet his charity to the publick
is such that he would not have it ambulatory, to goe to any private
person. And sure 'tis more rational that Mahomet should go to
the mountaine, than that the mountaine should come to Mahomet.
'5. Lending of books makes them lyable to many casualties,
as, I. absolute losse, either 1. in via, by the carrier's negligence,
or violence offer'd him, or, 2. in termino, they may be lost by the
person that borrows them; for (presuming the person noble, and
carefull for their preservation, yet) his house may be burn'd, or
(by robbers) broken open (as Mr. Selden's unhappily was not long
since): or, (in case they scape these casualties) they may be
spoyl'd in the carriage, as by sad experience we find, for above
60 or 100 leaves of a Greek MS.[116] lent out of Archiva Pembrochiana
to Mr. Pat. Younge were irrecoverably defaced. Now
what has happen'd heretofore may happen hereafter; and therefore
to keep them sacredly (and without any lending) in the
Library (according to our good Founder's will and statute) will
be the best way for their preservation.'
Barlow adds finally, in the sixth and seventh places, that if all
lending were declared unlawful, it would greatly encourage others
to give more to the Library when they saw how religiously their
gifts would be preserved, and that if no exceptions were made
(except, as allowed by Archbp. Laud, for the purpose of printing),
no applications would be made, and no one would take it ill if he
were denied.
Another reason for Selden's withholding his library in its entirety
has, however, been assigned, besides those mentioned above, and
this, too, by closely contemporary writers. In July, 1649, the new
intruded officers and fellows of Magdalene College found in the
Muniment-room in the cloister-tower of the College, a large sum of
money in the old coinage called Spur-royals[117], or Ryals, amounting
to £1400, the equivalent of which had been left by the Founder as
a reserve fund for law expenses, for re-erecting or repairing buildings
destroyed by fire, &c., or for other extraordinary charges.
This gold had been laid up and counted in Q. Elizabeth's time
and had remained untouched since then; consequently, although
some of the old members of the College were aware of its existence,
to the new-comers it seemed a welcome and unexpected
discovery, especially as the College was at the time heavily in debt.
They immediately proceeded to divide it among all the members
on the Foundation proportionately, not excluding the choristers,
(who were at that time undergraduates), the Puritan President,
Wilkinson, being alone opposed to such an illegal proceeding, and
being with difficulty prevailed upon to accept £100 as his share,
which, however, upon his death-bed he charged his executors to
repay. The spur-royals were exchanged at the rate of 18s. 6d. to
20s. each, and each fellow had 33 of them. But when the fact of
this embezzlement of corporate funds became known, the College
was called to account by Parliament, and, although they attempted
to defend themselves, they individually deemed it wise to refund
the greater, or a considerable, part of what had been abstracted.[118]
Fuller, whose Church History was published in the year following
Selden's death, after telling this scandalous story, proceeds thus
(book ix. p. 234):—'Sure I am, a great antiquarie lately deceased
(rich as well in his state as learning) at the hearing hereof
quitted all his intention of benefaction to Oxford or any place else,
on suspition it would be diverted to other uses, on the same token
that he merrily said, I think the best way for a man to perpetuate
his memory is to procure the Pope to canonize him for a saint,
for then he shall be sure to be remembred in their Calender;
whereas otherwise I see all Protestant charity subject to the
covetousness of posterity to devour it, and bury the donor thereof
in oblivion.' And the name of this 'great antiquarie' was supplied
in 1659 by the Puritan writer Henry Hickman, who, as a Demy
of Magdalene College, had shared in the spoils. He, in the
Appendix to his Justification of the Fathers and Schoolmen, gives
(in answer to a passage in Heylin's Examen Historicum) a full
account of the dividing of the gold, adding, 'which, as is said, did
hinder Mr. John Selden from bestowing his library on the University.'
And Wood (Hist. and Antiq. by Gutch, ii. 942) says that
he had been told that this misappropriation was one reason
of Selden's distaste at Oxford. From all this it is clear that
Burnet's narrative gives a very inaccurate account of the
matter.
It was in the year 1659 that the great mass of Selden's collection
was forwarded by his executors. In the accounts for 1660
appear payments to Barlow of £20 'for his paines in procuring
Mr. Selden's books,' and of £51 for his expenses thereon. The
bringing the books from London cost about £34, and the providing
chains for them £25 10s.[119] Unfortunately, during the
interval, many books had been lost which had been borrowed in
London, and were never returned. (Life, in Works, I. lii.) And
a part, which somehow was not sent to Oxford, afterwards altogether
perished, 'for the fire of the Temple destroyed in one of
their chambers eight chests full of the registers of abbeys, and
other manuscripts relating to the history of England; tho' most
of his law-books are still safe in Lincoln's Inn[120].' Some medical
books were bequeathed to the College of Physicians. Some of
the original deeds relating to the gift were bought for the Library
in 1837 for £1 1s.
About 8000 volumes were, in all, added to the Library by
this gift, most of which bear Selden's well-known motto: 'περι παντος την ελευθεριαν.' Amongst them are some which belonged
to Ben Jonson, Dr. Donne, and Sir Robert Cotton. The number
of miscellaneous foreign works, in several European languages,
is noticeable, many of which had been published but a short time
before Selden's death. In curious contrast to the character of
the greater part of his collection (rich in classics and science,
theology and history, law and Hebrew literature) there occurs one
volume (marked 4o C. 32. Art. Seld.) which is priceless in the eyes
of the lovers of old English black-letter tracts. It contains twenty-six
tracts (most bearing the name of a previous possessor, one
Thomas Newton) which are among the rarest of early popular
tales and romances. As mere specimens of the collection may
be mentioned, Richard Cuer de Lyon, Syr Bevis of Hampton
(unique edit.?), Syr Degore, Syr Tryamoure (only two copies
known), Syr Eglamoure (unique?), Dan Hew of Leicestre (unique?),
Battayle of Egyngecourt (unique?), Mylner of Abyngton (unique?),
Wyl Bucke, &c. Among the MSS. is one of Harding's Chronicle
(Arch. Seld. B. 10) which appears to have belonged to Henry
Percy, Earl of Northumberland, from his arms being painted at
the end, and which some have supposed was also a presentation
copy to Edward IV. A curious map accompanies the description
of Scotland (here given in prose, not, as in the printed editions,
in verse), in which, next to Sutherland and Caithness, the author,
who would have won Dr. Johnson's respect as being 'a good
hater,' places 'Styx, the infernal flode,' and 'The palais of Pluto,
King of hel, neighbore to Scottz.' This map was engraved for
the first time in Gough's British Topography, vol. ii. pl. viii.; the
description of it occupies pp. 579-583 in that volume. Another
interesting volume is a copy of the Latin Articles of 1562, printed
by Reginald Wolfe in 1563, with the autograph signatures of
the members of the Lower House of Convocation (Arch. Seld.
A. 76). Fifty-four Greek MSS. are described in Mr. Coxe's Catalogue,
vol. i. cols. 583-648.
The stipends of the Librarian and Assistants at this time
amounted jointly to £51 6s. 8d. Of this it appears from the
account for 1657 that the Librarian received £33 6s. 8d., the
Second Keeper, then H. Stubbe, £10, and [the janitor] S.
Rugleye (?), £8. A volume of curious tracts, published during
the early part of the reign of Charles I, now marked 4o F. 2
Art. B. S., furnishes the name of a preceding janitor, by bearing
the inscription, 'Liber Thomæ Roch, defuncti, quondam janitoris
bibliothecæ.' The janitor originally appointed by Bodley appears
to be mentioned in the following passage in a letter from him
to James: 'There is one Thomas Scott, Under-butler of Magdalen
College, that hath made means unto me for the Porter's
place, whom I propose to elect[122].'
John Evelyn appears in this year, as well as subsequently, as
a donor of books. Nineteen MSS. were given by Peter Whalley,
of Northamptonshire.
Cowley's Poems. See 1620.
In this year the gifts to the Library, which since 1640 had
been but few, begin once more to increase in number. Five
hundred gold and silver coins were given by Ralph Freke, of
Hannington, Wilts, and a cabinet for their reception, 'auro
gemmisque coruscum,' by his brother William. Amongst various
other donations occur a copy of Caxton's Description of Britain,
1480, from Ralph Bathurst, M.D., Trinity College, and four
Oriental MSS. from William Juxon, 'Londinensis olim Episc.'
One entry in the Benefaction Register has been at one time
carefully pasted over, and at another brought again to light; it
is the record of a gift from Hugh Peters. 'Hugo Peters,
serenissimo Britanniarum Protectori Olivero a sacris, pro sua in
academiam et rempubl. literariam benevolentia, codices insequentes
Bibl. Bodleianæ dono dedit Maii iiiio, Anno CIƆ. IƆC.
LVII;' viz. the great Dutch Bible with annotations, 'edit. ult.
[scil. Hague, 1637] auro sericoque compacta,' and the Æthiopic
Psalter of 1513. A leaf which followed this entry has been
removed from the Register, probably because it contained some
further particulars of Peters' gift, or possibly the record of the
MSS. presented by the Protector himself in 1654[123]. The binding
of silk and gold has now altogether disappeared, and the Bible
is clad in a plain calf coat, with no note of its former condition
or of its donor.
Francis Yonge, M.A. of Oriel College, the Sub-librarian, died
in this year. In his place succeeded, through the influence of
Dr. Owen, Dean of Ch. Ch., Henry Stubbe, M.A., the well-known
violent and varying political writer, then a Student of that
House. From the posts, however, of both Librarian and Student
Stubbe was ejected in March, 1659, on account of the publication
of his book entitled, A Light Shining out of Darkness, which
was supposed to attack the Universities and clergy.
Gerard Langbaine, D.D., the learned Provost of Queen's College,
died on Feb. 10 in this year. Twenty-one vols. of his
Adversaria, consisting chiefly of extracts from Bodleian MSS.
and of notes concerning the arrangement of the books in the
Library, were bought for £11. Nine other volumes were bequeathed
by Ant. à Wood in 1695. They are all fully described
by Mr. Coxe in vol. i. [cols. 877-888] of the General Catalogue
of the MSS. of the Library, which appeared in 1853, as well as
more briefly in Bernard's Catalogue. Besides obtaining his own
autograph collections by purchase, the Library became possessed
by bequest from him of the very valuable MS. (e Mus. 86) on
the history of Wickliffe and his followers, entitled Fasciculi
Zizaniorum, written by Thomas Walden. This was edited by
the late Dr. Shirley in 1858, as part of the Master of the Rolls'
Series of Chronicles. Dr. Shirley traced the volume to the hands
of Bale and Usher, but was not aware of the way in which it came
to the Library.
The effect which civil war and confusion had had upon literature
may be commercially estimated by the fact that a gift of £5 from
Joseph Maynard, B.D., of Exeter College, proved sufficient for
the purchase of 28 printed volumes and 11 MSS., many of
which were curious.
A crocodile, from Jamaica, was given by John Desborow, the
republican Major-General, and brother-in-law to the Protector.
Thomas Hyde, M.A., of Queen's College, was appointed Under-keeper
on the expulsion of Henry Stubbe.
Thomas Barlow, D.D. (who had been elected Provost of Queen's
College in 1658), resigned the Librarianship on Sept. 25, in consequence
of his appointment to the Margaret Professorship of
Divinity. Thomas Lockey, B.D., Student of Ch. Ch., was elected
in his place, on Sept. 28, by 102 votes to 80, over Mr. [John]
Good, M.A., Balliol College[124].
A curious story is preserved by Wanley and Dr. Wallis, in
memoranda, dated 1698-1701, on the fly-leaves of a copy of the
rare Index Librorum prohibitorum printed at Madrid in 1612-14
(4o U. 46. Th.), respecting the visit of a Roman Catholic priest to
the Library during the period of Barlow's headship. In the course
of conversation with Barlow, the priest denied that such a book as
this Index had ever been printed at Madrid (there being various
discrepancies between it and the Roman Index), whereupon this
copy was produced, bearing the names of several inquisitors who
had from time to time possessed it. The visitor was extremely
surprised, and, being very desirous of purchasing it, offered any
sum for it that might be demanded, with the intent (as the somewhat
suspicious tellers of the tale suggest) to destroy it; but the
Doctor was above corruption. The vigilance of the Librarians
being aroused, the book was removed from an exposed place
where it had formerly been kept, to a less accessible situation in
the gallery, and securely chained. Wallis adds that one fly-leaf,
containing some of the previous owners' names, had since then
been torn out[125].
A legacy of £50 was paid which had been bequeathed some
time previously by Alex. Ross, now-a-days best known as the
Ross of Hudibrastic memory. It is singular that a copy of the
old printed quarto catalogue of the Library was amongst the
books purchased with this gift; which shows that, within forty
years after publication, it had become scarce even in the Library
itself.
Five Arabic and eight Chinese MSS. were given by William
Thurston, a London merchant. By a mistaken arrangement of
various other small gifts, Thurston now passes as the donor of
forty Arabic, Persian, and Syriac MSS., instead of five. Several
of these, at present all numbered alike as Thurston MSS., were
given in 1684 by Jos. Taylor, LL.D., of St. John's College, one
by Crewe, Bishop of Durham, in 1680, one by Benj. Polsted,
a London African merchant, in 1678, one by Charles Robson,
B.D., Queen's College, about 1630, and one is an Armenian
poem of thanks for benefits received from the University, presented
by the author, Jac. de Gregoriis, an Armenian priest, in
1674. One other volume (a mathematical MS. bought at Constantinople,
by Const. Ravius, in 1641) was at one time, as it appears,
abstracted from the Library, and was restored by means of
Dr. Marshall, who, after the words 'Liber Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ
Oxon.' has added the following note: 'quem ex Ratelbandi
cujusdam bibliopolæ officina libraria, prope novum templum
Amstelodami, redimendum pretio persoluto curavit Tho. Mareschallus,
e Collegio Lincolniensi apud Oxonienses.'
The first statutory obligation upon the Stationers' Company
to deliver a copy of each book printed by them to this Library,
together with that of Cambridge and the Royal Library, was
imposed by the act of 14 Chas. II. c. 33, for two years, which
was renewed from time to time until the passing of the Copyright
Act of 8 Q. Anne.
The University was visited in September by Charles II and
his Queen. And 'on Munday, September 28, about four in the
afternoon, the University, being in their Formalities placed from
Christ Church east-gate to the south gate of the publique Schooles,
the King and Queen, the Duke and Dutches of Yorke, with the
nobility and gentry attending, went to the Schooles, where the
Chanceller, Vice-Chanceller and Heads of Houses received them,
and invited them up to the Library; and Mr. Crew, the Senior
Proctor, placed neer the globes, addrest himselfe to their Majesties
in an oration upon his knees; which being ended, the King and
Queen, with the Royal Family and nobility, were by our Chanceller,
Vice-Chanceller, and the Heads of Houses, conducted to
Selden's Library, and there entertained with a very sumptuous
banquett[126].'
James Lamb, of St. Mary Hall, D.D. and Canon of Westminster,
died in this year. Nine MSS. volumes, written by him,
consisting of collections for an Arabic Lexicon and Grammar,
together with the book of Daniel, in Syriac, are preserved in the
Library, and form a small separate collection under his name.
Thomas Lockey, D.D., resigned the Librarianship, on Nov. 29,
1665, in consequence of his appointment to a canonry of Ch. Ch.
In the following year he gave some coins and the sum of £6 16s.
In his place was elected, on Dec. 2, Thomas Hyde, M.A., of Queen's
College, then Under-keeper. Upon Lockey's death, in 1680, books
to the value of £16 15s. were bought out of his study.
Twenty MSS. were given by Sir Thos. Herbert, Bart. of
York.
An East India merchant of London, one John Ken, gave (with
other MSS.) the first Gentoo [i.e. Sanscrit.] book which the Library possessed.
It is noticeable what a real, although somewhat indiscriminating,
interest the London merchants appear to have taken in the
Library. Continual mention occurs not merely of books but of
curiosities of all kinds, natural and artificial, which persons engaged
in commerce, chiefly with the East Indies, sent as for a
general repository. Most of these curiosities are now to be found,
it is believed, in the Ashmolean Museum.
At some period between 1660 and 1667, i.e. during Clarendon's
Chancellorship of the University, two volumes of MSS. notes and
observations upon Josephus, by Sam. Petit, the Professor of
Greek at Nismes (who died in 1643), are said by Moreri to
have been purchased by Clarendon, for 150 louis d'or, and given
to the University. But in Bernard's Catalogue the volumes are
said to have been bought by the University 'ære suo.' Dr. T.
Smith remarks, in his life of Bernard, that when the latter was
preparing to edit Josephus, he used 'Sam. Petiti largis commentariis,
longe antea in bibliothecæ Bodleianæ gazophylacium ex
Gallia transvectis,' but found that they were filled only with notes
from Rabbinical writers. They are now numbered Auct. F. infra,
I. 1, 2. One other MS. was certainly given by Clarendon, during
his Chancellorship. It is a Greek Evangelistarium of the fourteenth
century, formerly the property of a monastery described as
'της παναγιας της αχειροποιητου,' which was given by Parthenius,
Patriarch of Constantinople, to Heneage Finch, Earl of Winchelsea,
when in Turkey, in 1661, as Ambassador from England,
and subsequently given by Clarendon to the University. On the
cover is a silver crucifix, of Byzantine work. It is now numbered
Auct. D. infra II. 12.
John Davies, of Camberwell, the storekeeper at Deptford dockyard,
caused a chair to be made out of the remains of the ship,
'The Golden Hind,' in which Sir F. Drake accomplished his
voyage round the world, which had been kept at Deptford until the
timber decayed, and presented it to the Library. It stands now
in the Picture Gallery, beside a chair which is said (but on what
authority is not known) to have belonged to Henry VIII[127], and
bears a plate on which are inscribed some verses, in Latin and
English, by Abraham Cowley. A good engraving of it is to be
found in Lascelles' and Storer's Oxford, published in 1821[128], and
in the Life of Drake, published in 1828.
Thirteen Oriental MSS. (chiefly in their possessor's own writing)
were bought from the heirs of Samuel Clarke, M.A., of Merton
College, printer to the University and Esquire Bedel of Law, who
died Dec. 17, 1669. He was greatly distinguished as an Orientalist,
and assisted in the production of Walton's Polyglott. A
list of his MSS. is given in Bernard's Catalogue, and another, by
Prof. Nicoll, Ath. Oxon. iii. 885. He himself gave four printed
Arabic books in 1663.
Upon the death of Meric Casaubon, on July 14, the Library
became possessed, by his bequest, of sixty-one volumes of the
Adversaria (chiefly consisting of notes on Greek criticism) of his
father, Isaac Casaubon, who died in 1614. From these Jo. Christ.
Wolf made some extracts when visiting the Library in 1709, which
he published in the following year at Hamburgh, under the title
of Casauboniana, with a preface giving some account of all
previous collections of Ana, and with copious notes. The MSS.
are catalogued in Mr. Coxe's first volume, cols. 825-850.
Thomas, Lord Fairfax, to whose care the Library had been
indebted for preservation in 1646, bequeathed to it on his decease,
in November, 1671, twenty-eight very valuable MSS., including
several early English books (Chaucer, Gower, Wickliffe's Bible, &c.)
and works relating to the history of England, Scotland (Elphinston[129]),
and Ireland (Keating). But besides these, he gave that
invaluable collection of genealogical MSS. known to all pedigree-hunters
by the name of their indefatigable compiler, Roger Dodsworth,
to whom he had allowed an annuity of £40 during his
life, in order to enable him the better to prosecute his researches.
This collection numbers 161 volumes (bound in 86) in folio and
quarto[130], and consists of extracts bearing chiefly on the family and
ecclesiastical history of Yorkshire and the North of England,
with an innumerable mass of pedigrees, from all the authentic
records within Dodsworth's reach, including many which were
destroyed when the Tower of St. Mary, at York, was blown up
during the siege of that city in June, 1644. He appears to have
commenced this wonderful series of notes about the year 1618,
and not to have ceased before 1652, dying, in the seventieth
year of his age, in August, 1654. Besides the very full catalogue
of his MSS. which is given by Bernard (pp. 187-233), an extremely
useful and original synopsis of their contents, prefaced
with an account of Dodsworth's life and labours, and drawn up
by Mr. Joseph Hunter, is to be found in the Report of the
Record Commission for 1837; which was reprinted by Mr.
Hunter, in an octavo volume, in 1838, together with a list of
the contents of the Red Book of the Exchequer, and a Catalogue
of the MSS. in Lincoln's Inn. After the MSS. were brought to
the Library, they became in some way exposed to the damp, 'and
were in danger of being spoiled by a wet season.' Fortunately
the danger was perceived by Ant. à Wood, who obtained leave
of the Vice-Chancellor to dry them, which he accomplished by
spreading them out in the sun upon the leads of the Schools'
quadrangle. This cost him a month's labour, which, he says,
he underwent with pleasure out of respect to the memory of
Dodsworth, and care to preserve whatever might advantage the
commonwealth of learning. The MSS. to this day give abundant
proof, by their stains and tender condition, that, had it not been for
Wood's unselfish labour, they would probably soon have perished.
Some part of the collection appears to have been sent to the
Library as late as 1684, for in the accounts of that year there
is an entry of 4s. 10d. as having been paid for the 'carriage of
Dodsworth's MSS.'
An interesting volume, written by the donor of these MSS., Fairfax,
and entitled by him 'The Employment of my Solitude,' being
metrical versions of the Psalms, with other poems, was bought,
in 1858, for £36 10s., at the sale of the library of Dr. Bliss,
who had purchased it at the Duke of Sussex's sale. It is described
in Archdeacon Cotton's List of Bibles.
In this year appeared the third Catalogus impressorum Librorum
Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ, in one folio volume, divided into two parts
of 478 and 272 pages respectively. It is dedicated to Archbishop
Sheldon, by Hyde the Librarian, not without reason, as
being printed in that Theatre which the Archbishop had so lately
built. The Keeper, in this dedication, speaks very feelingly
of the daily weariness of mind and body which the compilation
of the Catalogue had cost him, and tells how his very hours for refreshment
had been spent among books alone, and how (mirabile
dictu!) he actually had not shrunk even from the inclemency of
winter[131]. In his preface he says that, on his entrance into office, he
reckoned that the work of a new catalogue would occupy him
for two, or at most three, years; six, however, had been spent
in compilation and transcription, one in revision and enlargement,
and, lastly, two in the actual printing. Yet, says he, he
never withdrew his neck from the yoke, and postponed all considerations
of bodily health. People little know, he proceeds,
what it is to accomplish a work of this kind. What is easier,
say they, than to look at the beginning of a book and to
copy out its title? They judge only from one or two weeks'
work in some little library of their own. But, what with careful
examining of volumes of pamphlets (which of itself was labour
perfectly exhausting), what with distinguishing synonymous authors
and works, and identifying metonymous ones, unravelling anagrammatical
names and those derived from places, and the like,
the poor man declares he endured the greatest torment of mind
('maximo animi cruciatu') as well as waste of precious time. It
is clear, from these pathetic lamentations, that Hyde had no great
love for Bibliography for its own sake. But, after all his complaints,
it is actually asserted by Hearne that he 'did not do
much in the work besides writing the dedication and preface[132]!'
Hearne attributes the real compilation of the Catalogue to Emmanuel
Prichard, or Pritchard, of Hart Hall, the janitor, who
examined every book in the whole library, and wrote out the Catalogue,
in two volumes, with his own hand. Hearne repeats this
assertion frequently; it is found, e.g., in his preface to the Chronicon
Dunstap. p. xii., and in his Autobiography (1772, p. 11), where he
adds that he was well informed of this by Dr. Mill and others.
If this be true, the inditing such a preface, while totally suppressing
Prichard's name, does little credit to Hyde.
Frequent mention of this Emmanuel Prichard is found between
1686 and 1699 as being employed upon the MSS., and as engaged
in taking an account of duplicates and arranging Bishop Barlow's
books. In 1687, £20 were paid him for 'writing a Catalogue
of MSS.' Probably this was the list upon which Hearne asserts
that the index to the Bodleian MSS., in Bernard's Catalogue, was
founded[133]. Hearne describes him[134] as being 'a very industrious,
usefull man.' Although a member of Hart Hall, he never took
any degree; but wore a civilian's gown. He died in the Hall
about 1704, aged upwards of 70, and was buried in St. Peter's-in-the-East.
He left £200 to the Vice-Principal of Hart Hall, which
was partly spent in building a library-room[135].
In the Register of Benefactions, on a page faintly headed in pencil
with this date, is entered a gift from Christopher, Lord Hatton,
'Homiliarum Saxonicarum 4 volumina antiqua.' The donor was
consequently the second baron, and first viscount, Hatton, who
succeeded his father Christopher (a firm royalist, and close friend
of Clarendon, as well as antiquarian, and friend of Dodsworth)
in 1670, and died in 1706. Possibly this gift may have been
made through the influence of his uncle, Capt. Charles Hatton,
who appears to have been much interested in Anglo-Saxon
studies, who himself gave three MSS. to the Library, and several
of whose letters to Dr. Charlett in 1694-1707 are preserved
in vol. xxxiii. of Ballard's MSS. Strange to say, these volumes
of Homilies (written shortly after the Norman Conquest) are
now among the Junian MSS., Nos. 22, 23, 24, 99, and
their appearance in that collection is accounted for by Wanley
(Cat. p. 45, where they are fully described) by a story which, he
says, was often told him by Hyde, viz. that, immediately upon the
arrival of the MSS. at the Library, they were lent to Dr. Marshall,
who most probably in turn lent them to Junius; that, Marshall
dying soon after, Junius kept them until his own death, when
they returned to the Library with his own books, by his bequest.
Junius himself frequently refers to them under the description of
Codices Hattoniani.
The Library also contains a collection of 112 miscellaneous
and valuable MSS., 'ex Codicibus Hattonianis,' of the presentation
of which no record has been found[136], but which doubtless
came about the same time from the same donor. Some precious
Anglo-Saxon volumes form the special feature of this collection.
Amongst them are, King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral
Care, of which the king designed to send a copy to each
Cathedral Church in the kingdom, this being the copy sent to
Worcester (No. 20); the translation by Werfrith, Bishop of Worcester,
of Gregory's Dialogues, with King Alfred's preface (No.
76); and a version of the Four Gospels, written about the time
of Henry II (No. 65).
Henry Justell, afterwards Librarian at St. James's, sent to the
University from France, through Dr. Hickes, three very precious
MSS. of the seventh century, written in uncial characters, containing
the Acts of the Council of Ephesus, the Canons of Carthage,
Nicæa, Chalcedon, &c., which had been used by his father Christopher
Justell in his Bibliotheca Juris Canonici veteris, 1661. They
are now numbered, e Mus. 100-102. Several other MSS. given
at the same time are preserved in the same series. In return for
this valuable gift Justell was created D.C.L. by diploma.
The wonderful collection of Early English poetry known as 'the
Vernon MS.,' was presented 'soon after the Civil Wars' by Col.
Edward Vernon, of Trinity College, who had been an officer in
the royal army. One who bore the same name, doubtless the same
person, of North Aston, Oxon, was created D.C.L. Aug. 6, 1677;
it was probably therefore about that time that the MS. was presented.
The volume is described in Bernard's Catalogue, 1697,
p. 181, as being a 'vast massy manuscript;' and very correctly.
Its measurements are these: length of page, 22-1/2 inches; length of
written text, 17-1/2 inches; breadth of page, 15 inches; breadth of
written text, 12-1/2 inches. It is written in triple columns, on 412
leaves of stout vellum; and having been clad of late years in a
proportionate russia binding, is altogether a Goliath among books.
In date it is of the early part of the fourteenth century. Its first
article bears the titles of 'Salus Animæ' and 'Sowle-Hele,' and
its chief contents are Lives of the Saints, Hampole's Prick of
Conscience, Grosteste's Castle of Love, Hampole's Perfect Living,
the treatise on Contemplative Life, the Mirror of S. Edmund, the
Abbey of the Holy Ghost, and Piers Plowman; besides a multitude
of smaller pieces, several of which have been recently copied with
a view to publication by the Early English Text Society[137]. Fifty
copies of a brief list of the contents (numbering altogether 161
articles) were printed by J. O. Halliwell, Esq., in 1848. A MS.,
similar in size and contents, was presented to the British Museum
a few years ago by Sir John Simeon; it is, apparently, the work
of the same scribe as the Bodleian book.
Francis Junius, born at Heidelberg in 1589, who had passed a
large part of his life in England as librarian to that Howard Earl
of Arundel who collected the marbles which go under his name at
Oxford, as well as the MSS. similarly entitled, which are preserved
in the British Museum and at Heralds' College, bequeathed to the
Library, on his decease at Windsor in this year, all his Anglo-Saxon
MSS. and his own life-long collections bearing on the
philology of the Northern nations. Amongst these are some
English relics of the greatest value and importance. The book of
metrical Homilies on the Dominical Gospels, compiled by an
Augustinian monk named Ormin, who thence called his book
Ormulum ('þiss boc iss nemmnedd Orrmulum, Forrþi þatt Orrm itt
wrohte') is one of the chief of these. Its date is conjectured to be
the 13th century. It is written on parchment, on folio leaves,
very long and very narrow (averaging 20 inches by 8) in a very
broad and rude hand, with many additions inserted on extra
parchment scraps. Twenty-seven leaves appear to be wanting.
The whole work was first published in 2 vols., at the University
Press in 1852, under the editorship of R. M. White, D.D., formerly
Professor of Anglo-Saxon. Cædmon's metrical paraphrase of
Genesis and other parts of Holy Scripture, illustrated with numerous
curious drawings, is another of the gems of this collection.
The MS. is of the end of the tenth century, but the work itself is
now generally believed to be, in the main, the production of the
earliest English poet, the Cædmon noticed by Bede (iii. 24), who
died towards the close of the seventh century, and not, as Hickes
conjectured, of some later writer of the same name. The MS. first
came to light in the hands of Archbp. Usher, by whom it was
given to Junius. The latter published it at Amsterdam in 1655,
and it was re-edited by Mr. Benj. Thorpe in 1832; several English
and German translations have also appeared. Many of the drawings
were engraved and published in 1754, as illustrations of
the manners and buildings of the Anglo-Saxons; and the whole
of them have been engraved in vol. xxiv. of the Archæologia, with
some remarks by Sir H. Ellis. MS. 121 is an extremely valuable
collection of the Canons of the Anglo-Saxon Church, written in
the tenth century, which belonged to Worcester Cathedral; and
there are four valuable volumes of Homilies, which appear, however,
to have been part of Lord Hatton's gift to the Library. (See
under 1675[138].) Besides books, Junius left to the University six
founts of Gothic, Saxon, and other types, together with the moulds
and matrices.
Fifty-five MSS. and printed books, chiefly Oriental, were purchased
in this year from the library of Dr. Thomas Greaves,
Deputy-professor of Arabic, who died May 22, 1676. It appears
from the list in Bernard's Catalogue that sixty-five volumes were
purchased, but that ten of these were never sent. With Greaves'
own books were obtained also the MSS. of Richard James, of
Corpus Christi College, nephew of Thomas James, the first Librarian,
which had come into the possession of his friend Greaves
upon his death in Dec. 1638. These amount to forty-three
volumes, entirely written by James himself, in a large bold hand;
they consist chiefly of Collectanea bearing on the history of England
from various MSS. Chronicles, Registers, and early writers,
particularly with reference to the corruption of the Church and
clergy before the Reformation, and in opposition to Becket. A
full list of their contents, drawn up by Tanner, is given at
pp. 248-253 of Bernard's Catalogue. The price paid for the
books bought out of Greaves' library was £55.
Fifteen shillings were paid, as appears from the accounts for the
year, for the carriage of a whale from Lechlade, which, strange to
say, had been caught in the Severn, and was presented by William
Jordan, an apothecary at Gloucester[139]. Ten shillings were also
paid for a 'sea elephant.'
Sir W. Dugdale gave copies of his own works. Two hundred
coins were given by Dr. George Hickes.
In this year John Rushworth, of Lincoln's Inn, the historian of
the Long Parliament, was a member of the Parliament held at
Oxford. Probably it may have been at this time that he presented
to the Library one of its most precious κειμηλια, called, from its
donor, 'Codex Rushworthianus.' (Auct. D. 2. 19.) In 1665, Junius
mentions it in the Preface to his Glossarium Gothicum, as being
then still in Rushworth's own hands[140]. It is a MS. of the Latin
Gospels, written by an Irish scribe, Mac-Regol, (who records his
name on the last leaf, 'Macregol dipincxit hoc evangelium,' &c.,)
and glossed with an interlinear Anglo-Saxon version by Owun and
by Færmen, a priest at Harewood. The volume is traditionally
reported to have been in Bede's possession, but since the Irish
annals record the death of Mac Riagoil, a scribe and abbot of Birr
in 820, the volume must be about a century too late. It has been
published in full, together with the Lindisfarne Gospels, by the
Surtees Society in 3 vols., under the editorship of Rev. J. Stevenson
and George Waring, Esq., M.A. A description is given in Prof.
Westwood's Palæographia Sacra Pictoria.
Nine shillings were paid for the carriage of a mummy from
London, probably one of those which are now in the Ashmolean
Museum. It was given by Aaron Goodyear, a Turkey merchant,
who gave also a model of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at
Jerusalem, and various little images, and in 1684 more than
forty coins.
Richard Davis, M.A., of Sandford, Oxon, gave the portrait of
Margaret, Countess of Richmond, a book of Russian laws, and the
Runic Calendar or Clog Almanack, now exhibited in the glass case
at the entrance of the Library. The latter is thus described in the
Register: 'Calendarium ligneum, tam materia quam usu perpetuum,
unius ligni quadrati angulis incisum, more antiquo.'
Dr. John Morris, Regius Professor of Hebrew, who died in
1648, bequeathed five pounds annually to the University, to be
paid to some Master of Arts of Ch. Ch., chosen by the Dean, for
a speech 'in Schola Linguarum,' in honour of Sir Thomas Bodley,
'and as a panegyric and encouragement of the Hebrew studies,' on
Nov. 8, in the presence of the Visitors of the Library after the
conclusion of the annual visitation. The bequest was to take
effect after the death of his wife, which happened on Nov. 11,
1681; and on Oct. 6, 1682, Convocation fixed 3 p.m. as the hour
for delivery of the Speech on the Visitation-day.
The Speeches are continued annually, although, probably for
want of public notice, only scantily attended, none but those
actually interested in the Visitation of the Library, together with
the speaker's friends, being generally aware of it. If provision
were made for the deposit of the Speeches in the Library
after delivery, they would no doubt form an interesting and
accurate record of its growth, and of many passing events which,
for want of such a record, are soon forgotten. Only one speech
appears to be preserved in the Library: it is that delivered on
Nov. 8, 1701, by Edmund Smith, M.A., of Ch. Ch., and is very
beautifully written in imitation of typography. But in this case
nothing is recorded of the history of the preceding year, the
speech being simply a panegyric of the Founder. It has been
printed among Smith's Works, a pamphlet of 103 pages dignified
with that name, of which the third edition appeared at London in
1719[141]. Dr. Rawlinson appears to have endeavoured to compile a
list of the Speakers; for Bishop Tanner, in a letter to him dated
Oct. 11, 1735, from Ch. Ch., says he will enquire them out,
if he can, but that they are not entered upon the Chapter books,
since they are not appointed by the Chapter, but privately by the
Dean or Hebrew Professor, and paid by the Vice-Chancellor, in
whose accounts alone their names are probably entered[142].
The names of the Speakers up to the year 1690 are given in
Wood's Athenæ (ii. 127) as follows. They were all M.A., and
Students of Ch. Ch.:—
- 1682 Thomas Sparke
- 1683 Zach. Isham
- 1684 Chas. Hickman
- 1685 Thos. Newey
- 1686 Thos. Burton
- 1687 Will. Bedford
- 1688 Rich. Blakeway
- 1689 Roger Altham, jun.
- 1690 Edward Wake
- * * * *
- 1701 Edm. Smith
The following list from 1706 to 1734 has been gathered out of
Hearne's MS. Diary:—
- 1706 Rich. Newton
- 1707 Thos. Terry
- 1708 Will. Periam
- 1709 Rich. Sadlington
- 1710 Richard Frewin
- 1711 — Aldred[143]
- 1712 Gilb. Lake
- 1713 Hen. Cremer
- 1714 Chas. Brent
- 1715 John White
- 1716 Edw. Ivie
- 1717 Hen. Gregory
- 1718 Thos. Fenton
- 1719 George Wiggan
- 1720 Thos. Foulkes
- 1721 Will. Le Hunt
- 1722 Hen. Shirman
- 1723 Matthew Lee
- 1724 Christopher Haslam
- 1725 Will. Davis
- 1726 Edw. Blakeway
- 1727 David Gregory
- 1728 [Rob.?] Manaton
- 1729 [Hen.?] Jones
- 1730 John Fanshaw
- 1731 Oliver Battely
- 1732 Dan. Burton
- 1733 Fifield Allen
- 1734 Pierce Manaton, M.D.
Three MSS., containing the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac
Pentateuch, and the Syriac Old Testament, were purchased at the
cost of the University.
Nine Oriental and Russian MSS. were given by Joseph
Taylor, LL.D., of St. John's College. And Sir Rob. Viner, Bart.,
the loyal alderman of London, favoured the Library with a human
skeleton, a tanned human skin, and the dried body of a negro
boy!
Thomas Marshall, or Mareschall, D.D., Rector of Lincoln
College, and Dean of Gloucester, who died April 18, bequeathed
his MSS., and all such among his printed books as were not
already in the Library. The MSS. amounted to 159, chiefly
Oriental, including some valuable Coptic copies of the Gospels,
&c., which were procured for him by Huntington, with a few in
Dutch, and others miscellaneous in language and subject. They
are entered in Bernard's Catalogue, pp. 272-3, and 373-4. The
printed books are still kept together under his name.
Fell, Bishop of Oxford, who died July 10, bequeathed a few
MSS. They consist of an early and curious collection of Vitæ
Sanctorum in four folio volumes, of a transcript (in nine folio
volumes) of a Glossarium Septentrionale by Francis Junius, Dionysius
Syrus in Latin by Dudley Loftus, and two Greek MSS.,
Damascius and Euthymius Zigabenus, described at the end (col. 907)
of Mr. Coxe's Catalogue of the Greek MSS. One other MS. has
somehow been incorporated in this collection (now numbered
21-23) which does not belong to it. It is a Clavis Linguæ Sanctæ,
or explanation of all the Hebrew, and some Chaldee, roots, found
in the Old Testament, by Nicholas Trott, in three folio volumes,
written with great care and neatness. This, of which the first part
had been printed at Oxford in 1719, was sent to the Library in
1746, as appears from the following letter, preserved (without
address) in a parcel of papers relating to the Library, now in the
Librarian's study:—
'My Lord,
'My wife's grandfather Judge Trott, cheif justice of
South Carolina, desired on his death bed that his forty years' labour
relating to the Hebrew root might be sent as a present to the
Publick Library at Oxford. I proposed to have carried it, but my
time has allways been taken up at a disagreable series of Court
Martials, and now I am again going to the West Indies. That I
must beg your Lordship will order or give it a conveyance to the
University, and I am, with great respect, my Lord,
'Your Lordship's most humble servant,
'THOS. FRANKLAND.
'23 Nov., 1746.
It appears, however, from the accounts, &c., that the MS. was
not actually delivered until 1748 or 1749, when it was received
through Dr. Hunt.
A few of Bishop Fell's MSS. came subsequently to the Library
among those of Rev. Henry Jones[144], who succeeded Fell in his
rectory of Sunningwell, Berks, in the church of which parish the
Bishop's wife was buried.
At the Visitation on Nov. 8, it was ordered that notice be given
that 'Nullus in posterum quemlibet librum aut volumen extra
Bibliothecam asportet,' and that monition be sent to every College
and Hall for the return of any books taken out within three days.
Several books appear to have been reported in previous years as
missing; hence, doubtless, the issue of this order.
On the occasion of the visit of King James II to Oxford,
chiefly, but unsuccessfully, made for the purpose of overawing
the fellows of Magdalen College, who had refused to elect as
president his nominee, Anth. Farmer, he was invited by the University
to partake of a breakfast or collation in the Library. For
this purpose he came hither on the morning of Sept. 5, between
nine and ten, where, at the south part of the Selden end, a banquet
was prepared which cost the University £160, consisting of 111
dishes of meat, sweetmeats, and fruit. The King sat here for
about three quarters of an hour, and held some conversation
with Hyde about a Chinese, 'a little blinking fellow,' who had
recently visited the place, and about the religion of China; but
asked no one to join him at the table. Upon rising to depart, a
scene of strange indecorum, as it would now appear, ensued; the
'rabble' (as they are described) of courtiers and academics rushed
upon the mass of untouched dainties, and began a disorderly
scramble, in which they 'flung the wet sweetmeats on the ladies
linnen and petticoats, and stained them.' The King watched
the scramble for two or three minutes, and then departed, commending
to the Vice-Chancellor and doctors his chaplain, W.
Hall, who had preached before him the day previous, and delivering
a most fatherly homily on the sin of pride, the virtue of
charity, and the duty of doing as they would be done to. Good,
gossipping, Ant. à Wood gives in his Autobiography a full account
of all that passed, from which are taken the quotations made
above[145].
Dr. Hyde went up to London in this year to demand personally
of the Company of Stationers the books which were due to the
Library by Act of Parliament (1 James II, cap. 17, for seven
years, continuing previous acts), but which they had neglected to
send. His expenses were £6 5s.
Thirty pounds were paid in this year to Antony à Wood for
twenty-five MSS. out of his library[146]. These are volumes of great
value, including Chartularies of the Abbeys of Glastonbury and
Malmesbury, and of the Preceptory of Sandford, Oxon, copies of
Papal bulls relating to England, a register of lands in Leicestershire
temp. Hen. VI, &c.
The rest of Wood's MSS., and printed books, came to the
Library, together with the other collections preserved in the Ashmolean
Museum, in 1860.
It is said that Wood in this year estimated the number of MSS.
in the Library at 10,141. This must have been the number of
separate books, not volumes, as in 1697 the latter appear from
Bernard's Catalogue to have been about 6700.
On Oct. 8, died Dr. Thomas Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, who,
retaining his attachment for the place over which he had presided
from 1652 to 1660, bequeathed to it seventy-eight MSS. (now
bound in fifty-four volumes), and all the printed books in his
collection which the Library did not possess, the remainder going
to Queen's College. They appear to have been received in the
years 1693-4, as large payments for the carriage are found in the
accounts then. His MSS. are described in the old Catalogue of
1697. The printed books, which are particularly rich in tracts of
the time of Charles I and the Usurpation, are still kept distinct,
being called Linc.; ending, in the 8o series, at about the middle of
the shelves marked with the letter C in that division. They are
placed in the gallery on the left hand of the great central room[147].
His legacy included a copy of the famous Exposicio Sancti Jeronimi
in Simbolo Apostolorum, which was printed at Oxford in 1468, and
completed, as the colophon states, on Dec. 17. This volume was
given to Barlow, as he notes at the beginning, by Bishop Juxon,
July 31, 1657. It is exhibited in the glass case near the entrance.
The Library possesses also seven other productions of the early
Oxford press. They are as follow:—
1. Ægidius Romanus de Peccato Originali, dated March 14, 1479.
This was one of Rob. Burton's books. Qu. unique?
2. Textus Ethicorum Aristotelis, per Leonardum Arretinum translatus,
1479. One of Selden's books.
3. Expositio Alexandri [de Ales] super tertium librum [Arist.] De
Anima. 'Impressum per me Theodericum rood de Colonia in
alma universitate Oxon.' Oct. 11, 1481.
4. Joh. Latteburii Exposicio Trenorum Jheremie, July 31, 1482.
No place, but printed with the same type as the last.
5. Liber Festivalis, in English, printed by Rood and Hunt,
1486. Two copies, but both very imperfect. The more imperfect
one of the two formerly belonged to Herbert, and was
bought for £6 6s. in 1832; two additional leaves have been inserted
by Mr. Coxe, which were found among Hearne's scraps,
having been given to him as fragments of a Caxton by Bagford.
The other copy was bought in 1852, at Utterson's sale, for £6 10s.
6. Opus Wilhelmi Lyndewoode super Constitutiones Provinciales.
No place or date, but identified by the type.
7. Vulgaria quedam abs Terentio in Anglicam linguam traducta.
Without place or date, but also identified by the type. The following
note, which corroborates the identification, is written in
red ink on a fly-leaf in the volume (which includes several other
tracts): '1483. Frater Johannes Grene emit hunc librum Oxon.
de elemosinis amicorum suorum[148].'
A list of sixty-six books, which Hunt, the Oxford printer and
bookseller, had in his hands for sale in 1483, is preserved in his
own writing on a fly-leaf in a copy of a French translation of
Livy, Paris, 1486, which was bought for the Library from Mr.
C. J. Stewart, in Dec. 1860, for £12. The list is headed thus:
'Inventorium librorum quos ego Thomas Hunt, stacionarius
universitatis Oxoniensis, recepi de Magistro Petro Actore et
Johannis (sic) de Aquisgrano ad vendendum, cum precio cujuslibet
libri, et promito (sic) fideliter restituere libros aut pecunias secundum
precium inferius scriptum, prout patebit in sequentibus,
Anno Domini Mo. CCCCo. octuagesimo tercio.'
Thirty-eight Persian and Arabic MSS., with one printed book,
were bought from Hyde, the Librarian. They are entered in
Bernard's Catalogue, pp. 286-7. Being bought out of the funds
of the University, no mention of the price paid for them is found
in the Library accounts.
The Oriental MSS., in number 420, of the famous Edward
Pococke, Regius Professor of Hebrew (who had deceased Sept.
10, 1691), were purchased by the University for £600. They
are chiefly in Armenian, Hebrew, and Arabic, with three volumes
in Æthiopic, a Samaritan Pentateuch, and a Persian Evangeliary.
A list is given at pp. 274-278 of Bernard's Catalogue. In 1822
the Library became possessed of a portion of Pococke's Collection
of printed miscellaneous books, by the bequest of Rev. C. Francis,
M.A., of Brasenose College. They are chiefly small volumes in
Latin, on historical subjects; and are, for the most part, placed in
the shelves marked 8o Z. Jur. [Arabic version of Isaiah, see p. 81.]
Another large Oriental collection was added in this year by the
purchase, from Dr. Robert Huntington, for the sum of £700, of
about 600 MSS. These he had procured while holding the
post of chaplain to the English merchants at Aleppo[149]. The
collection is one of very great value and rarity. No. 1 is a fine
and ponderous Syriac volume, containing the works of Gregory
Abulpharage. No. 2 is a very fine folio Arabic MS., written in
the year of the Hegira 777 (= A.D. 1375), and dedicated to the
Sultan Almalek Alashraf Shalian ben Hosain; in it, as Uri says
in his Catalogue, 'variæ Ægypti regiones recensentur, agrorum
cujusque regionis mensura definitur, et annui redditus exponuntur.'
Dibdin[150] describes it in his own exaggerated style, as follows:—'One
of the grandest books— ... a sort of Domesday compilation—which
can possibly be seen.... The scription is in double
columns, with the margins emblazoned only in stars. The title,
on the reverse of the first leaf, is highly illuminated, in a fine
style; not crowded with ornaments, but grand from its simplicity.
At the end, we observe that it is (rightly) called Munus Pretiosum,
and that the author was Sherfiddin Iahia ben Almocar ben
Algiaian. The inspection of such a volume, on the coldest possible
morning, even when the thermometer stands at zero, is
sufficient to warm the most torpid system.' No. 80 is a copy
of Maimonides' Yad Hachazaka, revised by the author, with his
autograph signature at the bottom of fol. 165, and a MS. note
by him on fol. 1. Of these an engraved facsimile is given in
Treasures of Oxford, containing Poetical Compositions by the ancient
Jewish Authors in Spain, and compiled from MSS. in the Bodl.
Libr. by H. Edelman and Leop. Dukes; edited and rendered into
English by M. H. Bresslau: part i. 8o. Lond. 1851. A second
part of this work was to have contained prose selections from
MSS. in the Huntington, Pococke, Michael, and Oppenheim collections,
but no more was published. Among Huntington's
books there are also three, of no great antiquity, in the Mendean
character, of which Dr. T. Smith narrates in his life of Bernard
(1704, p. 21) that two were said to have been given by God
to Adam, and the third to the angels, 330,000 years before Adam.
And one volume (No. 598) is in the Ouigour language, a Tartar
dialect, of which very few specimens are known to exist. A gentleman
M. Vaḿbery, the traveller in Tartary, who is engaged in forming
a Chrestomathy of this dialect, came in the last year to England
for the purpose of examining this volume, as one of the few
on which his work could be based. Three MSS. exist at Paris;
but that in the Bodleian is said to be the most beautiful of all
as a specimen of writing, as well as the most ancient. It is
a version of the Bakhtiar Nameh. A description of it, with an
engraved facsimile, is given in Davids' Turkish Grammar, 4o.
Lond. 1832, pref. p. xxxi.
An exchange of some duplicates was made with the Library
of Queen's College, and in 1695 the duplicates of Bishop Barlow's
Collection were transferred, in accordance with his will, to the
same Library.
A Mr. Clarke was employed in this year in making a catalogue
of Pococke's and Huntington's MSS., for which he altogether
received between £13 and £14.
Books were bought from Mr. Bobart, and at the auction of
the library of Sir Charles Scarborough, M.D.
Stationers' Company. See 1610.
MSS. from Wood. See 1658.
From this year until 1700, Humphrey Wanley was an assistant
in the Library, at an annual salary of £12. He had also £10
at the end of this year 'extraordinary, for his paines already
past,' and £15, at the beginning of 1700, 'for his pains about
Dr. Bernard's books.' Possibly this grant may have been in
consequence of the interposition of Bishop Lloyd of Worcester,
who, in a letter to Wanley of Jan. 6, in that year, promises to
speak to the Bishop of Oxford to see whether he can get his
place in the Library made better for him[151]. Wanley was no
favourite with Hearne. The following passage from the MS. Diary
of the latter[152] is a specimen of the censure which he on several
occasions passes on him: 'Humphrey Wanley appears from
several passages to be a very illiterate silly fellow. He committed
strange and almost incredible blunders when he was employed
by Dr. Charlett and some others in printing the catalogue of
the MSS. of England and Ireland, which work was committed
first to the care of Dr. Bernard; but he being then very weak
and otherwise employed, he could not take so much pains about it
as he would, had he not been thus hindered.' The very accurate
index, however, to this Catalogue was Bernard's own work,
made from the proof-sheets, and written with his own hand,
'uti ab illo accepi,' says Dr. T. Smith in his Life (1704, p. 48).
He prepared also another index, which included besides the
contents of eight of the great foreign libraries, but not the
Royal Library at Paris, the catalogue of which he was unable
to obtain.
On the death of Edward Bernard, D.D., the Savilian Professor
of Astronomy (which occurred on Jan. 12), the University became
the purchaser from his widow of the greater part of his library.
A selection from his printed books, made on behalf of the
Library by H. Wanley, comprising many rare Aldines and
specimens of the 15th century, were bought for £140, and his
MSS., many of which were valuable copies of classical authors,
together with collated printed texts and his own Adversaria, for
£200. Of 218 of the latter, Bernard has given a very brief list
in his own invaluable Catalogus Manuscriptorum Angliæ, which
appeared posthumously, in the year of his death. (Vol. ii.
pp. 226-8.) The bulk of his books are dispersed through
various divisions of the Library; but about thirty volumes of his
own Adversaria are kept together under his name. A very
full account, by H. Wanley, of the purchase of the collection
is printed by Dr. Bliss in his notes to the Ath. Oxon. (iv. 709),
who adds that this addition 'contained many of the most valuable
books, both printed and MSS., now in the Library.'
In the discharge of his duty of selection, Wanley came into
sharp collision with his chief, Dr. Hyde, as is shown by a curious
paper, in Wanley's handwriting, which was transcribed by Dr.
Rawlinson from the original in Dr. Charlett's possession[153]. The
paper gives a list of books for the not securing which, together
with others, out of Dr. Bernard's collection, blame had been thrown
upon Wanley, and which Hyde had said must by all means be
bought at the auction which was to be held in October, 1697.
To the title of each book so specified, Wanley appends some
caustic remarks, exposing Dr. Hyde's little acquaintance with
the Library or with the books themselves; and sums up thus at
the close:—'This is what I have to say to these 13 books, one
whereof I look upon as imperfect, two more I was charged not
to meddle with, and the other ten are in the Library already. I
shall wave all unmannerly reflections, as whether this be not in
you insignis insufficientia, for which you are liable to be turned
out of your place; or [whether,] if you had been employed to
bring in a list of Dr. Bernard's books wanting in the Library,
and took the same method as now, the University would not
have bought a fair parcel of duplicates, and such like; but I
pass them by. Tho' it must be owned that the University being
willing to lay out but 140 pounds, some different editions of the
Bible, Fathers, Classicks, &c., were preferr'd to some books not at
all in the Library, but they were at the same time judged to be of
less moment, and likely to be given to it by future benefactors.'
The quarrel, however, soon ceased; for, in the following year,
Hyde was anxious to see Wanley appointed as his successor.
The latter, in a letter to Dr. Charlett, dated Oct. 10, 1698[154],
repeats a conversation held with Hyde on the previous evening,
in which the Librarian said 'that he is heartily weary of the
place of Library-keeper; that he must use more exercise in
riding out, &c., if he intends to preserve his health; which will
of necessity hinder his attendance there. He had rather I succeeded
him than anybody else, which I cannot do untill I am
a graduate; that, if I have any friends amongst the heads of
houses, they cann't do better for me than in procuring for me
the degree of Batchellor of Law, that I may be in a condition
to stand for his place with others, which he will resign as soon
as I have obtain'd the said degree, and (for my sake) will communicate
his intentions to nobody else in the mean time. He
presses me to get this degree as soon as possible, urging that
he does not care how soon he is rid of his place.' Wanley asks
for Charlett's advice; what that was does not appear, but, at
any rate, he did not obtain the degree which he desired, and
consequently did not become eligible as Hyde's successor.
Sixteen MS. treatises on Mathematics, Astronomy, and Ancient
History, by Thomas Lydiat, were given by Will. Coward, M.D.
They are placed amongst the Bodl. MSS., chiefly between Nos.
658-671.
Considerable fears were entertained for the safety of the
Divinity School and that portion of the Library which is built
over it. About thirty-two years before, some failure had been
observed in the roof of the former, which was rectified under
the superintendence of Sir Christopher Wren. When Bishop
Barlow's books were brought to the Library, in 1692 or 1693,
the galleries on either side of the middle room were erected;
and, as the beams of the roof of the School were then observed
to give from the wall, they were anchored on both sides, under
the direction of Dr. Aldrich. But the tight bracing had now
caused the south wall, that which adjoins Exeter College garden,
to bulge outwards, so that the book-stalls were found to have
started from the wall by three and a-half inches at the top and
two and a-half at the bottom; the wall itself was seven and a-half
inches out of the perpendicular, and the four great arches of the
vault of the School were all cracked. Hereupon Dr. Gregory, the
Savilian Professor, was despatched to London to consult Sir C.
Wren again, and, by his advice, additional buttresses of great depth
and strength were erected on the south side, the weight of the
bookstalls was removed from the roof of the School by their being
trussed up to the walls with iron cramps; and the cracks in the
vault were filled with lead or oyster-shells, and in some places
with the insertion of new stones, and were then 'wedged up
with well-seasoned oaken wedges.' This work went on through
the summers of 1701 and 1702; and in 1703 some similar repairs
were executed in some of the other Schools. The letters
and papers of Wren on the subject, with the draughts, and reports
of the workmen employed, are preserved in Bodley MS. 907.
They are printed in [Walker's] Oxoniana, iii. 16-27.
In this year died Henry Jones, M.A., Vicar of Sunningwell,
Berks[155]. He bequeathed to the Library sixty volumes in MS.,
very miscellaneous in character, and chiefly of the 16th and 17th
centuries. Some of them had belonged to Bishop Fell. The
bequest probably came to Oxford some few years after Mr. Jones'
death, as the books are entered (in a full and accurate list) by
Hearne, in the Benefaction Book, among the gifts of about the
years 1706-12. It was from a modern transcript among these
that Hearne edited the Historia Regum Angliæ of John Ross
or Rouse; and seventy-one documents from No. 23, which is
an Hereford Chartulary, were printed by Rawlinson at the end
of his History of Hereford, 8o, Lond. 1717. One volume has for
many years been missing from the collection, viz., a funeral
oration, by John Sonibanck, on the death of Queen Elizabeth of
York, in 1503. A list of the MSS. is printed from the Benefaction
Register, in Uffenbach's Commercium Epistolicum, pp. 200-208.
Between 1700 and 1738 Sir Hans Sloane is recorded to have
given considerably more than 1400 volumes, together with his
picture in 1731; but the majority of them do not appear to
have been considered of much value, and only 415 are specified
by name in the Benefaction Register. Dr. Hyde, in a letter to
Hudson, which accompanied a list of the books for which the
latter had asked with a view to registration, says he scarce
thinks the entry to be 'for the credit of the business, nos inter
nos[156].' But Hudson appears to have thought that the omission
proceeded rather from carelessness, for, in a letter to Wanley,
he says that he thinks Hyde assigned 'non causa pro causa[157].'
The long-entertained idea of resigning the Librarianship was
at length carried out by Dr. Thomas Hyde in this year, for the
reasons given in the following letter, which was addressed by
him to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, probably Dr. Charlett. It is
here printed from a copy sent by Hyde to Wake, then Rector of
St. James, Westminster, and preserved amongst the Wake Correspondence
in the library of Ch. Ch.:—
'March 10, 1700/01,
'Christ Church, Oxon.
'Sir,—I being a little indisposed by the gout, acquaint you
thus by letter, that what I long agoe designed (as you partly
knew) I am now about to put in execution. That is to say, I
shall shortly lay down my office of Library-keeper, about a month
hence, which resolution I do now declare, and I do hereby give
you timely and statuteable notice of the same as Pro-Vice-Chancellor,
entreating that, as the Statute requires, you will in two
days order Mr. Cowper to draw a Programma to be set up at
the Schools to the sence of the enclosed paper, he best knowing
forms and lawyers' Latin.
'Among the Bodleian Statutes in the Appendix, in the Statute
de causis amovendi aut libere recedendi, you will find that upon
the Library-keeper's notice thus given, you are in two days'
time to fix up the programma preparatory to make it known
that about a month hence (which is about the end of this term)
that office will be actually resigned and void.
'My reasons for leaving the place are two, viz. one is because
(my feet being left weak by the gout) I am weary of the toil
and drudgery of daily attendance all times and weathers; and
secondly, that I may have my time free to myself to digest and
finish my papers and collections upon hard places of Scripture,
and to fit them for the press[158]; seing that Lectures (though
we must attend upon them) will do but little good, hearers being
scarce and practicers more scarce.
'I should have left the Library more compleat and better furnish'd
but that the building of the Elaboratory[159] did so exhaust
the University mony, that no books were bought in severall
years after it. And at other times when books were sometimes
bought, it was (as you well know) never left to me to buy them,
the Vice-Chancellor not allowing me to lay out any University
mony. And therefore some have blamed me without cause for
not getting all sorts of books.
'Before the Visitations I did usually spend a month's time in
preparing a list of good books to offer to the Curators; but I
could seldom get them bought, being commongly (sic) answered
in short, that they had no mony. Nay, I have been chid and
reproved by the Vice-Chancellor for offering to put them to so
much charge in buying books. These things at last discouraged
me from medling in it. But, however, I leave the Library three
times bigger than I found it[160], and furnished with a Catalogue
of which I found it destitute. I wish the University a man who
may take as much pains and drudgery as I have done whilst I was
able to do it.
'I entreat you with all speed to cause the Register to put up
the programma signed with your name, that so things may be
regularly and statutably dispatched in order, until the time of
actuall resignation shall come.
'In the mean time I remain,
'Your humble servant,
'THOMAS HYDE.'
John Hudson, M.A., of Queen's, afterwards D.D. and Princ.
of St. Mary Hall, was elected in Hyde's room; he was opposed
by J. Wallis, M.A., of Magd., the Laudian Professor of Arabic, but
was chosen by 194 votes to 173[161]. A letter to him from Hyde
on his election, with advice about the entering of Sir H. Sloane's
books in the Register, the augmentation of Mr. Crabbe's salary,
the Catalogues and the Statutes, is printed in [Walker's] Letters
by Eminent Persons, i. 173. He had previously, in 1696-98, given
seventy books to the Library, and in 1705-10 he added nearly
600. Hyde did not long survive his resignation, dying before
one year had elapsed, on Feb. 18, 1702. He was buried at
Handborough, near Oxford.
In this year Thomas Hearne, the famous antiquary, was appointed
Janitor, or Assistant, in the Library. He tells us in his
Autobiography (p. 10) that, from the time of his taking the degree
of B.A. in Act term, 1699, 'he constantly went to the Bodleian
Library every day, and studied there as long as the time allowed by
the Statutes would admit,' and that the fact of this his 'diligence
being taken notice of by all persons that came thither, and his
skill in books being likewise well known to those with whom he
had at any time conversed,' occasioned Hudson's appointing him
to be an Assistant immediately upon his own election as Librarian.
It appears, from the Visitors' Book, that a payment of £10 was
made to him in this year, and that, in the next year, £30 were
voted to him for his assistance in making an Appendix to the
Catalogue of printed books[162], and for enlarging and correcting
the Catalogues of MSS. and Coins. Extra payments of 50s.
were also made to him in 1704 and 1706, and of 20s. in 1709.
The Bodley Speech. See 1682.
A considerable number of printed books were given by Steph.
Penton, B.D., and a collection of 500 coins was bequeathed about
this time by Tim. Nourse, of Univ. Coll.
The name of John Locke appears in the Register, as the donor
of his own works (which he gave at Hudson's request), together
with some others, including, with an honourable fairness, those
of Bishop Stillingfleet written in controversy with himself. As
Locke's expulsion from Ch. Ch., in 1684, by royal mandate, for
political reasons, is sometimes, with an injustice which he himself
would doubtless have warmly repudiated, represented as if it had
been the act of Oxford itself, it is worth while to quote the
language in which this gift from him, twenty years afterwards,
is recorded, and recorded, too, by the pen of the earnest and
conscientious Jacobite, Thomas Hearne: 'Joannes Lock, generosus,
et hujus Academiæ olim alumnus, præter Opera ab ipso
edita, ob ingenii elegantiam, doctrinæ varietatem, et philosophicam
subtilitatem, omnibus suspicienda (here follow the titles
of his own works), insuper ex suo in optimas artes amore, animoque
ad supellectilem literariam augendam propenso, Bibliothecæ
huic dono dedit libros sequentes;' scil. Churchill's Voyages and
Travels, 4 vols., 1704, Stillingfleet's Vindication of the Doctrine
of the Trinity, Stillingfleet's Answer to Locke, and Rob. Boyle's
History of the Air. Locke desired, in a codicil to his will, that
in compliance with a second request from Hudson, all his
anonymous works should also be sent to the Library[163].
William Ray, formerly consul at Smyrna, presented about
600 coins, chiefly Greek, which E. Lhwyd (who reported their
number to be about 2000) said he had been told had been collected
at Smyrna by his cook[164]. But the Benefaction Register records that
they were obtained by Ray from the widow of one 'domini Dan.
Patridge,' who had himself intended to present them to the University.
They were put in order, and a Catalogue made of them,
some years afterwards, by Hearne, who intended to have given
the Catalogue to the Library, 'had not,' he says, 'the ill usage
he afterwards met with there obliged him to alter his mind[165].' Ray
also gave a Turkish almanac.
The supposed original MS. of The Causes of the Decay of
Christian Piety, by the author of The Whole Duty of Man, was
given by Mr. Keble, the London bookseller. It is now numbered
Bodl. MS. 21. Dr. Aldrich was of opinion that it is not in
the author's own hand, but copied in a disguised hand by Bishop
Fell. Hearne thought it to be in a disguised hand of Sancroft's;
but the resemblance is very slight indeed[166].
Six volumes of Archbishop Usher's Collectanea, with two or
three other MSS. which had belonged to him, were given to
the Library by James Tyrrell, the historian, who was the archbishop's
grandson. He had placed them previously in the hands
of Dr. Mill, for use by him in his edition of the Greek Test.,
and it was about a week before Mill's death, June 21, 1707,
that they were transferred, together with a gift from Mill of
various printed books, to the Library[167]. They are now placed
among the Rawlinson Miscellaneous MSS., 1065-1074, and one
volume containing various readings in the Gr. Test., is numbered
Auct. T. v. 30. Other volumes of his MSS. Collections in the
Library are Barlow, 10 and 13; e Musæo, 46 and 47; Rawl. Misc.
225, 280; Rawl. Letters, 89, and Rawlinson C. 849, 850, which
last were given to Hearne by Tyrrell. Hearne has printed some
extracts at the end of Gul. Neubrig. iii. 804. Six Samaritan
and other MSS. which belonged to Usher are now in the class
called Bodl. Orient.
By the bequest of Dr. Humphrey Hody the Library acquired
some 400 or 500 volumes, being all those in his own collection
which were wanting here, together with his MSS. Collectanea.
These last, amounting to twenty-three volumes, are now numbered
Bodl. Addit. 1. D. 1-4, 2. B. 1-16, 2. C. 1-3.
Thomas, Archbishop of Gocthan, in Armenia, visited England
on an errand which seems to have justly excited great sympathy
and attention. Sensible of the low condition of his fellow-countrymen,
through their want of means of instruction, and
being earnestly anxious to do something towards their elevation,
he had spent some forty years in travels through Europe and Asia
for the purpose of procuring books, establishing printing-presses,
educating young men, and obtaining help for the furtherance
of his Christian and patriotic projects. His first printing establishment,
at Marseilles, was ruined by the mismanagement and
fraud of those to whom it was entrusted. He then, for ten years,
carried on a press at Amsterdam, where he printed, in Armenian,
the New Testament, the Prayers and Hymns of the Church, a
translation of Thomas à Kempis, and several other theological
works, together with some in geography, history, and science.
But troubles and trials again overtook him; disputes and law-suits
involved him in debt; one hundred books, which he shipped for
Armenia in 1698, were taken at sea, and so never reached their
destination. And so, poor and sorrowful, in extreme old age,
the Archbishop came to England to seek for help, recommended
by Dr. John Cockburn, the English Minister at Amsterdam.
He was well received by the Archbishops, and Sharp, of York,
procured him an interview with the Queen, who gave him some
assistance. Then, recommended by Bishop Compton[168], of London,
he came to Oxford. What he received in the way of the help
which he most of all needed, deponent sayeth not; let us hope
it was not small. What he received in the way of honour, and
what he did to cause the introduction of his name in these Annals,
Hearne tells, in his own interesting way, in his Diary[169]:—
'May 24. Last night came to Oxon one of the Armenian
Patriarchs. He is Patriarch of the Holy Cross in Gogthan (near
Mount Ararat) in Greater Armenia. He subscribes himself in
his speech to the Queen in the last month, by translation,
Thomas. The next day he was attended to the publick Library
by Dr. Charlett, Pro-Vice-Chancellor. At the entrance, Dr.
Hudson, the Keeper, made him a handsome complement in
Latin; but the Patriarch, being about 90 years of age, and understanding
no Latin, nor Greek, nor any European language but
Italian, took but little notice of any thing. He afterwards was
carried to Dr. Charlett's lodgings, where he was treated.
'May 29. This day was a Convocation in the Theatre, when
the Archbishop of the Holy Cross in Gocthan was created Doctor
of Divinity, and his nephew, Luke Nurigian, and Mr. Cockburn,
son of Dr. Cockburn, were created Masters of Arts. The day
before, the Archbishop presented to the publick Library several
books in Armenian which he has caused to be printed. Mr.
Wyatt, the orator, spoke a speech in his commendation, and
presented him, the Queen having been pleased to let us be
without a Professor. During the Convocation, several papers
printed at the Theatre were given to the Doctors, Noblemen,
and some others, entitled, Reverendissimi in Christo Patris Thomæ,
Archiepiscopi Sanctæ Crucis in Gocthan Perso-Armeniæ, peregrinationis
suæ in Europam, pietatis et literarum promovendarum caussa
susceptæ, brevis narratio; una cum dicti Archiepiscopi ad serenissimam
Magnæ Britanniæ Reginam oratiuncula ejusque responso. Accedunt
de eodem Archiepiscopo testimonia ampla et præclara. Printed upon
two sheets, folio[170].'
In another volume of memoranda[171], Hearne adds the following
notice of one of the books given by the Archbishop: 'Amongst
other books which he gave to the Bodleian Library is a History,
at the beginning of which the Archbishop's nephew put the following
memorandums: "Historia Nationis Armeniæ, a Moise
Chorenensi grammatico, doctore Armeno. Amst. 1695. Maii 28,
1707, Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ dono dedit reverendiss. Thomas
Archiep. S. Crucis in Majori Armenia. Per manum ejusd. reverendiss.
nepotis, Lucæ Nurigianidis." Underneath which is
written, at the motion of Dr. Charlett, and by the direction of
the said Archbishop's nephew: "Auctorem istius libri floruisse
traditur seculo quarto post Christum."' The book is now numbered,
8o V. 134 Th.
In this year the first Copyright Act was passed, which required
the depositing of copies of all works entered at Stationers' Hall
at nine libraries in England and Scotland. This number was
increased upon the Union with Ireland to eleven, but finally
reduced to five (British Museum; Oxford; Cambridge; Advocates'
Library, Edinburgh; and Trinity College, Dublin) by 5 & 6 Will.
IV. c. 110.
Dr. Richard Middleton Massey, formerly of Brasenose College,
gave (with a few other books) a very curious and valuable series
of Registers of the Parliamentary Committee for augmentation of
poor vicarages, from 1645 to 1652, in eight folio volumes, with
one earlier volume containing a list of
livings in the diocese of Norwich, with their values and incumbents. To local antiquaries these proceedings are
full of interest, while their historical and biographical value is
equally great. They are now numbered Bodl. MSS. 322-330. Of
the printed books given by Dr. Massey, most of those in octavo
were placed at the end of Bishop Barlow's books, in the shelves
marked D. Linc.
Three thousand pounds were offered by the University for the
library of Isaac Vossius, but refused. But the books were shortly
afterwards sold to the University of Leyden for the same sum[172].
A watch which had belonged to Dudley, Earl of Leicester, is
said to have been presented by Mr. Ralph Howland, of Maidenhead.
Grabe's Adversaria. See 1724.
'July 19, Died Mr. Joseph Crabb, Under-keeper of the Bodleian
Library, having kept in ever since this day sennight. He died of
a rheumatism, occasion'd by a careless sort of life. He was,
however, an honest harmless man. He was buried on Monday
night following (between 7 and 8 o'cl.) in Haly-well Churchyard,
very privately. Upon his coffin was put, I. C. ag. 38.
1712; but I heard him say some time since he was 39 years old[173].'
He is described in the following caustic terms by Zach. Conr.
Uffenbach, in a letter written in 1713, and printed in his Commercium
Epistolicum[174]:—
'Alteri [præfecto Bibliothecæ], nomine Crab, caput vacuum
cerebro est, lepidum alias, dignusque homo quem ridiculo illo encomio,
quo tamen multi serio egregios viros onerarunt, ornetur,
vociteturque Helluo, non librorum tamen sed præmiorum, quæ
ab exteris Bibliothecam hanc invisentibus avide excipit, statimque
cauponibus reddit pro liquore, ad guttur colluendum purgandumque
a pulvisculo, qui librorum tractationem velut umbra aut
nebula comitari solet. Quamvis non ejus, sed tertii infimique
Bibliothecarii, hoc sit muneris, ut libros in loculos reponat, quævis
in ordinem redigat atque emundet.'
The date of Crabb's appointment has not been ascertained,
but it must have been previous to 1699, as on Nov. 8 of that year
an order appears in the Visitors' Book for an extra payment to
him of £10[175]; other additional payments of £5 and 50s. are made
to him annually until 1710. Two vols. of an index to texts of
printed sermons, ending about the year 1708, (now Bodl. MSS.
47 and 657,) which were, doubtless, intended to form a continuation
of Verneuil's little book, are said in an old entry in the
Catalogue to be by 'Mr. Crabb.' The following brief account of
him is given in Rawlinson's MSS. collections for a continuation of
Wood's Athenæ:—
'Joseph Crabb, son of Will. Crabb, clerk, born at Child-Ockford
in Dorsetshire on —— 1674; educated in grammar
learning at ——; matriculated as a member of Exeter
College, 18 July 1691; took the degree of B.A. 17 Oct.
1695; became Sub-librarian at the public library; removed to
Gloucester Hall, where he became M.A., 4 July 1705, and
died ——.'
Rawlinson goes on to attribute to him (as his solitary claim
to a place in the Athenæ) a Poem on the late Storm, Lond. 1704,
fol., but this was written (as well as a Latin poem In Georgium
reducem, Lond. 1719, fol.) by John Crabb, Fellow of Exeter College
(B.A., Oct. 15, 1685; M.A., June 19, 1688), who was also a
Sub-librarian at an earlier period, but the date of whose entrance
into office as well as of quittance is not known. The latter
became Rector of Breamore, Hants, in 1709, where he died in
1748 at the age of eighty-five. He is remarkable for having
married four wives, all of whom lie buried with him in his church.
The third of these, Grace Shuckbridge, became his wife when he
was aged seventy-six and she was forty-nine; the last (who survived
until March 13, 1777) was thirty-six when she took him,
at the age of eighty-one, for better or worse. There is a handsome
marble tablet to his memory on the north wall of the Chancel
of Breamore Church, bearing the following inscription, and surmounted
by his arms (scil., on a field gules a chevron between
two fleur-de-lis above and a crab displayed below or; crest, a
demi-lion rampant or) painted in their proper colours:—
'H. S. E. Reverend. Johan. Crabb, A. M. è Coll. Exon quondam
Socius Oxon., Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ Sub-Librarius, et a
sacris olim Episc. Fowler, hujus Parochiæ Minister residens amplius
XXXVIII ann. Vir doctus, pius, generosus, in Ecclesiâ Orthodoxus,
in Republicâ fidelis, et omnibus liberalis. Author
Georgianæ et aliorum Carminum celebrium latine et anglice,
Obiit tandem XIII Id. Martii, Anno ætat. suæ LXXXV., Æræ
Christianæ MDCCXLVIII[176].'
On July 22, Thomas Hearne was appointed Second-keeper by
Dr. Hudson, in the room of Crabb, while still retaining his post as
Janitor, 'with liberty allow'd him of being keeper of the Anatomy
schoole, or Bodleian repository, on purpose to advance the perquisites
of the place, which are very inconsiderable[177],' but with the
proviso that the salary of the janitor's place should go to an
assistant officer. By this arrangement Hearne retained the keys,
so that he could go in and out when he pleased[178].
'Sept. 16, Dr. Hudson told me to-day that some have complain'd
that books in the Publick Library are not so easily come at as
usual. I am glad there is such a complaint. I am afraid the
complainers are such as us'd to steal books from the Library, and,
upon that account, are concern'd that they are more strictly look'd
after than formerly[179].'
The learned and munificent Narcissus Marsh, Archbishop successively
of Cashel, Dublin, and Armagh, on his death, Nov. 2, in
this year, bequeathed to the Library a very large and valuable
gathering of Oriental MSS., which had been chiefly procured for
him in the East by Huntington, and at the sale of Golius' library,
at Leyden, in October, 1696, by Bernard. The collection numbers
at present 714 volumes, but probably some of these may have been
books added for convenience' sake from other sources. Many of
them bear the motto of some former owner (qu. Golius?), somewhat
like in form to Selden's, but better in spirit, πανταχη
την αληθειαν.' It is strange that no notice of this liberal gift is found
in any of the Library Registers, and it is only from a passing
mention in Hearne's preface to Camden's Elizabeth (p. lxvi.) that
we find it was a death-bed legacy, and consequently learn the date
of its acquisition. Hearne there says that the books were placed
in the Library 'in tenebris;' and this expression was made one of
the subjects of complaint against him when prosecuted in 1718 in
the Vice-Chancellor's court on account of that preface. He then
replied that the expression was correct, for that they were placed
in a dark corner to which access was only had through a trap-door,
but that he himself had put them there for want of a better
place. He had wished to deposit them in one of the rooms in the
Picture Gallery, but Dr. Hudson kept that for his own purposes[180].
At this period every stranger admitted to read in the Library
had to pay nine shillings in fees, of which 1s. went to the Head
Librarian, 3s. 6d. to the Second Librarian, 1s. 6d. to the Janitor,
2s. to the Registrar (for an order for admission, but in the Long
Vacation this fee went to the Second Librarian), and 1s. to the
Proctor's man[181]. In 1720 the fee to be received from every visitor
not qualified to read was fixed at one penny, to be paid to a
porter who was then first appointed to the charge of the Picture
Gallery. It subsequently rose by a silent custom to the large
sum of a shilling; but some few years ago the Curators fixed
the charge to visitors at threepence each, unless accompanied, and
in consequence franked, by some member of the University in
his academic dress. Since this moderate sum has been fixed,
the number of ordinary sight-seeing visitors has, naturally, much
increased[182].
The suppression, by an order of the Heads of Houses, dated
March 23, 1712/3, of Hearne's edition of Dodwell's tract De Parma
Equestri Woodwardiana, was attributed by Hearne himself to (as the
remote occasion) an incident connected with his office in the
Library, which is related very fully by himself in vol. xliv. of his MS.
Diary. On Feb. 20, Mr. Keil, the Savilian Professor of Geometry,
brought to the Library an Irish gentleman named Mollineux, recommended
by Sir Andrew Fountaine, to whom he requested Hearne
to show the curiosities of the place. As Keil was 'a very honest gentleman,'
Hearne little suspected that his friend was possessed with
the 'republican ill principles' and 'malignant temper' of Whiggism,
and consequently was not very guarded in his talk. After showing
him various MSS. and coins, he took the visitor into the Anatomy
School[183], where all kinds of odds and ends were preserved; amongst
which was (as Hearne gravely notes in another place) a calf which,
being born in the year of the Union, 1707, had (it is to be presumed
in consequence thereof) two bodies and one head. What
followed during the exhibition of this museum is worth relating in
the diarist's own words:—
'I mentioned a picture engraved and hanging there with horns
and wings, and underneath, uxor ejus ad vivum pinxil. This picture
many had said was Benjamin Hoadley, the seditious divine of
London; but, for my part, I gave no other description of it than
this, that 'twas the picture of one of the greatest Presbyterian,
republican, antimonarchical, Whiggish, fanatical preachers living in
England. And this description was enough to exasperate him.
And yet, for all that, he did not discover any passion, nor give the
least hint that he was a Whig himself. Neither did he give any
hint of it afterwards till I came to mention a tobacco stopper
tipped with silver, and given to me by a reverend divine, who had
informed me that it was made out of an oak that lately grew in
St. James's Park, but was destroyed by the D. of M. for the great
house he was building near St. James's, and that the said oak came
from an acorn that was planted there by King Charles II, being
one of those acorns that he had gathered in the Royal Oak, where
he was forced to shelter himself from the fury of the rebells after
the fight at Worcester. Mr. Mollineux was at the other end of the
room when this was shew'd, and the said story told; but hearing
it he comes immediately to the tables, and expresses himself in
words of this kind, viz. that 'twas a bawble, and that an hundred
such things were not worth the seeing. Mr. Keil however thought
otherwise, and said that he thought my collection was better than
that in the Laboratory. Some mirth passing after this, I went on
with my description, and had not yet formed an opinion that
Mr. Mollineux was a Whig; but finding that he was still inquisitive
after other curiosities, and that he pretended to much skill in good
ingraving and drawing, I produced the picture of a beautifull
young man, over the head of which was ΕΙΚΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ, and
underneath, Quid quæritis ultra? I did not tell them whose
picture it was, but said that I shew'd it them as a thing excellently
well done, which they all allow'd and view'd it over and over, and
seemed to be mightily taken with it, and Mr. Mollineux in particular
was pleased to say that 'twas admirably well done, and
deserved a place amongst the most exquisite performances of this
kind, at the same time asking how long I had had it, and whose
picture I took it to be. To the former of which questions I
reply'd, about a quarter of a year, to the latter that I did not
pretend to tell who it was designed for. Yet Mr. Keil was
pleased to laugh, and to tell Mr. Mollineux, They are all rebells,
Mr. Mollineux, they are all rebells in this place, speaking these
words in a merry joking way, and not with any intent to do me an
injury. Mr. Mollineux took the words upon the picture down,
which I did not deny him, not thinking that 'twas with a design to
inform against me, as it afterwards proved. Yet from this time I
began a little to suspect his integrity, and that he was not one of
those good men I expected from Mr. Keil, whom I had always
found to be a man of honesty.'
Hinc illæ lachrymæ! Poor Hearne was reported to Dr. Charlett
the same afternoon for showing the Pretender's Picture; a meeting
of the Curators of the Library was threatened; but eventually the
matter seemed to pass over by his being desired by the Vice-Chancellor
to give up the key of the Anatomy School, in order that the
determining Bachelors might meet there, by which change Hearne
was mulcted of the fees which he obtained for showing the room,
and was sometimes detained one hour, or two, later than usual in
order to see to the locking up of the staircase on which it is situated.
On March 23, however, he was summoned before the Heads of
Houses for remarks made in his preface to Dodwell's above-mentioned
tract, and, after a sharp discussion, in which reference
was made to his exhibition of the portraits, he was ordered to
suppress his preface, and re-issue the book without it; to which he
consented. He was pressed to make a formal retractation of the
passages to which objection was made, but this he stiffly refused to
do. He says in a letter to Sir Philip Sydenham that the only
form of retractation or expression of sorrow he could have been
prevailed on to sign (strongly resembling the famous apology of
a middy to an insulted naval surgeon) would have been some such
form as this:—'I, Thomas Hearne, A.M., of the University of
Oxford, having ever since my matriculation followed my studies
with as much application as I have been capable of, and having
published several books for the honour and credit of learning, and
particularly for the reputation of the foresaid University, am very
sorry that by my declining to say anything but what I knew to be
true in any of my writings, and especially in the last book I published,
intituled, Henrici Dodwelli de Parma Equestri Woodwardiana
Dissertatio, &c., I should incurr the displeasure of any of the
Heads of Houses, and as a token of my sorrow for their being
offended at truth, I subscribe my name to this paper, and permitt
them to make what use of it they please[184].'
An evidence of the increased intercourse which sprang up
between Denmark and England, in consequence of the marriage
of Queen Anne, is probably to be found in the number of Danish
readers who frequented the Library in the interval between her
marriage and her death. Between the years 1683 and 1714, forty-nine
Danes are entered in the Liber Admissorum, besides many from
Sweden, Norway, and the North of Germany. The total number
of foreigners admitted within the same period was no less than 244.
'In the year 1714 were in the Bodleian Library:—
| 30169 | pr. vols. |
| 05916 | MSS. vols. |
| In all | 36085.' |
(Hearne's MS. Diary, vol. xci. p. 256.)
It is strange that, notwithstanding Selden's and Laud's large
additions, the Library had therefore very little more than doubled
since 1620.
It is recorded in vol. li. of the same Diary (p. 187) that the old
series of portraits which were painted on the wall of the Picture
Gallery was renewed in November of this year. These portraits,
amounting in number to about 222, ran round the gallery, immediately
under the roof; many of them were fancy-heads of ancient
philosophers and writers, but besides these there were some real
portraits of English writers and divines, up to the time of James I.
A list of the whole series, as well as of the oil paintings in the
Gallery, was printed by Hearne together with his Letter containing
an Account of some Antiquities between Windsor and Oxford. Of the
renovation of the wall-paintings he thus speaks in his preface to
Rossi Historia Regum Angliæ (1716): 'Non possim quin bibliothecæ
Bodleianæ Curatores laudem, qui pictori Academico [i.e. Wildgoose]
in mandatis dederunt, ut veteres effigies renovet nitorique
pristino restituat: quippe quas eo pluris æstimendas esse censeo,
quod eas in galeria depingendas jusserit ipse Bodleius, Loci
Genius.' When the Gallery was re-roofed in 1831, all these paintings
were, however, removed [see p. 15].
About the end of this year the Arundel Marbles, which, strange
to say, had been exposed to the open air within the quadrangle of
the Schools ever since they were given to the University, were
removed into one of the rooms on the ground-floor, where they
still remain. It was said that they had suffered more 'since they
were exposed to our air, than they did in many hundred years
before they came into it[185].' But the influence of the air was not all
they had to contend against, for Hearne tells us that the defacing
of the Marble Chronicle (of which there are portions that were read
by Selden, which now can no longer be read at all) and some
others, was owing not merely to exposure to the weather, but
'to the abuses of children who are continually playing in the area,
and of other ignorant persons[186].'
We learn from Hearne's MS. Diary [vol. liii.] that differences
between him and Dr. Hudson (of which he makes frequent mention)
increased during this year. He was reported to the Vice-Chancellor
in April for absence from the Library through his duties as
Bedel, by reason of which readers had difficulty in obtaining books
lodged above stairs. To this complaint his reply was that he
was not bound, as Second Librarian, exclusively to do such
'drudgery,' but that Dr. Hudson was himself obliged by statute to
deliver out such books as were under lock-and-key, and books
in quarto and octavo, either personally or by his own special deputy.
At the same time a complaint was made against him by three
Bachelors of Arts of Queen's College, for refusing books to them
which were out of the faculty of Arts prescribed to them by the
statutes of the Library. Hearne's only reply to the Vice-Chancellor
in this case was the asking whether they had, also in accordance
with the Statutes, come to the Library in their hoods,
if under two years' standing; at which 'he smiled.' It appears,
therefore, that this requirement had already become obsolete.
Dr. Hudson, however, regarded the matter more seriously, and
threatened that Hearne should be turned out of both his places.
April 15. (Good Friday!) 'This morning Dr. Hudson went out
of town, and that pert jackanapes Bowles (who is Dr. Hudson's
servitor) came to tell me that he is gone, and that the sweeper of
the Library being dead, I must not admitt any one to sweep the
Library as formerly. I returned answer I had nothing to do in
that case. In the afternoon I was at study in the Library, and
Bowles brings up a woman and girl, and set them to sweeping, and
left them there, tho' this should not have been, they being not
sworn nor admitted as sweepers. Indeed all things are now done
very irregularly in the Library by the permission of Dr. Hudson,
and by the impudence of this pert, silly servitour, and I am afraid
much mischief is done withall. The whole Library and galleries
and studies and the Anatomy School used to be swept this day;
they began about eight, and had not done till four or five in the
afternoon. But now the Library only below stairs was swept over,
and that very slightly, and all things were left in a bad condition,
to my very great concern[187].'
At the visitation on Nov. 8, the Curators passed a resolution
that the places of Under-librarian and Bedel were inconsistent,
and that on S. Thomas' day Hudson should be at liberty
to appoint some other person to Hearne's office. Hereupon
Hearne immediately, without a moment's delay, resigned both the
offices of Architypographus and Superior Bedel of Civil Law, and
claimed to remain in the Library; but Hudson had fresh locks
put on the doors, of which Bowles kept the keys, so that Hearne
was unable to go in and out as before. However, he continued
to execute his office whenever the Library was open until Jan. 23,
1716, when the Act which imposed a fine of £500, with other
penalties, upon any one who held any public office without having
taken the Oaths, came into operation. Then at once, all worldly
interests, all affection for the old place of his studies and his care,
gave way to the honest and unwavering dictates of his conscience;
the Non-juror withdrew, and, with singularly hard measure, in
spite of his representations, his place was ordered by the Curators
to be filled up at Lady-Day, not on the ground of his own retirement,
but on that of neglect of duty! His successor was Rev.
John Fletcher, M.A., Chaplain, and afterwards Fellow, of Queen's
College. Hearne states that his salary was, with great unfairness,
withheld from him for the whole half-year preceding Lady-Day,
together with some fees which were due[188]. But to the end of his
life he maintained that he was still, de jure, Sub-librarian, and,
with a quaint pertinacity, regularly at the end of each term and
half-year, up to March 30, 1735[189], continued to set down, in one of
the volumes of his Diary, that no fees had been paid him, and that
his half-year's salary was due.
On Hearne's announcing John Ross's Historia Angliæ for publication
in this year, W. Whiston forwarded to him a MS. of a
Latin historical poem entitled Britannica, written in 1606 by an
author of the same names as the forth-coming historian, with the
following note inserted:—
'This book was written, as I think, by my great uncle, Mr. John
Rosse, rector of Norton-juxta-Twycross in Leicestershire, where
I was myself born. If it may be of any use to Mr. Hern at
Oxford in his intended edition of this or some other work of the
same author now advertis'd, or may be thought worthy of a place
in the publick library of that University, it is hereby freely given
thereto by
'WILLIAM WHISTON.
'London, December 12, 1715.'
Hearne adds that (of course) the author was altogether different
from the Ross of his editing, and that the poem had been printed
at Frankfort in 1607, as he learned from a MS. Catalogue of
Mr. Richard Smith's books lent him by Bp. Fleetwood of Ely[190].
The MS. is now numbered, Bodley 573.
A learned tailor of Norwich was in this year recommended by
Dr. Tanner, then Chancellor of Norwich Cathedral, for the Janitor's
place in the Library should it be vacant. Although but a
journeyman tailor of thirty years of age, who had been taught
nothing but English in his childhood, Henry Wild had contrived
within seven years to master seven languages, Latin, Greek,
Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic and Persian, to which Tanner
adds, in another letter to Dr. Rawlinson, Samaritan and Ethiopic.
The application appears to have been unsuccessful so far as the
holding office in the Library was concerned; but Wild found some
employment in the Library for a time in the translating and copying
Oriental MSS[191]. He removed to London about 1720, and died
in the following year, as we learn from an entry in Hearne's MS.
Diary, (xcii. 128-9,) under date of Oct. 29, 1721, where we read:—
'About a fortnight since died in London Mr. Henry Wild, commonly
called, the Arabick Taylour. I have more than once mentioned
him formerly. He was by profession a taylour of Norwich,
and was a married man. But having a strange inclination to
languages, by a prodigious industry he obtain'd a very considerable
knowledge in many, without any help or assistance from others.
He understood Arabick perfectly well, and transcrib'd, very fairly,
much from Bodley, being patroniz'd by that most eminent physician,
Dr. Rich. Mead. He died of a feaver, aged about 39. He
was about a considerable work, viz. a history of the old Arabian
physicians, from an Arabick MS. in Bodley. The MS. was wholly
transcrib'd by him a year agoe, but what progress he had made
for the press I know not.'
Five MSS., including the Leiger Book of Malmesbury Abbey,
together with a large number of printed books, were given on
May 7, by William Brewster, M.D. of Hereford, a well-known
antiquary[192].
A thick quarto volume (1052 pages) containing a Latin treatise
by Adam Zernichaus on the controversy between the Eastern and
Western Churches, concerning the Procession of the Holy Ghost,
was forwarded to the Library through Sir Robert Sutton, ambassador
at Constantinople, by Chrysanthus, Patriarch of Jerusalem,
nephew and successor of Dositheus, an autograph Greek epistle
from whom, occupying seven pages, is prefixed. At the end is
a list of eleven German scribes who were employed upon the
transcription of the volume, with the payments they severally received.
It appears from the Benefaction Register that the volume
was not actually received at the Library until 1722; and in 1731,
an entry in the catalogue records that the MS. 'was restored to
Sir Robert Sutton, by order of the Vice-Chancellor;' but no
reason or explanation is given. For more than a century the
Patriarch's gift was consequently lost from the place of its destination;
but in Dec. 1864, having turned up for sale among the
well-known stores of Mr. C. J. Stewart, it was secured by the
Librarian at the cost of £5 15s. 6d., and is once more to be found
in its legitimate quarters, numbered MS. Addit. Bodl. ii. c. 9.
Chrysanthus also gave, in 1725, a copy of Dositheus' History of the
Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which was printed, in Greek, in 1715.
On Aug. 23, a legacy of £100 from Dr. South (who died
July 8), for the purchase of modern books, was paid to the Vice-Chancellor[193].
Arms in the window. See 1610.
One Mr. Hutton appears to have been employed in the
Library during this year. It seems, from a passage in a letter of
C. Wheatly's, printed in Letters by Eminent Persons, ii. 116, that the
learned commentator Samuel Parker, son of the Bishop of Oxford,
was also at some time employed in the Library; for Wheatly
expresses a wish that S. Parker's son, then (1739) an apprentice
to Mr. Clements the bookseller, might, if the accounts of his extraordinary
proficiency be true, be placed 'in his father's seat, the
Bodleian Library.' As Parker was a non-juror, his employment
must doubtless have been at some earlier period than this, but his
name is not met with in any of the old Account-books or Registers.
One Thomas Parker occurs in the Library accounts in 1766
and in 1772.
Dr. Hudson died, on Nov. 27, of dropsy. And at one o'clock on
the afternoon of the very next day, Joseph Bowles, M.A., of Oriel
College, was elected in his room.
The bitter terms in which Hearne frequently, in the course of
his Diary, condemns Hudson's management, or rather mismanagement,
of the Library, may be supposed to be owing in a considerable
degree to personal pique and quarrel[194]. But they meet
with very singular and abundant confirmation in the letter of Z. C.
Uffenbach, quoted above (p. 130), when the writer expresses, in
the following strong language, his opinion of Hudson's neglect
and incapacity, and of the general condition of the Library under
his management:—
'Perpende, quæso, mecum, vir eruditissime, quantus thesaurus
ex solius Bodleianæ Bibliothecæ codicibus elici possit, nisi Proto-Bibliothecarii
Hudson negligentia ac pertinacia obstaret. Is enim
muneri abunde satisfecisse, imo eximie ornasse Spartam videri
vult, dum tot annis unico scriptori, Thucydidem ejus puto, omni
Bibliothecæ cura plane abjecta, insudavit, cum hoc, quod supra
dixi, potius agendum fuisset. Nefandam hujus insignis Bibliothecæ
sortem (ignosce justæ indignationi) satis deplorare nequeo. Inculta
plane jacet, nemo ferme tanto thesauro uti, frui, gestit.
Singulis sane diebus per trium mensium spatium illam frequentavi,
sed, ita me dii ament, nunquam tot una vice homines in illa vidi
quot numero sunt Musæ, vel saltem artes liberales. De librorum
studiosis loquor; nam puerorum, muliercularum, rusticorum, hinc
inde cursitantium, voluminumque multitudinem per transennas
spectantium mirantiumque, cœtum excipio.... De Proto-bibliothecarii
incuria jam dixi, ejusque stupendam in historia literaria
librariaque, inprimis extra Insulam ultraque maria, ignorantiam
taceo.'
Of Hearne, however, Uffenbach writes in the following different
strain:—
'Hîc scholaris, ut hîc loqui amant, esse solet, atque etiamnum
est, nomine Hearne, qui, præ reliquis, diligentiam suam non modo
scriptis, sed in novo etiam Bibliothecæ catalogo confitiendo,
typis proxime exscribendo, probavit; ast, quod dolendum, ad
exemplum prioris, qui satis jejunus, inconcinnus, erroribusque
innumeris scatens est.'
Hudson's successor, Bowles, had previously been his Assistant
for some years, and as, while Hearne was Under-keeper, he
had come into sharp collision with that irascible antiquary (see
under 1715), his election now was a matter of sore annoyance to
the latter. Hearne dwells upon it in his Diary with great bitterness
and at great length: 'Competitors were Mr. Hall, of Queen's,
and that pert conceited coxcomb Mr. Bowles (who is not yet
Regent Master) of Oriel College. Bowles carried it by a great
majority, having about 160 votes, and Mr. Hall about 77. I
think it the most scandalous election that I have yet heard of in
Oxford.' Of his supporters he speaks thus:—'Charlett and such
rogues, who contrived to bring in that most compleat coxcomb
Bowles to be Head-Librarian, to the immortal scandal of all
that were concern'd in it[195].' And even, when ten years later he
records Bowles' death, he indulges, in forgetfulness of charity to
the departed, in the following strain: 'Of this gentleman (a most
vile, wicked wretch) frequent mention hath been made in these
Memoirs. He took the degree of M.A. Oct. 12, 1719. 'Tis incredible
what damage he did to the Bodl. Library, by putting it into
disorder and confusion, which before, by the great pains I had
taken in it (&c.), was the best regulated library in the world[196].'
Bowles' name never occurs in the Diary without some opprobrious
epithet being attached to it, which may be accounted for
partly from his having taken the oaths of allegiance after declaring
he would never do it (a defection which Hearne never forgave
in any one), but chiefly also from his having personally excluded
Hearne from the Library, when the latter refused to resign his
keys in 1715, by procuring new locks and keys, which he kept
in his own custody.
Three or four days after Bowles' election, Mr. Fletcher, the
Sub-librarian (disliking, no doubt, the appointment of his junior
over his head), resigned his office, to which Bowles appointed
the well-known antiquary, Francis Wise. Upon this appointment
Hearne comments thus: 'Bowles put in Mr. Wise, A.M., of
Trin. Coll. (a pretender to antiquities), tho' he had promised it
to one of Oriel Coll., that came in fellow of Oriel when he did,
and was very serviceable to him in getting the Head Librarian's
place; for which Bowles is strangely scouted and despis'd at Oriel,
as a breaker of his word, and a whiffling, silly, unfaithfull, coxcomb.'
It must be allowed that the portrait of Bowles in the
Library bears out in some degree Hearne's last epithet, by giving
him the appearance rather of a fine clerical gentleman than of a
student.
Baskett, the printer, presented to the Library a magnificent
copy on vellum of the 'Vinegar' Bible, printed by him in 1717.
Only three copies were so struck off; the second was placed in
the King's Library, and the third was sold to the Duke of
Chandos, for five hundred guineas, at whose sale, in 1747, Lord
Foley purchased it for £72 9s.
About this time, one John Hawkins, a highwayman (who was
executed in May, 1722), is said by an accomplice, Ralph Wilson,
who published an account of his robberies, to have defaced some
pictures in the Library. The University is said to have offered
£100 for discovery, and a poor Whig tailor was taken up on
suspicion, and narrowly escaped a whipping. No particulars,
however, of Hawkins' act are given in the pamphlet, and no further
notice of it has been found elsewhere.
Joseph Swallow, B.A., who died in this year, is found from
the Accounts to have been employed, for some short time, in the
Library.
In this year the titles of all books which were bought out of
the Library funds begin to be recorded, together with their prices;
they are entered in a Register marked with the letter C.
Visitors' Fees. See 1713.
The inscription on the Schools' Tower, beneath the statue of
James I, was renewed in this year[197].
Sir Godfrey Kneller presented his own portrait to the Gallery.
Mrs. Mary Prince is recorded to have presented heads of our
Blessed Lord and of King Charles I, painted by herself. They
appear to be the two paintings on copper, now hanging in the
Sub-librarian's study, called Mus. Bibl. II. Beneath that of our
Lord is the following inscription: 'This present figure is the
symylytude of our Lorde Jesus our Saviour, imprinted in amyrald
by the Predecessors of the Great Turke, & sent to Pope Innocent
ye Eight at the cost of the Great Turke for a token, for this
caus, to redeme his brother that was taken prisner.' The inscription
is, of course, if the painting be Mrs. Prince's work, reproduced
literatim from some older copy.
The attachment to the old Stuart family, which was so warmly
cherished in Oxford, appears to have lingered in the Bodleian,
notwithstanding Hearne's departure, who himself would scarcely
have thought that a vestige of it had been left behind. For in the
Benefaction Register for this year, the gift of a portrait of Sheffield,
Duke of Buckingham, from his widow Catherine, a natural daughter
of James II, is entered as coming from 'filia Regis Jacobi II,
του μακαριτου.'
Chrysanthus, Patriarch of Jerusalem. See 1715.
The noble brass statue of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke,
(who was Chancellor of the University from 1617 to his death
in 1630, and was the donor of the Barocci MSS.,) which forms
such a conspicuous feature in the Picture Gallery, was presented
this year by the earl's great nephew, Thomas, the seventh Earl of
Pembroke. It was cast by the famous artist Hubert le Sœur, from
a picture by Rubens, and is said to weigh about 1600 lbs. The
letter of thanks from the University was read in Convocation on
April 19; it is criticized by Hearne in his Diary[198] in the following
terms: 'I am told that this letter is very silly and poor, and that,
among other things, his Lordship is told in it that the statue is
placed in æde immortalitatis. Now what this ædes immortalitatis,
church, temple or chappel of immortality is, I cannot conceive,
but am sure that the statue is at present fix'd in the Picture Gallery,
adjoyning to the Bodl. Library.'
The MSS. Adversaria of Dr. J. E. Grabe came to the Library
in this year after the death of Bishop Smalridge (Sept. 27, 1719),
in accordance with the will of their writer, who at his death
(Nov. 12, 1712) bequeathed them first to Hickes and next to
Smalridge, with the final reversion to the Bodleian. They form
forty-three volumes. Some account of them is given in Hickes'
Discourse prefixed to Grabe's Defects and Omissions in Whiston's
Collection of Testimonies, &c. (8o. Lond. 1712), and they are fully
catalogued by Mr. Coxe in vol. i. of the general Catalogue of
MSS., cols. 851-876. In a written list of them, preserved in the
Library, Dr. Bandinel has noted that several volumes of the series
were purloined before they came to Oxford, while remaining in
the possession of a friend after Grabe's death.
A Zend MS. very well and clearly written (dated in the year
1005 of the era of Yezdegird, i.e. A.D. 1635), of the Leges Sacræ,
Ritus, &c. Zoroastris, was received from G. Bowcher, a merchant
in the East Indies. It was given in 1718, but not forwarded until
1723, when it was brought from India by Rev. Rich. Cobbe, M.A.
It is now numbered Bodl. Or. 321. And a Coptic Lexicon, compiled
and prepared for the press by Rev. Thos. Edward, M.A.,
a former Chaplain of Ch. Ch., was bought for the sum of ten
guineas, which was specially granted from the University Chest.
It is now numbered Bodl. Orient. 344. The author was originally
of St. John's College, Cambridge, and tells us in his preface that
Bishop Fell, who was also Dean of Ch. Ch., meeting him
there in the house of Dr. Edmund Castell, with whom he was
living, brought him to Oxford by appointing him a Chaplain of
the Cathedral, with the view of carrying on the study of the Coptic
language, which had fallen to the ground upon the death of
Dr. Marshal of Lincoln College. But just when Edward was
prepared to begin printing the results of his labours, his patron,
the Bishop, died; and, as he found no one else cared for the
subject, he took the College living of Badby in Northamptonshire,
and quitted Oxford. He finally became Rector of Aldwinkle in the
same county, and died there in the year 1721. His book is
dated 1711. It is cited by Archdeacon Tattam in his Lexicon
Ægyptiaco-Latinum. Another MS. Coptic Lexicon, in two volumes,
was purchased in 1857.
A large collection (in twenty-five volumes) of the tracts on the
Roman Catholic Controversy which appeared between 1680-1690,
was given by Will. Smith, M.A., of Univ. Coll., and Rector of
Melsonby, Yorkshire.
Thomas Perrott, D.C.L., of St. John's College, gave nine
volumes of MSS., the most important of which is a copy-book of
the letters written by Sir John Perrott, Lord Deputy of Ireland, in
1584-6. Another is a book of orders from the Privy Council to
the officers of the Customs at London, 1604-18: a third, notes of
a sermon preached by Usher at the Temple, July 2, 1620. A few
political and miscellaneous tracts, tempp. Eliz.—Jac. I, and two
heraldic MSS., complete the number. The MSS. are noticed in
the return printed in the Record Commission Report for 1800,
p. 348.
Some Greek MSS. were bought which had been brought from
Mount Athos; three of them are now placed amongst the Cromwell
MSS., Nos. 15, 16, and 27, and three others are numbered
Miscell. Gr. 137-9.
Sale of Duplicates. See 1745.
Mr. Bowles, the Librarian, died at Shaftesbury, the place of his
birth, and was buried there on Nov. 25. On Dec. 2, Mr. Robert
Fysher, B.M., Fellow of Oriel College, was elected his successor
by 100 votes to 85 over Francis Wise, the Under-librarian.
Mr. John Bilstone, M.A., Chaplain of All Souls' and Janitor of the
Library, was also a candidate, but retired before the election, in
the hope of securing Wise's return. As Wise held Hearne's old
place, and was regarded by him as an usurper, and as Bilstone
held in his possession the new keys which Bowles originally procured
to render Hearne's old ones useless, the latter consequently
regarded them both with great disfavour, and rejoiced greatly at
the result of the election. His account of it is printed in the
Reliqq. Hearn. vol. ii. p. 712.
Forty-two MS. volumes came to the Library by the bequest of
the widow of Mr. Francis Cherry, of Shottesbrooke, Berks, the
early patron and constant friend of Hearne[199]. Cherry himself
died Sept. 23, 1713, and Hearne says that he had intended to
give his MSS. to his old protégée. They are not, for the most part,
of very great value, but among them are various volumes by
Dodwell; and a book written and bound by Q. Eliz. is described
above, under the year 1628. Hearne was greatly annoyed at a
paper of his own, containing reasons for taking the oath of allegiance,
which he had written in 1700, coming into the Library
amongst these books; he endeavoured in vain (although now in
these days his legal right would be at once recognized) to recover
it, and it was published, to his still greater annoyance, by the Whigs,
under the editorship of Mr. Bilstone, the janitor. An account of
Hearne's endeavours to regain it, together with a notice of
Mrs. Cherry's bequest and of the MSS., is to be found in Dr. Bliss'
Appendix to his Reliqq. Hearn. ii. 899-906.
In the Register of Readers admitted by favour occurs, under
date of April 19, the name of 'C. Wesley, Ædis Xti alumn.,'
written in a neat and clear hand. The name of his great brother
is not found in any register extending over the period of his stay in
Oxford. At this time the Library appears to have been almost
entirely forsaken. Between 1730-1740 it rarely happens that above
one or two books are registered to readers in a day, while often
for whole days together not a single entry occurs; and since, in the
register for this period, the books are noted down by three hands,
it can hardly be possible that the blanks are due to the negligence
of librarians (as might have been supposed were the same handwriting
found throughout) rather than to the lack of students.
On the death of Hearne (June 10, 1735) fifteen of the MSS.
of Thomas Smith, D.D., of Magdalen College, the well-known and
learned non-juror, came to the Library, Smith having bequeathed
them to Hearne on this condition. With them came also copies
of Camden's Britannia and Annales Eliz., with MSS. notes by their
author. The rest of Smith's MSS. appear to have come to the
Library together with the mass of Hearne's collections, included
in Rawlinson's bequest in 1755. They amount altogether to 138
thin volumes, containing notes, extracts and letters on all kinds
of subjects. There is a very full written catalogue of their contents,
in two volumes. Three Greek MSS. were given by Smith
himself on his return from his travels in the East about 1681.
The Library was enriched with the collections of the well-known
antiquary, Thomas Tanner, Bishop of St. Asaph, who
died on Dec. 14, in the preceding year. By his will, dated Nov. 22,
1733, he bequeathed his MSS. to the Library together with
such printed books, not already there, as the Curators and
Library-keeper should think fit to accept. But he directed his
executor to burn all his sermon-notes, 'and other little pieces and
attempts in divinity,' as well as all his own private papers and letters.
The largest portion of his MSS. (nearly 300 volumes out of 467)
consists of the papers which he himself says he 'bought of Archbishop
Sancroft's executors,' but which it is said in the Gent. Mag.
for 1782 (cited by Gough in his British Topography, i. 126) he bought
for eighty guineas of the bookseller Bateman, to whom Sancroft's
executors had sold them[200]. Together with these, and perhaps not
now to be distinguished, are some of the collections of Dr. Nalson
between 1640 and 1660. To the latter a claim was made through
Archdeacon Knight, in 1737, by Dr. Williams of St. John's College,
as grandson of Nalson; but the Bishop's brother replied (as we
learn from a copy of his answer and of another letter written by
him in 1753) that the Bishop had bought them at Ely, where they
had lain neglected for many years, and he thought possibly from
some one living in the house which Nalson inhabited when Prebendary
of Ely. The matter ended by Dr. Williams waiving any
claim which he had, in consideration of the place of deposit being
the Bodleian[201]. Sancroft's and Nalson's papers together comprise
a large series of letters of the time of the Civil War, of the highest
interest and value, from most of the leading personages on both
sides, including Charles I, Rupert, the Protector Oliver, and
Hampden. There are also collections relating to various dioceses,
with very much that illustrates both the ecclesiastical and literary
history of the seventeenth century[202]. A selection from the Civil
War letters was published, in 2 vols. in 1842, by Rev. Henry Cary,
M.A. (a son of the translator of Dante, and at that time an assistant
in the Library), under the title of Memorials of the Civil War; but
the transcripts were very carelessly made, and scarcely a single
letter can be trusted as faithfully and verbatim representing the
original. Another volume of selections from Sancroft's papers was
published, with much better care, by Will. Nelson Clarke, D.C.L.,
8o, Edinb. 1848, entitled, A Collection of Letters addressed by Prelates
and Individuals of high rank in Scotland, and by two Bishops of Sodor
and Man, to Archbishop Sancroft, in the reigns of Charles II and
James VII[203]. A catalogue of the MSS., compiled by the Rev.
Alfred Hackman, M.A. (now Sub-librarian) was published in 1860,
in a thick quarto volume, forming vol. iv. of the general Catalogue
of MSS. The several volumes are described in brief in the body
of the work; but a very full Index is subjoined, in which the
contents of all the letters and papers are entered in detail. The
printed books (upwards of 900) contain many, by the Reformers
and their opponents, which are of the utmost rarity in early English
black-letter divinity. One of these is an unique copy (as it is believed)
of an edition, printed without place or date, of the Pore
Helpe, of which there is also an unique copy of another edition,
equally without place or date, among the Douce books. It has
not hitherto been remarked that two copies, or two editions, exist
of this metrical satire. Another volume, which contains several
tracts printed by W. de Worde and Gerard Leeu, has also two by
Caxton, hitherto unnoticed as exhibiting his type, and described
in the Catalogue simply as being books without place or date.
The merit of their discovery as Caxton's is due to the recent
research of Mr. Bradshaw, the Librarian of the Cambridge Library.
The one is a clean and perfect copy of the Governayle of Helthe,
with the verses called Medicina Stomachi, of which the only copy
known to Mr. Blades is in the library of the Earl of Dysart at Ham
House; the other a wholly unknown quarto edition, in the same
type, of the Ars Moriendi.
Unfortunately, when Tanner was removing his books from
Norwich to Oxford, in Dec. 1731, by some accident in their transit
(which was made by river) they fell into the water, and were submerged
for twenty hours[204]. The effects of this soaking are only
too evident upon very many of them[205]. The whole of the printed
books were uniformly bound in dark green calf, apparently about
fifty years ago; the binder's work was well done, but unhappily all
the fly-leaves, many of which would doubtless have afforded something
of interest, with regard to the books and their former possessors,
were removed. Many of Tanner's own letters are to be
found amongst the Ballard and Hearne MSS., as well as scattered
here and there in other collections; and one volume of them was
purchased in 1859. Some coins were given by him in 1733. We
learn from the Accounts that Thomas Toynbee, an undergraduate
of Balliol College (B.A. 1743, M.A. 1745), received £12 12s., in
1741, for making a list of Tanner's MSS., and that E. Rowe
Mores, the subsequently well-known antiquary, arranged some of
his deeds in 1753-4.
The fourth Catalogue of the printed books appeared this year
in two volumes, folio, of 611 and 714 pp. respectively. It is
still a Catalogue of great use and value, from its remarkable accuracy,
and from the abundance and minuteness of its cross-references.
The secret history of this Catalogue, however, as of
the preceding one, is related by Hearne. By him, as he himself
frequently tells us[206], the greater portion of it was virtually prepared
soon after his appointment as Sub-librarian, in 1712 (although
no mention of his name is made in Fysher's preface), and to
him, therefore, its accuracy is most probably in a great measure
due[207]. He compared every book in the Library with Hyde's
Catalogue, and corrected many mistakes, adding notes here and
there about anonymous and synonymous authors, and, as the
Vice-Chancellor (Dr. Maunder, of Balliol) was anxious to have an
Appendix issued, he transcribed for this purpose all his corrections
and additions into two folio volumes, 'which' (to take up now
Hearne's own account in his Diary, vol. lxii. p. 58, under date
1717) 'now lye and are to be seen in the Library.... But at
last Dr. Hudson thought it more convenient with respect to
himself that both Dr. Hyde's Catalogue and my Appendix should
come out together as one intire work, so that he might have
the honour of all. Upon which he employed one Moses Williams,
his servitour[208] (the Dr. being then Fellow of University College),
to transcribe it, the said Williams being in the Dr.'s debt. When
Williams had done, he demanded the remaining part of his money,
which was about ten or twelve pounds, the rest having been
stopped by the Dr. for the debt just now mentioned. The whole
was fifty lbs. which he bargained for with the Dr. But when
Williams desired the said ten or twelve pounds, of which he
had immediate occasion to discharge the fees and charges for
the degree of Bachelor of Arts, the Dr. was in a very great
passion, and refused to pay it. Upon which Williams moved
the matter so far that the Catalogue was laid before the Delegates
of the Press, and the Dr. was called before them to his very
great mortification, and they told him that 'twas highly unreasonable
to stop the poor lad's money. Upon which the Dr. in a
great rage and fury paid him; otherwise Williams had most
certainly put him into the Court. This Catalogue was last summer
ordered to be printed, and the Dr. was refunded his money;
but 'tis not yet put to the press, the Dr. being unwilling it
should be printed till such time as he hath done Josephus.' But
Hudson died before his Josephus was finished, and the proposed
new Catalogue was consequently begun, and only begun, by
his successor, Bowles. The latter printed as far as p. 244 of vol. i.
and p. 292 of vol. ii. His successor, Fysher, upon his appointment,
engaged the assistance of his friend, Emmanuel Langford, M.A.,
Vice-Principal of Hart Hall, who completed the second volume,
while Fysher himself finished the first. At the end of the second
volume appeared an announcement of a supplemental Catalogue,
as being ready for the press, containing the books existing in
College Libraries but wanting in the Bodleian. This, however,
never appeared, and nothing is known of the MS. from which
it was to have been printed. Fysher's Catalogue appears, from
the University Accounts, to have occupied from 1735 in preparation,
for which, and for transcribing it for the press, £194 5s.
were paid to him.
Alexander Pope gave, together with copies of his Iliad and
Odyssey, a curious volume, containing a series of 178 Portraits of
East Indian Rajahs and Great Moguls, down to Aurung-Zebe.
It is now numbered Bodl. MS. Sansk. 14.
The names of various persons (all, probably, undergraduates)
employed in the Library about this time are learned from the
Accounts:—1738, Mr. Hall; 1740-1, Mr. Allen; 1740, Mr.
Toynbee (Ball. Coll., B.A., 1743); 1743, Mr. Jessett (All Souls',
B.A., 1745); 1747, Mr. Thomas Winbolt (All Souls', B.A. 1748).
Notification was given to the Vice-Chancellor, on June 9,
that thirteen pictures (of no great value) were bequeathed to the
Gallery by Dr. King, Master of the Charter House, by his will
dated July 28, 1736, together with £200 for the cleansing and
repairing the frames of the pictures already in the Gallery. A list of
these thirteen is given in Gutch's transl. of Wood's Annals, vol. ii.
pp. 969, 970. The pictures themselves are now in the Randolph
Gallery. Dr. King also left a legacy of £400 to the University
to prepare a complete and handsome edition of Zoroaster's Works,
in Persian, with a Latin translation and notes; but this portion
of his bequest was not accepted.
A copy of the Byzantine historian, Pachymeres, was restored
in this year, by order of the Curators, to Emmanuel College,
Cambridge, from which it had by some means been removed;
but the College paid £4 4s. for its restoration.
In this year died Nathaniel Crynes, M.A., Fellow of St. John's
College and Superior Bedel of Arts, to which latter office he
had been elected Jan. 26, 1715/16[209]. He bequeathed to the
Library all such books out of his own valuable collection as it
did not already possess, the rest going to his own College.
His books in octavo and smaller sizes, with a few quartos, are
still kept distinct, under his own name, and number 968 volumes,
many of which are of great rarity. Seven MSS. were presented
by him in 1736. In 1727 he purchased some duplicates from
the Library, for £3 16s. 8d., and a story, told by Warton in
connection with this purchase, of his fortunately rejecting books
which bore the name of Milton, will be found under the year
1620. There is a biographical notice of him in J. Haslewood's
Introduction to Juliana Barnes' Boke of St. Alban's, Lond. 1810,
pp. 86-7. In the Accounts for 1746 occur special payments to
Fr. Wise, and to one Mr. Gerard Bodley, for cataloguing and
arranging Crynes' books.
Trott's Clavis Linguæ Sanctæ. See 1686.
Dr. Fysher, the Librarian, died on Nov. 4, at Mr. Warneford's,
of Sevenhampton, Wilts, and was buried, on Nov. 7, in Adam de
Brome's chapel in St. Mary's Church, Oxford. And on Nov. 10,
Rev. Humphrey Owen, B.D., Fellow of Jesus College (afterwards
D.D., and chosen Principal of his College in 1763), was unanimously
elected his successor[210]. Rawlinson mentions, in a letter
to Owen of April 15, 1751, that he had heard a complaint that
in Fysher's time 'there was a great neglect in the entry of books
into the Benefactors' Catalogue, and into the interleaved one of
the Library; as to these objections, my answers were as ready
as true, at least I hope so, that Dr. Fysher's indisposition disabled
him much from the duty of his office, and that I did not think
every small benefaction ought to load the velom register[211].'
A Runic Primstaff, or Clog Almanack, was given by Mr. Guy
Dickens, a gentleman-commoner of Ch. Ch. It is now exhibited,
together with another (see p. 105), in the glass case near the
entrance of the Library. Pointer, in his Oxoniensis Academia
(p. 143), mentions that an explanation of the Primstaff was given
by himself; the Accounts show that it was also in this year.
A number of coins were added to the Numismatic Museum,
which had been collected by the late Librarian, Fysher.
A copy on vellum, with illuminated initials, &c., of vol. i. (reaching
to the Psalms) of the Vulgate Bible, printed by Fust and
Schoeffer in 1462, was bought for £2 10s.! The volume was
imperfect at the end, ceasing at Job xxxii. 5, and seven leaves
followed in contemporary and beautiful MS., which also ended
imperfectly at Ps. xxxvi. 9, with one leaf wanting at the end of Job.
But when the Canonici Collection of MSS. was received from
Venice, in 1818, among some fragments which were found in
one of the boxes were fourteen leaves of a MS. Bible, which
were at once recognised as being part of those wanted to complete
this book, and which left only four still deficient. The volume
came to the Library from the collection of Nic. Jos. Foucault,
'Comes Consistorianus,' many other of whose MSS. and printed
books came by Rawlinson's bequest; but through how many
hands the missing leaves had passed in the seventy subsequent
years ere they were thus marvellously restored to their place,
it is impossible to tell[212].
A benefaction from Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham, of £60 to
the Librarian and of £10 for the purchase of books, appears for
the first time in the Accounts for this year. These sums (which
are still annually paid into the General Fund) proceed from a
bequest of £200 per ann. from Crewe (who died Sept. 24, 1721)
to the University. A proposal to give these same sums to the
Library, with other assignments for the remainder, was brought
forward in Convocation on June 5, 1723, but the scheme was
then rejected[213]. And thus nearly thirty years seem to have elapsed
from the time of the bequest before the share for the Library was
definitely fixed and paid.
Charles Gray, M.P. for Colchester, presented a MS. Roll, containing
a Survey of the estates of the Abbey of Glastonbury at the
Dissolution, which is printed by Hearne in his Appendix to Langtoft's
Chronicle, vol. ii. pp. 343-388, from a copy made from this
original; and an inscription, in the Phœnician language, upon a
white marble stone, which was brought, with many others, from
Citium, in the island of Cyprus, by Dr. Porter, a physician of Thaxted
in Essex. The stone measures twelve inches in length, by three
in breadth, and three in depth. It has been frequently engraved:
first by Pocock (Travels in the East, vol. ii. pl. xxxiii. 2); next by
Swinton (Inscriptiones Citieæ, 1750, and Philos. Trans. 1764);
afterwards by Chandler, Barthélemy, &c.; and, lastly, by Gesenius
(for whom former copies were collated with the original, and
corrected, by Mr. Reay) in his Scripturæ Linguæque Phœniciæ
Monumenta, published in 1837, where the inscription is described
at pp. 126-133, part i., and engraved at pl. xi. part iii. It appears
to be an epitaph by a husband in memory of his wife. The stone
is now kept in one of the Sub-librarians' studies.
Thomas Shaw, the well-known Eastern traveller, bequeathed his
collection of natural curiosities, which was sent to the Ashmolean
Museum, and the MS. of his own travels, with corrections, and
other papers. Copies of Caxton's Game of the Chesse and Recuyell
of Troye were given by Mr. James Bowen, of Shrewsbury, painter[214].
In May of this year died Henry Hyde, Lord Cornbury, son of
Henry Hyde, Earl of Rochester, and great-grandson of the great
Earl of Clarendon. He had made a will bequeathing all the Chancellor's
MSS. to the University of Oxford, to be printed at their
press, and the profits to be devoted to a school for riding and
other athletic exercises in the University, should such an institution
be accepted, or else to other approved uses. Dying before his father,
through the effects of an accident, his bequest was void, as he
was never actually in possession of the papers to which it referred;
but after the death of his father in Dec. following, his sisters, who
were the co-heiresses, carried out his will, by sending all the
Clarendon MSS. in their possession to the University on the
same conditions[215]. From these was published in 1759 (in which
year the papers appear to have been deposited in the Library) the
Life of the first Earl, reprinted in several editions up to the year
1827. This was followed, in 1767-73, by the publication, under
the editorship of Dr. Rich. Scrope, of Magd. Coll., of vols. i., ii.
of a selection from the State Papers; of which vol. iii. appeared
under the editorship of Mr. Thos. Monkhouse, of Queen's Coll.,
in 1786. During the progress of this publication, however, the
original collection of MSS. papers was very largely increased by
the acquisition of various portions which had long before been detached.
Some were obtained, before the publication of vol. i., from
the executors of Rich. Powney, LL.D.; and many were presented
to the University, before the publication of vol. ii., by the Radcliffe
Trustees, who had bought them for £170 when sold by auction in
1764 by the executors of Joseph Radcliffe, Esq., one of the
executors to Edward, third Earl of Clarendon, who died in 1723.
Dr. Douglas (afterwards Bishop of Salisbury), who was employed
in the latter purchase, himself bought and gave some MSS.
which had belonged to Mr. Guthrie, and was instrumental also
in procuring some letters from Viscountess Middleton, &c.
Again, before the publication of vol. iii. many further papers
were purchased by the Radcliffe Trustees from a Mr. Richards,
near Salisbury (from whose father Mr. Powney had obtained his
portion), and from Mr. W. M. Godschall, of Albury, Surrey. And
lastly, about eight or ten years ago, several boxes (including
Clarendon's own iron-bound escritoire), containing miscellaneous
papers, were forwarded by the Clarendon Trustees in final discharge
of their trust.
A MS. of the History of the Rebellion, in seven volumes, together
with one of the Contemplations, in three volumes, was forwarded in
1785 or 1786 by the Duke of Queensbury. The former MS.
appears to be that from which the first edition was printed by
the Earl of Rochester[216].
A complete Calendar of the Clarendon State Papers is now
in progress under the care of several editors. As far as it has
advanced, it has proved the good judgment and the extreme correctness
with which the printed selection was made; but as that
selection ended with the Restoration, while the papers themselves
reach on to 1667, the year of the Earl's banishment, the later portion
may be expected to contain much of fresh interest and value.
It was in this year also that the first portion of the MSS. of
Thomas Carte, the 'Englishman' and historian, came to the
Library. It has been universally supposed that his voluminous
and invaluable collections came en masse subsequently to his death,
but the Library Register shows that Oxford was indebted to him
for a considerable and important portion during his life. In this
year we find that he sent the papers which relate to the life of the
great Duke of Ormonde, with a large number of others bearing on
the history of Ireland from the time of Queen Elizabeth, comprised
in thirty volumes folio and quarto. In the following year, shortly
before his death (which occurred on April 2, 1754) he forwarded
twenty-six more of his Irish volumes, in folio, marked A, B, C, D,
&c. And in 1757 nine more of the same series were forwarded by
his widow from Caldecot, near Abingdon, according to an entry in
the old Catalogue, which appears to correspond to one in the
annual Register to the effect that four more boxes were forwarded
by the executors, 'by order of Rev. Mr. Hill.' The remainder of his
collections were left in the hands of his widow, who, re-marrying
to Mr. Nicholas Jernegan, or Jerningham (of the family seated at
Cossey, Norfolk), bequeathed them, upon her death, to him, with
the reversion to the University of Oxford. While they were in
Mr. Jernegan's possession they were largely used by Macpherson
for his publication of State Papers, for which use of them £300
were paid; and the agreement entered into by the publisher Cadell,
when borrowing some of them for this purpose, is preserved in the
MS. Catalogue of the collection. In 1778, however, Mr. Jernegan
disposed of his life-interest to the University, for (as Nichols[217] was
informed by Price) the sum of £50, and the remainder were consequently
at once transferred to the Library. The collection numbers
altogether 180 volumes in folio, fifty-four in quarto, and seven
in octavo, besides several bundles of Carte's own papers; and is
accompanied by a very full list of contents, compiled by Carte
himself, in one folio volume. The mass of papers relating to
Ireland which these volumes contain is enormous, drawn chiefly
from the stores accumulated by Ormonde at Kilkenny Castle; to
which are added miscellaneous historical collections derived from
Lords Huntingdon, Sandwich, and Wharton. There are, also,
several volumes of extracts and papers, collected with immediate
reference to Carte's History of England. And a third, and
especially interesting, portion consists of the papers of Mr. David
Nairne, under-secretary to James II during his exile, which reach
from 1692 to 1718, and fill two volumes in folio and eight or nine
in quarto. It was from these that Macpherson chiefly compiled
his Original Papers, published in 1775, in 2 vols., 4o. A Report
upon the contents of the collection, with special reference to
Ireland (omitting the Nairne papers) was made to the Master of
the Rolls by T. Duffus Hardy, Esq., and Rev. J. S. Brewer in 1863,
and was printed in the following year, together with an extremely
useful summary of the contents of the various volumes, and a
reference-table of the letters, &c., printed by Carte in his Ormonde
volumes. In consequence of this Report, two Commissioners (the
Rev. Dr. Russell, President of Maynooth, and J. P. Prendergast,
Esq.) were appointed to examine the whole series, and select for
transcription all historical and official papers of interest relating to
Ireland, with a view to the preservation of copies in the Record
Office at Dublin. Several transcribers are therefore now continuously
employed in transcribing for this purpose the papers
selected by the Commissioners. Some notice of the MSS. is to be
found in the Record Commission Report for 1800, p. 354.
In this year the MS. collections of Rev. John Walker, D.D., of
Exeter (son of Endymion Walker, of Exeter; born 1674, dec.
1747[218]), from which he compiled his valuable and laborious work,
The Sufferings of the Clergy, were forwarded to the Library by his
son, William Walker, a druggist in Exeter, as appears from a
letter from the latter preserved among papers relating to the
Library in the Librarian's study. The annual accounts, however,
mention the gift under the year 1756. Dr. Walker had expressed
in his book (pref. p. xliii.) his intention to deposit his papers in
some public repository, and his purpose was fortunately thus
carried out. The papers have recently been bound, and now form
twelve volumes in folio and eleven in quarto, with a few papers
still in bundles[219]. A large number of letters from many among the
sufferers and their representatives are here preserved; but, unfortunately,
Walker's own handwriting is often hard to decipher.
Many pamphlets which belonged to him (identified by the peculiar
handwriting in MS. notes) are amongst a vast series recently
bound and placed in continuation of the Godwyn Tracts; and
several volumes of pamphlets written by Dissenters were given by
himself in the years 1719-21.
The name of Hogarth occurs in the list of donors, as presenting
his two engravings of the Analysis of Beauty, which he had published
in the preceding year.
This year is remarkable for the number and variety of the
collections with which, during its course, the Library was enriched,
comprehending those of Rawlinson, Furney, St. Amand, and Ballard.
On April 6 died Richard Rawlinson, D.C.L., a Bishop among
the Non-jurors, notwithstanding that he passed in the world as a
layman. From the time of Bodley, Laud, and Selden, he was the
greatest benefactor the Library had known; and his only rivals
since his own day have been Gough and Douce. In point of
numbers, his donation of MSS. far exceeded all. From the short
autobiographical notice of himself, given in his own collections for
a continuation of the Athenæ Oxon. (where he has inserted a small
portrait of himself, engraved, without his name, by Van der Gucht),
we learn the following particulars. He was born Jan. 3, 1689/90, in
the Old Bailey, his father being Sir Thos. Rawlinson, who was
Lord Mayor of London in 1706. On March 9, 1707/8 (having
been previously at St. Paul's School and Eton), he was matriculated
as a commoner of St. John's College; but in consequence
of the death of his father in the same year, he became a gentleman-commoner
in 1709; B.A., Oct. 10, 1711[220]; M.A., July 5, 1713;
Governor of Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals, 1713; F.R.S.,
1714; ordained (among the Non-jurors) Deacon, Sept. 21, and
Priest, Sept. 23, 1716[221]. He then travelled through the whole of
England, except some of the northern parts, and in 1719 went
into Normandy, where, while staying at Rouen, he received
from Oxford the degree of D.C.L. by diploma of June 30.
Thence he went to the Low Countries, where, in Sept., he was
admitted into the Universities of both Utrecht and Leyden, and
returned into England in Nov. On June 12 in the following year,
he started on a longer journey, which he extended through
Holland, France, Germany, the whole of Italy, and Sicily, to
Malta; and returned on the death of his elder brother Thomas,
also a well-known book-collector, in 1726. During his six years'
travels, he had seen, he remarks, four Popes[222]. Admitted F.S.A.
May 10, 1727. On March 25, 1728, he was consecrated Bishop, by
Bishops Gandy, Doughty, and Blackbourne, in Gandy's Chapel[223].
Appointed a Governor of St. Bartholomew's Hospital in March,
1733. He resided at London House, Aldersgate, so called from
having been in early days a mansion of the Bishops of London.
During his lifetime he was a constant benefactor to the Library;
in the years 1733-4-5-7-8-9 and 1750, he is entered in the great
Register for special gifts of coins, books, and pictures. Some
hundreds of printed books, now in the gallery called 'Jur.,' and
elsewhere, were given by him at these times; while many of the
Holbeins and other valuable portraits in the Picture Gallery came
from him[224]. A few MSS. also came from him during his lifetime
which are now placed in the general Bodley collection. But at his
death all his collections came en masse[225]; collections formed abroad
and at home, the choice of book-auctions, the pickings of chandlers'
and grocers' waste-paper, everything, especially, in the shape of a
MS., from early copies of Classics and Fathers to the well-nigh
most recent log-books of sailors' voyages[226]. Not a sale of MSS.
occurred, apparently, in London, during his time, at which he was
not an omnigenous purchaser; so that students of every subject
now bury themselves in his stores with great content and profit.
But history in all its branches, heraldry and genealogy, biography
and topography, are his specially strong points. The printed
books bequeathed by him in selection from his whole library (of
which those in quarto and smaller sizes are still called by his
name) amounted to between 1800 and 1900[227], but the MSS. to
upwards of 4800, besides a large number of old charters and
miscellaneous unsorted deeds.
The staff of the Library being very small at the time, as well as
ill-paid[228], and such an accession being completely overwhelming,
the officers appear to have contented themselves with duly entering
the printed books, while leaving the MSS. entirely neglected.
About the beginning of the present century some steps were
taken towards a Catalogue, and a portion were arranged and
numbered; still later, considerably more was done. But it was
only on the accession of the present Librarian to the Headship,
that the full extent of Rawlinson's collections was ascertained.
Every corner of the Library was then thoroughly examined, and
cupboard after cupboard was found filled with MSS. and papers
huddled together in confusion, while, last not least, a dark hole
under a staircase, explored by the present writer on hands and
knees, afforded a rich 'take,' including many writings of Rawlinson's
Non-juring friends. The whole number of volumes thus
brought to light amounted to about 1300.
The classes into which the whole collection of MSS. is now
divided are the following:—
1. Class A: 500 volumes, chiefly of English history, with a few
theological books. Amongst these are the Thurloe State Papers,
in sixty-seven volumes, of which all of importance were published
by Birch, in seven vols. folio, in 1742. These papers were found
after the Revolution concealed in the ceiling of garrets in Lincoln's
Inn, which belonged to the rooms formerly occupied by Thurloe;
and they still bear too evident marks of the damp to which they
were there exposed. They passed through Lord Somers' and
Sir Jos. Jekyll's hands into those of a bookseller, Fletcher Gyles,
from whom Rawlinson obtained them in 1751, and who, as
Rawlinson says, asked at first an 'immoderate price' for them.
Another series is that of Miscellaneous Papers of Sam. Pepys, in
twenty-five volumes, containing his correspondence, collections on
Admiralty business, &c.[229] These, together with many other
volumes which belonged to Pepys (including many curious dockyard
account-books of the times of Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth)
were 'redeemed from thus et odores vendentibus[230].' Of another
acquisition Rawlinson writes thus:—
'There was lately an auction here of Mr. Bridgeman's books,
curiosities, and MSS., who was formerly clerk of the Council to
K. James II, and register to the Ecclesiastical Commission.
Here I laid out some pence, and picked up some curiosities; the
original minute-book of the High Commission, the proceedings
every session with the names of those present, by which it appears
that Bp. Sprat was not so innocent as he would persuade us in
his letter to the Earl of Dorset to think, and that notwithstanding
all his shiftings he sat to the penultim. Session of that Court;'
[Letters canvassing the nobility, gentry, justices of the peace, &c.,
in favour of the repeal of the Test;] '3 letters from the D. of
Monmouth, two to the King and one to the Queen, desiring an
audience in which he would give them such satisfaction, ...
very pathetic, and deserved at least some attention[231]; ...
several volumes of treaties, ... instructions to ambassadors.
Very remarkable are those to Lord Castlemain on his going to
Rome, the King's two letters to the Pope, a third of revocation,
all personal and complement, but no embassy of obedience.
Copy-books of letters, private and public, wrote by K. Charles and
K. James II, from which might be collected such a fund of true
tho' secret history, that the prize is not to be valued[232], and will, I
hope, be a standing monument of great events, and preserved in
Bodley's repository, with the papers of Bp. Turner and other great
men at and since the year 1688[233].'
There are also some papers in this class and in Class C which
belonged to Archbp. Wake, about which Rawlinson writes, on June
24, 1741[234]:—
'My agent last week met with some papers of Archbp. Wake at
a chandler's shop; this is unpardonable in his executors, as all his
MSS. were left to Christ Church. But quære whether these did
not fall into some servant's hands who was ordered to burn them,
and Mr. Martin Folkes ought to have seen that done. They fell
into the curate's hands of St. George, Bloomsbury.'
2. Class B numbers 520 volumes nominally, but really, including
double numbers, 534. They comprise heraldry and genealogy
(including MSS. of Sir Richard and Sir Thos. St. George,
W. Wyrley, Guillim, Ryley, Glover, Le Neve, and other heralds)
English and Irish history, and topography, including several monastic
chartularies. Among the genealogical MSS. is a remarkable
collection of pedigrees, in twelve volumes, which the present writer
ascertained to have been compiled by Thomas Wilkinson, Vicar of
Laurence Waltham, Berks, between about 1647 and 1681. They are
arranged alphabetically, as far as the letter P in tolerable order
and regularity, but thenceforward only in a rough and incomplete
state. Unfortunately the handwriting is far from clear, and the
ink has often made it worse. Among the volumes relating to
Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, &c., are twelve or thirteen which belonged
to William Holman, a voluminous collector for the first-mentioned
county, who incorporated the gatherings of Rev. John Ousley
and Thos. Jekyll. Morant, the historian of Essex, obtained the
larger portion of Holman's books; some are in the British
Museum; and the remainder ('the refuse,' says Morant) were
bought by Rawlinson in 1752 for £10[235]. Besides the above-mentioned
volumes, there are a large number of Holman's MSS.
which are kept distinct, and which have been recently bound
in fourteen folio volumes, eleven quarto, and five octavo. Under
London are some nineteen or twenty volumes of Diocesan papers
which belonged to Bp. John Robinson. They formed (with one
volume in Class A and several in Class C) a mass which are described
by Rawlinson, as follows[236]:—
'I lately rescued from the grocers, chandlers, &c. a parcel of
papers once the property of Compton and Robinson, successively
Bps. of London. Amongst those of the first were original subscription
and visitation books, letters and conferences during the
apprehensions of Popery amongst the clergy of this diocese, remarkable
intelligences relating to Burnet and the Orange Court in
Holland in those extraordinary times before 1688[237], minutes of the
proceedings of the Commissioners for the Propagation of the
Gospel, and a great variety of other papers. Amongst those of
Bp. Robinson, numbers of originals relating to the transactions at
the treaty of Utrecht, copies of his own letters to Lord Bolingbroke,
and originals from Lord Bolingbroke, Lord Oxford, Electress
and Elector of Hanover, Ormonde, Strafford, Prior, &c.;
letters from the Scots deprived Bishops to Compton, and variety of
State papers. They belonged to one Mr. [Anth.] Gibbon, lately dead,
who was private secretary to both the afore-mentioned prelates.'
Under Bucks are Rawlinson's own collections for a history of
Eton College, and under Middlesex and Oxon. his parochial collections
for those counties. The Irish MSS. include many of
great antiquity and value which formerly belonged to Sir James
Ware, e.g. Tigernach's Annals, Annals of Ulster, Lives of Saints,
Dublin Chartularies, Arms of Irish families, Irish poems, &c.
Among them is the often noticed Life of St. Columba by Magnus
O'Donnell, written in 1532, which was bought by Rawlinson at
the Chandos sale for twenty-three shillings.
Of these two classes a Catalogue, in one volume quarto, was
printed in 1862, which was compiled by the writer of this volume[238].
A full index to the contents of all the MSS. has been made, which
remains at present unprinted, but may possibly at some time appear
in conjunction with a volume describing the contents of the succeeding
class.
3. Class C comprehends 989 MSS. of very miscellaneous character,
but chiefly consisting of law, history and theology, with
a few medical works. Among the theological portion are papers
of John Dury, the zealous labourer for union amongst Protestants
in the time of Charles I, papers of Bedell and Usher, some
volumes of John Lewis of Margate[239], and some interesting Service-books
of English use, including a Pontifical given to Salisbury
Cathedral by Bp. Roger de Martivale between 1315-1329, and
an early Oseney book. Several volumes consist of papers of
Dr. Chamberlaine (author of Notitia Angliæ) and Mr. Henry
Newman, secretaries of the Societies for the Propagation of the
Gospel, and Promoting Christian Knowledge, which, Rawlinson
mentions in a letter, dated April 28, 1744, (Ballard MS. ii.) that
he had then recently purchased. Some seventeen or eighteen
volumes came from the library of Bp. Turner of Ely (together
with others in the classes called Miscellaneous and Letters), containing
papers of himself and his brother, Dr. Thomas Turner,
Dean of Canterbury. These were obtained by Rawlinson in 1742,
who in them became master, as he says, of a considerable treasure
for ten guineas[240].' Early English poets are represented by Lydgate,
Rolle of Hampole, William of Nassyngton, and others[241]; and one
volume contains a few Welsh verses. A catalogue exists in MS.
The volumes relating to English history in classes A and C are
noticed in the return printed in the Record Commission Report
for 1800, pp. 348-353.
4. The class entitled Miscellaneous numbers about 1400 volumes,
and includes the greater part of those which were discovered in
1861. They are so entirely miscellaneous that it is impossible
to give in a few lines a real idea of their nature. History, travels,
biography, and religious controversy largely prevail. There are
papers of Sir Thos. Browne, Dr. Dee, Maittaire, Peter Le Neve,
Ashmole[242], John Dunton, and Bagford, with a very large mass of
Hearniana. Of the Non-jurors, there are papers of Grascome,
Gandy, Spinckes, Hickes, Fitzwilliams, Howell, and Dean Granville.
Some nine or ten volumes are occupied with the accounts
of the Royal Surveyor of Works from 1532 to 1545. The Church-wardens'
accounts of Sutterton, Lincolnshire, from 1493 to 1536,
and of St. Peter's, Cornhill, from 1664 to 1689, are also found here[243].
There is a large series of Italian MSS. (amongst other foreign
books, chiefly French) which bear on English history, as containing
copies of reports made to Rome by Papal agents and to
Venice by ambassadors, together with the proceedings at many
conclaves. These were bought by Rawlinson at Sir Jos. Jekyll's
sale of the Somers' MSS. in 1739, for £3 15s.[244] There is also a
mass of papers of J. J. Zamboni, Venetian Resident in England,
and a friend of Maittaire. A considerable number of autograph
signatures, barbarously cut out from various books, by Thomas
Rawlinson, were found in loose papers; these have now been
mounted and bound in two volumes. There are not, however,
many of interest among them, except several of Ben Jonson.
5. In Letters there are upwards of 100 volumes, comprising all
the multifarious correspondence of Hearne with Anstis, Bagford,
Baker, Barnes, Dodwell, Smith, &c., the correspondence of Rawlinson,
Dr. Thomas Turner, and Bishop Francis Turner, Philip Lord
Wharton, and Sir Edm. Warcupp. One volume contains a few
letters by Dryden, Pope, Edw. Young, &c. There is also a series
of letters in three vols. relating to Dr. John Polyander, of Kerckhoven,
Professor of Divinity at Leyden, and eight or nine volumes
of Vossius' correspondence, being the originals from which the
folio volume published at London in 1691 was printed.
6. The class of Poetry contains 221 volumes, including Chaucer,
Hoccleve, Lydgate, Capgrave (Life of St. Catherine), and Rolle of
Hampole, with Piers Plowman and the Romance of Parthenope
of Blois (both imperfect). The majority are miscellaneous poems
and plays of the seventeenth century. One volume, containing
the words of anthems with the composers' names, is supposed
to be the Chapel-book used by Charles I.
Of the three last-mentioned classes, a brief MS. list was drawn
up with great neatness and accuracy by Dr. Bliss, in 1812 (reaching
in the case of the Miscell. only as far as No. 407); an index, in
continuation, to all the later additions is now in process of
formation.
7. Of Sermons there are about 200 volumes; many of which
are by Non-jurors, including three by Rawlinson himself. Ten
volumes are by Dan. Price, Dean of St. Asaph, 1696-1706;
and one volume is said to contain unpublished sermons by
Leighton, apparently from notes taken by some auditor at the
time of delivery. These have been copied for publication in a
proposed new edition (under the care of Rev. W. West, of Nairn,
N.B.) of Leighton's whole works.
8. A selection of Biblical and Classical MSS., with a few others,
amounting to 199, are placed in the case marked 'Auctarium,' G.
Amongst these are a few Greek volumes, with critical Adversaria
of Maittaire, Josh. Lasher, and J. G. Grævius. Early copies of
Statius, Ovid, Virgil, &c. form part of the classics; while among
the Biblical MSS. is a grand eighth-century copy (written in
rounded minuscules, in the same style as the Rushworth book) of
the Gospels of St. Luke and St. John, and a beautiful eleventh-century
Psalter with the commentary of St. Bruno. One other
fine book is a Psalter written for Ch. Ch. Cathedral, Dublin, by
the care of Stephen Derby, Prior, about A.D. 1360-80, with
remarkable miniatures illustrating Psalms xxxix, liii, lxix, lxxxi,
and xcviii.
9. Of Missals, Horæ, and other Service-books, there are (besides
those which are scattered in Classes C and G Auct.) about 130.
These (most of which are of French origin, bought out of the
library of Nic. Jos. Foucault[245], of Flemish, or of Italian) are now
incorporated with a large collection of Liturgical books, which
are called Canon. Liturg., from their having formed part of the
Canonici collection purchased in 1818.
10. A small collection of Statutes, comprising sixty-five volumes,
is kept distinct. They consist of the Statutes of various Colleges
at Oxford and Cambridge, of the Cathedrals of Lichfield, Hereford,
Worcester, Chester, Manchester, Canterbury, Exeter, and
the Abbey of Westminster; of the Order of the Garter (various
copies); of Hospitals at Croydon, Chipping-Barnet, and Chichester;
of the Gresham Charities, together with the Charters of
London and Bristol; Statutes made by the Chapter of Paris for
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre there in 1421, and an eighteenth-century
transcript of the Statutes of the College at Bayeux. But
the volume of most interest in this class is the rare printed volume
of the Statutes of Thame School, issued in 1575. Of this, only
five other copies are known, one kept at the School itself, a second
in the custody of the Warden of New College (the Visitor of the
School), a third in the Royal Library, Brit. Mus., and the fourth
and fifth, both on vellum, in the possession of the Earl of Abingdon
and in the Grenville Library, Brit. Mus. Rawlinson's copy,
which wants the title, has in it the book-plate of John, Duke of
Newcastle.
11. Of the MSS. of Dr. Thomas Smith, the Non-juror, of Magd.
Coll., Oxford, there are 139 volumes, which (with the exception
of a few bequeathed by Smith himself) came into Rawlinson's
hands together with the rest of Hearne's collections. They are
noticed above, under the year 1735.
12. Besides the multitude of books, scattered throughout every
class of Rawlinson's library, which belonged to Hearne or were
written by him, there are about 150 small duodecimo volumes of
Hearne's daily diary and note-books, commencing in July, 1705,
and ending on June 4, 1735, the last actual entry being on June 1,
and his decease occurring on June 10. The character of this diary
is well known from the two volumes of Extracts published by
Dr. Bliss in 1857, with the title, Reliquiæ Hearnianæ. But it must
not be supposed that these volumes comprehend all that deserves
publication; the diary throughout is full of like curious personal
history and anecdote, antiquarian gleanings and amusing gossip,
mixed, of course, with a good deal of occasional acrimony against
those with whom Hearne came in collision either from differences
in academic or literary matters, or from their being friends of
the 'Elector of Hanover.' There is scarcely a subject falling
within its writer's scope of observation on which this Diary may
not be consulted; and as it is written in his usual plain and neat
hand, with an index to each volume, it is fortunately easy for
reference. Hearne bequeathed all his MSS., and books with
MSS. notes, to Mr. William Bedford, son of the well-known
bishop among the Non-jurors, Hilkiah Bedford; the legatee died
on July 11, 1747, and Rawlinson bought them of his widow
for £105. Hence it was that they came finally to the place
where Hearne would himself have rejoiced to see them deposited.
The autobiographical sketch of Hearne's own life, which Huddesford
published in 1772, in conjunction with the lives of
Leland and Wood, is preserved among the Miscellaneous MSS.
Of this Rawlinson says, in a letter dated June 19, 1740[246]: 'Tom's
own life was so low and poor a performance that I recommended
it to Bedford to burn.' On account, probably, of the
numerous reflections which the Diary contained on living persons,
Rawlinson ordered in his bequest that it should not be open to
inspection until after the lapse of seven years. He laid also the
same restraint upon the use of his own papers noticed in the
next paragraph.
13. Large collections were made by Rawlinson for a continuation
of Wood's Athenæ Oxon. These contain much valuable
biographical information, derived in very many cases from the
actual information of the persons noticed, letters from many of
whom are inserted. There are, in all, twenty-five volumes, folio
and quarto; among the folios there are two series of notices
arranged alphabetically, and one volume (also alphabetical) of
notices of Cambridge men admitted ad eundem; the quartos
contain 1331 notices, numbered but not arranged in any other
order, with one general alphabetical index. These collections,
together with Hearne's Diaries, and Rawlinson's Non-jurors'
Papers, and notes of his own Travels, were included in a fourth
and last codicil, dated Feb. 14, 1755, which directed that all these
papers should be kept locked up during a period of seven years.
By the same codicil also were conveyed numerous engravings
by Vertue, portraits of Englishmen, some paintings, and a collection
of Roman, Persian, Italian, and English medals[247]. Some of
the Italian medals, particularly a fine set in copper of the members
of the House of Medici, are now exhibited in a case in the Picture
Gallery[248]. By a codicil of June 17, 1752, Rawlinson had previously
bequeathed a series of medals of Popes, of which he remarks, 'as
they are, I take them to be one of the most complete collections
now in Europe;' together with twenty shillings per annum for
enlarging and continuing the set[249].
14. Finally (as regards MSS.), Rawlinson left a mass of ancient
charters, five hundred of which were catalogued by Mr. Coxe
some years ago, and of vellum deeds and documents of all kinds,
chiefly of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He left, also,
all the copper-plates containing engravings of some of his ancient
documents and other curiosities, as well as a large number of impressions
from these plates. Many of these impressions were sold
at the sale of Bodleian duplicates in 1862. The copper-plates
were added to his bequest by a second codicil, dated July 25, 1754,
in which he desired that impressions should be taken from them,
to be sold in one volume for the use and benefit of the University.
A last item in Rawlinson's miscellaneous gifts (besides various
bas-reliefs, figures, a Jewish vessel, Muscovite cup, &c.) was a
large collection of matrices of ancient conventual and personal
seals, chiefly foreign; together with impressions of seals, ancient
and modern, in metal and wax, 'most of which,' it is said in the
Will (p. 4), 'were of the collection of Mr. Charles Christian, the
celebrated seal engraver.' The wax impressions are now exhibited
in the Picture Gallery.
Distinct from Rawlinson's other printed books is a curious
series of Almanacs, in 175 volumes, extending from 1607 to
1747, which were sent to the Library in 1752. Some volumes in
continuation, from 1747 to 1768, were given by Sir Rob. H. Inglis,
Bart., in 1846[250]. Another series, between 1571 and 1663, is in the
Ashmole collection.
By his second codicil, of July 25, 1754, Rawlinson bequeathed
a fee-farm rent of £4 per annum to the Under-librarian, in consideration
of his taking charge of the MSS., but clogged with
the strange conditions that he should not be a doctor in any
faculty, married, or in Holy Orders[251]. The receipt of this sum is
entered in the Accounts for 1756, but in no subsequent year.
The following is an alphabetical list of the principal libraries
from which Rawlinson's MSS. were collected, with the dates (so
far as ascertained) at which these libraries were dispersed:—
- Acton (Oliver), of Bridewell Hosp.
- Bacon (Thos. Sclater), 1737.
- Bridgeman (Will. & Rich.), 1742.
- Chandos (Duke of), 1747.
- Clarendon (Henry, Earl of). Through Chandos.
- Clavell (Walter), 1742.
- Compton (Bishop). See p. 175.
- Foucault (Nic. Jos.), 'Comes Consistorianus[252],' 1721.
- Gale (Samuel), 1755.
- Graves (Rich.), of Mickleton. Through Hearne.
- Halifax (Montagu, Earl of), 1715.
- Hearne (Thomas), 1747.
- Holman (William). See p. 174.
- Jekyll (Sir Joseph), 1739.
- Le Neve (Peter), 1731.
- Maittaire (Mich.), 1748.
- Mead (Richard, M.D.), 1754-5.
- Murray (John), 1749.
- Oxford (Harley, Earl of), 1743-5.
- Pepys (Samuel). See p. 172.
- Pole (Francis), 175-.
- Powle (Henry), in 1689 Speaker of House of Commons.
- Rawlinson (Thomas), 1734.
- Robinson (Bishop). See p. 175.
- St. George (Sir Thomas).
- Somers (Lord). Through Jekyll.
- Spelman (Sir Henry).
- Spinckes (Rev. Nathan), 1727.
- Turner (Bishop). See p. 176.
- Usher (Archbishop). Through Hearne.
- Wake (Archbp.). See p. 174.
- Ware (Sir James). Through Clarendon and Chandos.
- Whiston (William).
On July 15, a bequest of printed books and MSS. was received
from Rev. Richard Furney, M.A., Archdeacon of Surrey (who had
been schoolmaster at Gloucester, 1719-1724, and who died in
1753,) by the hands of the Rev. John Noel, of Oriel College. The
printed books (nineteen in all) consisted almost entirely of early
editions of classics. The MSS. (six folio volumes) are thus
described in a list made by the Librarian, Humphrey Owen, at
the time of their receipt:—
'1, 2, 3 and 4 contain collections relating to the history and
antiquities of the city, church and county of Gloucester. 5, 6, a
fair copy, seemingly prepared for the press, of the history and
antiquities of the said city, church and county, by the Arch-deacon
himself, or some friend of his from whom these papers came into
his hands.'
The gift comprised also two ancient brass seals, and eighteen
original deeds, amongst which is the original confirmation charter
granted to Gloucester Abbey, by Burgred King of Mercia, in 862.
This remarkable deed (which is not printed in Kemble's Codex)
is in admirable preservation, is written in seventeen lines, with
five lines containing seventeen signatures, and measures sixteen
inches in width and ten and one-third in length. There are also
original grants to the abbey from Hen. II and Stephen, and a
confirmation, 29 Edw. I, of Magna Charta, which has a magnificent
impression of the beautiful great seal. The deeds are noticed
in the Report on the Public Records for 1800, p. 354.
By the death on Sept. 5, 1754, of James St. Amand, Esq.[253]
(formerly of Lincoln College), a bequest of books, MSS., coins, &c.
which had been made by a will dated Nov. 9, 1749, accrued to
the Library, being received in the year 1755. The books consist
chiefly of the then modern editions of the classics, and of the
writings of modern Latin scholars; such of them as the Library
did not need, were to go to Lincoln College. The MSS., sixty-eight
in number, comprise various papers relating to the history
chiefly of the Low Countries[254], together with notes and indices
by St. Amand himself to Theocritus and other Greek poets,
Horace, &c. They are described by Mr. Coxe, in vol. i. of the
Catalogue of MSS., cols. 889-908. The main part of the residue
of his property was bequeathed to Christ's Hospital, together with
a picture of his grandfather James St. Amand, done in miniature
and set in gold, with the singular proviso that the picture should
be exhibited, and the part of the will relating to these bequests
be read, at the first annual court of the Hospital, and also that the
picture be shown annually to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, if required.
Should a refusal to show the picture be persistently made,
or any of the conditions of the will be avoided, then all the residue
was to be given to the University, first to increase the stipend
of the chief Librarian to £120 and of the second Librarian to £70,
but only so long as both of them were unmarried, and then to
be devoted to the purchasing of books and MSS., specially of
classic authors.
Many of his books have a book-plate, which the author has
ascertained to be that of Dr. Arthur Charlett; being the initials
A. C., interlaced with the same repeated in an inverse way, surrounded
by piles of books, and with the motto, 'Animus si æquus,
quod petis hîc est.'
By the bequest of George Ballard (the author of the Memoirs of
Learned Ladies), who died on June 24, the Library became
enriched with forty-four volumes of Letters, chiefly addressed, by
ecclesiastical and literary personages of all ranks, to Dr. Arthur
Charlett, Master of University College, between the reigns of
James II and George I. For the biographical and bibliographical
history of the time these letters possess great interest and value; it
was from them that the Letters by Eminent Persons, published in
1813, by Rev. John Walker, M.A., Fellow of New College, were
chiefly drawn. No printed catalogue of them has yet appeared,
but the Library possesses a MS. index to the contents of each
volume, and a more complete and minute index has been recently
commenced[255]. Besides the Letters, Ballard bequeathed some
other MSS., in number twenty-three, among which is a volume
of various voyages and expeditions, 1589-1634; Sir Edm. Warcupp's
autograph account of the treaty in the Isle of Wight;[256]
a dialogue between a tutor and his pupil, by Lord Herbert, of
Cherbury; the second book of the Supplication of Soules, by Sir
Thos. More, a precious little volume of 103 closely-written duodecimo
pages, entirely in the handwriting of the great Chancellor;
the Universitie's Musterings, by Brian Twyne; collections by Ant.
à Wood; a small volume of Gloucestershire notes, supposed by
Guillim; and several volumes written by Mr. Elstob and his sister.
An extract from Ballard's will, with a list of his MSS., is in the
Register marked 'C.'
Ballard was originally a stay-maker or mantua-maker at Campden,
Gloucestershire; but, following the study of antiquities with great
ardour, became well known and highly esteemed amongst all of
like pursuits. At the age of forty-four he was appointed one of
the eight clerks of Magdalen College, being matriculated Dec. 15,
1750, but never took any degree. He bequeathed to the College
Library some of his books which were there wanting. The fullest
account of him will be found in vol. ii. of A Register of St. Mary
Magd. College, by J. R. Bloxam, D.D., pp. 95-102, 1857. Some
letters from him are printed in Nichols' Lit. Hist. iv. 206-226.
The very valuable MS. of the letters of Gilbert Foliot, Bishop
of London (which are of great importance for the illustration of
the history of Thomas à Becket), now numbered E. Musæo 247,
was given by Sir Thomas Cave, Bart. It is described in the
Benefaction Book as 'liber rarissimus; per totam Angliam unum
hoc tantum modo exstat exemplar.' The letters were first printed
by Dr. Giles, together with the Lives of Becket, in his series of
Patres Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, in 1845.
Dr. Samuel Johnson presented the account of Zachariah
Williams' attempt to ascertain the longitude at sea, which he had
published under Williams' name in the preceding year; and, as
Warton noted[257], he entered it with his own hand in the Library
Catalogue. The entry is still to be seen, with a memorandum of
its being in Johnson's hand, in an interleaved, and now disused,
copy of the Catalogue of 1738.
Above forty Syriac, Greek and Arabic MSS. are recorded in
the Registers to have been presented by Henry Dawkins, Esq.,
of Standlynch, Wilts, who had collected them while travelling in
the East with Robert Wood, whose works on Baalbec and Palmyra
he presented at the same time. There are now sixty MSS. in
Syriac alone which pass under the name of Dawkins, some of
which are of great age and value. They are described in Dr. R.
Payne Smith's Catalogue of the Syriac MSS. Mr. Dawkins died
in London, June 19, 1814, aged eighty-six.
Swedenborg's Arcana Cœlestia, published anonymously, in 8 vols.
were sent 'by the author, unknown.' The same donor, still unknown,
sent in 1766 Selecti Dionys. Halicarn. tractatus.
In this year and in 1761 published music began to be received
from Stationers' Hall, and to be entered in the Register. It remained
piled up in cupboards until about twenty-three years ago,
when it was all disinterred and carefully arranged by Rev. H. E.
Havergal, M.A., then Chaplain of New Coll. and Ch. Ch., and an
assistant in the Library (now Vicar of Cople, Beds.), and bound
in some 300 or 400 volumes. Since that time two further series
of musical volumes have been arranged and bound.
A meagre list of the pictures, &c., in the Picture Gallery and
Library was printed by the Janitor (or Under-janitor), N. Bull, and
'sold by him at the Picture Gallery.' It fills twelve duodecimo
pages. A new edition, 'with additions and amendments,' including
the pictures in the Ashmolean Museum, was issued by him in
1762, in sixteen octavo pages. This was, as it seems, the first list
that had been issued since Hearne printed his original Catalogue
in his Letter containing an Account of some Antiquities between
Windsor and Oxford. A list, equally meagre with Bull's, was
published by W. Cowderoy, Janitor, in 1806. He was succeeded
in office (before 1825) by —— Lenthall; on whom followed the
present Janitor, J. Norris, appointed in 1835. By him a new
Catalogue, enlarged with biographical notices, was issued, filling
sixty pages; which was reissued, with a few alterations, in 1847,
when such of the pictures as were not portraits had been removed
to the new Randolph Gallery. As all the portraits were a few
years ago distinctly labelled, but few copies of the Catalogue
have, consequently, been since sold, and no new edition has
appeared.
The MSS. of the eminent antiquary, Browne Willis, who died
on Feb. 5, in this year, came to the Library by his bequest.
They were received from his executor, Dr. Eyre, on April 24.
There are altogether fifty-nine volumes in folio, forty-eight in
quarto, and five in octavo, consisting chiefly of Willis' own collections
for his various works, with much correspondence intermingled
and a few older historical papers. There is much of
value for general ecclesiastical topography and biography, besides
his large collections for the county of Bucks, and special volumes
relating to the four Welsh Cathedrals. He desired in his will
that the books should be placed in the Picture Gallery, 'next to
those of my friend Bishop Tanner;' both collections have since
been removed to a room on the floor below, but the presses
which contain them still adjoin each other. Many of his letters
are to be found among Ballard's and Rawlinson's papers, and show
throughout both the warm interest which he took in ecclesiastical
renovation and religious work generally, but particularly in
the state of the Church in Wales, and the continual efforts which
he made to rouse slothful and negligent dignitaries to a sense of
their duties and responsibilities. The restoration of the ruined
and desolate Cathedral at Llandaff was an object especially dear
to him. By his will, which was dated Dec. 20, 1741, he bequeathed
to the University, besides his MSS., all his numerous
silver, brass, copper and pewter coins, and also his gold coins,
if purchased at the rate of £4 per oz., as the best return he could
make for the many favours he acknowledged to have been conferred
on him and on his grandfather, Dr. Thomas Willis, Professor
of Natural Philosophy. This latter provision of his will
was at once carried into execution; in the following year the
University purchased one hundred and sixty-seven gold coins for
£150 at £4 4s. per oz., and two more in 1743 for £8 5s. His
other coins were given by him in the years 1739, 1740, 1741,
1747 and 1750; and by a codicil to his will dated Feb. 5, 1742,
he desired that the whole collection should be annually visited on
the Feast of St. Frideswide (Oct. 19), which day he had himself
been wont annually to celebrate in Oxford. His first gift to the
Library was in the year 1720, when he gave ten valuable MSS.,
chiefly historical (now placed among the general Bodley Series),
together with his grandfather's portrait.
A bequest of £70, towards the purchase of an orrery, was
received from Rev. Jos. Parsons, M.A., of Merton College.
Kennicott's collations of Hebrew Biblical MSS., made during
the years 1759-60, were received from him on Dec. 17, in this year,
according to an entry in the Register. But all his MSS., collations,
correspondence, and miscellaneous books (including one
in Zend, upon cloth), were subsequently deposited in the Radcliffe
Library, whence they were removed, in 1862, together with the
other contents of that collection, to the place of their present
deposit, the New Museum.
The west, or Selden, end of the Library was re-floored at a
cost of £66. Unchaining of those books which hitherto, on
account of their accessibility to all comers, were fastened to their
shelves, appears to have been commenced in this year.
The Janitor, Rev. John Bilstone, M.A., was deprived of his
office by Dr. Owen, the Librarian, on account of his neglecting
to perform his duties in person. An action for arrears of salary
was subsequently brought by Bilstone against Owen[258]. He died
Feb. 13, 1767, at which time he held three livings, besides his
Chaplaincy of All Souls' College.
The Editio princeps of Homer, Florence, 1488, was bought
for £6 6s.
H. Owen, the Librarian, and Principal of Jesus College, died
in March of this year, and was buried in his College Chapel.
In his room was elected the Rev. John Price, B.D., of Jesus
College, 'after a severe contest with Mr. Cleaver, of Brasenose,
afterwards head of that College and Bishop of St. Asaph, who
used to say that he was indebted to Mr. Price for his mitre,
for had he obtained the Bodleian he should have there continued,
instead of becoming tutor in a noble family, and so placed in
the road to advancement. In this election the votes were equal,
and Mr. Price, being senior, was nominated by the Vice-Chancellor[259].'
Price appears to have been employed in the Library
as early as the year 1760, when a payment of £8 8s. was made
to him; in 1766 he signs, together with Owen and Thomas Parker,
an account of books received from Stationers' Hall.
The Library was largely enriched with books which were then
modern, in which it appears to have been very deficient, by the
legacy of the library of Rev. Charles Godwyn, M.A., Fellow
of Balliol College. The collection, which is still in the main
kept undivided (although a few folio and quarto volumes are
placed in the general class marked Art.), consists chiefly of works
in English and general history, civil and ecclesiastical, published
in the eighteenth century, and includes besides the later Benedictine
editions of the Fathers. There is also a series of theological
and literary pamphlets; to which have been added of late years
upwards of 2400 volumes, of all dates and on all subjects, which
are now all alike numbered, for convenience sake, in connection
with Godwyn's own. The residue of his property, after payment
of all claims and bequests, formed a further portion of his legacy;
and the interest upon £1050 which accrued from this source, still
forms part of the annual income of the Library.
A payment of £2 12s. 6d. was made in this year (or rather,
at the close of 1770) to a glass-painter, named Brooks, for one of
the coats of arms in the great east window.
Twenty-four Oriental MSS. and bundles of papers which had been
found in the study of Rev. Dr. Thos. Hunt, Reg. Prof. of Hebrew,
who died in the preceding year, were given by various persons.
Lord North, the Chancellor of the University, presented to the
Library the observations made by Dr. James Bradley, while Astronomer
Royal, at Greenwich, 1750-62. These had been given
to him by Mr. John Peach, son-in-law to Dr. Bradley, while
a suit was pending between the Board of Longitude on behalf
of the Crown and Mr. Peach respecting his right to their possession.
The claim of the Crown had been first made in 1765, on
the ground that they were the papers drawn up by Bradley in
discharge of his public and official duties, but the executor, Mr.
Sam. Peach, refused to resign them except for some valuable
consideration. But after his death, his son, Mr. John Peach, who
married Dr. Bradley's daughter, presented them to Lord North,
with the understanding that the latter should give them to the
University, on condition that they should be forthwith printed.
They were, consequently, immediately put into the hands of Dr.
Hornsby, the Savilian Professor of Astronomy, for publication;
but the work progressed very slowly, in consequence of his ill-health,
and a remonstrant correspondence ensued between the
Board of Longitude, the Royal Society, and the University, which
was printed by the Board, together with a statement of the whole
case and of the steps taken by them for the recovery of the papers,
in 1795. Several letters from Sir Joseph Banks, as President of
the Royal Society, to Price the Librarian, in 1785, on the slow
progress of the work, are preserved in a volume of MS. Letters
to Librarians, recently bound up by Mr. Coxe. The first volume
at length appeared in 1798, in folio, and the second, edited by
Prof. A. Robertson, in 1805, with an appendix of observations
made by Bradley's successor, Rev. Nath. Bliss, and his assistant,
Mr. Charles Green, to March, 1765, which had been purchased
by the Board of Longitude, and were presented by them to the
University, in March, 1804. Some further remains of Dr. Bradley
were, after Dr. Hornsby's death, found among the papers of the
latter, and these (having been restored to the University by his
family, on application, about 1829) were published in 1831, under
the editorship of Prof. S. P. Rigaud, in one vol. quarto, entitled
Miscellaneous Works and Correspondence of Rev. J. Bradley. In
1861, a fresh application for the return of the Observations was
made to the University, by Mr. Airy, the Astronomer Royal, on
the ground that they were the only volumes wanting in the series
preserved at Greenwich, and that they were frequently needed
there for reference. By a vote of Convocation, on May 2, this
application was acceded to, and thirteen volumes of Observations
were returned to what was certainly their legitimate
place of deposit. Some miscellaneous papers, making about thirty
parcels, still remain in the Library.
Carte's MSS. See 1753.
On Jan. 22, a Statute was passed which imposed an annual
fee of four shillings[260] on all persons entitled to read in the Library
and all who had exceeded four years from matriculation, as well
as assigned to the Library a share of the matriculation fees. The
preamble of the Statute alleges that the funds of the Library were
so insufficient for their purpose that of works of importance
daily published throughout the world 'vix unus et alter publicis
sumptibus adscribi possit.' The Statute also provided for the
holding of regular meetings by the Curators, and the issuing of
an annual Catalogue of the books purchased during the year,
with their prices, together with a statement of accounts. The
commencement of the annual printed purchase-catalogues dates
in consequence from this year.
In a letter from Thos. Burgess, afterwards the Bishop of
St. David's and Salisbury, to Mr. Tyrwhitt, the editor of Chaucer,
dated Corp. Chr. Coll., Nov. 16, 1779, the plan for increasing the
funds of the Library, established by this Statute, is mentioned as
a scheme 'much talked of,' the defects of the Library being such
as 'we are now astonished should have been of so long continuance[261].'
A paper in behalf of the proposal was circulated among
Members of Convocation, upon a copy of which, preserved by
Dr. Bliss with his set of the annual Catalogues, the latter has
noted that it was written by Sir William Scott, afterwards Lord
Stowell.
The exquisite portrait of Sir Kenelm Digby, supposed to be
by Vandyke, was given by Edw. Stanley, Esq. It is now in the
Picture Gallery; and, having recently been cleaned and covered
with plate-glass, appears once more in all the freshness of its
original perfection[262].
The Sub-librarian at this time was John Walters, an undergraduate
Scholar of Jesus College. He published in this year
a small volume of Poems ('written before the age of nineteen'),
the chief portion of which consists of a description of the Library,
written with a warm admiration of his subject, and by no means
destitute of poetic feeling. It numbers 1188 lines, and is illustrated
with some well-selected notes. In 1782, when B.A. and
still Scholar of his College, he published Specimens of Welsh Poetry
in English verse, with some Original Pieces and Notes. He took
the degree of M.A. in 1784, and died in 1791[263]. We learn from
a MS. note in a copy of his Poems, presented to the Library by
the present Principal of Jesus College, that he was the son of
John Walters, Rector of Llandough (author of a Welsh Dictionary,
1794), by Hannah his wife, and that he was baptized there,
July 9, 1760.
George III and Queen Charlotte visited the Library, from
Nuneham, on Oct. 13. Price, the Librarian, was in attendance,
and kissed hands.
Several Assistants, whose names are not perpetuated in the
Library records, are found perpetuated by the inscriptions written
by successive generations on the old oak staircases which run
from their studies to the galleries above. In June of this year,
Thomas Whiting, of Jesus College (B.A. also in this year), does
in this way transmit the memory of his service to posterity.
E. Thomas (qu. Evan Thomas, of All Souls' College, B.A., 1793?)
does the same in 1790.
On May 31, the Reader in Chemistry, Thomas Beddoes, M.D.,
of Pembroke College, issued a printed Memorial to the Curators
'concerning the state of the Bodleian Library, and the conduct
of the Principal Librarian.' The utmost laxity appears from this
statement to have prevailed with regard to attendance, and to the
hours of opening the Library; the Librarian was always absent on
Saturdays and Mondays, as on those days he was occupied in
journeys to and from a curacy eleven miles distant, which he held
together with a living more remote; and the Library which should
then in summer have been opened at eight was found unopened
between nine and ten, and unopened also after University sermons.
The Librarian is charged besides with having discouraged
readers by neglect and incivility, with being very careless in regard
to the value and condition of books purchased by the Library[264],
and with having but little knowledge of foreign publications. An
anecdote is related (amongst others) of his lending Cook's Voyages,
which had been presented by King Geo. III, to the Rector of Lincoln
College, and telling him that the longer he kept it the better,
'for if it was known to be in the Library, he (Mr. Price) should
be perpetually plagued with enquiries after it[265].' In consequence
of these complaints, the Curators, in 1788, prepared on their part
a new form of Statute, while the Heads of Houses prepared
another. This separate action led to a paper war between the two
bodies, in which the Regius Professors of Divinity, Law, Medicine,
Hebrew and Greek, (Randolph, Vansittart, Vivian, Blayney and
Jackson) appeared on the Curators' side of the question, and, as the
Hebdomadal Board persisted in pressing their own scheme, they
at length (with the exception of Blayney) adopted the strong step,
on the day when the rival plan was proposed in Convocation
(June 23, 1788), of formally protesting before a notary public
against this violation of their privileges. The consequence was that
the Statute was withdrawn, and the proposal for a new code abandoned
by both parties. The chief points of difference were, that
the Curators objected to the proposal being put forward as 'cum
consensu Curatorum' instead of 'ex relatione Curatorum,' to the
increase of the Librarian's stipend to £150, to the appointment of
two Sub-librarians instead of one, and to the leaving the appointment
of these in the hands of the Librarian (in accordance with
Bodley's own Statute) instead of assigning it to the Curators.
Eleven Arabic and Persian MSS. were given by Turner Camac,
Esq., co. Down.
A first part of a Catalogue of the Oriental MSS., comprehending
those in Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Æthiopic, Arabic, Persian,
Turkish and Coptic, was issued in this year, in folio. It was
compiled by John Uri, a Hungarian, who had studied Oriental
literature under Schultens, at Leyden, and who was recommended
for this purpose to Archbp. Secker, by Sir Joseph Yorke, then
Ambassador in the Netherlands. Many years were occupied in
the preparation of this volume, as Uri appears to have commenced
his work in 1766, his signature occurring in the 'Registrum admissorum'
under Feb. 17, in that year[266]. Sixty closely-printed folio
pages of corrections and additions are, however, supplied by Dr.
Pusey, in the second part of the Catalogue, which he completed
after Dr. Nicoll's death and published in 1835. In his preface to
this part, Dr. Pusey remarks that Uri frequently copied with carelessness;
and that the whole series of Arabic MSS. was found to
need re-examination from the discovery that all kinds of cheats
and impositions had been played upon all the purchasers of
Eastern MSS., Pococke alone excepted, by the cunning sellers
with whom they dealt, particularly in the passing off of supposititious
works for genuine[267]. And upon carrying out this re-examination,
the following was found to be the result:—
'Varias errorum formas deprehendi, titulis nunc charta coopertis,
nunc atramento oblitis, nunc cultro pæne abrasis; auctorum porro
nominibus paullulum immutatis quo notiora quædam referrent;
numeris etiam, quibus singula volumina signata sunt, permutatis,
quo quis opus imperfectum pro integro habeat, paginis denique
pauculis operi alieno a fronte assutis.'
The Anatomy School, on the Library staircase, was fitted up
in this year as a room for receiving the Greek and Biblical MSS.,
and fifteenth-century editions of classics. In 1794 it was ordered
that it should be distinguished by the name of the Auctarium,
a name which it still retains. Mr. John Thomas, of Wadham
College, (B.A. 1790, M.A. 1793) was employed in 1790 in arranging
the room and making a list of its contents.
Many early editions of the classics were purchased at the sale
of the library of Mapheo Pinelli, at Venice. To enable these
purchases to be made, the Curators made a public application for
loans, to which a liberal response was returned, as noted under
the following year.
The increased attention which began to be paid to the Library
about this time is thus mentioned in a letter from Mr. Dan. Prince,
the Oxford bookseller:—
'Our Bodleian Library is putting into good order. It has been
already one year in hand. Some one, two or three of the Curators
work at it daily, and several assistants. The revenue from the
tax on the Members of the University is about £460 per annum,
which has existed 12 years. This has increased the Library so
much that it must be attended to, and a new Catalogue put in
hand. They have lately bought all the expensive foreign publications.
A young man of this place is about making a Catalogue
of all the singular books in this place, in the College libraries as
well as the Bodleian.... We have a young man in this place,
his name is Curtis, who was an apprentice to me, who has hitherto
only dealt in books of curiosities, in which he is greatly skilled,
superior in many respects to De Bure, Ames, or his continuator.
He has been employed five or six years in the Bodleian Library,
and since at Wadham, Queen's and Balliol. He purposes to
publish a Catalogue of little or not known books in Oxford,
particularly in Merton, Balliol and Oriel[268].'
A very large number of Editiones principes and other early-printed
books were purchased at the sale at Amsterdam of the
library of P. A. Crevenna. The first entire Hebrew Bible, printed
at Soncino in 1488, was purchased for £43 15s.; and Fust and
Schoeffer's first dated Latin Bible (Mentz, 1462) for £127 15s.
To enable the Library to make the purchases of this and the
preceding year, benefactions were received to the amount of
nearly £200, and upwards of £1550 were lent by various bodies
and individuals. The repayment of the loans was completed
in 1795.
£120 were received for duplicates sold to Messrs. Chapman
and King. Other small receipts from similar sales are found
under the years 1793, 1794 and 1804.
From this year onwards until 1803, inclusive, the name of Mr.
Edward Lewton, of Wadham College (B.A. 1792, M.A. 1794), is
found as that of an Assistant employed upon the Catalogues.
Further benefactions to the amount of £232, for the purpose of
aiding the purchase of early-printed books, were received in this
year. The list of all the donors is printed in Gutch's edition of
Wood's History and Antiquities, vol. ii. part ii. p. 949.
The collections of notes and various readings made by Joseph
Torelli, of Verona, in preparation for his edition of Archimedes,
were deposited in the Library, (F. infra, 2. Auct.). They were
given to the University after his death (in 1781) by his executor,
Albert Albertini, partly through the instrumentality of Mr. John
Strange, envoy to Venice, upon condition that the University
undertook the publication. The work was consequently printed
at the University Press, and issued in a handsome folio volume
in this year.
A magnificent copy of Gutenberg's Bible, not dated, but supposed
to have been printed about 1455, fresh and clean as if
it had just come from the hands of the men of the New Craft,
carefully set at their work, was bought for the very small sum
of £100. It is exhibited in the first glass case in the Library.
This is the edition often called the Mazarine Bible, from the
circumstance that the first copy which obtained notice was found
in the Mazarine Library at Paris.
The Editio princeps of the Bible in German, printed by Eggesteyn
about 1466, was bought for £50.
A chronological Catalogue, in two folio volumes, of a very large
and valuable collection of pamphlets (which had hitherto been
kept in the Radcliffe Library), extending from 1603 to 1740, was
made in 1793-4, by Mr. Abel Lendon, of Ch. Ch. (B.A. 1795,
M.A. 1798.)
Mr. Rich. S. Skillerne, of All Souls' (B.A. 1796, M.A. 1800),
was employed in the Library.
With a view to the formation of a new Catalogue, the Curators
at the end of the annual list made a first application for returns
of such books existing in the several College libraries as were not
in the Bodleian, in order thereby to accomplish what would be a
most useful work, and is still a great desideratum, a General Catalogue
of all the books in Oxford.
A brief list (filling sixty small octavo pages) was printed at the
Clarendon Press, of the Editiones principes, the fifteenth-century
books, and the Aldines, then in the Library. The name of the
compiler does not appear. It is entitled, 'Notitia editionum quoad
libros Hebr., Gr. et Lat. quæ vel primariæ, vel sæc. xv. impressæ,
vel Aldinæ, in Bibliotheca Bodleiana adservantur.'
Four cabinets of English coins were presented by Thomas
Knight, Esq., of Godmersham, Kent. Among them was an
ornament (now exhibited in the glass case near the Library
door) said to have been worn by John Hampden when he fell
at Chalgrove Field[269]. It consists of a plain cornelian set in silver,
with the following couplet engraved on the rim:—
'Against my King I do not fight,
But for my King and kingdom's right.'
The Curators renewed a request, made ineffectually some time
before, that the several Colleges would make out returns for the
Library of all such books in their own collections as did not
appear in the Bodl. Catalogue. In the year 1801 they acknowledged
the receipt of such lists from Magdalen[270], Balliol, Exeter,
and Jesus; Oriel sent a list subsequently (in 1808?); but these
were all that were ever forwarded.
A few incunabula and Aldines were purchased at Göttingen.
The annual list of donations was, for the first time, printed in
this year. It does not include, however, a large gift which was
partly received now, the presentation having been made in the
year preceding. It was the gift by Rev. Dr. Nath. Bridges of
the MSS. collections made by Mr. John Bridges for his History
of Northamptonshire. They number thirty-seven volumes in folio,
eight in quarto, and one in octavo; and consist chiefly of extracts
from Public Records and from the Episcopal Registers of Lincoln,
the volumes in quarto containing Church notes for the several
parishes. Some account of them is given in Mr. Whalley's
preface to vol. i. of Bridges' History, published in 1791.
The distinguished historical antiquary, Sir Henry Ellis, D.C.L.,
was appointed in this year, by his friend the Librarian, to be one
of the Assistant-librarians; commencing thus, while still an undergraduate
Fellow of St. John's (which College he had entered in
1796) the studies and pursuits which eventually led to the post, so
long and honourably held by him, of Principal Librarian and Head
of the British Museum. In a letter with which the author of
this volume was recently favoured by him ('jam senior, sed mente
virens,') Sir Henry mentions that the Rev. Henry Hervey Baber,
of All Souls' College (B.A. 1799, M.A. 1805), who was afterwards
one of his colleagues in the Museum, and who now (ætat.
92) is Vicar of Stretham, in the Isle of Ely, was his senior in
the Bodleian, as Coadjutor-under-librarian, by a year or two. In
consequence of the insufficiency of the statutable staff, the place
of the one Under-librarian was at this time, and subsequently,
shared by two occupants. In 1800 Sir H. Ellis signed, in conjunction
with Mr. Price, the return printed in the first Record
Commission Report relative to the Historical MSS. possessed by
the Library.
Some MSS. papers of the eminent French divine, Pet. Franc. le
Courayer, were bequeathed by Rev. Bertrand Russel. Courayer's
portrait, representing him in his alb, was given by Courayer himself
in 1769.
The chief purchases in this year were of English and foreign
maps, purchases which were continued in 1802 and 1804. For
Maraldi's and Cassini's Atlas of France, in 2 vols., no less than
£104 was paid! The interest now taken in French politics was
also shown by the purchase of a set of the Moniteur from 1789,
which was bought for £66.
A large and valuable collection of MS. and printed music was
received, at the beginning of this year or the close of the preceding,
by the bequest of Rev. Osborne Wight, M.A., formerly
a Fellow of New College, who died Feb. 6, 1800[271]. The MSS.
number about 190 volumes. They contain anthems, &c., by
Arnold, Bishop, Blow, Boyce, Croft, Greene, Purcell, &c.; a large
number of the works of Drs. Philip and William Hayes; with very
many madrigals and motetts by early Italian and English composers,
and some of Handel's compositions. The printed volumes
consist chiefly of the original folio editions of Handel, Arnold's
and Boyce's collections, and the works of Playford, Purcell, Croft,
Greene, and other English composers. A MS. Catalogue of the
whole was made by Rev. H. E. Havergal, M.A., about 1846,
when the collection was put in order. The Library also possesses
full band and voice parts of several of the odes and other compositions
by both Philip and William Hayes. Besides his books
Mr. Wight also bequeathed £100 in the 3 per cents. 'to defray
expenses.' Few additions have been made in the class of old
music since his gift. Some rare sets of madrigals have been
purchased, specially, in 1856, those of Morley, Watson, Weelkes,
Wilbye, and Yonge, for £24 14s. 6d.; Mr. Vincent Novello gave,
in 1849, MSS. of Handel's Te Deum in D, and Greene's anthem,
'Ponder my words,' and in the following year a MS. of part
of the ancient Gregorian Mass, 'De Angelis,' harmonized by Sam.
Wesley, in 1812; the Professor of Music, Sir F. Ouseley, Bart.,
gave some French Cantates in 1856; and two or three volumes
have been added by the present writer.
An Arabic MS., in seven volumes, written in 1764-5, and containing
what is rarely met with, a complete collection of the Thousand
and One Tales of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, was bought
from Capt. Jonathan Scott for £50. Mr. Scott published, in
1811, an edition of the Tales, in six volumes, in which this MS.
is described. He obtained it from Dr. White, the Professor of
Hebrew and Arabic at Oxford, who had bought it at the sale
of the library of Edward Wortley Montague, by whom it had
been brought from the East. It is noticed in Ouseley's Oriental
Collections, vol. ii. p. 25.
In this year the last volume (numbered 142) of Dr. Holmes'
Collations of MSS. of the Septuagint-Version, was deposited in
the Library. This great and important work had been commenced
in the year 1789; it was intended to embrace collations
of all the known MSS. of the Greek text, as well as of Oriental
versions; and for seventeen years, by the help of liberal subscriptions,
in spite of the difficulties interposed by the continental
wars, the collection of the various readings from MSS. in libraries
throughout Europe was carried on. And each year's work was,
on its completion, deposited in the Bodleian. During this period,
annual accounts were published of the progress of the work, which
possess both critical and bibliographical interest; and the results
of the whole are seen in the fine edition printed at the Clarendon
Press, in five vols., folio, 1808-1827.
The MSS. of the distinguished classical scholar, James
Philip D'Orville, who died at Amsterdam, Sept. 14, 1751, were
bought for £1025. After the purchase was completed, a question
arose whether the University of Leyden were not, by the terms
of his will, entitled to them after the death of his son, but it
was ascertained that this provision was only made in case his
son did not reach manhood. The collection numbers about 570
volumes, containing many valuable Greek and Latin Classics,
together with numerous collations of texts, and annotated printed
copies. Thirty-four volumes contain correspondence (autograph
and in copy) of Is. Vossius, Heinsius, Cuper, Paolo Sarpi, Beverland,
and the letters addressed to D'Orville by all the great scholars
of his time. And thirty-eight volumes, in folio and quarto, contain
Adversaria of Scipio and Alberic Gentilis. There are also
six Turkish and Arabic MSS. The gem of the collection is a
quarto MS. of Euclid, containing 387 leaves, which was written,
'χειρι Στεφανου κληρικου,' A.M. 6397 = A.D. 889. It contains a
memorandum by one Arethas of Patras, that he bought the
book for four (or, most probably, fourteen,) nummi. A Catalogue
of the MSS., compiled anonymously by Dr. (then Mr.)
Gaisford, was printed in quarto, in 1806. D'Orville's signature
occurs in the Admission-book as having been admitted to read
on Aug. 18, 1718.
A form of new Statute was put out on March 28, to be proposed
to Convocation in May; but it appears to have been withdrawn,
as no fresh Statutes were actually enacted until 1813.
The staff was proposed to be increased to the number which
was adopted in the latter year, but with smaller salaries; and
the Library was to be open from nine to three, throughout the
year.
Fifty pounds were paid for some 'Tibetan MSS.' of Capt.
Samuel Turner, E.I.C.S., who had been sent by Warren Hastings,
on a mission to the Grand Llama, in 1785. Of this mission he
published an account, in a quarto volume, in 1800. His MSS.
consist chiefly of nine bundles of papers and letters in the Persian
and Tartar languages, written in the last century, together with
a few Chinese printed books. Capt. Turner died Jan. 2, 1802;
but as one of his sisters was married to Prof. White, it was
probably through him that the papers were now purchased.
A beautiful copy of the Koran which had been in the library
of Tippoo Sahib (now exhibited in the glass case near the door)
was presented, together with another MS. from the same collection,
by the East India Company. Dibdin speaks of it as a
work 'upon which caligraphy seems to have exhausted all its
powers of intricacy and splendour,' and adds the following description:—
'The preservation of it is perfect, and the beauty of the binding,
especially of the interior ornaments, is quite surprising. The first
few leaves of the text are highly ornamented, without figures,
chiefly in red and blue. The latter leaves are more ornamental;
they are even gorgeous, curious and minute. The generality of
the leaves have two star-like ornaments in the margin, out of
the border. Upon the whole this is an exquisite treasure, in its
way[272].'
The Catholicon of J. de Janua, printed at Mentz, in 1460, was
bought for £63.
The following singular memorandum, relating to this year, is
preserved on a small paper:—
'Oxford, Aug. 29, 1806. Borrowed this day, of the Rev. the
Bodleian Librarian, the picture given to the Library by Mr. Peters,
which I promise to return upon demand.
'JOSEPH WHITE.
'Mem. Not returned, June 24, 1807.
'Nor as yet, Oct., 1808. J. P. (i.e. J. Price).
'And never to be retd.' (added at some later period.)
This picture must have been the portrait of Professor White
himself, which was painted and presented by Rev. Will. Peters, R.A.,
in 1785[273]. It has never been restored.
On the morning of Saturday, April 19, probably but little after
nine o'clock, the statutable time for the opening of the Library,
some zealous student stood at the door, but could get no further.
No one appeared to give him entrance; the Librarian himself
never came on a Saturday, and probably his Assistants were not
scrupulous in punctuality; at any rate, the expectant student
stood and expected in vain. But ere he departed, he denounced
a 'Woe' which perpetuates to this day the memory of his vain expectancy;
he affixed to the door the following text, which doubtless
seemed to him naturally suggested: 'Ουαι ὑμιν, ὁτι ηρατε την κλειδα
της γνωσεως; αυτοι ουκ εισηλθετε, και τους εισερχομενους εκωλυσατε'
The paper is now preserved over the door of one of the Sub-librarians'
studies, with this note added: 'Affixed to the outer
door of the Library by some scavant inconnu, April 19, 1806.'
A list of the books printed during the year at the University
Press is added to the annual account. This was not repeated.
A copy of the Speculum Christiani, printed by Will. de Machlinia,
was given by Rev. A. H. Matthews, of Jesus College.
Amongst the names of Assistants, written by them, more Anglico,
on the wood-work of their studies, occurs the name of
'Rob. Fr. Walker, New Coll., Dec. 1807.' Mr. Walker (B.A. 1811,
M.A. 1813) was subsequently Curate of Purleigh, Essex, where
he died in 1854. He was known as the translator of a Life of
Bengel, and other works, from the German. A memoir of him
was published by Rev. T. Pyne, from which the account given
by Dr. Bloxam in his Register of Magd. Coll. ii. 115-117, was
taken. In 1810, John Woodcock (B.A. 1817, M.A. 1818, Chaplain
of New College) appears, from the same evidence as
Mr. Walker, to have been an Assistant, one Will. John Lennox
in 1808, and John Jones, (Ch. Ch.? B.A. 1808, M.A. 1815),
in 1809.
The Latin Bible printed by Ulric Zell, at Cologne, in two
volumes, about 1470, was bought for £47 5s. The Bible printed
at Rome, by Sweynheym and Pannartz, in 1471, had been
bought, in 1804, for £35; and in 1826 a Strasburgh edition,
printed with Mentelin's types, without date, was obtained for
£94 10s.
A set of the Oxford Almanacks, from the commencement in
1674 to this year, was given by a frequent donor, Alderman
Fletcher[274].
The death of the eminent topographer and antiquary, Richard
Gough, on Feb. 20, 1809[275], brought into operation the bequest
made to the Library in his will, dated ten years previously. This
consisted of all his topographical collections, together with all his
books relating to Saxon and Northern literature, 'for the use of
the Saxon Professor,' his maps and engravings, and all the copper-plates
used in the illustration of the various works published by
himself. The transmission of this vast collection was accomplished
by Mr. J. Nichols, the executor, in the course of the year;
and some of his correspondence on the subject is printed in
his Illustrations of Literary History, vol. v. pp. 556-561. The
collection (which numbers upwards of 3700 volumes) was placed
in the room formerly the Civil Law School, that room having been
assigned to the Library a few years previously, and fitted up (at a
cost of about £675) for the reception of various historical collections.
In the same room are now the Carte, Dodsworth,
Tanner, Willis, Junius, and portion of the Rawlinson, manuscripts,
with other smaller collections; the name proposed to be given to
it, and by which it was designated in Gough's will, was 'The
Antiquaries' Closet.' Gough's library consists, firstly, of a large
series of maps[276] and topographical prints and drawings, in elephant-folio
volumes; of this a very brief outline-list is given in the
printed catalogue, but a full list in detail exists in MS[277]. Secondly,
of printed books and MSS., arranged under the heads of General
Topography, Ecclesiastical Topography[278], Natural History, the
several Counties (with London, Westminster, and Southwark) in
order[279], Wales, Islands, Scotland, and Ireland. Thirdly, of 227
works connected with Anglo-Saxon literature and that of the
Scandinavian races generally. Fourthly, of an extremely large and
valuable series of printed Service-books of the English Church
before the Reformation, together with a few MSS., chiefly Horæ.
The value of this series may be gathered from the following
statement of the Missals, Breviaries, Manuals, Processionals, and
Hours, which it comprises, besides which there are Graduals,
Psalters, Hymns, Primers, &c.
| Missals, | Salisbury use, | 30 |
| Missals, | York use, | 4 |
| Missals, | Rouen use, | 1 |
| Missals, | Roman use, | 3 |
| Missals, | 'pro sacerdotibus in Anglia, &c. itinerantibus.' | 1 |
| Breviaries and Portiforia, | Salisbury use, | 18 |
| Breviaries and Portiforia, | York use, | 2 |
| Breviaries and Portiforia, | Hereford use, | 1 | [280] |
| Manuals, | Salisbury use, | 10 |
| Manuals, | York (MS.) use, | 1 |
| Processionals, | Salisbury use, | 10 |
| Processionals, | York use, | 1 |
| Hours, | Salisbury use, | 24 |
| Hours, | Roman use, (besides several MSS.) | 1 |
Of several of these books there are more than single copies.
A fifth division of Gough's library consists of sixteen large folio
volumes of coloured drawings of monuments in churches of
France, chiefly at Paris, in Normandy, Valois, Champagne, Burgundy
and Brie, and at Beauvais, Chartres, Vendosme and Noyon.
They form part of a large collection extending through the whole
of France, which was made by M. Gagnières, tutor to the sons of
the Grand Dauphin, and given by him to Louis XIV in 1711. Of
this collection, now preserved in the Imperial Library, twenty-five
volumes were lost amid the troubles of the French Revolution, between
1785 and 1801; but in what way, out of the twenty-five, these
sixteen came into Gough's hands, has not been clearly ascertained.
The collection is of great value, as most of the monuments were
defaced or destroyed by the revolutionary mobs. Gough's volumes
contain about 2000 drawings, of the whole of which facsimiles
were made in 1860 by M. Jules Frappaz, by direction of the
French Minister of Public Instruction, (who made application for
the purpose, through Mr. J. H. Parker, in 1859) for the purpose of
so far supplying the deficiency in the series at Paris[281].
The copy of the British Topography, which Gough had prepared
for a third edition (of which a considerable part of vol. i. had been
printed, but was burned in the disastrous fire at Mr. Nichols'
printing-office in Feb., 1808,) was bought by the Curators of
Mr. Nichols in 1812 for £150[282]. It has been recently bound in
four very thick volumes. A fifth volume contains the proof-sheets of
that portion of vol. i. which had been printed, extending to Cheshire,
p. 446. The collections for the first edition make three volumes.
By Gough's bequest the Library became also possessed (as
mentioned above) of the very valuable copper-plates which illustrated
his Sepulchral Monuments, and other works. In 1811, one
hundred guineas were paid to Basire, the engraver, for cleaning
and arranging 380 of these plates. Amongst these was the actual
brass effigy of one of the Wingfield family in the fifteenth century,
from Letheringham Church, Suffolk, of which an engraving is
found in the Monuments. The brass is now exhibited in the glass
case of miscellaneous objects of curiosity in the Picture Gallery.
The Catalogue of the collection was issued from the University
Press, in a quarto volume, in 1814. It was chiefly compiled by
Dr. Bandinel, to whom fifty guineas were paid for it, in 1813; but
Dr. Bliss has noted[283] that the first 136 pages were prepared by
himself. In the Bibliographical Decameron (vol. i. p. xcv.) Dibdin
has made honourable mention of the 'perseverance, energy, and
exactness' with which he found Dr. Bandinel working on a very
hot day in the year 1812, in the arrangement of the collection, 'in
an oaken-floored room, light, spacious, and dry.'
Some account and survey-books, belonging to University and
Magdalen Colleges, which came to the Library among Gough's
MSS., were restored by vote of Convocation on March 9, 1814.
The MSS. which the well-known traveller, Rev. Edw. Dan. Clarke,
LL.D., had collected during his journeys through a large part of
Europe and Asia, were purchased from him in this year for £1000. A
first portion of a Catalogue, comprising descriptions of fifty volumes,
of which fifteen are in Latin, two in French (Alain Chartier, one
being the printed edit. of 1526), and the rest in Greek, was published
in 1812, in quarto, by Dr. Gaisford, who printed in full some
inedited Scholia on Plato and on the Poems of Gregory Nazianzen.
A second part of the Catalogue, containing a description of forty-five
volumes in Arabic, Persian, and Æthiopic, was issued by Dr. Nicoll,
in 1814. The special feature in the collection is a MS. of Plato's
Dialogues, from which the Scholia are printed in the Catalogue,
written (on 418 vellum quarto leaves) by a scribe named John
(who styles himself Calligraphus) in the year 896, for Arethas, a
deacon of Patras, for the sum of thirteen Byzantine nummi. The
D'Orville MS. of Euclid was also written for this Arethas (see
p. 208).
In March, the Prince Regent forwarded to the University
four rolls of papyrus, brought from Herculaneum, burned to a
state resembling charcoal, together with engravings of rolls hitherto
deciphered, and many facsimile copies, in pencil, of inedited rolls.
A committee was appointed from the Curators of the Library and
the Delegates of the Press, at the beginning of the year 1811, to
have the charge of this gift, and £500 were granted towards publication.
Two volumes of lithographed facsimiles were in consequence
published at the Clarendon Press, in 1824-5. Some
further selections from these papers have recently been published
by a German scholar, Dr. Th. Gompertz.
On Nov. 15, it was resolved in Convocation to restore to the
Chancery at Durham, on the application of the Bishop of Durham,
the MS. Register of Richard Kellow, Bishop of Durham, 1310-16,
containing also a portion of the Register of Rich. Bury, 1338-42,
which had come to the Library among Rawlinson's collections,
and was the only volume wanting at Durham in an unbroken
series of Episcopal Registers, of which this was the first. It was
borrowed in 1639/40, as it appeared, by an agent of the Marquis of
Newcastle, for the purpose of production in some law-suit affecting
his property; remained through the Civil War in his hands; fell
subsequently into those of the Earl of Oxford, and was bought by
Rawlinson from Osborne the bookseller, in whose sale-catalogue
of the Harleian Library in 1743 it was numbered 20734.
In this year Dr. Philip Bliss, the editor of Wood's Athenæ,
appears to have entered the Library as an assistant, the entries in
the register of books received from Stationers' Hall being partly
made by him, in his very clear and neat hand. In 1812 he drew
up short catalogues of the St. Amand MSS. and of a portion of the
Rawlinson collection (the Poetry, the Letters, and the commencement
of the Miscell.) for which a payment was made to him of
£21. He afterwards quitted the Library for the British Museum,
but returned in 1822, as Sub-librarian, for a short time.
His life-long friend, Dr. Bandinel, entered the Library also in
this year. To him, for a list of a further portion of the Rawlinson
MSS., £26 5s. were paid in 1812.
Only eighteen books were purchased in this year! The list,
scantly filling one page, is consequently the minimum in the series
of annual catalogues.
The Rev. John Price, B.D., the Librarian, died on Aug. 11,
aged seventy-nine, after forty-five years of office. A short biographical
notice is given in the Gentleman's Magazine for Oct.,
1813, p. 400, and a fuller account, together with many letters, and
an engraved portrait, with facsimile signature, (from a sketch taken
in 1798, by Rev. H. H. Baber), in vols. v. and vi. of Nichols' Illustrations
of the Lit. Hist. of the 18th Century. The following
character of him with regard to his discharge of his official duties
is there given (vi. 471), which in some respects forms a strong
contrast to the representation of Prof. Beddoes in the year 1787
(see p. 197). 'In the faithful discharge of his public duties in the
University, he acquitted himself with the highest credit, and deservedly
conciliated the esteem of others by his readiness to communicate
information from the rich literary stores over which he
presided, and of which he was a most jealous and watchful
guardian. He was, from long habit, so completely attached to the
Library, that he considered every acquisition made to its contents
as a personal favour conferred upon himself.' It was chiefly owing
to his assiduous attention to Mr. Gough and his frequent correspondence
with him, that the Library was enriched with the bequest
of the latter's splendid topographical collections. But there is not
much existing to tell of personal work in the Library during his
long tenure of office, and the fact that nothing was done till near
the close of that period towards arranging and cataloguing the
Rawlinson MSS., seems to prove that there was no great activity
in the Library under his management. This is corroborated also
by the wonderful difference which is immediately seen in the
annual catalogue of purchases; the Catalogue for 1813 grows at
once from the two folio pages of the preceding year to seventeen,
while the sum expended becomes £725 in the place of £261[284].
And the list of books forwarded from Stationers' Hall, and hitherto
received only twice yearly, at Lady-day and Michaelmas, becomes
in 1815 largely increased, while in the year 1822 the number of
yearly parcels is increased to eight. At the present time, as for a
long time past, books are received monthly.
The Rev. Bulkeley Bandinel, M.A. (D.D. in 1823), of New
College, was elected Librarian by Convocation on Aug. 25. He
had been appointed Sub-librarian in 1810, by Mr. Price, who was
his godfather; and for a short time previously had been a Chaplain
in the Royal Navy, having served with Adm. Sir James Saumarez
on board the 'Victory,' in the Baltic, in 1808.
The appointment of a new Librarian was followed by the
enacting of a new Statute, passed by Convocation on Dec. 2,
which provided for the increase of the Librarian's stipend to £400,
exclusive of his share of fees from degrees; for the appointment
of two Sub-librarians, instead of one, and these not under the
degree of M.A., with salaries of £150; of two assistants, Bachelors
of Arts or undergraduates, with salaries of £50; and of the Janitor,
with a salary of £20. An additional annual grant, calculated at
£680, equal to that which resulted from the provision made by the
Statute of 1780, and to be paid, like that, out of the yearly fees
of graduates whose names are on the books, was sanctioned, with
the triple object of providing for this enlarged staff, for the commencement
of a new Catalogue, and for repairs hitherto defrayed
out of the general University funds. The state of the roof and
ceiling were said to be such as to justify an apprehension that they
must at no distant period be entirely constructed anew; happily
this reconstruction was only carried out with respect to the Picture
Gallery, and the roof of the Library remains as a precious relic
still.
The hours at which the Library should be open, were fixed to
be from 9 to 4 in the summer half-year, and 10 to 3 in the
winter; the only change since made has been the enacting, in
1867, that nine o'clock shall be the invariable hour of opening on
all ordinary days[285].
The junior assistants in the Library in this year were Mr. Francis
Thurland, of New College (B.A. 1812, M.A. 1814), and Mr. Sam.
Slack, of Ch. Ch. (B.A. 1813, M.A. 1816).
The nomination of the Rev. Henry Cotton, M.A., then Student
of Ch. Ch., now the venerable Archdeacon of Cashel, as Sub-librarian,
was approved in Convocation on March 9. Of the
interest which he took in his work, of his qualifications for it, and
of the advantages which the bibliographical world has derived from
it, his Typographical Gazetteer and List of Editions of the English
Bible, afford abundant testimony[286]. He remained in the Library
eight years, quitting it when his friend Dr. Laurence, on his
appointment to the Archbishopric of Cashel, carried him with
himself to Ireland.
During his continuance in the Library, a descriptive Catalogue
of the Editiones principes and Incunabula was projected by him
and Dr. Bandinel; but only one specimen page in octavo was
printed, of which a copy has been preserved by Dr. Bliss, with his
set of the annual catalogues.
Alex. Nicoll, M.A., of Balliol College (a native of Aberdeen), was
appointed Sub-librarian at the early age of twenty-one; the nomination
was approved in Convocation on April 27. He at once devoted
himself to the study of Oriental languages, and became a proficient
in Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Syriac, Æthiopic, and Sanscrit. His
facility in acquiring languages must have been truly marvellous,
for, in addition to these Eastern tongues, and although his death
occurred at the early age of thirty-six, it is said that 'he spoke and
wrote with ease and accuracy, French, Italian, German, Danish,
Swedish, and Romaic.' In 1822 he was, much to his own
surprise, appointed, at the age of twenty-nine, to the Regius Professorship
of Hebrew, by Lord Liverpool, on the recommendation
of Dr. Laurence, who vacated that post in consequence of his
appointment to the see of Cashel. Nicoll held the Professorship
for only seven years, dying on Sept. 24, 1828. The records of
his labours in the Bodleian are found in the Catalogue of Clarke's
Oriental MSS. noticed under the year 1809, and in his second part
of the General Catalogue of Oriental MSS., published in 1821, q. v.
The total receipts and expenditure of the Library were for the
first time fully stated in the annual accounts. Hitherto the practice
had been to omit the Bodley endowment and the Crewe
benefaction, &c., which were devoted to salaries, repairs and other
ordinary expenses (including also the occasional purchase of
MSS.), and only to report the amount received from University
fees and expended on printed books and incidental charges.
Cedunt arma togæ! The effect which the cessation of the
war produced, in diverting to quiet academic channels the stream
of youth which hitherto had flowed in the turbid currents of continental
strife, is shown by the large increase of the Library
receipts derived from matriculation fees. These, which previously
fell below (and often far below) £250, rose in 1814, on the
first sign of peace, to £424, and in this year, on its final establishment,
to £633.
In January, Mr. John Calcott, of Lincoln College (B.A. 1814,
M.A. 1816, B.D. 1825; Fellow of Linc.; deceased 1864) was
appointed Minister in the room of Mr. Francis Thurland, of New
College, resigned. Mr. Calcott, however, only held the office for
one year, being succeeded, in Feb. 1816, by Mr. Sam. Fenton, of
Jesus College (B.A. 1818, M.A., Ch. Ch. 1821).
A very important MS., with relation to Scottish history, was
placed in the Library on Dec. 5, in this year. It is a transcript
(from the originals,) by Col. J. Hooke, agent in Scotland for James
II[287], of all his political correspondence between the beginning of
the year 1704 and the end of 1707. It forms two folio volumes,
but is unfinished, as the second volume ends with the commencement
of a letter from James Ogilvie, of Boyn, to M. de Torcy,
Dec. 26, 1707. A brief narrative of Hooke's negotiations, which contains
copies of a few of the letters here given, was published in
France, in the French language, and a translation was printed in
a small volume at Dublin in 1760; but the great mass of the
correspondence is as yet inedited. The volumes came to the
Library in pursuance of a bequest from the Rev. J. Tickell, Rector
of Gawsworth, Cheshire and East Mersea, Essex, who died at
Wargrave, Berks, July 3, 1802. The bequest was to take effect
upon the death of his wife, which occurred towards the close
of 1816[288].
The Curators reported, at the end of the annual list, that considerable
progress had been made towards the formation of a new
general Catalogue. Further progress was reported in the following
year; in which year also Dibdin[289] announced that the Catalogue
would be finished, in four folio volumes, by Messrs. Bandinel
and Cotton under the superintendence of Professor Gaisford[290].
He adds, 'The Prince Regent hath munificently given a considerable
sum towards the completion of these glorious labours.'
There is no record in the annual accounts of any such donation;
but in 1823 and 1824 payments amounting to £420 were made
to the Librarian, Sub-librarians, and Assistant, for their work on
the new Catalogue[291], out of 'the Prince Regent's benefaction.'
On the proposition of the Chancellor, Lord Grenville, in 1814,
Mr. Vansittart, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had expressed
his willingness to apply to Parliament for a grant of £5000 for
the purpose; probably this idea was abandoned for the more
easily practicable one of a grant from the Privy Purse.
Four Greek MSS. were presented in this year by Rev. ——
Hall, Chaplain at Leghorn[292]; a copy of Lucan's Pharsalia, with
MSS. collations by Joseph Addison, by the Warden of Merton
College; and a large collection of books in Oriental literature,
printed in Bengal, by the East India Company.
The large Canonici collection of MSS. was obtained from
Venice in this year, for the sum of £5444, a purchase unprecedented
in greatness in the history of the Library[293]. The collection
was formed by Matheo Luigi Canonici, a Venetian Jesuit,
who was born in 1727 and died in Sept. 1805 or 1806. Indefatigable
in his passion for antiquities, he first formed a Museum
of statues and of medals at Parma, but, in consequence of the
Jesuits being expelled from the State, this was sold to the government.
He then at Bologna set himself to collect religious objects
of interest, and had succeeded to some extent, when the rector
of his society observed to him that such a collection was little
suitable to a poor monk, and he consequently disposed of it to a
Roman prince. Finally, at Venice, he commenced the gathering
of a library, in which it is said, as one evidence of its extent,
there were more than four thousand Bibles written in fifty-two
languages[294].
The MSS. purchased by the Bodleian amount in number to
about 2045. Dibdin, almost immediately upon the acquisition,
noticed it thus[295]:—
'They have recently acquired a very curious and valuable collection
of MSS., which formerly belonged to an ex-Jesuit Abbé,
who intended (had he lived to have seen the restoration of the
order of the Jesuits) to have presented them to the Jesuits' College
at Venice. Neither pains nor expense were spared among his
brethren, in all parts of the world, to make the collection, on that
account, as perfect as possible.'
In Greek there are 128 volumes, chiefly of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, with a few of earlier date, including two Evangelistaria
assigned by Montfaucon to the ninth century. Of Latin classical
authors and Mediæval poets there are 311 volumes; some of
those of the former class are of great age and value, notably a Virgil
of the tenth century (No. 50). Ninety-three MSS. form the class of
Latin Bibles; the finest of these are, one written in 1178 for the
church of SS. Mary and Pancras in Ranshoven, and another, in five
very large folio volumes, written and illuminated in France, in the
years 1507-1511. Of Latin ecclesiastical writers and Fathers
there are 232 volumes; and of Latin miscellanies (chiefly in
medicine, philosophy and science, theology, and belles lettres, with
scarcely anything of an historical character), 576 volumes. Of all
these classes a catalogue was published by Mr. Coxe in 1854,
forming part iii. of the new general Catalogue of MSS.
Another division consists of Liturgical books. In this class there
are now 400 volumes, but about 130 of these were added from
the Rawlinson collection. They consist chiefly of Horæ, Breviaries,
Missals, and Psalters, with a few other service-books; most
of those which belonged to Canonici being 'secundum usum
Romanum.' No catalogue of this series has, as yet, been made.
A sixth division comprehends 300 Italian MSS. (including five
in Spanish) of which a very elaborate catalogue was compiled, as
a labour of love, by the Count Alessandro Mortara, during the
years of his stay in Oxford[296]. His MS. was bought after his death
from his executor the Abate Giuseppe Manuzzi, of Florence, for
£201, in the year 1858; it was afterwards put to press under
the care of the accomplished Italian scholar, and intimate friend
of Count Mortara, Dr. H. Wellesley, the late Principal of New Inn
Hall, and appeared, with an Italian preface by him giving some
account of the whole collection, in one volume quarto (158 pages,)
in 1864.
The last portion of the collection consists of 135 Oriental
MSS., chiefly valuable Hebrew books on vellum. One of these
(No. 78) is a copy of Maimonides' Commentary on the Law, in
fourteen books, which is dated 1366. Seven of the Biblical
volumes are noticed in De Rossi's Variæ Lectiones Veteris Testamenti.
The few Arabic MSS. are described in Dr. Pusey's Continuation
of Nicol's Catalogue.
A curious story of the recovery, amidst these books, of some
leaves belonging to a printed vellum Bible already in the Library,
will be found related under the year 1750. A few other MSS.
from Canonici's library were sold by auction, with some from
Saibante's, in London, in 1821. And many relating to Italian
and Venetian history, which were at first retained by one of the
heirs, passed afterwards into the hands of the Rev. Walter Sneyd,
of Baginton, Warwickshire, their present possessor. A MS.
volume of notices of the Canonici library, drawn up by Signor
Lorenzi, of Venice, was bought by the Bodleian, in 1859, for ten
guineas[297].
A MS. of Suidas, of the fifteenth century, was purchased for
£220 10s. Another acquisition was a French translation, made
in 1417, by Laurens de Preme, of the Ethics, Politics, &c., of
Aristotle[298]. Some specimens of the Javanese language were given
by Capt. L. H. Davy.
Among printed books, the most noticeable purchase (besides
the Edd. Pr. of Livy, 1469, Lactantius, 1465, &c.) was that of a
vellum copy of the first edition of the Hebrew Pentateuch, printed
at Bologna in 1482, for £17 10s. Some sets of controversial and
political tracts, with other books, which had belonged to Thomas
Brande Hollis and Dr. John Disney, were bought at the sale of
the library of the latter.
A return was made to the House of Commons of such books
received since 1814, in pursuance of the Copyright Act, from
Stationers' Hall, as it had not been deemed necessary to place
in the Library. The list is but a trifling one, consisting chiefly
of school-books and anonymous novels, with music; but, nevertheless,
it is sufficient to show the great need of caution in
rejecting any books excepting such as are of the simplest
elementary character, and the advantage of erring rather on the
side of inclusiveness than exclusiveness. Miss Edgeworth's
Parents' Assistant, Mrs. H. More's Sacred Dramas, Mrs. Opie's
Simple Tales, and an edition of Ossian, were all consigned to
the limbo of 'rubbish.' But the Cambridge Return (which is
much more detailed than that from Oxford[299]) shows a recklessness
of rejection which speaks little for the judgment of the Librarians
for the time being. Besides school-books and music, a large
number of pamphlets figure in the list, including some by Chalmers
and Cobbett; the Theology includes Owen's History of the Bible
Society; the History includes Memoirs of Oliver Cromwell and his
Children; the Poetry, Byron's Siege of Corinth, L. Hunt's Story
of Rimini, and Wordsworth's Thanksgiving Ode; and the Novels,
[Peacock's] Headlong Hall, one by Mrs. Opie, and—The Antiquary!
The far wiser plan is now carried out in the Bodleian of rejecting
nothing; even the elementary works that do not need entering
in the Catalogue, are so kept that access can be had to them at
all times and examination made; and the music is from time to
time sorted and bound. And this plan was commenced in the
year of which we are writing; for, (in consequence, of course, of
this return being called for by the House of Commons,) the
Curators ordered, on May 27, that all publications sent from
Stationers' Hall should in future be entered and preserved.
A very valuable and curious series of original editions of Latin
and German tracts, issued by the German Reformers between
1518 and 1550, in eighty-four volumes, was bought for £95 15s.
Additions have been made to this collection at various times
subsequently, so that now it probably comprises as complete a
gathering of these controversial publications, so easily lost or
destroyed from their small extent and often ephemeral character,
as can anywhere be found. A kindred collection (although not
of like value or interest) was obtained through the gift by Mr. A.
Müller, a well-known bookseller at Amsterdam, of a series of
tracts, in sixty-two volumes, and chiefly in the Dutch language, on
the controversy with the Remonstrants in 1618-19. A MS. Catalogue,
by Mr. Müller, dated March 3, is kept in the Librarian's
study. Besides the books, Mr. Müller gave a few coins, including
one struck on leather during the siege of Leyden in 1574, and
some natural curiosities, which latter are now preserved in the
New Museum. A black negro baby, preserved in spirits (!) has,
however, unaccountably disappeared; let us hope it was decently
buried. Seventeen panes of painted glass, probably by disciples
of Crabeth, who painted the windows in the Church of Gouda,
also formed part of this very miscellaneous donation; these, most
probably, are included among the curious fragments which
decorate some of the Library windows.
Six Persian MSS. were given by the late venerable Principal
of Magdalen Hall, and Lord Almoner's Reader in Arabic, Dr.
Macbride. The signature of this gentleman, who has only been
removed by death while these sheets have been passing through
the press, occurs in the Admission-book of the last century,
as having been admitted to read in the Library, while still an
undergraduate of Exeter College, on May 10, 1797.
Alderman Fletcher's illustrated copy of Gulch's Wood. See under
1610.
Mr. John Walker, Queen's College (B.A. 1820; Chaplain of New
College, M.A., 1823), succeeded Mr. Fenton as minister in July.
A copy of the extremely rare Polish version of the Bible, made
by the Socinians at the expense of Prince Nicholas Radzivil, and
printed in 1563, was bought for £45[300]; and a folio Psalter, printed
by Fust and Schoeffer in 1459, (finished Aug. 29), on vellum, for
£70. The second vellum printed book in the Library is a copy
of Durandus' Rationale, printed by the same printers in the same
year, but completed on Oct. 6. This was bought in 1790 for
£80 10s. Large additions were made to the collection of Aldines.
The name of Lady Hester Stanhope occurs among the benefactors
as presenting an Arabic MS. of the Romance of Antar,
in thirty volumes.
From Messrs. Payne and Foss was bought, for £150, the
famous MS. of the Greek New Testament called, from its former
possessor, the 'Codex Ebnerianus.' It is a small quarto, containing
425 leaves of fine vellum, in excellent condition and well
written, and ornamented with eleven rich paintings, besides occasional
arabesque borders, &c. It comprehends all the books of
the New Testament except the Apocalypse, and is assigned in
date to the twelfth or thirteenth century. The former owner,
whose name it perpetuates, Jerome William Ebner von Eschenbach,
of Nuremberg, obtained it, it is said, when first brought
from the East 'ex singulari Numinis providentia.' While in his
possession, a small descriptive volume, comprising forty-four
pages and an engraved facsimile, was published by Conrad
Schoenleben, under the title of Notitia egregii codicis Græci
Novi Testamenti manuscripti, &c. 4o. Norib. 1738. This was
incorporated by De Murr in his Memorabilia Bibliothecarum
publicarum Norimbergensium, published in 1788, part ii. p. 100,
who added thirteen well-engraved plates of the illuminations,
binding and text. It was formerly bound in leather-covered
boards, ornamented with gold, with five silver-gilt stars on the
sides, and fastened with four silver clasps. This cover being
much decayed, Ebner cased the volume in a most costly binding
of pure silver, preserving the silver stars, and affixing on the
outside a beautiful ivory figure (coæval with the MS.) of our
Saviour, throned, and in the attitude of benediction. Above the
figure, Ebner engraved an inscription in Greek characters, corresponding
to the style of the MS., praying for a blessing upon
himself and his family.
A MS. of Terence, of the eleventh or twelfth century, which
also belonged to Ebner, was bought from Payne and Foss, at
the same time, for ten guineas. It is described in De Murr,
ubi supra, pp. 135-7.
Fifty Greek manuscripts were bought for £500, which had
formerly been in the possession of Giovanni Saibante, of Verona.
The library of this collector is noticed in Scipio Maffei's Verona
Illustrata (fol. 1731), part ii. col. 48[301]. The MSS. purchased
by the Library are described in Mr. Coxe's Catalogue, cols.
774-808.
A collection of Arabic tracts and papers, which had formerly
belonged to Dr. Kennicott, was given by Shute Barrington, Bishop
of Durham.
The great event of this year was the reception of the famous
and extensive collection of English dramatic literature and early
poetry, formed by Edmund Malone[302]. It was bequeathed by him
on his decease (May 25, 1812) to his brother, Lord Sunderlin,
with the expression of a wish that, if not retained as an heirloom
in the family, it should be deposited in some public library. In
fulfilment of this wish, Lord Sunderlin communicated to the
University, in 1815, his intention to transfer the collection to the
Bodleian so soon as Mr. James Boswell, to whom it was entrusted
in order to assist him in the preparation of a new edition
of Malone's Shakespeare, should have finished his use of it.
That edition being at length issued in 1821, the library was sent
to Oxford in the same year. The character of the collection is
too well known to need description; suffice it to say that it contains
upwards of 800 volumes, of which by far the greater number are
distinguished by their rarity. There are first quartos of many of
Shakespeare's plays, and second editions of others[303]; of his collected
works there are both the first and second folios. Barnfield,
Beaumont and Fletcher, Chapman, Decker, Greene, Heywood,
Ben Jonson, Lodge, Massinger, Rich. Taylor the water-poet, and
Whetstone are amongst those who are most fully represented.
There are also a few MSS. A Catalogue of the collection, in
folio (52 pp.), with a life of Malone by Boswell (previously printed
in Gent. Magaz. and Nichol's Lit. Hist.), was published in 1836;
and, in 1861, Mr. J. O. Halliwell printed fifty-one copies of a small
Hand-list of the early English literature preserved in it. Various
volumes of Malone's own MSS. collections have been subsequently
added by purchase; viz. in 1836 some papers relating to the life
and writings of Pope; in 1838, his collections for the last edition
of his Shakespeare and for the illustration of ancient manners,
together with a portion of his literary correspondence; in 1851 a
volume of letters written to him by Bishop Percy, between 1783
and 1807; in 1858 three octavo volumes of collections made by
him at Oxford; and in 1864 a volume of letters to him from
Dr. Johnson, Mrs. Siddons, and others. A large series of pamphlets,
chiefly relating to Irish history and to literary matters,
comprised in seventy-five volumes, was also purchased in 1838[304].
Almost all his books are uniformly bound in half-calf, with
'E. M.' in an interlaced monogram on the back; a very few have a
book-plate consisting of his coat-of-arms within a square of books,
with the inscription (in imitation of Grolier's) 'Edm. Malone et
amicorum,' and a motto from the Menagiana.
A curious instance of the variableness and uncertainty of the
prices of books is afforded by the purchase-list of this year, when
contrasted with prices paid at the present time. A copy (wanting
the preliminary leaves and a few others) of one of the Antwerp
editions of Tyndale's New Test. in 1534, (which had belonged to
Mr. Benj. Ibott, and is mentioned in Herbert's Ames, vol. iii.
p. 1543) was bought for nineteen shillings; Mr. Stevens in 1855
priced another imperfect copy at fifteen guineas. But, on the
other hand, £63 were given in this year for the rare Ed. Pr. of
Virgil, printed by Sweynheim and Pannartz in 1469[305]. A somewhat
similar instance occurred also in 1826, when Daye's edition of
the Apocrypha, printed in 1549 (being vol. iv. of his edition of
the Bible in that year), was obtained for fifteen shillings, while
£73 10s. were paid for an edition of Virgil printed at Venice
about 1473.
The very rare German Bible, printed at Strasburgh about 1466,
was bought for £42, and a perfect copy of the first edition of the
Bishops' Bible, in 1568, for seven guineas[306]. A volume of interest
in typographical history was presented, in the first book printed
in New South Wales. It is entitled Michael Howe, the last and
worst of the Bush Rangers of Van Dieman's Land; narrative of
the chief atrocities committed by this great murderer and his associates
during a period of six years in Van Dieman's Land: it extends to
thirty-six small octavo pages, and was printed at Hobart Town,
by Andrew Bent, in Dec, 1818[307].
The Catalogue of the Oriental MSS., commenced in the year
1787 by Uri, was continued in this year by the publication by
Mr. Nicoll of the first part of a second volume, containing notices
of 234 additional Arabic MSS. His premature death occurred
before the publication of the second part, which he had printed as
far as p. 388; this was completed and edited (with nine lithographic
plates of specimens of Arabic MSS.) by his successor in
the Hebrew Professorship, Dr. Pusey, in 1835. It contains altogether
descriptions of 296 Arabic volumes, together with copious
additions by Dr. Pusey to Uri's first portion, which are noticed
above, p. 199.
The Parish Registers of Newington, Kent, and of Bures, in
Suffolk, which had come into the Library among Dr. Rawlinson's
books, were restored to their respective parishes by a decree submitted
to Convocation on Nov. 9. In the Register of Convocation
itself, by a singular omission, no mention of the former of these
parish books is made (although included in the proposal), and the
restoration of that of Bures is alone recorded. But by enquiry
addressed to the Vicar of Newington, it has been ascertained that
one of the Registers contains a memorandum of its having been
returned by vote of Convocation on the day in question.
By a vote of Convocation on July 7, the rooms on the first floor
of the Schools' quadrangle, which were formerly used as the
Hebrew and Greek Schools, were assigned to the Library; the
former (on the south side) now contains, in two rooms, the Bodley,
Laud, and other collections of MSS.; the latter (on the north
side), also in two rooms, the foreign and English periodicals[308].
On May 25, a plan for warming the Library was, for the first
time, adopted. It consisted in introducing hot air simply at two
small gratings at one end of the Library, from pipes communicating
with a stove placed (with the consent of Exeter College)
where the furnace of the present apparatus is situated, in the wall
between the north-west corner of the Library and the Ashmolean
Museum. As a means of warming the Library generally the
system was wholly ineffectual, no benefit being experienced except
by those who remained in the immediate vicinity of the gratings.
It remained, however, in use until 1845, when pipes were laid
down through a considerable part of the Library for the purpose
of warming it by steam. This plan, however, did not give satisfaction,
either on the ground of safety or of effectiveness. In 1855
Mr. Braidwood, the late distinguished head of the London Fire
Brigade, was brought down to survey the apparatus and to
examine generally how the Library could best be secured against
fire; and, by his advice and that of Mr. G. G. Scott, the pipes were
enclosed in slate casings, so as effectually to hinder contact with
any inflammable materials, and two fire-proof iron doors were
inserted at the entrances to the great Reading-room, in order to
cut it off from the rest of the building[309]. But in 1861 steam
was discarded for the safer and more effectual system, now
in use, of warming by hot water; new pipes (cased in slate) were
laid down by Messrs. Haden and Son, and were carried through
the Examination Schools on the ground-floor of the quadrangle,
as well as through the Library.
In Feb. Mr. J. P. Roberts, New College (B.A. 1821, M.A. 1826,
now Minor Canon of Chichester) was appointed minister, vice Mr.
P. Barrett, Wadham College (B.A. 1828); and Mr. Robert Eden,
of St. John's College (Corp. Chr. Coll. B.A. 1825, M.A. 1827,
now Vicar of Wymondham, Norfolk), was appointed vice Walker.
From this time there appear to have been two assistants, although
it was not until 1837 that that number was formally allowed by
Statute.
In July, the Rev. Dr. Bliss returned to the Library as Sub-librarian,
in the room of Mr. Nicoll, appointed Regius Professor of
Hebrew. And in October the Rev. Rich. French Laurence, M.A.,
of Pembroke College, succeeded Dr. Cotton, who quitted Oxford
for Ireland.
'Tuesday, August 6, 1822, I was at the Library the whole day,
and not a single member of the University came into the room,
excepting Mr. Eden, the assistant. Oxford race-day.' This note
occurs in vol. x. of Dr. Bliss's MS. antiquarian and miscellaneous
memoranda. Considering that the time of the year was well-nigh
the middle of the Long Vacation, it does not seem surprising that
on one day there should have been no academic readers in the
Library, even if there may have been academic riders on the
race-course. The two occurrences have so little correspondence
with each other that one would hope that the zealous Sub-librarian
(who has deemed the same want of readers worth commemorating
also in another note) assigned non causa pro causa.
By the exertions of the brothers J. S. and P. B. Duncan, Esqs.,
Fellows of New College, distinguished for their efforts to promote
the study of the Arts and Sciences in the University, a subscription-fund
was raised for the purpose of adorning the Picture Gallery
with plaster models of some of the finest buildings of Greek and
Roman antiquity. The result was that in the present year the
following series, by Fouquet, of Paris, was placed in the Gallery,
at a total cost of about £400:—The Arch of Constantine, the
Parthenon, the Temple of the Sybil at Tivoli, the Maison Carrée
at Nismes, the Erechtheum and Lantern of Demosthenes at
Athens, the Theatre of Herculaneum, and the Temple of Fortuna
Virilis at Rome.
A large number of works by foreign authors, chiefly theological,
was bought (for £375) at the sale at Leyden of the library of
Jonas Wilh. Te Water, professor of Eccl. Hist. in that University.
A separate catalogue, occupying twenty-three folio pages, was
issued of these books.
Mr. E. P. New, of St. John's College (B.A. 1822, M.A. 1825,
B.D. 1831), was appointed in December to assist in the compilation
of the new Catalogue; but how long he remained in
the Library does not appear.
A collection of valuable original papers relating to affairs in
Church and State, which had belonged to Archbishop Sheldon,
were sold by his great-nephew, Sir John English Dolben, of
Finedon, Northamptonshire, to the Library for £40 5s. They are
now bound in six volumes, of which three are lettered Sheldon,
and three Dolben. Of the first three, two contain letters from
English, Welsh, Scotch and Irish Bishops, and the contents of
the other are miscellaneous; of the second three, one contains
miscellaneous letters and papers commencing at 1585, another
has similar papers from 1626 to 1721, and the third contains
miscellaneous ecclesiastical letters and documents. Some of the
letters are addressed to the Archbishop's secretary, Miles Smyth,
Esq. A short letter from Sir John Dolben to Dr. Bandinel, relating
to his disposal of these papers, dated Oct. 12, 1824, is preserved in
Bodl. MS. Addit. ii. A. 32. He had previously given, in 1822, a
fine copy of a quarto Bible which had belonged to Sheldon, containing
(1) the Prayer-Book and Metrical Psalms, printed at Cambridge
in 1638, (2) the Old Test., printed by Field at London in
1648, and (3) the New Test., Cambr. 1637. At the end are some
memoranda by the Archbishop of the births, baptisms, and deaths
of members of the Sheldon and Okeover families, and of the
legitimate children of Charles II and the Duke of York. The
Library more than a century before had received benefactions from
a member of the same family of Dolben; Gilbert Dolben, of
Finedon, having given some printed books in 1697, together with
a manuscript of Gower. And twenty vols. of Chamberlaine's State
of Great Britain were given by Mr. J. E. Dolben in 1796. An
additional volume of the Sheldon correspondence was given to
the Library in 1840, by Dr. Routh, the President of Magdalen
College. It is a copy-book of business-letters written by the
Archbishop. In a note to Dr. Bandinel which accompanied the
gift, and which is now fixed in vol. i. of Burnet's autograph copy
of his Own Times, Dr. Routh says:—
'The President takes the opportunity of sending a volume
containing the first draught of letters sent by Archbp. Sheldon
to different persons, together with a few other contemporary
papers. They were put into the President's hands by the late
Sir John English Dolben, and as the University purchased of that
gentleman what were commonly called the Sheldon Papers, he
thinks they cannot be deposited anywhere more suitably than in
the Bodleian Library.'
To the annual catalogue for this year was attached a special
list, filling thirty-two folio pages, of the books (upwards of 1500
in number) which were bought at the Hague, at the sale of the
library collected by the distinguished Dutch scholars and lawyers,
Gerard and John Meerman. The sale-catalogue is a volume of
more than 1200 pages. The books bought for the Library were
chiefly such as supplied deficiencies in foreign history and law,
together with some Greek[310] and Latin MSS., for the most part
patristic and classical. The sum expended was £925. Some
rare Spanish historical books (in which class of literature, thanks
to Dr. Bandinel's care in keeping it steadily in view, the Library
is now very rich) were bought at the sale of Don J. Ant. Conde.
But the chief distinction of this year lies in the acquisition, by
bequest of Mrs. Elizabeth Dennis Denyer (widow of Mr. John
Denyer, of Chelsea, who died in 1806) of a most valuable
collection of early editions of the English Bible, numbering
altogether about twenty-five. To show the rarity and worth
of this collection, it will be sufficient to mention but a few of
the volumes which it contains. Imprimis, Coverdale's first edition,
1535[311], and his second edition, 1537; Cranmer's, in April,
1540 and in 1541, and by Grafton in 1553; Matthew's,
by Becke, in 1551; Tyndale's New Testament, in 1536, and
another of his earliest editions; Hollybush's English and Latin
Testament, 1538, and Erasmus' Testament, 1540. Besides the
Biblical collection, Mrs. Denyer also bequeathed twenty-one
English theological works, nearly all printed before 1600; including
a beautiful copy of Fisher on the Penitential Psalms (by
Wynkyn de Worde) and books by (amongst others) Bale, Bonner,
Brightwell, Erasmus, Hooper, Joye, and Tonstall.
Mr. L. E. Judge, New College (B.A. 1827, M.A. 1830; Chaplain;
deceased 1853), succeeded Mr. Roberts, in March, as assistant;
but in July of the next year retired, and was succeeded
by Mr. W. Bailey, also of New College (B.A. 1829).
The sale at Paris of the library of L. M. Langlès, the keeper
of the Oriental MSS. in the Bibl. Royale, afforded a large accession
of books in that branch of literature which was his specialty.
Mr. Sim. J. Etty, New College (B.A. 1829, M.A. 1832, now
Vicar of Wanborough, Wilts), was appointed assistant in the room
of Mr. Eden. Mr. Etty remained in the Library until the year
1834. The Catalogue of Dissertationes Academicæ, which appeared
in 1832, was in a great measure his work.
Two MSS. intended of old for the Library by Sir K. Digby,
were bought in this year. To the account of them given at
p. 58 supra, it should be added that the library left in France by
Digby on his death (from which, no doubt, these volumes came)
was bought back by George, Earl of Bristol, and finally sold by
auction at London, in April and May, 1680. Sixty-nine MSS.
were included in this dispersion. It should further be added to
the previous notice that it was at Laud's instance, and through
him as Chancellor of the University, that Digby presented his
collection to the Library. A letter from the Archbishop, which
accompanied the gift, is printed in Wharton's collection of his
Remains, vol. ii. p. 73.
There is not much to notice in the acquisitions of this year.
A few Persian and other Oriental MSS. were purchased, and more
in the two following years; and some Burmese MSS. were given
by Sir C. Grey, Chief Justice of Calcutta. A curious volume
of manuscript and printed papers relative to the siege of Oxford,
1643-46, was presented by Mr. W. Hamper, of Birmingham.
In January, the Rev. Chas. Hen. Cox, M.A., Student of Ch. Ch.,
was appointed Sub-librarian in the room of Mr. Laurence.
A very large collection of Academic Dissertations published in
Germany, amounting to about 43,400, was bought at Altona for
£332 16s. Of these a folio catalogue was published in 1834,
which, by a singular error, bears on its title the date 1832, as
the year in which this accession came to the Library. In 1828,
160 volumes of the same character were added, and other large
additions were made in 1836 and 1837, but particularly in 1846,
when no fewer than 7000 were purchased[312].
Mr. Henry Forster, New College (B.A. 1832, M.A. 1834;
Esquire Bedel of Divinity; deceased 1857), succeeded Mr. Bailey,
in March, as Assistant.
A collection of 153 Northern MSS., chiefly in the Icelandic
and Danish languages, formed by Finn Magnusen, was purchased
from him for £350[313]. A catalogue (56 pp. quarto) was published
in the year 1832. Amongst them are many early and curious
volumes in poetry and history. Other collections of MSS. were
sold by the same collector to the British Museum and to the
Advocates' Library at Edinburgh.
A large number of Aldines were obtained at the sale of the
collection of M. Renouard, the Aldine bibliographer, which took
place in London, June 26-30. And the rare first edition of John
Knox's Historie of the Church of Scotland was purchased for
sixteen guineas.
Some additional rooms on the second story of the Schools'
quadrangle, on the north and east sides, which went by the names of
the Schools of Geometry and Medicine, were permanently attached
to the Library, by vote of Convocation, on June 5.
On June 26, the nomination of the Rev. Stephen Reay, M.A., of
St. Alban's Hall (afterwards B.D., and Laudian Professor of Arabic
in 1840), as Sub-librarian in the room of Mr. C. H. Cox, was
approved in Convocation. Mr. Reay was appointed to the charge
of the Oriental department, his knowledge of Hebrew specially
qualifying him for the care of the yearly increasing mass of
Rabbinical lore. To this branch he added, and retained to the
close of his life, the care of the 'Progress' Room, or room containing
the publications, foreign and English, which appeared in
parts. And on Dec. 20, the Rev. John Besly, M.A., Fellow of
Balliol (afterwards D.C.L., and Vicar of Long Benton, Northumberland,
deceased April 17, 1868, aged sixty-eight), was confirmed
as Mr. Reay's colleague, in the place of Dr. Bliss.
The great Hebrew collection, which at present forms so
distinguished a feature in the contents of the Library, was virtually
commenced in this year by the purchase, at Hamburgh (for
£2080), of the famous Oppenheimer library, consisting of upwards
of 5000 volumes, of which 780 are MSS[314]. Many Hebrew
works had, it is true, come with Selden's library, in 1659; but
little or nothing had been done since that period to advance upon
that beginning. The additions made in this department from
1844 up to about the year 1857, are said, in Dr. Steinschneider's
introduction to his catalogue (col. 50), to have numbered no fewer
than about 2100 volumes[315].
David Oppenheimer, Chief Rabbi at Prague, devoted more
than half a century to the formation of his library. On his death,
Sept. 23, 1735, it came into the possession of his son, a Rabbi
at Hildesheim, and thence into the hands of Isaac Seligmann at
Hamburgh. Several catalogues were issued during this period,
the last being one in octavo, at Hamburgh, in 1826, an index
to which, compiled by Dr. J. Goldenthal, was printed at the
expense of the Library in 1845. The collection would have
been dispersed by auction, had it not been bought en masse for
Oxford. It possesses extreme interest and value in the eyes of
Jewish students, insomuch that for a series of years the Library
was never without several foreign visitors engaged in its examination.
A very elaborate catalogue of all the printed Hebrew books
contained in it, and throughout the whole of the Library, was compiled
by Dr. M. Steinschneider during the years 1850-1860, and
printed at Berlin, where it was published in the latter year in
a very thick quarto volume. The book is divided into two
parts: the first containing a description of the Biblical, Talmudical,
liturgical and anonymous volumes; the second containing the
works of miscellaneous authors, in the alphabetical order of their
names. Prefixed is a brief list of the Hebrew MSS. in the
Library, with the numbers at present attached to them, and references
to the catalogues in which they are described. Of several
rare books in the Oppenheimer library there are duplicate copies,
varying in condition and ornamentation; of some there are copies
on red, yellow, and blue paper. Distinguished amongst all is
a copy of the Talmud, printed in 1713-28, in twenty-four folio
volumes, entirely on vellum. 'Perhaps,' says Archdeacon Cotton,
'this work is the grandest and most extensive vellum publication
extant[316].'
Mr. Robert Bowyer, miniature painter to Queen Charlotte, who
had devoted a considerable part of his life to the collection of
drawings and engravings illustrating the Holy Scriptures, put
forward a proposal for their purchase by subscription with a view
to their being deposited in the Bodleian. Their number amounted
to nearly seven thousand (including 113 drawings by Loutherbourg),
described as being in fine condition and of great value;
and they were inserted as additional illustrations in a copy
of Macklin's folio Bible, which was enlarged thereby from its
original extent of seven volumes to forty-five. Hence the collection
passed, and passes, under the name of Bowyer's Bible. Mr.
Bowyer, who had spent upon it upwards of three thousand pounds,
proposed to dispose of it for £2500, and a committee was formed
in London, upon which appeared the names of many distinguished
persons, to raise a subscription for the purpose. But upon Mr.
Bowyer's despatching an agent to Oxford, the matter met with
so little encouragement here, the Librarian, in particular, being
(as Dr. Bliss has noted upon his copy of the original proposal)
unfavourable to it, that the project fell to the ground. The
reasons why Oxford made so little response do not appear; probably
the value set upon the collection was deemed to be greatly
exaggerated. After the death of Mr. Bowyer (June 4, 1834, aged
seventy-six) the Bible came into the hands of one Mrs. Parkes,
of Golden Square, by whom it was disposed of, in 1848, in a
lottery (together with a few other prizes) for which four thousand
tickets were issued at one guinea each. The successful speculator
was Mr. Saxon, a gentleman-farmer, near Shepton Mallet. In
1852 it was in the hands of Messrs. Puttick and Simpson, the
well-known book-auctioneers, for sale. By them it was announced
for an auction on Feb. 26, 1853, and was disposed of, about
that time, to Messrs. Willis and Sotheran, the booksellers, for about
£500. Since then it has been announced for sale at Manchester.
A copy of the rare edition of Luther's translation of the Bible,
printed at Wittemberg in 1541, was bought, through Messrs. Payne
and Foss, for fifty guineas, at the sale, in London, of the library
of the Archdeacon de la Tour, of Hildesheim, which was said to
have been formerly the property of the English Benedictine
Monastery of Landspring, and which was then, it appears, in the
possession of Mr. — Solly. It contains some texts on the fly-leaves
in the autograph, and with the signatures, of both Luther
and Melanchthon, which seem to have been unnoticed at the time
of the sale. A facsimile of a part of Luther's inscription is given
in plate xxxi. in Mr. Leigh Sotheby's Illustrations of the Handwriting
of Melanchthon[317]. The book is now exhibited in a glass
case, in one of the windows of the Library.
In December of this year, Viscount Kingsborough[318] presented
a magnificent copy (being one of four which were printed on
vellum) of his Antiquities of Mexico, or coloured facsimiles,
executed at his expense, in seven folio volumes, of Mexican paintings
and hieroglyphics preserved in the libraries of Paris, Berlin,
Dresden, Vienna, Rome, Bologna, and Oxford (in Laud's and
Selden's collections), together with preliminary dissertations. This
sumptuous book is exhibited near the entrance of the library, in
a case made expressly for its reception.
On June 30, the nomination, as Sub-librarian, of Rev. Ernest
Hawkins, M.A., of Balliol, afterwards Fellow of Exeter, (of late
well-known for his labours in the cause of Missions, as Secretary
to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel), was approved
by Convocation. He succeeded Dr. Besly, who had taken the
Balliol College living of Long Benton, in Northumberland.
A twelfth-century MS. of Scholia on the Odyssey was purchased
for £100. The collection of Bibles, which had during some time
past made some slow progress, was increased by copies of various
early printed versions in European languages, and its further
enlargement was steadily kept in view in succeeding years.
Six guineas were given for copies of Servetus' treatise De Trinitatis
erroribus and his Dialogi de Trinitate, printed in 1531 and 1532,
which are of very great rarity, in consequence of their having very
generally shared the fate of their author.
Some precious Shakespearian volumes, consisting of the Venus
and Adonis of 1594 and 1617, the Lucrece of 1594 and 1616, with a
subsequent edition of 1655, and the Sonnets of 1609, were presented
by the well-known collector, Mr. Thomas Caldecott, who
had been formerly a Fellow of New College. They are now
incorporated with the Malone collection. Several MSS. of
Sir William Jones were presented by the brothers Augustus and
Julius C. Hare. An interesting and large collection of tracts on
the Roman Catholic disabilities, affairs in Ireland, &c., in forty-five
volumes, was purchased at the sale of the library of Charles Butler,
of Lincoln's Inn.
An anonymous pamphlet, entitled, A Few Words on the Bodleian
Library, appeared in this year; its author was Sir Edmund Head,
M.A., Merton College. The object was to urge the desirableness
of allowing books to be borrowed from the Library, after the
example of Cambridge. One of the arguments by which the author
supported the proposal, viz. that College tutors were unable to
visit the Library in term time during the hours at which it is
open, has since been entirely removed by the attachment of the
Radcliffe Library as a Reading-room, which remains open until
ten o'clock at night. The pamphlet was reprinted in the Report
of the University Commission in 1852.
Numerous purchases were made during the sale of Mr. Heber's
library. Amongst these were some rare English tracts of the
Reformers, Bale, Becon, Tyndal, Knox, &c.; a large and valuable
collection of booksellers' catalogues and sale catalogues of books
and coins between 1726 and 1814[319]; and a mass of some 1100
or 1200 plays, published in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries[320].
Numerous early Shakespeare editions were also obtained;
inter alias, the first edition (1594) of the first part of the Contention
betwixt the Houses of Yorke and Lancaster, for £64; Richard III,
1598, £17; fourth edit. of Henry IV, 1608, £12 12s.[321], &c. The
greater part of the collection of editions of Horace up to the year
1738, formed by Dr. Douglas, a collection which was used in the
preparation of the edition published at London, by James Watson,
in 1760, was bought for £20. It consists of twenty-seven vols. in
folio, thirty-nine in quarto, and 248 in octavo and smaller sizes.
Dibdin (Introd. to the Classics) says that the whole collection consisted
of 450 editions. A Prayer-Book of 1707, with MSS. collations
by Rev. John Lewis, of Margate, of alterations in editions between
1549 and 1637, was bought for £8 8s. One of the chief gems
in the Picture Gallery was bequeathed by James Paine, Esq., being
the portrait of his father, James Paine, the architect[322], while instructing
his son in drawing, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. This beautiful
picture has retained its freshness of colour far more perfectly than
most others of Sir Joshua's paintings; and it has recently, under
the direction of the present Librarian, been carefully cleaned, and
protected with glass and a curtain, that its brilliancy may incur no
risk of deterioration. But this year is chiefly distinguished in the
Annals of the Library by the bequest of the
Francis Douce, the donor of this magnificent library (who died
on March 30, in this year), is said to have been induced to make
this disposition of his treasures through the courteous reception
afforded to him by Dr. Bandinel, upon the occasion of a visit to
Oxford, in 1830. The gatherings of a lifetime with which the
Bodleian was thus enriched, consist of 393 manuscripts, ninety-eight
charters, about 16,480 printed volumes, a very large collection
of early and valuable prints and drawings, and some coins[323]. For
the most part, the books which thus came were of classes in which
the Library was then deficient. Nearly all the finest specimens
of Missal-painting which it now possesses are found among the
Douce MSS., several of which are exhibited in a glass case
at the further end of the Library. Chief among these are
three volumes of Horæ, one executed, perhaps by G. da Libri,
at the beginning of the sixteenth century for Leonora Gonzaga,
Duchess of Urbino, a second belonged to Mary de Medici, and
the other was completed in 1527 for B. Sforza, second wife of
Sigism. I of Poland. These are priceless gems, rivalled only by
such as the Bedford Missal. In the same case is a Psalter on
purple vellum, probably of the ninth century, which came from
the old Royal Library of France, and which, from this circumstance
and its age, has sometimes been called Charlemagne's Psalter. The
printed books are rich in history, biography, antiquities, manners
and customs, and the fine arts[324]. In Bibles (English and French),
Horæ, Primers, Books of Common Prayer and Psalters, the collection
is very strong. Among the Psalters is a copy of Archbishop
Parker's rare metrical version. Early French literature is also a
conspicuous feature, in which the Library had previously been
very deficient. Of fifteenth-century typography there are no fewer
than 311 specimens. The finest of these is a magnificent copy
of Christoforo Landino's Italian translation of Pliny's Natural
History, printed on vellum by Nic. Janson, at Venice, in 1476.
It is enriched with exquisite illuminated borders at the commencement
of each book, a specimen of which, together with a description
of the volume, is given in Shaw's Illuminated Ornaments,
pl. xxxviii[325]. There are also a large number of fragments of works
by early English printers, including two by Caxton, which are
unique. One of these is a portion (two quarters of an octavo or
duodecimo sheet) of an edition of the Horæ, conjecturally assigned
by Mr. Blades to 1478, and the other is of an edition of the
Booke of Curtesye, probably printed in 1491, consisting of two quarto
pages. There is also one of the two known copies of a curious
placard, issued by Caxton, inviting those who were disposed to
buy 'ony pyes of two and thre comemoracions of Salisburi vse'
to come to him at Westminster, and they should have them 'good
chepe[326].' The other copy is in the possession of Earl Spencer.
A very different, but still very curious, item is a large collection
of chap-books and children's penny books of the last century and
commencement of the present; and two folio volumes are filled
with black-letter ballads. A catalogue of the library was published
in one volume, in folio, in 1840; the part containing the printed
books was the work of Mr. H. Symonds, of Magdalen Hall (B.A.
1840, M.A. 1842, now Precentor of Norwich), and that which
describes the Fragments, the Charters and the Manuscripts was
drawn up by Rev. H. O. Coxe. From the year 1839 until the
commencement of 1842, Mr. Thomas Dodd, formerly a well-known
London dealer in prints, and author of the Connoisseur's
Repertory, was employed in making a catalogue of the Douce
prints and drawings. This catalogue still remains in MS. Four
very grand studies of heads, drawn either by Raffaelle or Giulio
Romano, have recently been framed and hung at the western end
of the Library.
On June 25, Convocation sanctioned the transfer to the Library
of the room immediately over the entrance in the gateway-tower
of the Schools, (now called the Mason Room) which had been
hitherto assigned as the 'Savile Study,' on condition that a small
room in the adjoining south-east angle of the quadrangle should
be prepared at the expense of the Bodleian for the reception of
the MSS. and printed books, instruments, &c., which were given
to the University by Sir Henry Savile for the use of his Professors.
This is the room in which the Savile library (which includes also
some books given by Dr. Wallis and Sir Christopher Wren) is
still preserved, under the charge of the Savilian Professors of
Geometry and Astronomy.
On July 5, Convocation confirmed the nomination of Rev.
William Cureton, M.A., of Ch. Ch. (afterwards so well known for
his Syriac studies, which gained him the patronage of the Prince
Consort and a Canonry at Westminster), to the Sub-librarianship
vacated by Rev. E. Hawkins.
Mr. Edmund Grove, of Magdalen College (who never graduated),
was appointed Assistant in April, vice Mr. Stephen Exup.
Wentworth, of Balliol (B.A. 1833, M.A. 1835). Mr. Wentworth
appears to have succeeded Mr. Forster in 1832.
The original MS. of Burnet's History of his Own Times, with
a copy prepared for the press, a portion of his History of the
Reformation, and some other papers by him, was purchased, from
a family descended from the Bishop, for £210. An account of
these MSS. may be found at p. 474 of the Appendix to Burnet's
History of James II, being an extract from the Own Times which
Dr. Routh edited, with additional notes, when ninety-six years
old, in 1852. The copy prepared for the press is expressly mentioned
in the catalogue for 1835 as forming part of the purchase;
and yet that copy appears from a passage in a letter from Rawlinson,
dated Aug. 18, 1743, to have been then in the hands of
that collector, whence it would have been supposed that it
must have passed at once into the possession of the Library.
After mentioning the book, Rawlinson says, 'I purchased the
MSS. of a gentleman who corrected the press where that book
was printed, and amongst his papers I have all the castrations[327].'
The MS. of Lewis' Life of Wyclif, with some additions by the
author, was bought for £4 14s. 6d. Various other MSS. by
Lewis were already in the Library among Dr. Rawlinson's collections.
The purchases of printed books were chiefly amongst
early editions of Classics (Juvenal, Ovid, Virgil, &c.), Fathers
(Augustine, Jerome), Schoolmen, and a very large series of fifteenth-century
editions of the Decretals, Digest, Institutes, and other
works in Canon and Civil Law. These were obtained at the
sale of the famous library of Dr. Kloss, of Frankfort, whose collection
was so remarkably rich in books bearing MS. notes by
Melanchthon.
A curious collection of papers and pamphlets, printed and
MS., relating to Spanish affairs, and of much interest to students
of Spanish history, contained in thirty-two volumes in folio and
eighty in quarto, was purchased for £40. It was lot 4583 in
Heber's sale, by whom it had been bought at the Yriarte sale
for more than £100.
Aubrey's collection of notes and drawings concerning Druidical
and Roman antiquities in Britain, together with some miscellaneous
historical notes, entitled by him Monumenta Britannica, in
four parts (now bound in two folio volumes), was purchased, for
£50, of Col. Charles Greville. Accounts of Avebury and Stonehenge,
which are important from their early date (the former being the
earliest known), are to be found in these curious and interesting
volumes[328]. The remainder of Aubrey's MSS. came to the Library
in 1860, upon the transfer of the books from the Ashmolean
Museum. See sub anno 1858.
A collection of about 300 tracts, relating to American affairs
and the War of Independence, in forty-one vols., formed by Rev.
Jonathan Boucher[329], was bought for £8 18s. 6d. These are
now included in the series of tracts called Godwyn Pamphlets, in
continuation of those which came, in 1770, from the donor so
named. Another large gathering of American tracts, collected
by Mr. George Chalmers, when engaged in writing his History
of the Revolt, was bought in 1841 for £24 13s.; at the same
time, the first and only volume of his History, which itself was
never actually published, was bought for £2 7s.
Sale Catalogues. See 1834.
When the new Copyright Act was introduced into Parliament
in this year, it was proposed to allow £500 per annum to the
Bodleian, in the manner adopted with regard to six other libraries,
in lieu of the old privilege of receiving a copy of every book
entered at Stationers' Hall. The Curators, however, on May
27, resolved that it would be highly desirable to retain the privilege,
but that, should an alteration be made, it would be inexpedient
to receive an annual grant by way of compensation; and
in consequence of this opinion, the proposed abolition of the
privilege was abandoned.
The magnificent series of historical prints and drawings which
is called, from the name of its collectors and its donor, the Sutherland
collection, was presented to the University on May 4 in this
year, although it was not actually deposited in the Library until
March, 1839[330]. The six volumes of the folio editions of Clarendon's
History of the Rebellion and Life, and of Burnet's Own
Times, are inlaid and bound in sixty-one elephant folio volumes,
and illustrated with the enormous number of 19,224 portraits of
every person and views of every place in any way mentioned in
the text, or connected with its subject-matter[331]. The gathering
was commenced in 1795 by Alexander Hendras Sutherland,
Esq., F.S.A.; on his death (May 21, 1820) it was taken up by
his widow[332], who spared neither labour nor money to render it
as complete as possible, and by whom its contents were, consequently,
nearly doubled. At length, desiring, in accordance with
her husband's will, that the results of her own and his labour
should be always preserved intact, Mrs. Sutherland presented the
whole collection to the Bodleian. Its extent may be in some
degree appreciated when it is mentioned that there are (according
to Mrs. Sutherland's statement in the preface to the Supplementary
Catalogue) 184 portraits of James I, of which 135 are distinct
plates; 743 of Charles I, of which 573 are distinct plates, besides
sixteen drawings; 373 of Cromwell (253 plates); 552 of Charles
II (428 plates); 276 of James II; 175 of Mary II (143 plates);
and 431 of William III, of which 363 are separate plates[333]. There
are also 309 views of London and 166 of Westminster.
Amongst those of London is a drawing on many sheets, by a
Dutch artist, Antonio van den Wyngaerde, executed between
1558-1563. It affords a view which extends from the Palace at
Westminster to that at Greenwich, both included; and comprehends
also Lambeth Palace and part of Southwark, with the palace
there of the Protector Somerset, in which the Mint was situated.
The whole amount expended on the formation of the series is
estimated at £20,000.
The collection is accompanied by a handsomely printed Catalogue,
compiled by Mrs. Sutherland, and published in 1837 in
three volumes quarto, two containing the portraits, and one the
topography[334]. A Supplement to this was printed in the following
year, in the preface to which Mrs. Sutherland records her transfer
of the collection. She adds that 'the University of Oxford, by
the manner in which it has received the collection, has afforded
her the high gratification of witnessing the fulfilment, in their
utmost extent, of the wishes of its founder; and in the liberal
step which its future conservators have taken, to insure a direct
and easy means of reference to the prints, she finds proof of their
intention to comply with her own earnest desire, that the books
should be as freely open to those really interested in them as
may be consistent with their safe preservation. Under the superintendence
of the compiler, but at the expense of the University,
a copy of the Catalogue has been prepared, in which every print
is marked with the page which it respectively fills in the volumes;
by means of this, every difficulty of reference, and every doubt
as to the print intended to be described, is obviated, and the
manuscript indices will be preserved from the injury of constant
use. In order to prevent the possibility of disappointment in
referring from this marked catalogue, every print (with four exceptions
only) of which the page has not been ascertained, has been
struck out, although probably several of the portraits not at present
found are still in the volumes.' The following letter of thanks
was addressed by Convocation to the donor[335]:—
'To Mrs. Sutherland, of Merrow, in the County of Surrey.
'Madam,—We, the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the
University of Oxford, feel ourselves called upon to acknowledge,
in a public and formal manner, the splendid donation recently
made by you to our Bodleian Library.
'It is doubtless a source of much gratification to us that our
University should have been selected by you as the fittest depository
of so valuable a collection; but we are not, on that
account, less disposed to appreciate and admire the feeling which
has led you to make so considerable a sacrifice, and to relinquish
the possession of what has been to you, for many years, an object
of constant interest and occupation.
'We shall prize the matchless volumes about to be committed
to our care, not merely as being embellished with the richest
specimens of the graphic art, but as possessing a real historical
character; as enhancing, in no slight degree, the value of works
which we have long been accustomed to regard as most important
contributions to the annals and literature of our Country.
'Given at our House of Convocation, under our Common
Seal, this first day of June, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven[336].'
A few other books were sent by Mrs. Sutherland at the same
time, including Boydell's Shakespeare, Heath's Chronicle, Scott's
edition of Dalrymple's Preservation of Charles II, Faber's Kit-Cat
Club, Wilson's Catalogue of an Amateur, &c. And in 1843 she
increased her former gift by the presentation of copies of a large
number of illustrated, biographical, and historical works, many of
which are in a like manner enriched with additional engravings.
Chief amongst these is a copy of Park's edition of Walpole's Royal
and Noble Authors, enlarged from five vols. 8o. to 20 vols. 4o. by
the insertion of prints, portraits, and some of the original drawings.
Similarly enlarged copies of Dr. Dibdin's works are also included;
together with framed oil-portraits of Frederic, King of Bohemia,
and of Mr. Sutherland.
A curious collection of rare Dutch tracts, in two vols., printed
at Amsterdam between 1637 and 1664, and relating to English,
Irish, and Scottish affairs, chiefly during the Civil Wars, was
bought for £2 13s. And an enormous gathering of English
pamphlets, on every kind of subject, in prose and verse, between
about 1600 and 1820, said to number 19,380 articles, and which
had accumulated in the stores of the well-known bookseller,
Mr. Thomas Rodd, was bought of him for £101 14s. 6d. These
exceeding, from their number, the powers of the then very slender
staff of the Library for arrangement and cataloguing, remained
piled up in cupboards for about twenty-five years. But a general
clearance out of all neglected corners taking place on the appointment
of the present Librarian to the Headship, they were then
sorted (to a certain extent), bound, numbered, and incorporated
in the general Catalogue; when they proved to be a valuable
addition to the pamphlet-literature, comparatively few of them
being found to be duplicates.
Shakespeare; Romeo and Juliet. See 1834.
Sanscrit MSS. See 1842.
A grant was made by Convocation of £400 annually, for five
years, towards the expense of the new Catalogue, the printing
of which was commenced in the summer. A statute also was
passed providing that there should be two 'ministri,' or assistants,
with salaries regulated by the Curators.
The Rev. Herbert Hill, M.A., Fellow of New College, was
approved by Convocation, on Oct. 26, as Sub-librarian, in the
room of Mr. Cureton, who removed in this year to the British
Museum. Mr. Hill, however, only held the office for one year. And
Mr. Richard Firth, New College (B.A. 1839, M.A. 1849, now, and
from 1850, a Chaplain in the diocese of Madras), became minister
in the room of Mr. F. J. Marshall, New College (B.A. 1834, M.A.
1837, Chaplain of New College, deceased 1843), who had probably
entered the Library in 1834 in the place of Mr. Etty.
One of the 'curiosities of literature' was obtained by the purchase
(for £10 10s.) of the System of Divinity, in a Course of
Sermons on the first Institutions of Religion, by Rev. Will. Davy,
A.B., Vicar of Lustleigh, Devon. It is a work in twenty-six
volumes, of which only fourteen copies were printed, entirely by
the hands of the indefatigable author himself, between the years
1795 and 1807. It is very roughly executed, the author having
purchased only just so much old and worn-out type, as sufficed
for the printing of two pages at once; accomplishing in this way
the work upon which he had set his heart, 'arte meâ, diurno
nocturnoque labore' (as he says in a Latin preface), in consequence
of having failed to procure in any other way the publication
of his book. The copy in our Library is distinguished by
having many additions inserted, printed (in many cases with later
and better type) upon small slips[337].
A set of the Monthly Review, from the commencement to
1828, in 200 volumes, in which the names of the contributors
are appended in MS. to their several articles, together with a
volume of Correspondence with the Editor, Ralph Griffiths, LL.D.,
between 1758 and 1802 (now numbered Bodl. MS. Addit. VII.
D. 11), was bought for £42.
Among the donations were: 1. A collection of twenty-one
Oriental works, printed between 1808-1835 by the East India
Company, presented by the Directors, and, 2. A valuable series,
MS. and printed, of the Statutes of various Italian cities, presented
by George Bowyer, Esq. (the present baronet, who succeeded
to the title in 1860), who also in the years 1839, 1842,
and 1843, forwarded large additions to the printed series. These
volumes are now kept distinct as a separate collection. Altogether
there are seventy-eight printed volumes, besides four MSS.
On Nov. 15, a Statute was approved by Convocation which
raised the stipend of the Sub-librarians from £150 to £250.
From the year 1825 an annual folio Catalogue had been printed,
containing, in one list, all the accessions accruing in each year
from purchases, gifts, and the supply of new publications from
Stationers' Hall. The issue of these lists was discontinued after
the appearance of that for the years 1837 and 1838 jointly;
except that in 1843 one for that year was printed in octavo.
A form of declaration and promise for due use of the privilege
of admission to the Library, to be made by all graduates upon
taking their first degree, in lieu of the oath formerly required,
was approved by Convocation, on June 9[338]. In accordance with this
form, which is still used, each graduate now promises: 'Me libros
cæterumque cultum sic tractaturum ut superesse quam diutissime
possint, et, quantum in me est, curaturum ne quid Bibliotheca
detrimenti aut incommodi capiat.' The same declaration is subscribed
in the Library by all non-graduates who are admitted
to read there, with the addition of a promise that they will devote
their attention 'ad studia et silentium.' The statutable penalty
for any wilful mutilation or abstraction of any book, or portion
of a book, is immediate expulsion from the Library and University,
'sine ulla spe regressûs.'
On the resignation of Rev. H. Hill, Sub-librarian, in this year,
he was succeeded by Rev. H. O. Coxe, M.A., of Worcester
College, who had previously worked for five years and a-half
in the Department of MSS. in the British Museum[339]. Mr. Coxe's
nomination was approved by Convocation on Nov. 16.
An application was made by Magdalen College for the return
of a copy of the Statutes of the College, found among the Rawlinson
MSS., but it was refused by the Curators, on the ground
that sufficient evidence was not produced of its having ever been
the property of the College.
Ninety specimens of the Aldine press, together with other
volumes chiefly printed at Venice by A. de Asula, were purchased
at the sale of the library of Dr. Samuel Butler, Bishop
of Lichfield. From the same library was purchased, in the following
year, a collection of portions of more than twenty of the
very earliest editions of Donatus' De Octo Partibus Orationis, many
of which were unknown; these had previously come from the
library of Dr. Kloss. A ninth-century MS. of St. Gregory's
Sacramentary was purchased for £63; and early MSS. of Juvenal,
Lucan, &c. A fine and perfect copy of Caxton's Dictes and
Sayinges of the Philosophres, printed in 1477, was purchased for
£50. It had previously been sold, at Dr. Vincent's sale in 1816,
for £99 15s.; this sum, which is marked in pencil on a fly-leaf,
having been altered by some practical joker, by the insertion of a
figure, to £199 15s., Mr. Blades has in consequence recorded
that as being the price at which the Library secured the volume[340].
The Rev. Rob. J. M'Ghee, Rector of Holywell, Hunts, deposited
in the Bodleian (as also in the University Library, Cambridge,
and in that of Trinity College, Dublin,) a collection of
thirty-one volumes relating to the controversy with the Church
of Rome, and to the Moral Theology taught at Maynooth.
The volumes consist of editions of the Douay and Rheims
versions, of some Irish diocesan Statutes, of Bailly's Theologia
Moralis, and Delahogue's Dogmatic Treatises, and of various
Irish polemical pamphlets; and they are enclosed in a mahogany
case, with glass door. In consequence of reference having been
made to this collection by the donor, at a County Meeting held
at Huntingdon, Dec. 28, 1850, upon the occasion of the 'Papal
Aggression,' some slight degree of public attention was called to
it; and a controversial volume was in consequence published
by Mr. M'Ghee, in 1852, entitled, The Church of Rome; a Report
on the Books and Documents on the Papacy, deposited in the University
Library, Cambridge, &c.
Shakespeare; Richard III and Hamlet. See 1834.
The first non-academic minister was appointed in Mr. H. S.
Harper (vice Mr. Firth), of whose valuable services and acquaintance
with details the Library still enjoys the benefit. Mr. Harper
had acted for three years previously as an under-assistant.
The very large and valuable MS. collections of the Rev. John
Brickdale Blakeway, relating to the history of Shropshire, were
presented by his widow. Mr. Blakeway was minister of St. Mary's
Church, Shrewsbury, for thirty-two years, and died March 10,
1826. He was long engaged in gathering materials for a county
history, and his collections now form fifteen closely-written volumes
in folio, nine in quarto, and two in octavo, arranged, and lettered
on their backs, according to their several subjects, viz. Pedigrees,
County History, Parochial History, &c. A list of them is given
at the end of the Annual Catalogue. They were supplemented
in 1850 by the purchase (for £42) of a copy of Mr. T. F.
Dukes' Antiquities of Shropshire (4o. Shrewsbury, 1844), divided
into two large volumes, and enriched by the author with many
MS. additions and copies of ancient deeds, and with upwards of
700 portraits and original drawings of churches, fonts, &c. relating
to almost every parish in the county. As Mr. Blakeway's collections
are not accompanied with engravings or drawings, these
volumes largely assist to make the materials for the history of this
county complete.
A parcel of 136 early French and Anglo-Saxon coins was presented
by Her Majesty the Queen, out of a mass of upwards of
6700 which were found in digging at the bank of the river Ribble,
at Cuerdale, in Lancashire, and were adjudged to belong to Her
Majesty in right of the Duchy of Lancaster. The largest part
of the Saxon coins were of the reigns of S. Edmund of East
Anglia (in number 1770) and of Alfred (793); of the Continental,
of Charles le Chauve (712) and, apparently, of Charles
le Simple (2942).
Some rare and interesting books issued by English printers
about the middle of the sixteenth century were acquired in this
year; among them, the Boke of Common Prayer, printed by Oswen,
at Worcester, in 1552, bought for the very moderate sum of
£3 16s. Two rare American Psalters were purchased, the one
called The Massachuset Psalter, printed at Boston in 1709, for £2,
and the other, the Psalms in blank verse with tunes, printed at
Boston in 1718, for £1 19s.
Shakespeare, Henry VI. See 1834.
American Tracts. See 1836.
Donatus. See 1840.
The hitherto somewhat narrow funds of the Library received in
this year a welcome increase by the bequest of the large sum of
£36,000 in the Three per Cents. from Rev. Robert Mason, D.D.,
of Queen's College, deceased Jan. 5. He bequeathed also a
further sum of £30,000 for a new library to his own College. In
commemoration of this munificent legacy, one room, devoted to
the reception of costly illustrated works, and works of some degree
of value or rarity in various languages, has been styled the Mason
Room (see p. 251). The elegant model of the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, now exhibited in the Library, came
by his bequest, together with a painting of the Zodiac of
Tentyra, in Egypt, which is hung in the Picture Gallery.
Seven Sanscrit MSS. had been given to the Library in 1837 by
B. H. Hodgson, Esq., the British Resident in Nepaul, before which
time there were but a very few works in that language scattered
through some of the various Oriental collections, and most of them
recently acquired[341]. But in this year the real foundation of the
present very large and valuable collection was laid, by the purchase
for £500 of the MSS. obtained by Professor H. H. Wilson (dec.
May 8, 1860) during his residence in India, numbering 616 works
and 540 volumes, of which 147 are MSS. of the Vedas. A brief
list of them is attached to the Annual Catalogue for 1842, and the
whole are fully described in the catalogue of the Sanscrit MSS.,
compiled by Theod. Aufrecht, M.A., now Professor of Sanscrit in
the Univ. of Edinburgh, the second and last part of which was
published in 1864. The greater part of Mr. Wilson's collection
consists of MSS. written in the last and present centuries.
Some small collections towards the history of Cheshire,
made by Rev. F. Gower, were purchased in this year and
in 1846.
In printed books the chief purchase was a copy (at the price of
fifty guineas) of the original and hitherto unknown edition of the
poems of Drummond, of Hawthornden. It is in quarto, with a
portrait, having the letter-press only on one side of the page,
and was printed at Edinburgh by Andro Hart in 1614. There
are three or four small corrections in Drummond's own handwriting[342].
Bowyer. Italian Municipal Statutes. See 1838.
Laing. Almanac by W. de Worde. See 1755.
Old Plays. See 1834.
In March, Mr. J. B. Taunton, All Souls' College (B.A. 1843,
M.A. 1848), was appointed Assistant vice Mr. F. E. Thurland,
New College (B.A. 1841, M.A. 1846, now Rector of Thurstaston,
Cheshire), who was made an extra, in the place of Mr. Symonds,
resigned. Mr. Thurland had, probably, succeeded Mr. Grove in
1838 or 1839.
The stipend of the Librarian was increased by £150, by a
statute which passed on May 6. By the same statute an annual
payment was ordered of £20 to the Janitor, in lieu of fees hitherto
taken for showing the Library or Picture Gallery to Members of
the University. These, undergraduates as well as graduates, have
now, if wearing their academical dress, the right of free entrance
for themselves and friends; other visitors are admitted, by a regulation
made five or six years ago, at the very moderate fee of
threepence each person. (See p. 134.)
The valuable collection of Oriental MSS. formed by the celebrated
traveller, James Bruce, of Kinnaird, was purchased for
£1000. It consists of ninety-six volumes, of which twenty-six are
in Ethiopic, and seventy in Arabic; there is also one Coptic MS.
on papyrus. Included in vol. iv. of an Ethiopic copy of the Old
Testament is one of the three copies of the Book of Enoch, which
were brought by Bruce from Abyssinia, and which were then (if
they be not even still) the only manuscripts of the book to be
found in Europe. One of the three had been given by Bruce
himself to the University, in 1788, through the hands of Dr. Douglas,
Bishop of Salisbury; it is written on forty leaves of vellum, in
triple columns, and is now exhibited in the glass case near the
entrance of the Library. It was from this MS. that Dr. Laurence,
afterwards Archbishop of Cashel, first made the translation which
he published in 1821, and then subsequently, in 1838, published
the original text. The second copy ('elegantissimum et celeberrimum')
was given by Bruce to Louis XVI, and is now in the
Imperial Library at Paris. By the purchase of the third, the
Bodleian is, therefore, the possessor of two out of the three.
Two unsuccessful attempts had previously been made to dispose
of the collection by auction. It was first announced for sale by
Mr. Christie, for May 17, 1827, to be disposed of in one lot; and
a list was issued, abridged from the catalogue made by Dr. Alex.
Murray, the editor of Bruce's Travels. The issue of this proposed
sale is recorded by Douce in the following MS. note on his copy
of the auction catalogue: 'These MSS. were put in by the owner
at £5500, and after an elaborate eulogium on them by Mr. Christie,
no bidding or advance took place, and they were of course withdrawn.
Had the owner offered them for £500, I should think the
same result would have happened.' The second attempt was made
in 1842, when the MSS. were offered for sale by Mr. George
Robins, on May 30, but it appears that even all the eloquence of
that most moving of auctioneers failed to elicit a bid corresponding
to the expectation of the seller; and so the collection fortunately
remained intact, to be disposed of to our Library in the year
following.
A catalogue of the Ethiopic MSS. of the collection was issued
in a small quarto volume (eighty-seven pages), in 1848, as part vii.
of the General Catalogue of MSS. It was compiled by a German
scholar, well acquainted with this branch of Oriental literature,
Dr. A. Dillmann, and contains, besides Bruce's books, three of
Pococke's MSS., one of Laud's, one of Clarke's, and three others;
in all thirty-five.
Valuable materials for the history of Devon were secured by the
purchase (for £90) of the collections made for that purpose by
Jeremiah Milles, D.D., Dean of Exeter, and Pres. of the Soc. of
Antiquaries. The library of Dean Milles (who died Feb. 13,
1784) was sold by auction by Mr. Leigh Sotheby, in April;
and these collections, comprised in eighteen volumes in folio,
one in quarto, and one in octavo, formed a principal feature in
the sale.
In this year the new Catalogue of the general Library of printed
books, exclusive of the Gough and Douce libraries, and the collections
of Hebrew books and Dissertations, of which already special
catalogues were in print, was completed and published in three
folio volumes. It had been commenced in the year 1837, and was
prepared by the Rev. Arthur Browne, M.A., Chaplain of Ch. Ch.
(now a retired Chaplain of the Royal Navy), whose share comprises
the letters P-R, and the commencement of S; the
Rev. Henry Cary, M.A. (son of the Translator of Dante, then
Incumbent of St. Paul's, Oxford, but now, by returning to his
previous profession of the Law, a barrister in Australia), who is
responsible for the letters F-K, and part of L; and Rev. Alfred
Hackman, M.A., Chaplain and Precentor of Ch. Ch., and now
Sub-librarian, who completed the greater part of it, viz. the letters
A-E, L (from London)-O, S (from Shakespeare)-Z. The whole
charges of the printing of the Catalogue amounted to £2990 12s.[343];
the previous cost of compilation was about £2000.
Bowyer. Italian Municipal Statutes. See 1838.
Sutherland. Illustrated Books. See 1839.
Sir William Ouseley, the editor of the three volumes entitled
Oriental Collections (brother to Sir Gore Ouseley, whom he accompanied
when he went as ambassador to Persia in 1810), gathered,
during some forty years spent in accumulation, about 750 Oriental
MSS., chiefly in Persian, but including also a few in Arabic,
Sanscrit, Zend, &c. Of these, in 1831 a catalogue (in 24 pp.
quarto) was issued by the owner, who wished to dispose of them
collectively, but no purchaser was then found, and they consequently
remained in Sir William's possession. After his death,
however (in Sept. 1842), they were again proposed for sale
en masse, and the Library became a purchaser in this year for the
sum of £2000. Many of the volumes are specimens of the best
styles of Persian writing and illumination, while others are of great
antiquity and rarity. The printed Oriental collection was also
increased by various works printed in the East Indies in 1830-1839,
which were presented by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and
by some Sanscrit and Mahratta books given by Rev. G. Pigott,
Chaplain at Bombay.
This year is rendered noticeable in the later annals of the
Library by the fact that not a single MS. was purchased during
its course. But a very valuable collection of Arabic, Persian and
Sanscrit MSS. formed by Brigadier Gen. Alex. Walker, during his
service in India, was presented by his son, Sir Will. Walker, of
Edinburgh[344]. These are kept as a distinct collection, like other
donations or purchases of similar extent; the Sanscrit portion is
described in the catalogue compiled by Prof. Aufrecht. The collection
of printed Hebrew books was increased by the purchase
(for £176 14s. 6d.) of 483 volumes from the library of the celebrated
lexicographer, Gesenius, of Halle, who died Oct. 23, 1842,
and whose library was sold by auction at Halle, in Jan. 1844.
Two curious collections of tracts were also bought; the one in
English consisting of 300 volumes, ranging from 1688 to 1766,
and chiefly treating of the case of the Non-jurors, the Bangorian
controversy, and the affairs of the city of London (for £22 10s.);
and the other in French, consisting only of four small volumes,
but containing a very large number of 'Merveilles,' strange histories
of strange wonders, between 1557 and 1637, of great rarity and
singularity. These were obtained at the sale of the library of
Mr. Benj. Heywood Bright, No. 3796, for £13.
On Dec. 23, the present writer (then a Clerk of Magdalen College)
was appointed Assistant, vice Mr. Taunton, after upwards of
five years' previous service as a supernumerary, having first entered
the Library in June, 1840.
The original MS., or first copy, of Wood's History and Antiquities
of Oxford, in English, was purchased for the moderate
sum of £8 8s. Already the Library possessed the corrected copy,
in the author's autograph, in two large folio volumes, which had
formed part of his collection in the Ashmolean Museum, but were
transferred to the Bodleian as early as the year 1769. The
volume now obtained had been in the possession of Edw. Roberts,
Esq., of Ealing, a letter to whom from Mr. Joseph Parker, of
Oxford, is inserted, dated July 4, 1827, in which he mentions the
sale of the book to Mr. B. Roberts, and says that it was purchased
at a sale at Burford, in 1797 or 1798.
A curious and valuable account-roll of Sir John Williams, Knt.,
Master of the Jewels to Henry VIII, which specifies all the treasures
which were in his custody, was bought for £25[345].
The department of Italian topography, antiquities and art was
largely enriched by the purchase from Rev. R. A. Scott (for
£234 6s.) of a collection of 1426 volumes made by his brother
the late George C. Scott, Esq., during ten years' residence in
Italy.
Dissertations. See 1828.
Gower's Cheshire. See 1842.
Thorkelin. See 1828.
A valuable MS. of Star-Chamber Reports, from June 17, 1635,
to June 4, 1638, was purchased for £11. Several similar volumes
of Reports are among the Rawlinson MSS. Two curious collections
of pamphlets were bought; the one consisting of tracts,
broadsides and proclamations relating to the Gunpowder Plot,
made by H. Glynn, Under-secretary of State (£12 10s.); the
other, a series of State special Forms of Prayer, from 1665 to
1840 (£10 10s.)
Works relating to the history of America, in which the
Library is now very rich, begin in this year to form a specially
noticeable feature in the catalogue of purchases. Many rare
tracts had been of old in the Library, but much of the completeness
of the present collection is due to the energy of the well-known
American bibliophilist, Henry Stevens, Esq.
A collection of Hebrew MSS., numbering 862 volumes and
nearly 1300 separate works, was purchased at Hamburgh for
£1030. It had been amassed by Heimann Joseph Michael (born
Apr. 12, 1792, deceased June 10, 1846), who had devoted thirty
years to the formation of his library. One hundred and ten
vellum MSS. are included in it, written for the most part between
1240 and 1450. Michael's printed books amounted to 5471;
these were purchased by the British Museum. A short catalogue
of the collection, drawn up from the owner's papers, was issued
at Hamburgh in 1848, with a preface by Dr. L. Zunz, and an
index to the MSS. by Dr. M. Steinschneider. They will ere long
be re-catalogued, together with all the other Hebrew MSS. in
the Library, by Dr. Neubauer, who has now, in the present year,
commenced his important task.
The valuable collection of Oriental MSS. formed by Rev. W.
H. Mill, D.D., Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, during
his residence in India as Principal of Bishop's College, Calcutta,
was purchased from him for £350. A small remaining portion
of his collection, comprising thirty-six volumes, was bought in
1858, after his death, for £35. In all there are 160 volumes, of
which 145 are in Sanscrit. These latter are fully described in
Prof. Aufrecht's Sanscrit Catalogue.
The chief purchases of printed books were made at the sale at
Berlin, in May, of the library of Professor C. F. G. Jacobs, the editor
of the Anthologia Græca (who died March 30, 1847), whence a large
number of classical dissertations, many of them authors' presentation
copies, were obtained[346], and at the sale of the library of Rev.
Hen. Francis Lyte (deceased 1847) which took place in July. A
collection of 360 sermons, published by Non-juring divines between
1688 and 1750, is an interesting item in the year's list; another is
a copy of Pliny's Historia Naturalis, printed at Rome by Sweynheym
and Pannartz in 1473, with a MS. collation of three very
early codices made by Ang. Politian in 1490, which was bought
for £21, at an extremely curious sale at Messrs. Leigh Sotheby's,
in Feb., of books 'selected from the library of an eminent literary
character' (M. Libri?).
The two statutable Assistants at this time and for one or two
years previously were Mr. J. M. Price, All Souls' College (B.A.
1849, M.A. 1852, now Vicar of Cuddington, Bucks,) and Mr. W.
W. Garrett, New College (B.A. 1849). The former of these was
succeeded about 1850, by the last undergraduate Assistant, Mr. J.
C. Hyatt, Magd. Hall (B.A. 1852, now Perp. Curate of Queenshead,
Yorkshire). Since then, in consequence of the difficulty of
reconciling attendance on College lectures, &c. with attention to the
continually increasing work of the Library, the junior Assistants
have been taken from the City instead of from the undergraduate
members of the University, as had been generally the case hitherto.
In pursuance of an address from the House of Commons,
Sept. 4, 1848, on the motion of Mr. Ewart, various returns
relative to public libraries were obtained, which were printed by
Parliament in 1849, State Paper, No. 18. The following is the
reply from Dr. Bandinel there printed:—
'Bodleian Library,
'January 9, 1849.
'Sir,—In compliance with your letter, dated Oct. 27, 1848,
desiring certain Returns respecting the Bodleian Library, I have
to state—
'1. As to the number of books received under the various Copyright
Acts, no distinct register of the books so received has been
kept, but they have, at the end of each year, been incorporated
into the general collection, so that I am unable to give the number
of the books so received.
'2. The number of printed volumes in the Bodleian Library
amounts to about 220,000; but this statement will very inadequately
express the real extent of the collection, as so many works
have been bound together in one volume.
'3. The number of manuscripts is about 21,000.
'4. All graduates of the University have the right of admission
to the Library; other persons must apply for admission to the
regular authorities.
'5. No register is kept of persons consulting the Library;
accordingly, the number of students who have frequented it during
the last ten years cannot be ascertained.
'I have, &c.
'BULKELEY BANDINEL,
'Bodleian Librarian.
'George Cornewall Lewis, Esq.,
'Under-Secretary of State, Whitehall.'
The estimate of printed volumes here given is believed to be
as nearly accurate as it was possible to make it, as considerable
pains were taken in forming the calculation. The number of
separate printed books and tracts may be reckoned as at least
treble the number of volumes. With regard to the reply to the
fifth enquiry some explanation is requisite. A register is kept
of all the octavo and most of the quarto volumes taken out for
readers, of all the volumes from special and separate collections,
and of all the MSS.; but no account is kept of the folios and
other books on the ground-floor of the great room, which are
accessible to readers themselves, and frequently used by them
without the help of the assistants. Consequently, any return of
the number of readers entered on the register would not adequately
represent the whole number of students who use the
Library, although, of course, it would, with a margin for allowance,
afford a very fair approximation. No record, however, of separate
visits of readers is kept, as distinct from the books required; so
that although a reader may be at work for days or weeks together,
yet, if he continue to use only the same books, one entry alone
will be made of his name.
The Hebrew collection was still further increased in this year
by the purchase of sixty-two MSS., of which fifty-seven had been
brought from Italy; and in 1851, by the purchase of some printed
books collected by Dr. Isaac L. Auerbach, of Berlin, who had
recently deceased. Every year about this time[347] saw additions to
this branch of the Library, made chiefly through the agency of
the late Mr. Asher, the well-known Jewish bookseller of Berlin,
and also through the late Hirsch Edelmann, a learned Rabbi,
who was for years a frequent reader in the Bodleian, from
whence he commenced the publication of a series of extracts (see
under the year 1693). Mr. Edelmann died a few years since in
Germany. A series of works illustrating the history, civil and
ecclesiastical, the geography, &c. of Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia,
and other neighbouring provinces of the Austrian Empire,
amounting to 400 volumes, was purchased for £78; and a similar
but much larger collection, relating to the history of Poland,
numbering no fewer than 1200 volumes, was purchased for £366.
Three hundred and twenty volumes of early printed works, some of
which were fine specimens of incunabula, were obtained at the sale
of the duplicates from the Royal Library at Munich. It was announced
at the end of the Annual Catalogue that a special list of
these, together with a catalogue of the Hebrew MSS. noticed
above, and of the Hungarian and Polish collections, would be
printed and circulated in the following year; this, however, was
not done.
A series of 600 English sermons, printed between 1600 and
1720, bound separately, was purchased for £59.
Various specimens of the first beginning of printing in one of
the Friendly Islands, Vavau, consisting of the Bible in the Tonga
language, and of several elementary books, were presented by
Capt. Sir Jas. Everard Home, R.N. as also some elementary
books printed at Apea by the natives, under the direction of
the Missionaries, for the use of the natives of the Navigators'
Islands.
Dukes' Shropshire Collections. See 1841.
At the sale of the books of the poet Gray, by Messrs. Sotheby
and Wilkinson, on Aug. 28, his copies of Clarendon and of
Burnet's Own Times (vol. i.), with many MSS. notes written by him
in the margins, were bought for £49 10s. and £2 18s. respectively[348].
Perfect specimens of facsimiles, which would defy detection,
were obtained for the completion of the Library copy of
Coverdale's Bible; being pen-and-ink copies of the title, from
Lord Leicester's copy, and of the map of Palestine, from Lord
Jersey's copy, executed with admirable skill by the late well-known
facsimilist, Mr. J. Harris.
A Supplemental Catalogue of the printed books, comprehending
all the accessions which had been made during the years
1835-1847, was published in this year, in one folio volume, under
the editorship of the Rev. Alfred Hackman, M.A., by whom the
greater part of the earlier Catalogue had been compiled, as mentioned
at p. 268.
On March 27, Convocation voted an addition of £50 per annum
to the stipends of the Sub-librarians.
Recovery of Pococke MS. 32. See p. 81.
Malone's Correspondence. See p. 232.
In the Report of the University Commission, which was issued
in this year, various suggestions were embodied which had been
made by several witnesses. Sir Edmund Head renewed his plan
of allowing books to be taken out of the Library by readers,
and was supported by the opinions of Professors Wall and
Jowett; but the proposal was met with the strong counter-testimony
of Mr. H. E. Strickland[349], Prof. Vaughan, Dr. W. A. Greenhill
(at that time a constant reader in the Library), Prof. Donkin,
Mr. E. S. Foulkes, and others. And the Commissioners were
not prepared to report in favour of a plan which would at once
lessen what was described as being one of the great advantages
of the place, namely, the certainty of finding within its walls
every book which it possessed. At the same time, they were
disposed to recommend a relaxation in some instances of the
strictness of the rule, and concurred in a suggestion made by
Dr. Macbride and Mr. Storey Maskelyne, that duplicates should
be allowed to circulate. Most, however, of the suggestions for
extension of facilities to readers, as well as of the reasons alleged
for alteration of system, have now been answered by the opening
(through the liberality of the Radcliffe Trustees) of the Radcliffe
Library as a noble reading-room for both day and evening.
As the hours during which the Library may be used extend
now, in consequence of this addition, from nine a.m. to ten p.m.,
it is at once apparent that the Bodleian presents greater advantages
to students than can anywhere else be enjoyed; to which
is to be added the readiness and quickness (specially testified to,
in 1852, by Dr. Greenhill) with which, under all ordinary circumstances,
readers are supplied with the books which they
require. The Commissioners in their Report called attention
to a suggestion of Sir Henry Bishop, then Professor of Music,
for the establishment of a classified musical library, which
should comprehend, not merely the music received by the Bodleian
from Stationers' Hall, but all superior foreign music as well,
of every school and every age. Such collections the Professor
said were only to be found at Munich and Vienna.
The Report and Evidence upon the recommendations of the
Commissioners, which were issued by the Hebdomadal Board
in the following year, did not differ widely in testimony or suggestions
from those of the Commission. Dr. Pusey and Mr. Marriott
agreed in deprecating the allowing removal of books, speaking
(as did several of the witnesses before the Commission) from
actual experience as constant readers in the place; and Dr.
Bandinel mentioned, in a paper of observations which he contributed,
the fact that he had been told by the Librarian of the
Advocates' Library at Edinburgh that between 6,000 and 7,000
volumes appeared to have been lost there from the facilities
afforded to borrowers. A comparative tabular statement respecting
the arrangements and rules of the libraries at Berlin, Dresden,
Florence, Munich, Paris and Vienna, drawn up by Mr. Coxe
from the Parliamentary Report on Libraries, which showed very
favourably in behalf of the Bodleian, was subjoined by Dr.
Bandinel to his evidence.
The great feature of this year was the acquisition of the Italian
Library of the Count Alessandro Mortara, consisting of about
1400 volumes, choice in character and condition, for £1000.
The Count, who was distinguished for his literary taste and
knowledge of the literature of his own country, had, although
holding the nominal office of Grand Chamberlain to the Duke of
Lucca, taken up his abode in Oxford some ten years previously,
on account of his desire to examine the Canonici MSS. and of
his friendship with Dr. Wellesley, the late Principal of New Inn
Hall. He became a daily reader in the Bodleian, where the
interest which he took in the place, together with his polished,
yet genuine, courtesy, made him a welcome and popular visitor.
It was upon returning to Italy (where he died, June 14, 1855, at
Florence), that he disposed of his valuable collection. A catalogue,
compiled by himself, with occasional short notes, was
issued with the purchase-catalogue for the year. He also drew
up a catalogue of the Italian MSS. in the Canonici collection,
which was published, in a quarto volume, in 1864. (See under
1817.)
Among miscellaneous purchases were a few volumes which
were wanted to make the Library set of De Bry's Voyages
complete, an imperfect copy of the Oxford Liber Festivalis (see
1691), and a large collection of Dr. Priestley's writings (believed
to have been made by himself), in thirty-nine vols.
A portion of the collection of Hebrew MSS. formed by Prof.
Isaac Sam. Reggio, at Goritz, amounting to about seventy-two
volumes, was purchased for £108. Many other MSS. in this
class of literature occur yearly in the accounts at this time. But
the great acquisition of 1853 was the Breviarium secundum regulam
beati Ysidori, dictum Mozarabes, printed on vellum at Toledo,
by command of Cardinal Ximenes, in 1502. £200 were
given for this book, which is the only vellum copy known, and
which is in most immaculate condition. It is of extreme rarity
even on paper, as it is believed that only thirty-five copies were
printed.
An imperfect copy of Caxton's Chronicle, 1480, was bought
for £21; and a large gathering of Norfolk tracts was obtained at
the sale of Mr. Dawson Turner's library.
It was in this year that Dr. Constantine Simonides visited the
Library in the hope of disposing of some of the products of his
Eastern ingenuity, but failed here, as also at the British Museum,
although successful in most other quarters. It is much to be
lamented that the talent and ability which he undoubtedly possessed
in no small degree were devoted to such unworthy purpose
as his history discloses. The story of his interview with
Mr. Coxe, then Sub-librarian, is well known, and was reproduced
in an article in the Cornhill Magazine for Oct. 1867 (p. 499); and
as the version there given appears to be substantially correct, it will
be sufficient to borrow it from its pages:—
'On visiting the [Bodleian Library, Mr. Simonides] showed some
fragments of MSS. to Mr. Coxe, who assented to their belonging
to the twelfth century. "And these, Mr. Coxe, belong to the
tenth or eleventh century?" "Yes, probably." "And now,
Mr. Coxe, let me show you a very ancient and valuable MS.
I have for sale, and which ought to be in your Library. To what
century do you consider this belongs?" "This, Mr. Simonides,
I have no doubt," said Mr. Coxe, "belongs to the [latter half of
the] nineteenth century." The Greek and his MS. disappeared.'
An account of this visit was given in the Athenæum for March
1, 1856, and a full narrative, including a letter from Sir F. Madden
respecting the dealings with Simonides on the part of the British
Museum, is to be found in S. L. Sotheby's Principia Typographica,
vol. ii. pp. 133-136f[350].
A very interesting series of eighteen autograph letters from
Henry Hyde, the second Earl of Clarendon, was presented to
the University by 'our honoured Lord and Chancellor,' the Earl
of Derby[351]. They are best described in the following letter to
the Vice-Chancellor, which accompanied the gift, and which is
now bound in the same volume:—
'Knowsley, Oct. 17, 1854.
'My Dear Sir,—In looking over some old papers here the
other day, I found (how they came here I know not) some
original and apparently autograph letters, which appeared to
me to be curious. They are private letters, addressed by
Lord Clarendon, to the Earl of Abingdon, as Lord Lieutenant
of Oxfordshire, during, and on the suppression of, the Duke
of Monmouth's Rebellion. I have no doubt of their genuineness;
and if from the connexion of the University with the
writer[352], as well as the locality, you think they would be worth
depositing in the Bodleian Library, I shall have great pleasure
in offering them to the acceptance of the University for that
purpose; and in that case would send with them a miniature
pencil drawing of the Duke of Monmouth, which is not too large
to be let into the cover of the portfolio which should contain the
letters, and for the authenticity of which I can so far vouch
that it has been in this house since 1729, at least; since it appears
in a catalogue of the pictures and engravings here which formed
the collection at that time.
'I am, my dear sir,
'Yours sincerely,
'DERBY.'
The portrait in question, which is a beautifully executed drawing,
in an oak frame, marked on the back, 'Duke of Monmouth, by
Foster,' is now fixed, as desired, in the present morocco binding
of the volume.
A collection of early editions of the Prayer-Book (including
Whitchurch's May and June editions of 1549 and that of 1552),
of the Metrical Psalter, and of Visitation Articles (amongst others,
Edward the Sixth's Articles of 1547, and Injunctions of the same
year), with a few miscellaneous books, was bought of the Rev.
T. Lathbury, M.A., the well-known writer on English Church
history, for £300. Various rare English books were purchased
at Mr. Pickering's sale, and foreign dissertations, &c. at that of
the library of Professor Godfrey Hermann, the Greek editor
and commentator (who died Dec. 31, 1848), at Leipsic, in April.
Three Greek Biblical MSS. of great antiquity were obtained
from the collection of Prof. Tischendorf, being Nos. 3-5 of the
volumes described in a small quarto catalogue issued (anonymously)
by him of Codices Græci, &c. One of these three is of the ninth
century, containing the Gospel of St. Luke, with portions of the
other Gospels, which was bought for £125; another of the eighth
century, containing the whole of St. Luke and St. John, bought for
£140; the third, also of the eighth century, containing the greatest
part of Genesis, for £108.
Rev. T. R. Brown's Dictionary, &c. printed by himself. See
1838.
A volume containing two autograph letters of Luther was
bought for £20, together with a large collection of printed books
(formed by — Schneider, of Berlin,) relating to him and the German
Reformation, with various editions of his works, for £300.
Another volume, with some small additional papers in the
Reformer's hand, was subsequently obtained.
The ever-increasing Bible collection received the addition of the
very rare ed. princ. of the Bohemian Bible, printed at Prague in
1488, which was obtained for £17 10s., and a still more rare
edition of the Pentateuch, with New Test., &c. printed at Wittemberg
in 1529, obtained for eighteen guineas. A Roman Missal,
printed 'ad longum, absque ulla requisitione,' (i. e. in a kind of
'Prayer-book-as-read' form,) Lyons, 1550, was obtained for £20.
It was arranged by Nicholas Roillet, Chanter of the Church of
S. Nicetius at Lyons, with the view of avoiding difficulties and
delays, 'sacerdotesque expectantibus molestos reddentes, ipsosque
erga dictos circumstantes scandalum generantes, qui existimant illos
non solum ignaros sed nescientes quid agendum vel faciendam
habeant;' and was issued with the papal imprimatur of Paul III.
But as Pius V and Clem. VIII subsequently forbade any variation
whatsoever from the authorized Roman form, this Missal, like the
Breviary of Card. Quignones, was, with others, suppressed. And
hence its rarity.
Fifty guineas were given for a very large collection of Chinese
works, numbering altogether about 1100, which had been gathered
by Rev. F. Evans, for some time a missionary in China. Some
of the Chinese books in the Library have been subsequently
examined and catalogued by Professor Summers, of King's College,
London.
On May 22, a new body of Library Statutes was confirmed by
Convocation, after a complete revision of the previous regulations.
The principal changes, besides the omission of various obsolete
requirements, were the adding five elected Curators, holding office
for ten years, to the old ex officio body of eight; the providing for
the removal of books to the extra-mural 'Camera,' or reading-room,
about to be added; the fixing the stipend of the Librarian
(including all the former fees and small separate payments) at
£700, and that of the Sub-librarians at £300, and the assigning to
the former a retiring pension after twenty years' service of £200,
and after thirty years', of £300, and to the latter, after thirty years',
of £150; and the making a few alterations with regard to the
times at which the Library should be closed, these times being
lessened by about one week in the course of the year.
A report from the eminent architect, Mr. G. G. Scott, on the
means which might be adopted for the enlargement of the Library,
and for rendering it fire-proof, dated in Dec. 1855, was printed in
this year, together with one from Mr. Braidwood on the warming
apparatus (see under 1821). Mr. Scott's report contained suggestions
for the extension of the Library throughout the whole of
the quadrangle and adjoining buildings, including the Ashmolean
Museum, and proposed that the Divinity School should be assigned
as a reading room, for which the great degree of light afforded
by its large windows appeared peculiarly to fit it. The subsequent
assignment, however, of the Radcliffe Library as a reading-room
for the Library, removed the immediate necessity for any other
extension. In 1858 a paper on the subject, illustrated with a plan
of the Library, was printed by the late Dr. Wellesley, who, after
considering the various modes then suggested for the enlargement
of the Library, recommended the adoption (from the British
Museum) of presses running up direct from the ground through
all the floors, by which the dangers attendant upon the increase of
weight of the wall-pressure would be obviated.
A collection of manuscripts, more interesting as to their history
than as to their actual contents[353], was presented by William and
Hubert Hamilton, in memory, and in accordance with the wish,
of their celebrated father, Sir William Hamilton. It comprises fifty-eight
volumes (thirty-nine in folio, sixteen in quarto, and three in
octavo) from the library of the Carthusian Monastery of Erfurt,
famous as the place of Luther's early abode. A short catalogue
of them, by Joh. Broad, was printed at Berlin in 1841, with a
prefatory notice, from which we learn that they were preserved at
Erfurt until 1805, when the library was broken up and dispersed
on the occupation of the city by the French army, who stabled
their horses in the place where the books were deposited, and
burned many of them for fuel, while others were carried away and
secreted with a view to their safety. Some of the latter were bought
by the Count de Buelow, on whose death they were purchased
from the subsequent possessors by Broad, and finally sold by him
to Sir W. Hamilton. 'Nunc in eam terram demigrant,' says the
bibliopolist, 'quæ, quodcunque alicujus pretii est aut materialium
aut spiritualium rerum, in suo gremio accumulare a Providentia
Divina destinata videtur.' Another collection of MSS., from the
same library at Erfurt, was on sale by Mr. J. M. Stark, the well-known
bookseller (now of London), at Hull, in 1855, who issued
a small catalogue of them in duodecimo.
A valuable collection of Italian and Spanish MSS., amounting
to about forty-six volumes, came to the Library by the bequest of
Rev. Joseph Mendham, M.A., of Sutton Coldfield, who died
Nov. 1, 1856. The most important part of these is a series of
twenty-eight volumes relating to the Council of Trent, which were
purchased at the sale of the Earl of Guildford's library in 1830 by
Thorpe, the bookseller, for £35, and re-sold by him to Mr. Mendham
in 1832 for fifty guineas. It was chiefly from the materials
afforded by these that Mr. Mendham drew up his Memoirs of the
Council of Trent, published in 1834. They are described in
Thorpe's Catalogue of MSS. on sale in 1831, and in the preface
to Mr. Mendham's book.
On June 18, the Rev. Robert Payne Smith, M.A., of Pembroke
College, was appointed an Assistant Sub-librarian for the Oriental
department, in consequence of the increasing infirmities of the
aged senior Sub-librarian, Mr. Reay.
On Oct. 30, an offer made by the Trustees of the Ashmolean
Museum for the transfer of the printed books, coins, and MSS. there
contained to the Bodleian, in order to facilitate the devotion of a
part of the building to the purposes of an Examination School, was
accepted by the Curators; but a similar offer with regard to the
antiquities was declined. The latter consequently remain in their
old repository, but the collections in Natural History were transferred
to the New Museum. It was not, however, until 1860, that
the books were actually received into the Library, where they now
fill one small room. Altogether they amount to upwards of 3700
volumes, forming five different series. First are those of Elias
Ashmole himself, numbering originally 2175, but reduced by
losses before the transfer to 2136, of which about 850 are MSS[354].
This collection is extremely rich in heraldic and genealogical
matter, together with an abundance of astrology. The printed
books are chiefly scientific and historical; these, with the books
in the following collections, are now in process of incorporation
into the new General Catalogue of the Library. A list of the
MSS. is given in Bernard's catalogue, A.D. 1697; but a very
elaborate and minute account, forming a thick quarto volume, was
drawn up by Mr. W. H. Black, the well-known antiquary, and
published in 1845. As this, however, was destitute of an index, it
remained comparatively useless until 1866, when a full Index,
edited by the writer of this volume, was published under the
direction of the Delegates of the University Press.
The next collection is that of Anthony à Wood, containing
about 130 MSS. and 970 printed volumes[355], which were bequeathed
to the Museum by the owner on his death in Nov. 1695.
The former are of extreme value for the history of Oxford and the
neighbourhood; among the latter are most curious sets of the
pamphlets of the time, with the ballads, fly-sheets, chap-books,
almanacks, &c. just such 'unconsidered trifles' as most men suffer
to perish in the using, but a few, like Wood, lay by for the amusement
and information of future generations. There are also seven
volumes of his own correspondence, including letters from
Dugdale, Evelyn, &c. Of the MSS. a list is to be found in the
old Catalogue of 1697; a fuller and better one, compiled by
William Huddesford, M.A., the Keeper of the Museum, was
printed in a thin octavo volume, in 1761, which was reprinted
by Sir Thomas Phillips, at Middlehill, Worcestershire, in 1824.
There are also bundles of charters and deeds, chiefly monastic,
but nearly all more or less mutilated or injured by damp and dirt,
so as to be partially useless.
The third collection is that of Dr. Martin Lister, physician to
Queen Anne, who died Feb. 2, 1711/2. Besides his books, he was
the donor of various other gifts to the Museum, in return for
which he was created M.D. of Oxford, in 1683. The books
are chiefly medical and scientific, and number in a written catalogue
1451 volumes (including thirty-two MSS.), but thirty-five
of these were missing when the transfer from the Museum was
made.
The collections of Sir William Dugdale, which form a fourth
series, number forty-eight volumes. A list of these is in the old
Catalogue of 1697.
In the fifth place there are the MSS. of the well-known antiquary,
John Aubrey. These are about twenty in number, of which fifteen
are in his own hand, and are described in Britton's Life of him,
printed for the Wilts Topographical Society, pp. 88-123. Collections
for the history of Wiltshire, entitled Hypomnemata Antiquaria,
form one of Aubrey's own works[356], but unfortunately the
second volume (marked with the letter B) is missing. It was
borrowed from the Museum, in 1703, by William Aubrey, the
author's brother, and was never returned. A paper on the subject
was inserted by Rev. J. E. Jackson, in 1860, in vol. vii. of the
Wiltshire Archæological Magazine, and a reward for information
as to the present locale of the missing volume was subsequently
publicly offered, but to no purpose, by the same gentleman. A
small MS. of Horæ, which had belonged to Sir Thomas Pope, the
founder of Trinity College, is among Aubrey's books. A MS. of
Matthew of Westminster, (now e Mus. 149) had been given to
the Library by Aubrey, in 1675, through Ant. à Wood.
There are also five or six MSS. which were given to the
Museum by William Kingsley before 1700. Some few others,
which were given by E. Lhuyd and Dr. W. Borlase, together
with a volume of W. Huddesford's correspondence, are now
incorporated with the Ashmole MSS., and are described in
Mr. Black's catalogue, as well as the latest gift of this kind which
was made to the Museum, viz. a little volume of Private Thoughts,
by Bishop Wilson, of Sodor and Man, which was presented in
1824 by Lieut. Brett, R.N.
Thirty-nine choice Persian and Arabic MSS., which had formed
part of Sir Gore Ouseley's collection, were bought from his son,
Sir Fred. Gore Ouseley, Bart., the present Professor of Music, for
£500. The rest of the collection came by gift, as will be seen
under the following year.
At the sale (in June-Aug.) of the library of Dr. Bliss, a large
number of volumes (still kept separate) were purchased, including
a volume of original letters of Charles I, Clarendon, &c., and
poems by Lord Fairfax (see p. 97); together with many from
the series of books of Characters collected by Dr. Bliss, and from
his like series, both of books printed in London shortly before
the fire of 1666, and of books printed at Oxford. The Library
obtained by his bequest his own interleaved copy of the Athenæ,
with many MS. additions[357].
A copy of the octavo Bible printed by Barker in 1631 (not
1632, as generally said), in which the word 'not' was omitted in
the seventh commandment, was bought for £40. For this error
(which looks very much like a wicked jest) the printer was fined
1000 marks by the High Commission Court[358], and the edition was
rigidly suppressed, all the copies which could be found being
condemned to the flames.
Another purchase was a large collection of political tracts in
seventy volumes, chiefly relating to foreign affairs, which had
been formed by Mr. — Hamilton, of the Diplomatic Service.
Numerous MSS., chiefly classical, patristic, or Italian, were
purchased at the sale of M. Libri's collection in London, in March.
Amongst them was a Sacramentary, of the commencement of the
ninth century, which was obtained for £43; and a copy of
S. Cyprian's Epistles, also of the ninth century, for £84. Four
volumes of the correspondence of Scholars at home and abroad
with E. H. Barker, of Thetford, were also added to the Library
from the sale of Mr. Dawson Turner's library. They are now
numbered Bodl. MSS. 1003-1006. And the munificent gift of a
very valuable collection of 422 volumes of Arabic and Persian
MSS. was received from J. B. Elliott, Esq., of Calcutta. These
chiefly consist of the MSS. which Sir Gore Ouseley (who died
Nov. 18, 1844,) obtained during his diplomatic service in the
East, commencing his collection when stationed at Lucknow, and
completing it while ambassador in Persia; of which Mr. Elliott
had been the purchaser. A small remaining part had previously
been bought by the Library, as noted under 1858. In 1860,
Mr. Elliott added to his former gift a series of Eastern coins,
and various handsome specimens of Eastern weapons; the
latter are now exhibited in a case in the Picture Gallery. Five
Sanscrit MSS. were received from Fitz-Edward Hall, Esq., of
Saugur, who, at the same time, expressed his munificent intention
of presenting hereafter the whole of his large collection.
In this year, after considerable enquiry had been made respecting
different modes of cataloguing, and Mr. Coxe had
reported on the arrangements adopted in the great libraries at
home and some of those abroad, it was resolved by the Curators,
upon that gentleman's recommendation, that the plan in use in
the British Museum should be immediately introduced, for the
purpose of commencing a new General Catalogue of all the printed
books (excepting the Hebrew, of which a separate catalogue had
been made) in the whole Library. By this plan, three or five
copies, according as the case may be that of a single or double
entry, are written simultaneously on prepared paper, as with a
manifold-copier, the transcribers writing out in this way the
entries of titles previously examined and corrected by the cataloguers.
The separate titles are then mounted, arranged in alphabetical
order, and bound in volumes. By this plan two copies
of the Catalogue are at once written with the labour of one,
while surplus slips are also provided for the formation hereafter
of a classified catalogue as well. The use of the Catalogue,
however, is thus confined to the Library itself; and the literary
world in general must still refer to the printed Catalogues of 1843
and 1851. A commencement of the new undertaking was made
in this year; but it was not until 1862 that the present staff (as
to numbers) of assistants was employed, and the work completely
organized. At present the letters A-E, G-H are catalogued;
and the extent to which the whole Catalogue will run may be
estimated from the fact that the letters B, C, and G fill sixty,
sixty-five, and thirty-four volumes respectively. All the books
are seen and examined separately; anonymous authors are, if
possible, traced out; many errors in previous catalogues are corrected,
and the number of entries is very largely increased.
The resignation of the Librarianship by Dr. Bandinel, after
forty-seven years of office in the capacity of Head, and a total
of fifty of work in the Library, forms a leading feature in the
Bodley Annals of this year. At the age of seventy-nine the
natural infirmities of age were felt by himself to be incapacitating
him for the duties which he had so long and so regularly discharged,
while at the same time the continually increasing pressure
of work and enlargement of the Library, made those duties
much more onerous than they had been even a quarter of a
century before. And so he resolved to withdraw at Michaelmas
from the place to which he had been so heartily and entirely
devoted, and which under his headship had been doubled in contents.
The parting was not without a great struggle; it was the
abandoning what had been the cherished occupation of his life,
and with the ceasing of that occupation he felt a too-certain
foreboding (which he expressed to the writer of these pages)
that the life would soon cease as well. A well-merited tribute was
paid to him by Convocation in June, in both increasing the
amount of his statutable pension, so that he retired on a full
stipend, and in specially enrolling him among the Curators of the
Library. But he was seldom seen in the old place after his
resignation; on two or three occasions only did he again mount
the long flight of stairs which had of late tried both his strength
and breath severely; and then, when only seven months had
elapsed, on Feb. 6, 1861, he passed away. And little more than
a fortnight previously, on January 20, his old colleague, Professor
Reay, departed this life, at the age of seventy-eight. He also had
retired on his pension at Michaelmas, 1860, and had been succeeded
as Oriental Sub-librarian by Rev. R. Payne Smith (Assistant-librarian
in the same department since 1857), whose appointment
was confirmed by Convocation on Nov. 22. Memoirs of
Dr. Bandinel and Mr. Reay are given in the Gentleman's Magazine,
(1861, pp. 463-6), which do justice, in the case of the former,
to his watchful solicitude for the Library and his thorough acquaintance
with it; and in the case of the latter (evidently from
intimate personal acquaintance), to his great kindliness of heart,
and simplicity and gentleness of character.
The Convocation for the election of Dr. Bandinel's successor
was held on November 6, when, with unanimous consent, the
Rev. H. O. Coxe, M.A., Sub-librarian since 1837, was appointed
to the office.
A most seasonable and valuable enlargement of the Library
was effected, by an addition which henceforth marks an æra in
our Annals. On June 12, Convocation thankfully accepted an
offer from the Radcliffe Trustees (which had been first mooted
by Dr. Acland in 1856), of the use, as a Bodleian reading-room,
of the noble building hitherto under their control, the existing
contents of which had (for the most part) been removed to the
New Museum. Dr. Radcliffe's own original intention had been
the building an additional wing to the Bodleian rather than the
erecting a library of his own; and subsequently the idea had
been entertained of devoting his structure to the exclusive reception
of manuscripts[359]. Its appropriation, therefore, to the Bodleian
upon the removal of the library of medicine and natural history,
was, in some sort, a return to the founder's first design. And
the return came most seasonably, when the old walls of the
Schools' quadrangle were well-nigh bursting from a plethora of
books, and still the cry 'They come' daily caused fresh bewilderment
as to whither those that came should go. It was resolved
that the new reading-room thus opportunely gained should be
appropriated to new books (arranged under a system of classification)
and magazines; that it should be called the 'Camera
Radcliviana;' and that it should be open from ten A.M. to ten P.M.,
thus affording the facilities for evening use of the Bodleian which
had often been desired for those who were occupied in college
work during the day. It was at the close of the year 1861 that
the building began to be filled by its new occupants, and on
Jan. 27, 1862, (the necessary alterations and preparations having
been completed in the short space of the Christmas vacation) it
was announced by the Vice-Chancellor to be open as a Reading
Room in connection with the Bodleian. A grant of £200 per
annum towards the expense of management was made by
Convocation on Nov. 28, 1861, which was increased to £300
in 1865, the remainder of the charge, consisting of the incidental
expenses, being defrayed from the general funds of the
Library.
A large additional space for the reception of books was gained
by the closing up the open ground-floor (through which was the
former entrance to the reading-room), converting the spaces between
the outer arches into windows, and lining the walls within
with book-shelves, thus affording accommodation, according to the
present reckoning, for about 50,000 volumes. The whole building
may probably be reckoned as capable of containing altogether
about 75,000 volumes[360].
The terms on which the Radcliffe Trustees made their offer,
and which were accepted by the University, were these:—1. That
the Radcliffe Building should be a reading-room to the Bodleian,
or be used for any other purpose of the Bodleian Library.
2. That it should remain the property of the Trustees, being
esteemed a loan to the University. 3. That no alteration should
be made in the building without consent of the Trustees or a
Representative approved by them. 4. That the expense of maintaining
the building should be borne by the Trustees.
The transfer of this magnificent room afforded a rare opportunity
for developing the usefulness of the Library to which it is
now attached, and all who frequent it will acknowledge that that
opportunity has been well and worthily improved under the
direction of the present Librarian.
On Oct. 25, leave was granted by Convocation for the lending
two Laud Manuscripts, 561 and 563, being copies of the
Historia Hierosoylmitana, by Albert of Aix, to the French
Government.
At the sale of the library of Dr. Wellesley, Principal of New
Inn Hall, a copy of Boccaccio's Corbaccio, 1569, was purchased,
on account of its possessing the autograph of Sir Thomas Bodley,
to whom it had been given by the editor, J. Corbinelli.
A rare Salisbury Primer, printed at Rouen by Rob. Valentin
in 1556, was purchased for £22. Its title affords an amusing
specimen of a foreigner's mode of printing English; it runs
thus—This prymer of Salisbury vse is se tout along with houtonyser
chyng, with many prayers & goodly pyctures. It is intended
hereby to be conveyed to the English reader that, without any
searching, he will find his prayers and psalms set out in their
proper order.
One hundred and four volumes of Tamil MSS. were purchased;
as well as four Samaritan MSS. of the Pentateuch, of the twelfth
century, which had been brought to England by a native of
Samaria.
The Syriac MSS. of the well-known Orientalist, Dr. Bernstein,
were purchased by the Delegates of the Press, with a view to
assisting in the great work of a Syriac Lexicon, upon which Mr.
(now Dr.) Payne Smith was (and still is) engaged.
The printing of the Annual Catalogues of purchases was
discontinued, after the issue of the Catalogue for this year.
Written registers are now kept in the Library of all the books
bought in the course of each year; and only a list of benefactors,
with the statement of accounts, is annually printed for circulation
in the University and amongst donors.
A large collection of British Essayists and Periodicals was
presented by the late Rev. F. W. Hope, D.C.L., the munificent
benefactor to the University Museum, the founder of the Professorship
of Zoology, and the donor also of a large collection
of engraved portraits and other prints[361]. The collection was one
which had been formed by John Thomas Hope, Esq., the donor's
father. It contains some 760 specimens of its class of literature,
belonging chiefly to the eighteenth century. Special thanks for
the gift were returned by Convocation, on Feb. 20. A catalogue,
which had been drawn up for Mr. Hope by Mr. Jacob Henry
Burn, containing notices in detail of the various publications,
was printed at the University Press, in 1865, in an octavo
volume.
A Hebrew MS. of the Pentateuch, probably of the thirteenth
century, was bought for £32 10s. Some tracts relating to the period
of the Great Rebellion were bought at the sale of Dr. Bandinel's
extensive Caroline collection.
On March 4, the Curators accepted the gift of a bust of Rev.
F. W. Robertson, late incumbent of Trinity Chapel, Brighton,
which had been purchased by subscription. It is now placed
in the Picture Gallery.
A large number of purchase-duplicates, which had accumulated
during the course of many years, were removed from the Library
and sold by auction, in London, by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson,
in May. Among them were some of great rarity. The
sale, which lasted five days, produced £766 2s. 6d.; of which
£110 5s. were given for a specimen of the St. Alban's press, the
Rhetorica Nova of Gul. de Saona, printed in 1489. A second
and smaller sale, containing many English works of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, took place on April 12, 1865, at
which a copy of Chettle's Kind-Harts Dreame (1593), produced
£101, and Decker's Guls Horne-Booke, 1609, £81. The proceeds
of the whole sale amounted to £750 18s. 6d.
The Rev. Alfred Hackman, M.A., Chaplain and Precentor of
Ch. Ch., and P. C. of St. Paul's, Oxford, and an Assistant in the
Library of twenty-five years' standing, was approved by Convocation,
on April 12, as Mr. Coxe's successor in the Sub-librarianship;
after a discussion, which led to the abrogation by Convocation,
in February, of a provision in the Statutes forbidding
the holding cure of souls in connection with that office or that
of Head-librarian without special licence from the Curators.
Among the purchases made in this year were the following:
Card. Ximenes' rare treatise entitled Crestia, printed at Valentia
in 1483 (£25); Court-Rolls of Tamworth, Solihull, and other
neighbouring places, obtained from Mr. Halliwell; and a collection,
in three thick folio volumes, of placards, hand-bills, &c.,
relating to the town of Coventry, formed by Mr. W. Reader,
a printer in that place.
Capt. Montagu Montagu, R.N., who died at Bath, on July 3
in this year, bequeathed a collection of about 700 volumes, in
various branches of literature, which was received at the Library
about the beginning of 1864. There are about ninety editions
and versions of the Psalter, with works on Psalmody, including
a metrical version by Capt. Montagu himself; a large number
of editions of Anacreon, Horace, Juvenal, Phædrus, Petrarch,
Boileau, and Fontaine's Fables; a few MSS. of Juvenal, Petrarch,
&c. with a large series of autograph letters, chiefly obtained at
Upcott's sale. There are, besides, a number of topographical and
biographical works illustrated, more Sutherlandico, with additional
engravings, together with many parcels of separate prints arranged
for the same purpose. One item of particular interest which accompanied
the collection is a small sketch of Napoleon I, in profile,
admirably executed by the well-known Italian artist, Giuseppe
Longhi. It now hangs, framed and glazed, in the Library, together
with a letter from Longhi himself, in French, dated at Milan,
June 4, 1828, in which he narrates the occasion on which it
was taken. He attended, in 1801, at Lyons, as a member of
the 'Consulte Cisàlpine,' for the settling the affairs of the Republic
of Italy, under the presidency of the First Consul. It happened
that during the delivery of a long harangue, full of tedious flattery,
Napoleon sat vis-à-vis with the orator; and Longhi saw that
an opportunity for exercising the cunning of his pencil had come.
The light, which streamed in through the great window of the
Church (!) where they were assembled, brought out the profile very
clearly; there was little fear of being cut short by the speaker's
suddenly ceasing his declamation, or of being interrupted by movement
on the part of the unconscious subject of the operation, for
the latter sat immersed in thought upon matters far away, while
regarding the speaker with a pensive air; and so, while Napoleon
sat pondering, Longhi sat sketching. And everybody, he declares
with a pardonable pride, at Lyons and Paris, pronounced the
likeness to be excellent. A small bust of Napoleon, now placed
in the great window, came to the Library at the same time. A
catalogue of Capt. Montagu's books, comprising forty octavo
pages, was printed and circulated with the Annual Statement
for 1864.
The chief acquisitions in manuscript books were various Hebrew
volumes (for £159), and a series of letters to Malone from
Dr. Johnson, Mrs. Siddons, and others; and in printed books,
a perfect copy of Cromwell's Great Bible, printed by Grafton in
1539, which was bought of Mr. Fry, the well-known collector,
for £100.
A sixth part of the general catalogue of MSS. was issued,
containing the Syriac, Carshunic and Mendean MSS., in number
205, which had been drawn up by Rev. R. Payne Smith, M.A.,
and to which several facsimiles were appended. And the eighth
part, containing the Sanscrit MSS., in number 854, appeared
under the editorship of Theodore Aufrecht, M.A., now Professor of
Sanscrit in the University of Edinburgh. A first fasciculus of
this had been issued in 1859.
At the beginning of January, a sale was held in London by
Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson, of the stock of the late Mr.
William Henry Elkins, a bookseller, of 41, Lombard Street. At
this sale, the Library was the fortunate purchaser of what appears
to be a genuine Shakespeare Autograph. The book is Ovid's
Metamorphoses, printed by Aldus, at Venice, in October, 1502,
in octavo; and on the title is the signature 'Wm. Shr.' in a
hand bearing no resemblance whatever to that of the Ireland
forgeries, but not unlike that of the signature attached to Shakespeare's
will. Opposite to the title, on a leaf pasted down on
the original binding of the book, is the note, most certainly a
genuine memorandum of the date to which it professedly belongs,
of which a faithful facsimile is given with that of the autograph
itself, in the accompanying lithograph[362]. That the note itself
is no forgery is admitted by all who have examined it; the
volume, therefore, is certainly, by tradition, one which belonged
to the poet. The only question is, whether the name may not
have been forged in consequence of the existence of this note.
To this, which is the opinion of some, it may fairly be replied,
that, seeing no contracted form of Shakespeare's signature is
known to exist, a forger would hardly have invented one for the
occasion, but would have given the name in full; while, on the
other hand, if the signature be real, what more natural than that
a subsequent owner should record the tradition that the indefinite
'Shr.' of this unimportant title-page was no other than the very
definite 'Shakspere' himself? The names mentioned in the note
are names, as every one knows, connected with the poet's history.
Hall was the marriage name of his daughter Susannah, to whom
he left his house in Henley Street; and one William Hall, a
glover, appears from the Stratford Records printed by Mr. Halliwell,
to have had a house in that street in 1660. He, doubtless,
was the donor of the volume. Susannah Hall's daughter, Elizabeth,
was married to a Thomas Nash, who died in 1647; but
though he died without issue, the initials 'T. N.' may well stand
for some member of the family who bore the same names.
That, therefore, a Hall should possess the book, and subsequently
give it to (most probably) a Nash, goes far to establish
its genuineness as a Shakespeare relic. In a full account of
the volume, supporting its pretensions, which appeared in the
Athenæum for Jan. 28, 1865 (p. 126), it was pointed out that
the two references to the story of Baucis and Philemon, which
are found in Shakespeare's Plays, show that he was not
unacquainted with the Metamorphoses. To this may be added
a better proof of his knowledge of Ovid's writings in the fact
that two lines from the Amores (I. xv. 35, 36) form the motto
to the Venus and Adonis. As the volume is somewhat dirty, and
has a well-worn air, it may possibly have been used by Shakespeare
during those school-keeping experiences of which Aubrey tells
us; possibly, however, the wear and tear may be due to an
older owner, who has plentifully interspersed his MS. notes in,
apparently, a foreign hand, on many of the pages. Owing to
a generally-entertained suspicion throughout the auction-room on
the occasion of the sale of the volume, that the autograph must
be a forgery, the Library became its possessor for the small sum
of £9[363]!
A small volume, containing several papers in the handwriting
of Luther, was bought for £45. The first edition of Coverdale's
New Testament, printed at Antwerp, by Matthew Crom, in 1538,
was added to the Biblical collection. Two interesting and important
series of newspapers were obtained; the one, a set (not
quite perfect) of the London Gazette, from 1669 to 1859, bought
for £200[364]; and the other, a collection of London newspapers,
from 1672 to 1737, arranged in chronological order in ninety-six
volumes, obtained also for £200. This very curious collection
had been formed by Mr. John Nichols; its escape from destruction
by the disastrous fire at his printing-office in 1808, is mentioned
at p. 99 of the Gentleman's Magazine for that year. It is accompanied
by a MS. index, drawn up by Mr. Nichols himself. Many
unknown contributions by Defoe to the journals of his time, have
recently been traced in this series by a gentleman who has made a
special study of the Defoe literature, Mr. W. Lee.
Considerable assistance in completing the Library sets of the
Public and Private Acts of Parliament was afforded, in this year,
by the late Mr. W. Salt.
Specimens of the first books printed in the Dyak language,
which were issued at Singapore in 1862, were given by Rev. J.
Rigaud, B.D., of Magdalene College.
On the appointment of Dr. Jacobson to the See of Chester,
Mr. R. Payne Smith became his successor in the office of Regius
Professor of Divinity. Professor Max Müller, M.A., was thereupon
nominated to take Mr. Smith's place as the Sub-librarian in
special charge of the Oriental department, and the nomination
was confirmed in Convocation on Nov. 7.
There is not much to notice under this year, save that the
Vulgaria quedam abs Terencio in Anglicam linguam traducta,
printed at Oxford before 1483, was obtained, in a volume containing
also two tracts printed by J. de Westphalia, at the sale
of the library of Mr. Thomas Thomson, of Edinburgh, for £36.
Although complete in itself, it appears to have formed a part
of a larger work, as the signatures run from n. to q., in eights.
The closing year of these memorials is distinguished by the
acquisition of a volume described by Archdeacon Cotton, in his
Typographical Gazetteer, as being 'of the very highest rarity.'
It is a fine copy of the Breviarium Illerdense, printed at Lerida,
in Spain, in 1479, by Henry Botel. Besides being remarkable
from its rarity, there is special interest attaching to the volume
from the fact that it was printed at the sole expense of the
bell-ringer of the cathedral! The colophon states that 'Antonius
Palares, campanarum ejusdem ecclesiæ pulsator, propriis
expensis fieri fecit.' The volume was bought from Mr. Boone
for £36.
A somewhat imperfect copy of the rare Bible printed at Edinburgh
by Arbuthnot and Bassandyne in 1579, being the first
edition printed in Scotland, was another purchase of the year;
as were also two thick volumes of recent transcripts of the
Stuart correspondence, preserved in the Imperial Library at
Paris.
Within the last few years considerable attention has been paid
by the Librarian to the formation of a series of editions of the
English Bible. The number now collected is very large, and
approaches very nearly to a complete gathering of every edition
before 1800, which has any claim to regard either from date,
imprint, variety of size, correctness, or incorrectness. Early
Quaker tracts have also been largely collected, together with
editions of Cotton Mather's works and those of John Bunyan.
A portrait of the Prince of Wales, in academic dress, painted
by Sir J. Watson Gordon, was presented towards the close of
the year to the University by the Prince, in memory of his
academic days, and now hangs conspicuously at the entrance
of the Picture Gallery, to which it forms the latest addition.
Prof. Max Müller having resigned his Sub-librarianship on
account of health, the Rev. J. W. Nutt, M.A., Fellow of All
Souls' College, was approved by Convocation, on June 25, as
his successor in the charge of the Oriental department.
The number of printed volumes at present in the Library may be
estimated at nearly 350,000. It was returned to Parliament, in 1848,
as about 220,000; and with a view to this return a calculation as
nearly accurate as possible was then made. An estimate has now
been made of the additions received since that date; and from this
it appears that some 79,500 volumes have been placed in the old
Library and 45,000 in the Camera Radcliviana, making a total for
the whole collection of about 345,000 volumes. Within the same
period about 5000 additional manuscripts have been obtained,
making a total of nearly 25,000. The number was returned in
1848 as being about 21,000, but this appears to have been somewhat
in excess of the fact. The proportion was singularly overestimated
in 1819, for Clarke, in his Repertorium Bibliographicum
published in that year (p. 68), states that the Library contains
upwards of 160,000 volumes, of which 30,000 are manuscripts!
The annual rate of ordinary increase of printed books at present,
apart, of course, from the accession of any entire collection or
special purchase, may be reckoned at about 3000 volumes, exclusive
of magazines, of which two-thirds come from Stationers'
Hall under the provisions of the Copyright Act.
Floreat Bibliotheca.