ANNALS OF THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY. (continued 2)

A.D. 1635-1640.

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, 6^to 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.D. 1637.

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.

A.D. 1640.

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 4^o 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.

A.D. 1641.

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.

A.D. 1642.

'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:—

(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:—

(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.D. 1645.

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.

A.D. 1646.

'When Oxford was surrendered (24^o 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].'

A.D. 1647.

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.

A.D. 1648.

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:—

A.D. 1649.

'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.

A.D. 1652.

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.

A.D. 1653.

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.

A.D. 1654.

'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.

A.D. 1654-1659.

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 4^o 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.

A.D. 1655.

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 4^o 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.

A.D. 1656.

Cowley's Poems. See 1620.

A.D. 1657.

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 iiii^o, 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.

A.D. 1658.

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.

A.D. 1659.

Thomas Hyde, M.A., of Queen's College, was appointed Under-keeper on the expulsion of Henry Stubbe.

A.D. 1660.

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 (4^o 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.D. 1662.

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.

A.D. 1663.

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].'

A.D. 1664.

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.

A.D. 1665.

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.

A.D. 1666.

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.

A.D. 1668.

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.

A.D. 1670.

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.

A.D. 1671.

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.

A.D. 1673.

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.

A.D. 1674.

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].

A.D. 1675.

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.

A.D. 1677.

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.

A.D. 1678.

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.'

A.D. 1680. [See A.D. 1665.]

Sir W. Dugdale gave copies of his own works. Two hundred coins were given by Dr. George Hickes.

A.D. 1681.

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.

A.D. 1682.

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.

A.D. 1683.

Three MSS., containing the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac Pentateuch, and the Syriac Old Testament, were purchased at the cost of the University.

A.D. 1684.

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!

A.D. 1685.

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.

A.D. 1686.

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.

A.D. 1687.

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].

A.D. 1688.

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.

A.D. 1690.

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.

A.D. 1691.

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 8^o 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 M^o. CCCC^o. octuagesimo tercio.'

A.D. 1692.

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.

A.D. 1693.

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 8^o 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. 8^o. 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, 4^o. 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.D. 1694.

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.

A.D. 1695.

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.

A.D. 1696.

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.

A.D. 1697.

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.