Note 115 — ANNALS OF THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY. (continued 2)

Bodley frequently in his letters expresses his positive determination not to allow books to be removed from the Library by any means. He mentions the having connived at first at Sir H. Savile's having a book for a very short space of time, because he was like to become a very great benefactor; but declares that after the making the Statutes neither he nor any one else shall be allowed the same liberty upon any occasion whatsoever. (Reliquiæ Bodl. pp. 176, 264.) And in another letter he says, in reference to a particular application, 'The sending of any book out of the Library may be assented to by no means, neither is it a matter that the University or Vice-Chancellor are to deal in. It cannot stand with my publick resolution with the University, and my denial made to the Bishop of Glocester and the rest of the Interpreters [i.e. the Translators of the Authorized Version of the Bible] in their assembly in Christ Church, who requested the like at my hands for one or two books.' (Ibid. p. 207.) In 1636 the University refused leave to Archbishop Laud to borrow Rob. Hare's MS. Liber Privilegiorum Universitatis (compiled in 1592), when the Archbishop was prosecuting his claim to visit the two Universities as Metropolitan. But the refusal was doubtless rather from jealousy respecting their immunities (as Wood says) than from regard to the rules of the Library (Huber's English Universities, by F. Newman, vol. ii. p. 45.) However, the book was at last produced before the Council. (Wood's Hist. and Antiq., by Gutch, vol. ii. p. 403.)