Note 375 — The Drawing Room. (continued 3)

Let us, first of all, hear Hearne discourse rapturously of the bibliomaniacal reputation of T. Rawlinson: "In his fuit amicus noster nuperus Thomas Rawlinsonus; cujus peritiam in supellectile libraria, animique magnitudinem, nemo fere hominum eruditorum unquam attigit, quod tamen vix agnoscet seculum ingratum. Quanquam non desunt, qui putent, ipsius memoriæ statuam deberi, idque etiam ad sumptus Bibliopolarum, quorum facultates mire auxerat; quorum tamen aliqui (utcunque de illis optime meritus fuisset) quum librorum Rawlinsoni auctio fieret, pro virili (clandestinò tamen) laborabant, ut minus auspicatò venderentur. Quod videntes probi aliquot, qui rem omuem noverant, clamitabant, ô homines scelestos! hos jam oportet in cruciatum hinc abripi! Quod hæc notem, non est cur vitio vertas. Nam nil pol falsi dixi, mi lector. Quo tempore vixit Rawlinsonus (et quidem perquam jucundum est commemorare), magna et laudabilis erat æmulatio inter viros eruditos, aliosque etiam, in libris perquirendis ac comparandis, imo in fragmentis quoque. Adeo ut domicilia, ubi venales id genus res pretiosæ prostabant, hominum cœtu frequenti semper complerentur, in magnum profecto commodum eorum, ad quos libri aliæque res illæ pertinebant; quippe quod emptores parvo ære nunquam, aut rarissime, compararent." Walter Hemingford, præfat., p. civ. In his preface to Alured de Beverly, pp. v. vi., the copious stores of Rawlinson's library, and the prompt kindness of the possessor himself, are emphatically mentioned; while in the preface to Titi Livii Foro-Juliensis Vit. Henrici V., p. xi., we are told, of the former, that it was "plurimis libris rarissimis referta:" and, in truth, such a "Bibliotheca refertissima" was perhaps never before beheld. Rawlinson was introduced into the Tatler, under the name Tom Folio. His own house not being large enough, he hired London House, in Aldersgate Street, for the reception of his library; and there he used to regale himself with the sight and the scent of innumerable black letter volumes, arranged in "sable garb," and stowed perhaps "three deep," from the bottom to the top of his house. He died in 1725; and catalogues of his books for sale continued, for nine succeeding years, to meet the public eye. The following is, perhaps, as correct a list of these copious and heterogeneously compiled catalogues, as can be presented to the reader. I am indebted to the library of Mr. Heber for such a curious bibliographical morçeau. i. A Catalogue of choice and valuable Books in most Faculties and Languages; being part of the Collection made by Thomas Rawlinson, Esq., which will begin to be sold by auction at Paul's Coffee House, the West-end of St. Paul's, 4th Dec., 1721, beginning every evening at 5, by Thomas Ballard, bookseller, at the Rising Sun, Little Britain. 12mo. Price 1s. 144 pages.——ii. A Catalogue, &c., being the 2nd part of the Collection by T. Rawlinson, Esq., to be sold by auction at Paul's Coffee-House, 7th March, 1721-2, every evening at 5, by T. Ballard. 12mo. Price 1s., paged on from the last, pp. 145 to 288. [These two parts contain together 1438 8vo. lots; 1157 in 4to., 618 in folio.]——iii. A Catalogue, &c., being the third part of the Collection by T. Rawlinson, Esq., to be sold by auction at Paul's Coffee-House, 17th Oct., 1722, every evening at 5, by T. Ballard. 12mo. Price 1s. (no paging or printer's letter.)——iv. A Catalogue, &c., being the 4th part of the Collection by T. Rawlinson, Esq., to be sold by auction at Paul's Coffee-House, 2nd April, 1723, every evening at 5, by T. Ballard, 12mo. Price 1s. (no paging or printer's letter.)——v. & vi. A Catalogue, &c., being the 5th part of the Collection by T. Rawlinson, Esq., to be sold by auction at Paul's Coffee-House, 20th Jan. 1723, every evening at 5, by T. Ballard. 12mo. Price 1s. Altho' this vol. seems to have been the last of only one sale—yet it may be collected, from the concurrent testimony of his notes in more copies than one—that it was divided and sold at two different times; the latter part commencing about the middle of the volume, with the Libri Theologici. In folio.—Test. Nov. 1588, being the first article. This collection began to be sold in Feb. 2. [1724?]—vii. A Catalogue, &c., being the 6th part of the Collection made by T. Rawlinson, Esq., Deceased, which will begin to be sold by auction at London-House, in Aldersgate Street, 2nd March, 1726, every evening at 5, by Charles Davis, bookseller. 12mo. Price 2s. 6d. (no paging—printer's mark at bottom irregularly continued from 1 to 35.)—viii. Bibliotheca Rawlinsoniana, being a Cat. of part the Val. Libr. of Tho. Rawlinson, Esq., Deceased: which will begin to be sold by auction at the Bedford Coffee-House, in the great Piazza, Covent Garden, the 26th of this present April [1727] every evening at 5, by Charles Davis, bookseller. 8vo. Price 6d. (20 days' sale—2600 lots.)——ix. Bibliothecæ Rawlinsonianæ, &c., Pars ix. being a Cat. of part of the Libr. of Th. Rawlinson, Esq., Deceased, to be sold by auction at St. Paul's Coffee-House, 16th Oct., 1727, every evening at 6, by T. Ballard. 8vo. Price 1s. (20 days' sale, 3200 lots.)——x. Bibliothecæ Rawlinsonianæ, &c., Pars altera, being a Cat. of part of Lib. of Th. Rawlinson, Esq., Deceased, to be sold by auction at St. Paul's Coffee-House, 22d Nov., 1727, every evening at 6, by Th. Ballard. 8vo. Price 1s. (22 days' sale, 3520 articles.)——xi. Bibliothecæ Rawlinsonianæ, Pars altera, being a Catalogue of part of the Library of T. Rawlinson, Esq., deceased, to be sold by auction at St. Paul's Coffee-House, 22d Jan. 1727-8, every evening, Saturdays excepted, at 6. 8vo. Price 1s. (22 days' sale, 3520 lots.)——xii. Bibliothecæ Rawlinsonianæ, Pars altera, being a Cat. of part of the Library of Th. Rawlinson, Esq., deceased, to be sold by auction at St. Paul's Coffee-House, 18th March, 1727-8, every evening at 5, by T. Ballard. Price 1s. (8vo. 24 days' sale, 3840 lots.)——xiii. Bibliothecæ Rawlinsonianæ, Pars altera, being a Cat. of part of the Library of Th. Rawlinson, Esq., deceased, to be sold by auction at St. Paul's Coffee-House, 21st April, 1729, every evening at 5, by T. Ballard. Price 1s. (8vo. 26 days' sale, 4161 lots.)——xiv. Bibliothecæ Rawlinsonianæ, Pars altera, being a Cat. of part of the Library of T. Rawlinson, Esq., deceased, to be sold by auction at St. Paul's Coffee-House, 24 Nov. 1729, every evening at 5, by T. Ballard. Price 1s. (8vo. 18 days' sale, 2700 lots.)——xv. Bibliothecæ Rawlinsonianæ, Pars altera, being a Cat. of part of the Library of T. Rawlinson, F.R.S., deceased, to be sold by auction 13th Nov., 1732, at St. Paul's Coffee-House, every evening at 5, by Tho. Ballard. Price 1s. (8vo. 26 days' sale, 3456 lots.)——xvi. Codicum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Rawlinsonianæ Catalogus—cum appendice Impressorum—to be sold 4th March, 1733-4, at St. Paul's Coffee-House, every night at 6, by T. Ballard. Price 1s. (8vo., 16 days' sale, MSS. 1020 lots—appendix 800). To these may be added, Picturæ Rawlinsonianæ—being the collection of original paintings of T. Rawlinson, Esq., F.R.S., by the best masters—part of which were formerly the Earl of Craven's Collection. To be sold by auction, at the Two Golden Balls, in Hart Street, Covent Garden, 4th April, 1734, at 11. 8vo. (117 lots.) Now let any man, in his sober senses, imagine what must have been the number of volumes contained in the library of the above-named Thomas Rawlinson? Does he imagine that the tomes in the Bodleian, Vatican, and British Museum were, in each single collection, more numerous than those in the Aldersgate Street repository?—Or, at any rate, would not a view of this Aldersgate Street collection give him the completest idea of the ne plus ultra of book-phrensy in a private collector? Rawlinson would have cut a very splendid figure, indeed, with posterity, if some judicious catalogue-maker, the Paterson of former times, had consolidated all these straggling Bibliothecal corps into one compact wedge-like phalanx. Or, in other words, if one thick octavo volume, containing a tolerably well classed arrangement of his library, had descended to us—oh, then we should all have been better able to appreciate the extraordinary treasures of such a collection! The genius of Pearson and Crofts would have done homage to the towering spirit of Rawlinson.