Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A.D. 1598-A.D. 1867 Part 30

[344] Gen. Walker, who in the beginning of the century was Governor of Baroda, in Guzerat, died at Edinburgh in 1832. His MSS., in the words of Prof. Aufrecht, 'integritate et antiquitate eminent.'

A.D. 1846.

The original MS., or first copy, of Wood's _History and Antiquities of Oxford_, in English, was purchased for the moderate sum of 8 8_s._ Already the Library possessed the corrected copy, in the author's autograph, in two large folio volumes, which had formed part of his collection in the Ashmolean Museum, but were transferred to the Bodleian as early as the year 1769. The volume now obtained had been in the possession of Edw. Roberts, Esq., of Ealing, a letter to whom from Mr. Joseph Parker, of Oxford, is inserted, dated July 4, 1827, in which he mentions the sale of the book to Mr. B. Roberts, and says that it was purchased at a sale at Burford, in 1797 or 1798.

A curious and valuable account-roll of Sir John Williams, Knt., Master of the Jewels to Henry VIII, which specifies all the treasures which were in his custody, was bought for 25[345].

The department of Italian topography, antiquities and art was largely enriched by the purchase from Rev. R. A. Scott (for 234 6_s._) of a collection of 1426 volumes made by his brother the late George C. Scott, Esq., during ten years' residence in Italy.

_Dissertations._ See 1828.

_Gower's Ches.h.i.+re._ See 1842.

_Thorkelin._ See 1828.

[345] An original account, by the same Master of the Jewels, of the plate and jewels received for the King's use from dissolved monasteries in the years 1540-1542, is preserved in MS. _e Musaeo_, 57.

A.D. 1847.

A valuable MS. of Star-Chamber Reports, from June 17, 1635, to June 4, 1638, was purchased for 11. Several similar volumes of Reports are among the Rawlinson MSS. Two curious collections of pamphlets were bought; the one consisting of tracts, broadsides and proclamations relating to the Gunpowder Plot, made by H. Glynn, Under-secretary of State (12 10_s._); the other, a series of State special Forms of Prayer, from 1665 to 1840 (10 10_s._)

Works relating to the history of America, in which the Library is now very rich, begin in this year to form a specially noticeable feature in the catalogue of purchases. Many rare tracts had been of old in the Library, but much of the completeness of the present collection is due to the energy of the well-known American bibliophilist, Henry Stevens, Esq.

A.D. 1848.

A collection of Hebrew MSS., numbering 862 volumes and nearly 1300 separate works, was purchased at Hamburgh for 1030. It had been ama.s.sed by Heimann Joseph Michael (born Apr. 12, 1792, deceased June 10, 1846), who had devoted thirty years to the formation of his library. One hundred and ten vellum MSS. are included in it, written for the most part between 1240 and 1450. Michael's printed books amounted to 5471; these were purchased by the British Museum. A short catalogue of the collection, drawn up from the owner's papers, was issued at Hamburgh in 1848, with a preface by Dr. L. Zunz, and an index to the MSS. by Dr. M.

Steinschneider. They will ere long be re-catalogued, together with all the other Hebrew MSS. in the Library, by Dr. Neubauer, who has now, in the present year, commenced his important task.

A.D. 1849.

The valuable collection of Oriental MSS. formed by Rev. W. H. Mill, D.D., Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, during his residence in India as Princ.i.p.al of Bishop's College, Calcutta, was purchased from him for 350. A small remaining portion of his collection, comprising thirty-six volumes, was bought in 1858, after his death, for 35. In all there are 160 volumes, of which 145 are in Sanscrit. These latter are fully described in Prof. Aufrecht's Sanscrit Catalogue.

The chief purchases of printed books were made at the sale at Berlin, in May, of the library of Professor C. F. G. Jacobs, the editor of the _Anthologia Graeca_ (who died March 30, 1847), whence a large number of cla.s.sical dissertations, many of them authors' presentation copies, were obtained[346], and at the sale of the library of Rev. Hen. Francis Lyte (deceased 1847) which took place in July. A collection of 360 sermons, published by Non-juring divines between 1688 and 1750, is an interesting item in the year's list; another is a copy of Pliny's _Historia Naturalis_, printed at Rome by Sweynheym and Pannartz in 1473, with a MS. collation of three very early codices made by Ang. Politian in 1490, which was bought for 21, at an extremely curious sale at Messrs. Leigh Sotheby's, in Feb., of books 'selected from the library of an eminent literary character' (M. Libri?).

The two statutable a.s.sistants at this time and for one or two years previously were Mr. J. M. Price, All Souls' College (B.A. 1849, M.A.

1852, now Vicar of Cuddington, Bucks,) and Mr. W. W. Garrett, New College (B.A. 1849). The former of these was succeeded about 1850, by the last undergraduate a.s.sistant, Mr. J. C. Hyatt, Magd. Hall (B.A.

1852, now Perp. Curate of Queenshead, Yorks.h.i.+re). Since then, in consequence of the difficulty of reconciling attendance on College lectures, &c. with attention to the continually increasing work of the Library, the junior a.s.sistants have been taken from the City instead of from the undergraduate members of the University, as had been generally the case hitherto.

In pursuance of an address from the House of Commons, Sept. 4, 1848, on the motion of Mr. Ewart, various returns relative to public libraries were obtained, which were printed by Parliament in 1849, State Paper, No. 18. The following is the reply from Dr. Bandinel there printed:--

'BODLEIAN LIBRARY, '_January_ 9, 1849.

'SIR,--In compliance with your letter, dated Oct. 27, 1848, desiring certain Returns respecting the Bodleian Library, I have to state--

'1. As to the number of books received under the various Copyright Acts, no distinct register of the books so received has been kept, but they have, at the end of each year, been incorporated into the general collection, so that I am unable to give the number of the books so received.

'2. The number of printed volumes in the Bodleian Library amounts to about 220,000; but this statement will very inadequately express the real extent of the collection, as so many works have been bound together in one volume.

'3. The number of ma.n.u.scripts is about 21,000.

'4. All graduates of the University have the right of admission to the Library; other persons must apply for admission to the regular authorities.

'5. No register is kept of persons consulting the Library; accordingly, the number of students who have frequented it during the last ten years cannot be ascertained.

'I have, &c.

'BULKELEY BANDINEL, '_Bodleian Librarian_.

'George Cornewall Lewis, Esq., 'Under-Secretary of State, Whitehall.'

The estimate of printed volumes here given is believed to be as nearly accurate as it was possible to make it, as considerable pains were taken in forming the calculation. The number of separate printed books and tracts may be reckoned as at least treble the number of volumes. With regard to the reply to the fifth enquiry some explanation is requisite.

A register is kept of all the octavo and most of the quarto volumes taken out for readers, of all the volumes from special and separate collections, and of all the MSS.; but no account is kept of the folios and other books on the ground-floor of the great room, which are accessible to readers themselves, and frequently used by them without the help of the a.s.sistants. Consequently, any return of the number of readers entered on the register would not adequately represent the whole number of students who use the Library, although, of course, it would, with a margin for allowance, afford a very fair approximation. No record, however, of separate _visits_ of readers is kept, as distinct from the books required; so that although a reader may be at work for days or weeks together, yet, if he continue to use only the same books, one entry alone will be made of his name.

[346] A separate list of the books purchased at Jacobs' sale is appended to the annual Catalogue.

A.D. 1850.

The Hebrew collection was still further increased in this year by the purchase of sixty-two MSS., of which fifty-seven had been brought from Italy; and in 1851, by the purchase of some printed books collected by Dr. Isaac L. Auerbach, of Berlin, who had recently deceased. Every year about this time[347] saw additions to this branch of the Library, made chiefly through the agency of the late Mr. Asher, the well-known Jewish bookseller of Berlin, and also through the late Hirsch Edelmann, a learned Rabbi, who was for years a frequent reader in the Bodleian, from whence he commenced the publication of a series of extracts (see under the year 1693). Mr. Edelmann died a few years since in Germany. A series of works ill.u.s.trating the history, civil and ecclesiastical, the geography, &c. of Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, and other neighbouring provinces of the Austrian Empire, amounting to 400 volumes, was purchased for 78; and a similar but much larger collection, relating to the history of Poland, numbering no fewer than 1200 volumes, was purchased for 366. Three hundred and twenty volumes of early printed works, some of which were fine specimens of _incunabula_, were obtained at the sale of the duplicates from the Royal Library at Munich. It was announced at the end of the Annual Catalogue that a special list of these, together with a catalogue of the Hebrew MSS. noticed above, and of the Hungarian and Polish collections, would be printed and circulated in the following year; this, however, was not done.

A series of 600 English sermons, printed between 1600 and 1720, bound separately, was purchased for 59.

Various specimens of the first beginning of printing in one of the Friendly Islands, Vavau, consisting of the Bible in the Tonga language, and of several elementary books, were presented by Capt. Sir Jas.

Everard Home, R.N. as also some elementary books printed at Apea by the natives, under the direction of the Missionaries, for the use of the natives of the Navigators' Islands.

_Dukes' Shrops.h.i.+re Collections._ See 1841.

[347] In 1845, about 320 printed volumes were purchased from a catalogue issued at Berlin by A. Rebenstein, or Bernstein, and D. Ca.s.sel.

A.D. 1851.

At the sale of the books of the poet Gray, by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson, on Aug. 28, his copies of Clarendon and of Burnet's _Own Times_ (vol. i.), with many MSS. notes written by him in the margins, were bought for 49 10_s._ and 2 18_s._ respectively[348]. Perfect specimens of facsimiles, which would defy detection, were obtained for the completion of the Library copy of Coverdale's Bible; being pen-and-ink copies of the t.i.tle, from Lord Leicester's copy, and of the map of Palestine, from Lord Jersey's copy, executed with admirable skill by the late well-known facsimilist, Mr. J. Harris.

A Supplemental Catalogue of the printed books, comprehending all the accessions which had been made during the years 1835-1847, was published in this year, in one folio volume, under the editors.h.i.+p of the Rev.

Alfred Hackman, M.A., by whom the greater part of the earlier Catalogue had been compiled, as mentioned at p. 268.

On March 27, Convocation voted an addition of 50 _per annum_ to the stipends of the Sub-librarians.

_Recovery of Poc.o.c.ke MS. 32._ See p. 81.

_Malone's Correspondence._ See p. 232.

[348] The Clarendon had been previously sold at an auction on Nov. 29, 1845, by Messrs. Evans, with various other books which had belonged to Gray.