Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A.D. 1598-A.D. 1867 Part 9

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. a Wood in 1695. They are all fully described by Mr. c.o.xe 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, ent.i.tled _Fasciculi Zizaniorum_, written by Thomas Walden. This was edited by the late Dr. s.h.i.+rley in 1858, as part of the Master of the Rolls' Series of Chronicles. Dr. s.h.i.+rley 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 Librarians.h.i.+p on Sept. 25, in consequence of his appointment to the Margaret Professors.h.i.+p 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 heads.h.i.+p. 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].

[124] Reg. Convoc. T^a. 27, p. 57.

[125] The memoranda are printed in Mendham's _Lit. Policy of the Church of Rome_, second edit., pp. 152-4, and in Bliss' _Reliquiae Hearnianae_, i. 12-14.

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 pa.s.ses 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 Bibliothecae Bodleianae Oxon.' has added the following note: 'quem ex Ratelbandi cujusdam bibliopolae 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 pa.s.sing 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 n.o.bility 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 n.o.bility, 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].'

[126] Reg. Convoc. T^a. 27, p. 173.

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 Librarians.h.i.+p, 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 16_s._ 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 15_s._ 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 Chancellors.h.i.+p of the University, two volumes of MSS. notes and observations upon Josephus, by Sam. Pet.i.t, 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 'aere suo.' Dr. T. Smith remarks, in his life of Bernard, that when the latter was preparing to edit Josephus, he used 'Sam. Pet.i.ti largis commentariis, longe antea in bibliothecae Bodleianae 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 Chancellors.h.i.+p. It is a Greek _Evangelistarium_ of the fourteenth century, formerly the property of a monastery described as 't?? pa?a??a?

t?? a?e???p???t??,' which was given by Parthenius, Patriarch of Constantinople, to Heneage Finch, Earl of Winchelsea, when in Turkey, in 1661, as Amba.s.sador 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 s.h.i.+p, '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.

[127] The style of moulding on the back seems to point to a somewhat later date.

[128] A description, including a copy of the verses, and ill.u.s.trated by a woodcut, is also to be found in vol. xxix. (1837) of the _Mirror_, p.

8, copied from the _Nautical Magazine_.

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 a.s.sisted 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 t.i.tle of _Casauboniana_, with a preface giving some account of all previous collections of _Ana_, and with copious notes. The MSS. are catalogued in Mr. c.o.xe'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 Yorks.h.i.+re and the North of England, with an innumerable ma.s.s 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. a 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 4_s._ 10_d._ as having been paid for the 'carriage of Dodsworth's MSS.'

An interesting volume, written by the donor of these MSS., Fairfax, and ent.i.tled by him 'The Employment of my Solitude,' being metrical versions of the Psalms, with other poems, was bought, in 1858, for 36 10_s._, at the sale of the library of Dr. Bliss, who had purchased it at the Duke of Suss.e.x's sale. It is described in Archdeacon Cotton's List of Bibles.

[129] A transcript of Elphinston's Chronicle is to be found among the Jones MSS.

[130] No. 20 is a volume of Camden's Collections, formerly in the Cotton Library, Julius B. x., from whence Dodsworth must have borrowed it, and whither, with an obliviousness too common in book-borrowers, he must have forgotten to return it. And No. 161 was given to the Library by Mr.

Fras. Drake, the historian of York, in 1736.