Chapter III: Part 3

7. New Testament, printed at Cambridge in 1628, in 16^mo. This was the first edition printed there of any portion of the Authorized Version, and only the second of any English translation[85]. The binding of the Library copy (which was bought, in 1859, for five guineas) is covered with silver filigree work.

Among Dr. Rawlinson's multifarious collections is a volume of curious early specimens of worked samplers, humorously lettered on the back, 'Works of Learned Ladies.'

[80] 'Reg. Conv. R. 1628. f. 6.' MS. note by Dr. P. Bliss.

[81] See _sub anno_ 1635.

[82] A lady, whose name is not mentioned, but who is graced with the appellation of 'heroina,' is recorded to have given to the University the Life of our Blessed Lord depicted in needle-work, 'byssina et aurata textura,' which was duly presented in Convocation on July 9, 1636. [Reg. Conv. R. 24.] It is not now preserved in the Library.

[83] This note is printed and the book described in Hearne's Appendix to _Titi Livii Forojul. Vit. Hen. V_, and, from thence, in Ballard's _Lives_; but not very correctly in either case. Also in Bliss' _Reliqq. Hearn._ i. 104.

[84] In the life of Rich. Ferrar, junior, in Wordsworth's _Eccl. Biogr._ (third edit. vol. iv. p. 232) a note is quoted from a MS. stating that a copy of Ferrar's _Whole Law of God_, bound by the nuns of Gidding in green velvet, was given to the University Library by Archbp. Laud. This is a mistake; the book in question was given by the Archbishop to the library of his own college, St. John's, where it still remains.

[85] The first was the Genevan Version, printed in 1591.

A.D. 1629.

The extremely valuable series of Greek MSS., called from its collector the Barocci Collection, comprising 242 volumes, was presented by Will. Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and Chancellor of the University. The manner of its acquisition is recorded in Archbp. Usher's correspondence. In a letter from Dublin of Jan. 22, 1628-9, Usher says: 'That famous library of Giacomo Barocci, a gentleman of Venice, consisting of 242 manuscript volumes, is now brought into England by Mr. Featherstone the stationer[86].' He recommended that the King should buy it, and add to it the collection of Arabic MSS. which the Duke of Buckingham had bought of the heirs of Erpenius[87]. On April 13, 1629, Sir H. Bourgchier writing to Usher, tells him that the Earl of Pembroke has bought the collection, for the University of Oxford, at the price of £700, and that it consists of 250 volumes[88]. It was forwarded to the University with the following letter, which is here copied from the Convocation Register, R. 24 (f. 9^b.):--

'Good Mr. Vice-Chancelor,

'Understanding of an excellent collection of Greke manuscripts
brought from Venice, and thincking that they would bee of more use
to the Church in being kept united in some publick Librarye then
scattered in particular hands; remembring the obligation I had to my
mother the Universitie, first for breeding mee, after for the honor
they did mee in making mee their Chancelor, I was glad of this
occasion to repay some part of that great debt I owe her. And
therefore I sent you downe the collection entire, which I pray
present with my beste love to the Convocation house. And I shall
unfaynedly remaine,

'Your most assured freind,
'PEMBROKE.
'Greenewich, the 25th of May, 1629.'

The Earl was willing that the MSS. should, if necessary, be allowed to be borrowed. And, in pursuance of this expressed wish, Patrick Young had, in 1648, the use of various MSS. from this collection, as we find from a memorandum at the end of the Register of Readers in 1648-9. But one MS. suffered in consequence considerable injury[89]. A further portion of the collection (consisting of 22 Greek MSS. and 2 Russian), which had been retained by the Earl, was subsequently purchased by Oliver Cromwell, and given by him to the Library in 1654. There they still bear the Protector's name; but, strange to say, no entry of the gift appears in the Benefaction Book[90]. These are all fully described in the first volume of the general Catalogue of MSS., published by Rev. H. O. Coxe in 1853. A Catalogue of the Barocci and Roe MSS., by Dr. Peter Turner, of Merton College, beautifully written, filling 38 folio leaves, is bound up among Selden's printed books, marked AA. 1. Med. Seld.

On Aug. 27, the Library was visited for the first time by King Charles and his Queen, little anticipating under what circumstances that visit would be repeated. He was received with an oration by the Public Orator, Strode, a copy of which is preserved in Smith MS. xxvi. 26, and which, in the exaggerated style of the Court-adulation of the time, began with words that sound blasphemously in our ears, '_Excellentissime Vice-Deus_.' From the Library the King ascended to the leads of the Schools; and there discussed the proposed removal of some mean houses in Cat Street, which then intervened between the Schools and St. Mary's Church. A plan of the ground and buildings was made at his desire, which was sent up to him at London.

[86] In the following year Mr. Henry Featherstone, bookseller in London, gave to the Library a number of Hebrew books.

[87] Parr's _Life of Usher_, Letters, p. 400.

[88] _Ibid._ Quoted in Sir H. Ellis' _Letters of Eminent Literary Men_, Camden Soc., 1843. p. 130.

[89] See _sub anno_ 1654.

[90] Richard Cromwell proposed at one time to perpetuate his own name in the Library, together with his father's, by sending a collection of the addresses which had been made to him, in order to show the temper of the nation, and the readiness of the greatest persons 'to compliment people on purpose for secular interest.' _Reliquiæ Hearn._ i. 263.

A.D. 1631.

Charles Robson, B.D., of Queen's College, who had been Chaplain to the Merchants at Aleppo, gave a fine Syriac MS. of the Four Gospels, which he had brought from the East; it is now numbered Bodl. Orient. 361. Another MS. of his gift has been by some mistake placed amongst the Thurston MSS., No. 13.

A.D. 1632.

William Burton, the historian of Leicestershire, gave the original MSS. of Leland's _Itinerary_ (together with a transcript of some parts) and of his _Collectanea_; the former filling seven volumes in quarto[91], and the latter (including the book _De Scriptoribus Britannicis_) four in folio. The _Collectanea_, after the death of Leland, had been in the possession of Sir John Cheke, to whom Edward VI entrusted the custody of Leland's papers; on his going into exile in the reign of Queen Mary, he gave them to Humphrey Purefoy, Esq., whose son, Thomas Purefoy, presented them to Burton in the year 1612. The _Itinerary_ was first published by Hearne in 1710, in 9 vols.; the _Collectanea_ in 1715, in 6 vols.; the _De Scriptoribus_, by Ant. Hall, in 1709. The MS. of the _Itinerary_ is much stained and injured by damp; but it is no longer in the perishable condition described by Hearne. There are, besides, three transcripts of it in the Library; one, of part of the book (Bodl. 470) is a copy (mentioned above) which was made for Burton, and sent by him to Rouse, with a letter dated 'Lindley, Leic. 17 July, 1632,' in which he describes it as being 'written, though not with so fine a letter, yet with a judicious hand.' He says that another part is 'now (as I heere) in the hands of Doctor Burton, Archdeacon of Gloucester, which he received by loane from a freind of mine, but never yet restored; the which, I thinke, upon request he will impart unto you;' and adds, 'Some more partes there were of this _Itinerary_, but through the negligence of him to whom they were first lent, are embesiled and gone.' He undertakes to send the three parts of the _Collectanea_ and the book _De Scriptt. Angliæ_, according to promise, as soon as he has done using them. Another copy, made by Burton himself in 1628, was given to Dr. W. Stukeley by Thomas Allen, Esq., lord of Finchley, in June, 1758, and finally came to the Library with Gough's collection. It is now numbered Gough, General Topog. 2. It is injured by damp at the beginning, but has been repaired by Stukeley. The third copy is a later transcript, also in Gough's collection, and numbered General Topog. 1.

[91] An eighth volume of the _Itinerary_ was given by Charles King, M.A. of Ch. Ch. some time subsequently, having been lent by Burton and not recovered at the time of his own gift.

A.D. 1633.

A singular motto stamped upon the binding of two books, and it may be of more, within a border of cornucopiæ, &c., attracts the attention of the reader. The books are, vols. i. ii. of Du Chesne's _Historiæ Francorum Scriptores_, 1636 (A. 2. 9. 10. Jur.), and Halloix's _Ecclesiæ Orientalis Scriptores_, 1633 (G. 2. 3. Th.); the motto is, 'Coronasti annum bonitatis Tuæ, Ps. 65. Annuo reditu quinque librarum Margaretæ Brooke.' An explanation is found in an entry in the Benefaction-Register under the year 1632 or 1633, where we read as follows: 'D. Margareta Brooke, vidua, quondam uxor Ducis Brooke, de Temple-Combe in comitatu Somerset, armigeri defuncti, donavit centum libras, quibus perquisitus est annuus reditus quinque librarum ad coemendos libros in usum bibliothecæ in perpetuum.' Probably the books thus stamped were the first that were bought after the final settlement of the gift. The rent arises from land at Wick-Risington, in Gloucestershire, and the sum duly appears to this day in the annual accounts of the Library. In 1655, the then Librarian, Barlow, makes a memorandum in his accounts that the University had not paid over this rent for several years; in consequence of his calling attention to this neglect, the arrears were paid up in 1658. At the same time the rents of the houses in Distaff Lane were heavily in arrear.

A (second) gift from Sir Henry Wotton consisted of the copy of Tycho Brahe's _Astronomiæ instaurandæ mechanica_, 1598, which the author gave to Grimani, Doge of Venice, containing several additional pages in MS. with two autograph epigrams; and also of a MS. of the _Acta Concilii Constantiensis_, which had formerly belonged to Card. Bembi, now numbered _e Musæo_, 25.

A.D. 1634.

In this year Sir Kenelm Digby gave a collection of 238 MSS. (including five rolls) all on vellum, uniformly bound, and stamped with his arms, which still form a distinct series. They are, for the most part, of the highest interest and importance, especially with reference to the early history of science in England. Amongst them are works by Roger Bacon, Grosteste, Will. Reade, John Eschyndon or Ashton, Roger of Hereford, Richard Wallingford, Simon Bredon, Thomas of New-market, and many others. They also comprise much relating to the general history of England, and are almost entirely the work of English scribes. Many of them had previously belonged to Thomas Allen, of Gloucester Hall, who himself was a liberal donor to the Library. [_See_ p. 19.] Two additional MSS., which formerly belonged to Digby, and which each contain his inscription, 'Hic est liber publicæ Bibliothecæ academiæ Oxoniensis, K.D.,' were purchased in 1825. One of these, _R. Baconis opuscula_, was bought for £51; the other, a Latin translation, by W. de Morbeck, of Proclus' Commentary on Plato, for £31 10_s._ They are uniformly bound with the rest of the series, and are numbered 235 and 236 respectively.

The donor stipulated that his MSS. should not be strictly confined to use within the walls of the Library. Archbishop Laud says, in the letter in which, as Chancellor, he announced the gift to the University, 'hee will not subiect these manuscripts to the strictnes of Sir Thomas Bodley's statutes[92], but will haue libertie given for any man of woorth, that wilbee at the paines and charge to print any of these bookes, to haue them oute of the Librarye vpon good caution giuen; but to that purpose and noe other[93].' But he afterwards left the University at liberty to deal as it pleased with his MSS. in this particular, as well as in all other questions that might arise concerning his books. In a letter to Dr. Langbaine, dated Nov. 7, 1654, he says: 'The absolute disposition of them in all occurrences dependeth wholly and singly of the University; for she knoweth best what will be most for her service and advantage, and she is absolute mistress to dispose of them as she pleaseth[94].' He mentions in the same letter two trunks of Arabic MSS. which he gave to Archbp. Laud to send to the University or to St. John's College, but he never heard whether they reached their destination or no. He promises also to send over some more MSS. from France when he has returned thither; since, when the troubles of the Rebellion drove him into exile, he had carried his library with him. Upon the Restoration, however, and his own return to England, he unfortunately left his books behind; and after his death they were confiscated by the French King as belonging to an alien, and subsequently sold. Doubtless the two MSS. acquired in 1825 were among those to which his letter refers.

The first stone of the western end of the Library, with the Convocation House beneath, was laid on May 13, 1634; it was fitted up with shelves and ready for use by 1640. Selden's books were placed here in 1659. The hideous great west window is a monument of the bad taste of the time; it is much to be hoped that it may some day be replaced by a window more worthy of its conspicuous position, and affording a less marked contrast with its opposite neighbour, the noble east window erected by Bodley himself.

[92] See under 1654-9.

[93] Reg. Conv. R. 24, 102. From MS. note by Dr. Bliss.

[94] [Walker's] _Letters by Eminent Persons, from the Bodl. and Ashm._, 1813, vol. i. pp. 2, 3.

A.D. 1635.

In this year Rouse issued an Appendix to the Catalogue published in 1620, consisting of 208 pages in quarto, in double columns, and containing, as he says, about 1500 authors. James, on the title-page of his Catalogue in 1620, speaks of an Appendix accompanying that issue; hence, probably, it is that the words 'Editio secunda' are placed on the title of the Appendix of 1635. But, strange to say, no copy of the earlier Appendix can now be found existing in the Library. At the end of the later one is added [by John Verneuil, then Sub-Librarian,] an anonymous enlarged edition (which was also sold separately) of James' _Catalogus interpretum S. Script, in Bibl. Bodl._, with an Appendix of authors who had written on the _Sentences_ and the _Summa_, on the Sunday-Gospels, on Cases of Conscience, on the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and the Decalogue. A book giving an account of all the copies of the Catalogue sold between 1620-47, with the names of the purchasers, still exists, the latter part being in the handwriting of Verneuil; but some leaves have been torn out at the year 1635. It appears from this book that the price of James' Catalogue was 2_s._ 8_d._, that of the Catalogue of Interpreters 6_d._, of the Appendix 2_s._, and of the whole series complete 5_s._

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.

[95] Reg. Conv. R. 24. f. 109^b. MS. note by Dr. P. Bliss.

[96] Entry at the end of the Register of Readers, 1638-9.

[97] This was given to Laud by Selden, 'vir omni eruditionis genere instructissimus,' as Laud styles him in his letter of gift on June 16. Reg. Conv. R. 24. f. 128.

[98] Reg. Conv. R. 24. 156^b. 169^b. The agreements with one Thomas Richardson for the work are found there.

[99] Reg. Conv. R. 24^b, 182^b.

[100] Four volumes of the miscellaneous collection on Irish affairs made by Sir G. Carew, afterwards Earl of Totness, are also to be found here. A list of their contents, as of those of the other volumes preserved at Lambeth and in University College, is printed in Mr. T. Duffus Hardy's _Report to the Master of the Rolls on the Carte and Carew Papers_, 8^o, Lond. 1864.

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.

[101] _Reliquiæ Bodl._ p. 278.

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.

[102] Neal's _History of the Puritans_, i. 688.

[103] Walker's _Letters of Eminent Men_, 1813, vol. i. p. 175.

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:--

"Yet let a race untam'd, and haughty foes,
His peaceful entrance with dire arts oppose,
Oppress'd with numbers in th' unequal field,
His men discourag'd, and himself expell'd,
Let him for succour sue from place to place,
Torn from his subjects, and his son's embrace.
First let him see his friends in battel slain,
And their untimely fate lament in vain:
And when at length the cruel war shall cease,
On hard conditions may he buy his peace.
Nor let him then enjoy supreme command,
But fall untimely by some hostile hand,
And lye unburi'd in the common sand."

(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:--

"O Pallas, thou hast fail'd thy plighted word,
To fight with reason, not to tempt the sword.
I warned thee, but in vain, for well I knew
What perils youthful ardor would pursue;
That boiling blood would carry thee too far,
Young as thou wert in dangers, raw to war.
Oh! curst essay of arms, disastrous doom,
Prelude of bloody fields and fights to come."

(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.

[104] Bp. Barlow's Argument against Lending Books. _MS._

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].'

[105] Aubrey's _Lives_; in _Letters by Eminent Persons_, ii. 346.

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:--

'Conscendo orbis illud decus
Bodleio fundatore:
Sed intus erat nullum pecus,
Excepto janitore.

Neglectos vidi libros multos,
Quod mimime mirandum:
Nam inter bardos tot et stultos
There's few could understand 'em.'

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.

[106] London News-letter of April 2; printed in Carte's _Collection of Letters_, vol. i. p. 275.

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.

[107] Reg. 'T. 158-9.' MS. Note by Dr. P. Bliss.

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.

[108] Barlow's Argument against Lending Books out.

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 9_s._
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.