part iii. of _Henry VI._ was bought at Chalmers' sale for £131!

[322] Mr. Paine died in France in 1789, aged 73 years. The picture was painted by Reynolds in June, 1764. Among the buildings erected by Paine were Brocket Hall, Herts; Wardour Castle, Wilts; and Richmond Bridge.

[323] To the British Museum Mr. Douce bequeathed his own Diaries and Notebooks, to remain sealed up until Jan. 1, 1900, in order that all of his own and the succeeding generation may have passed away before the personal histories which they undoubtedly contain are brought to light.

[324] In the majority of instances the books bear MS. notes by Douce, which often are valuable for the references they afford to other works and sources of further information. A few specimens of some of the fuller notes of this kind were contributed by the present writer to the early volumes of the second series of _Notes and Queries_. One book, viz. John Weever's _Epigrammes_, 1599, containing notes by Douce, which had somehow escaped from his library before it came to Oxford, was purchased in 1838, for £24 10_s._ A letter written by Douce in 1804, dated from the British Museum, where he was for a short time Keeper of the MSS., was bought in 1864, and a few other papers in 1866.

[325] In the same beautiful volume are facsimiles from three of Douce's MS. _Horæ_.

[326] A facsimile of this advertisement is given in the catalogue of the Douce library.

A.D. 1835.

The original MS. of Burnet's _History of his Own Times_, with a copy prepared for the press, a portion of his _History of the Reformation_, and some other papers by him, was purchased, from a family descended from the Bishop, for £210. An account of these MSS. may be found at p. 474 of the Appendix to Burnet's _History of James II_, being an extract from the _Own Times_ which Dr. Routh edited, with additional notes, when ninety-six years old, in 1852. The copy prepared for the press is expressly mentioned in the catalogue for 1835 as forming part of the purchase; and yet that copy appears from a passage in a letter from Rawlinson, dated Aug. 18, 1743, to have been then in the hands of that collector, whence it would have been supposed that it must have passed at once into the possession of the Library. After mentioning the book, Rawlinson says, 'I purchased the MSS. of a gentleman who corrected the press where that book was printed, and amongst his papers I have all the castrations[327].'

The MS. of Lewis' _Life of Wyclif_, with some additions by the author, was bought for £4 14_s._ 6_d._ Various other MSS. by Lewis were already in the Library among Dr. Rawlinson's collections. The purchases of printed books were chiefly amongst early editions of Classics (Juvenal, Ovid, Virgil, &c), Fathers (Augustine, Jerome), Schoolmen, and a very large series of fifteenth-century editions of the Decretals, Digest, Institutes, and other works in Canon and Civil Law. These were obtained at the sale of the famous library of Dr. Kloss, of Frankfort, whose collection was so remarkably rich in books bearing MS. notes by Melanchthon.

A curious collection of papers and pamphlets, printed and MS., relating to Spanish affairs, and of much interest to students of Spanish history, contained in thirty-two volumes in folio and eighty in quarto, was purchased for £40. It was lot 4583 in Heber's sale, by whom it had been bought at the Yriarte sale for more than £100.

[327] Ballard MS. ii. 88.

A.D. 1836.

Aubrey's collection of notes and drawings concerning Druidical and Roman antiquities in Britain, together with some miscellaneous historical notes, entitled by him _Monumenta Britannica_, in four parts (now bound in two folio volumes), was purchased, for £50, of Col. Charles Greville. Accounts of Avebury and Stonehenge, which are important from their early date (the former being the earliest known), are to be found in these curious and interesting volumes[328]. The remainder of Aubrey's MSS. came to the Library in 1860, upon the transfer of the books from the Ashmolean Museum. See _sub anno_ 1858.

A collection of about 300 tracts, relating to American affairs and the War of Independence, in forty-one vols., formed by Rev. Jonathan Boucher[329], was bought for £8 18_s._ 6_d._ These are now included in the series of tracts called _Godwyn Pamphlets_, in continuation of those which came, in 1770, from the donor so named. Another large gathering of American tracts, collected by Mr. George Chalmers, when engaged in writing his _History of the Revolt_, was bought in 1841 for £24 13_s._; at the same time, the first and only volume of his _History_, which itself was never actually published, was bought for £2 7_s._

_Sale Catalogues._ See 1834.

When the new Copyright Act was introduced into Parliament in this year, it was proposed to allow £500 _per annum_ to the Bodleian, in the manner adopted with regard to six other libraries, in lieu of the old privilege of receiving a copy of every book entered at Stationers' Hall. The Curators, however, on May 27, resolved that it would be highly desirable to retain the privilege, but that, should an alteration be made, it would be inexpedient to receive an annual grant by way of compensation; and in consequence of this opinion, the proposed abolition of the privilege was abandoned.

[328] A short description of them will be found in Gough's _Brit. Topogr._ vol. ii. pp. 369-70, and a fuller account in Britton's _Memoir of Aubrey_, 1845, pp. 87-91. Mr. Britton, however, strange to say, was not aware that the volumes had been for nine years in safe custody in the Bodleian, and consequently deplores their unfortunate disappearance! He describes their contents from an abstract in the Gough collection.

[329] An account of Mr. Boucher, who quitted America on account of his royalist principles, and afterwards was Head-Master of a well-known school at Cheam, will be found in _Notes and Queries_ for 1866, vol. ix. pp. 75, 282.

A.D. 1837.

The magnificent series of historical prints and drawings which is called, from the name of its collectors and its donor, the Sutherland collection, was presented to the University on May 4 in this year, although it was not actually deposited in the Library until March, 1839[330]. The six volumes of the folio editions of Clarendon's _History of the Rebellion_ and _Life_, and of Burnet's _Own Times_, are inlaid and bound in sixty-one elephant folio volumes, and illustrated with the enormous number of 19,224 portraits of every person and views of every place in any way mentioned in the text, or connected with its subject-matter[331]. The gathering was commenced in 1795 by Alexander Hendras Sutherland, Esq., F.S.A.; on his death (May 21, 1820) it was taken up by his widow[332], who spared neither labour nor money to render it as complete as possible, and by whom its contents were, consequently, nearly doubled. At length, desiring, in accordance with her husband's will, that the results of her own and his labour should be always preserved intact, Mrs. Sutherland presented the whole collection to the Bodleian. Its extent may be in some degree appreciated when it is mentioned that there are (according to Mrs. Sutherland's statement in the preface to the Supplementary Catalogue) 184 portraits of James I, of which 135 are distinct plates; 743 of Charles I, of which 573 are distinct plates, besides sixteen drawings; 373 of Cromwell (253 plates); 552 of Charles II (428 plates); 276 of James II; 175 of Mary II (143 plates); and 431 of William III, of which 363 are separate plates[333]. There are also 309 views of London and 166 of Westminster. Amongst those of London is a drawing on many sheets, by a Dutch artist, Antonio van den Wyngaerde, executed between 1558-1563. It affords a view which extends from the Palace at Westminster to that at Greenwich, both included; and comprehends also Lambeth Palace and part of Southwark, with the palace there of the Protector Somerset, in which the Mint was situated. The whole amount expended on the formation of the series is estimated at £20,000.

The collection is accompanied by a handsomely printed Catalogue, compiled by Mrs. Sutherland, and published in 1837 in three volumes quarto, two containing the portraits, and one the topography[334]. A Supplement to this was printed in the following year, in the preface to which Mrs. Sutherland records her transfer of the collection. She adds that 'the University of Oxford, by the manner in which it has received the collection, has afforded her the high gratification of witnessing the fulfilment, in their utmost extent, of the wishes of its founder; and in the liberal step which its future conservators have taken, to insure a direct and easy means of reference to the prints, she finds proof of their intention to comply with her own earnest desire, that the books should be as freely open to those really interested in them as may be consistent with their safe preservation. Under the superintendence of the compiler, but at the expense of the University, a copy of the Catalogue has been prepared, in which every print is marked with the page which it respectively fills in the volumes; by means of this, every difficulty of reference, and every doubt as to the print intended to be described, is obviated, and the manuscript indices will be preserved from the injury of constant use. In order to prevent the possibility of disappointment in referring from this marked catalogue, every print (with four exceptions only) of which the page has not been ascertained, has been struck out, although probably several of the portraits not at present found are still in the volumes.' The following letter of thanks was addressed by Convocation to the donor[335]:--

'To Mrs. Sutherland, of Merrow, in the County of Surrey.

'MADAM,--We, the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford, feel ourselves called upon to acknowledge, in a public and formal manner, the splendid donation recently made by you to our Bodleian Library.

'It is doubtless a source of much gratification to us that our University should have been selected by you as the fittest depository of so valuable a collection; but we are not, on that account, less disposed to appreciate and admire the feeling which has led you to make so considerable a sacrifice, and to relinquish the possession of what has been to you, for many years, an object of constant interest and occupation.

'We shall prize the matchless volumes about to be committed to our care, not merely as being embellished with the richest specimens of the graphic art, but as possessing a real historical character; as enhancing, in no slight degree, the value of works which we have long been accustomed to regard as most important contributions to the annals and literature of our Country.

'Given at our House of Convocation, under our Common Seal, this first day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven[336].'

A few other books were sent by Mrs. Sutherland at the same time, including Boydell's _Shakespeare_, Heath's _Chronicle_, Scott's edition of Dalrymple's _Preservation of Charles II_, Faber's _Kit-Cat Club_, Wilson's _Catalogue of an Amateur_, &c. And in 1843 she increased her former gift by the presentation of copies of a large number of illustrated, biographical, and historical works, many of which are in a like manner enriched with additional engravings. Chief amongst these is a copy of Park's edition of Walpole's _Royal and Noble Authors_, enlarged from five vols. 8^o. to 20 vols. 4^o. by the insertion of prints, portraits, and some of the original drawings. Similarly enlarged copies of Dr. Dibdin's works are also included; together with framed oil-portraits of Frederic, King of Bohemia, and of Mr. Sutherland.

A curious collection of rare Dutch tracts, in two vols., printed at Amsterdam between 1637 and 1664, and relating to English, Irish, and Scottish affairs, chiefly during the Civil Wars, was bought for £2 13_s._ And an enormous gathering of English pamphlets, on every kind of subject, in prose and verse, between about 1600 and 1820, said to number 19,380 articles, and which had accumulated in the stores of the well-known bookseller, Mr. Thomas Rodd, was bought of him for £101 14_s._ 6_d._ These exceeding, from their number, the powers of the then very slender staff of the Library for arrangement and cataloguing, remained piled up in cupboards for about twenty-five years. But a general clearance out of all neglected corners taking place on the appointment of the present Librarian to the Headship, they were then sorted (to a certain extent), bound, numbered, and incorporated in the general Catalogue; when they proved to be a valuable addition to the pamphlet-literature, comparatively few of them being found to be duplicates.

_Shakespeare_; _Romeo and Juliet._ See 1834.

_Sanscrit MSS._ See 1842.

A grant was made by Convocation of £400 annually, for five years, towards the expense of the new Catalogue, the printing of which was commenced in the summer. A statute also was passed providing that there should be two 'ministri,' or assistants, with salaries regulated by the Curators.

The Rev. Herbert Hill, M.A., Fellow of New College, was approved by Convocation, on Oct. 26, as Sub-librarian, in the room of Mr. Cureton, who removed in this year to the British Museum. Mr. Hill, however, only held the office for one year. And Mr. Richard Firth, New College (B.A. 1839, M.A. 1849, now, and from 1850, a Chaplain in the diocese of Madras), became _minister_ in the room of Mr. F. J. Marshall, New College (B.A. 1834, M.A. 1837, Chaplain of New College, deceased 1843), who had probably entered the Library in 1834 in the place of Mr. Etty.

[330] MS. note by Mrs. Sutherland in the Library copy of her catalogue.

[331] As early as 1819 the collection numbered 10,000 prints, bound in 57 volumes. Clarke's _Repert. Bibliogr._ pp. 574-577.

[332] Mrs. Sutherland died March 18, 1852.

[333] In Mrs. Sutherland's own copy of the catalogue (now in the possession of E. L. Hussey, Esq., Oxford), some of these numbers are enlarged in MS. as follows: Charles II, 557, being 432 plates; Cromwell, 379, 255 plates; William III, 436, 367 plates. Amongst the portraits, there are frequently numerous copies of the same plate, being impressions in all its different states. In a few instances (particularly with regard to Charles I) some of the prints entered in the catalogue have not been found in the volumes.

[334] Ten copies were printed of a larger and finer edition, for presentation to various Libraries, but as only four of these (Bodleian, Cambridge University, British Museum, and Bibl. Royale, Paris) acknowledged the gift (the letters from which are preserved in one copy of the catalogue), no more than five copies were printed of the Supplement. Consequently those Libraries which did not return thanks for the gift have now an imperfect book.

[335] It is here printed from the original (written in the beautifully neat hand of the late Registrar, Dr. Bliss,) which is now in the possession of a nephew of Mrs. Sutherland, Edw. Law Hussey, Esq., of Oxford, M.R.C.S. It is sealed with the old University seal, described on p. 1 of these _Annals_, enclosed in a gold box. The late Rev. R. Hussey, Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History, was one of the brothers of Mrs. Sutherland.

[336] A very erroneous notice of the collection, written in a singularly depreciatory tone, was inserted in an article in the _Quarterly Review_, in 1852, vol. xci. p. 217. The writer appears to have confounded the facts connected with Gough's preference of the Bodleian to the British Museum (as told in Nichols' _Lit. Hist._), or possibly Douce's, with the totally different circumstances of Mrs. Sutherland's gift, whose husband had left the collection entirely at her disposal, provided only that it were not dispersed.

A.D. 1838.

One of the 'curiosities of literature' was obtained by the purchase (for £10 10_s._) of the _System of Divinity, in a Course of Sermons on the first Institutions of Religion_, by Rev. Will. Davy, A.B., Vicar of Lustleigh, Devon. It is a work in twenty-six volumes, of which only fourteen copies were printed, entirely by the hands of the indefatigable author himself, between the years 1795 and 1807. It is very roughly executed, the author having purchased only just so much old and worn-out type, as sufficed for the printing of two pages at once; accomplishing in this way the work upon which he had set his heart, 'arte meâ, diurno nocturnoque labore' (as he says in a Latin preface), in consequence of having failed to procure in any other way the publication of his book. The copy in our Library is distinguished by having many additions inserted, printed (in many cases with later and better type) upon small slips[337].

A set of the _Monthly Review_, from the commencement to 1828, in 200 volumes, in which the names of the contributors are appended in MS. to their several articles, together with a volume of Correspondence with the Editor, Ralph Griffiths, LL.D., between 1758 and 1802 (now numbered Bodl. MS. Addit. VII. D. 11), was bought for £42.

Among the donations were: 1. A collection of twenty-one Oriental works, printed between 1808-1835 by the East India Company, presented by the Directors, and, 2. A valuable series, MS. and printed, of the Statutes of various Italian cities, presented by George Bowyer, Esq. (the present baronet, who succeeded to the title in 1860), who also in the years 1839, 1842, and 1843, forwarded large additions to the printed series. These volumes are now kept distinct as a separate collection. Altogether there are seventy-eight printed volumes, besides four MSS.

On Nov. 15, a Statute was approved by Convocation which raised the stipend of the Sub-librarians from £150 to £250.

From the year 1825 an annual folio Catalogue had been printed, containing, in one list, all the accessions accruing in each year from purchases, gifts, and the supply of new publications from Stationers' Hall. The issue of these lists was discontinued after the appearance of that for the years 1837 and 1838 jointly; except that in 1843 one for that year was printed in octavo.

A form of declaration and promise for due use of the privilege of admission to the Library, to be made by all graduates upon taking their first degree, in lieu of the oath formerly required, was approved by Convocation, on June 9[338]. In accordance with this form, which is still used, each graduate now promises: 'Me libros cæterumque cultum sic tractaturum ut superesse quam diutissime possint, et, quantum in me est, curaturum ne quid Bibliotheca detrimenti aut incommodi capiat.' The same declaration is subscribed in the Library by all non-graduates who are admitted to read there, with the addition of a promise that they will devote their attention 'ad studia et silentium.' The statutable penalty for any wilful mutilation or abstraction of any book, or portion of a book, is immediate expulsion from the Library and University, 'sine ulla spe regressûs.'

On the resignation of Rev. H. Hill, Sub-librarian, in this year, he was succeeded by Rev. H. O. Coxe, M.A., of Worcester College, who had previously worked for five years and a-half in the Department of MSS. in the British Museum[339]. Mr. Coxe's nomination was approved by Convocation on Nov. 16.

[337] Mr. Davy has had a rival, with much more success, within late years in the Rev. Thos. R. Brown, M.A., Vicar of Southwick, Northamptonshire. The Library possesses three works written and printed by this gentleman in his own house. The first is entitled, _A Grammar of the Hebrew Hieroglyphs applied to the S. Scriptures, containing the History of the Creation of the Universe and the Fall of Man_, 8^o. 1840. This appears to have been partly _composed_ in type, literally as well as technically, for the author says that 'a considerable part of the mental composition is coeval with' the manual labour, which last was entirely performed by himself. A second book appeared in 1841, _Elements of Sanscrit Grammar_. A third, _A Dictionary, containing English Words of difficult Etymology_, tracing them chiefly to Sanscrit roots, appeared in two vols. 8^o. 1843. Of this the author certifies that only nine copies were printed, and the one now in the Library was bought of Mr. Lilly (who had it from the author) for £5 5_s._ in 1855. The execution of all these volumes does the reverend printer great credit. The Rev. Dr. J. A. Giles had also a private press for some time in his house at Bampton, Oxon., which he taught some of the village children to work, and from which issued some of the publications of the Caxton Society, but the results were anything but satisfactory, although probably quite as good as could be expected from such juvenile compositors.

[338] A previous proposal of this alteration had been rejected by Convocation on March 17, 1836.

[339] Mr. Coxe had a considerable share in the compilation of the folio catalogue of the Arundel MSS. preserved in the Museum.

A.D. 1839.

An application was made by Magdalen College for the return of a copy of the Statutes of the College, found among the Rawlinson MSS., but it was refused by the Curators, on the ground that sufficient evidence was not produced of its having ever been the property of the College.

A.D. 1840.

Ninety specimens of the Aldine press, together with other volumes chiefly printed at Venice by A. de Asula, were purchased at the sale of the library of Dr. Samuel Butler, Bishop of Lichfield. From the same library was purchased, in the following year, a collection of portions of more than twenty of the very earliest editions of Donatus' _De Octo Partibus Orationis_, many of which were unknown; these had previously come from the library of Dr. Kloss. A ninth-century MS. of St. Gregory's _Sacramentary_ was purchased for £63; and early MSS. of Juvenal, Lucan, &c. A fine and perfect copy of Caxton's _Dictes and Sayinges of the Philosophres_, printed in 1477, was purchased for £50. It had previously been sold, at Dr. Vincent's sale in 1816, for £99 15_s._; this sum, which is marked in pencil on a fly-leaf, having been altered by some practical joker, by the insertion of a figure, to £199 15_s._, Mr. Blades has in consequence recorded that as being the price at which the Library secured the volume[340].

The Rev. Rob. J. M'Ghee, Rector of Holywell, Hunts, deposited in the Bodleian (as also in the University Library, Cambridge, and in that of Trinity College, Dublin,) a collection of thirty-one volumes relating to the controversy with the Church of Rome, and to the Moral Theology taught at Maynooth. The volumes consist of editions of the Douay and Rheims versions, of some Irish diocesan Statutes, of Bailly's _Theologia Moralis_, and Delahogue's Dogmatic Treatises, and of various Irish polemical pamphlets; and they are enclosed in a mahogany case, with glass door. In consequence of reference having been made to this collection by the donor, at a County Meeting held at Huntingdon, Dec. 28, 1850, upon the occasion of the 'Papal Aggression,' some slight degree of public attention was called to it; and a controversial volume was in consequence published by Mr. M'Ghee, in 1852, entitled, _The Church of Rome; a Report on the Books and Documents on the Papacy, deposited in the University Library, Cambridge_, &c.

_Shakespeare_; _Richard III_ and _Hamlet_. See 1834.

The first non-academic _minister_ was appointed in Mr. H. S. Harper (_vice_ Mr. Firth), of whose valuable services and acquaintance with details the Library still enjoys the benefit. Mr. Harper had acted for three years previously as an under-assistant.

[340] As Mr. Blades' valuable work on _The Life and Typography of Caxton_, 1863, gives most accurate descriptions of all the copies and fragments of our great printer's works which are preserved in the Library, it is only necessary to refer the reader to it for detailed information. A notice of two, however, which were unknown to be Caxtons at the time of Mr. Blades' investigations, will be found in the account of Bishop Tanner's books, p. 155; and two fragments, among Douce's books, are mentioned at p. 250.

A.D. 1841.

The very large and valuable MS. collections of the Rev. John Brickdale Blakeway, relating to the history of Shropshire, were presented by his widow. Mr. Blakeway was minister of St. Mary's Church, Shrewsbury, for thirty-two years, and died March 10, 1826. He was long engaged in gathering materials for a county history, and his collections now form fifteen closely-written volumes in folio, nine in quarto, and two in octavo, arranged, and lettered on their backs, according to their several subjects, viz. Pedigrees, County History, Parochial History, &c. A list of them is given at the end of the Annual Catalogue. They were supplemented in 1850 by the purchase (for £42) of a copy of Mr. T. F. Dukes' _Antiquities of Shropshire_ (4^o. Shrewsbury, 1844), divided into two large volumes, and enriched by the author with many MS. additions and copies of ancient deeds, and with upwards of 700 portraits and original drawings of churches, fonts, &c. relating to almost every parish in the county. As Mr. Blakeway's collections are not accompanied with engravings or drawings, these volumes largely assist to make the materials for the history of this county complete.

A parcel of 136 early French and Anglo-Saxon coins was presented by Her Majesty the Queen, out of a mass of upwards of 6700 which were found in digging at the bank of the river Ribble, at Cuerdale, in Lancashire, and were adjudged to belong to Her Majesty in right of the Duchy of Lancaster. The largest part of the Saxon coins were of the reigns of S. Edmund of East Anglia (in number 1770) and of Alfred (793); of the Continental, of Charles le Chauve (712) and, apparently, of Charles le Simple (2942).

Some rare and interesting books issued by English printers about the middle of the sixteenth century were acquired in this year; among them, the _Boke of Common Prayer_, printed by Oswen, at Worcester, in 1552, bought for the very moderate sum of £3 16_s._ Two rare American Psalters were purchased, the one called _The Massachuset Psalter_, printed at Boston in 1709, for £2, and the other, the Psalms in blank verse with tunes, printed at Boston in 1718, for £1 19_s._

_Shakespeare_, _Henry VI._ See 1834.

_American Tracts._ See 1836.

_Donatus._ See 1840.

The hitherto somewhat narrow funds of the Library received in this year a welcome increase by the bequest of the large sum of £36,000 in the Three per Cents. from Rev. Robert Mason, D.D., of Queen's College, deceased Jan. 5. He bequeathed also a further sum of £30,000 for a new library to his own College. In commemoration of this munificent legacy, one room, devoted to the reception of costly illustrated works, and works of some degree of value or rarity in various languages, has been styled the _Mason Room_ (see p. 251). The elegant model of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, now exhibited in the Library, came by his bequest, together with a painting of the Zodiac of Tentyra, in Egypt, which is hung in the Picture Gallery.

A.D. 1842.

Seven Sanscrit MSS. had been given to the Library in 1837 by B. H. Hodgson, Esq., the British Resident in Nepaul, before which time there were but a very few works in that language scattered through some of the various Oriental collections, and most of them recently acquired[341]. But in this year the real foundation of the present very large and valuable collection was laid, by the purchase for £500 of the MSS. obtained by Professor H. H. Wilson (_dec._ May 8, 1860) during his residence in India, numbering 616 works and 540 volumes, of which 147 are MSS. of the Vedas. A brief list of them is attached to the Annual Catalogue for 1842, and the whole are fully described in the catalogue of the Sanscrit MSS., compiled by Theod. Aufrecht, M.A., now Professor of Sanscrit in the Univ. of Edinburgh, the second and last part of which was published in 1864. The greater part of Mr. Wilson's collection consists of MSS. written in the last and present centuries.

Some small collections towards the history of Cheshire, made by Rev. F. Gower, were purchased in this year and in 1846.

In printed books the chief purchase was a copy (at the price of fifty guineas) of the original and hitherto unknown edition of the poems of Drummond, of Hawthornden. It is in quarto, with a portrait, having the letter-press only on one side of the page, and was printed at Edinburgh by Andro Hart in 1614. There are three or four small corrections in Drummond's own handwriting[342].

_Bowyer._ _Italian Municipal Statutes._ See 1838.

_Laing._ _Almanac by W. de Worde._ See 1755.

_Old Plays._ See 1834.

In March, Mr. J. B. Taunton, All Souls' College (B.A. 1843, M.A. 1848), was appointed Assistant _vice_ Mr. F. E. Thurland, New College (B.A. 1841, M.A. 1846, now Rector of Thurstaston, Cheshire), who was made an _extra_, in the place of Mr. Symonds, resigned. Mr. Thurland had, probably, succeeded Mr. Grove in 1838 or 1839.

The stipend of the Librarian was increased by £150, by a statute which passed on May 6. By the same statute an annual payment was ordered of £20 to the Janitor, in lieu of fees hitherto taken for showing the Library or Picture Gallery to Members of the University. These, undergraduates as well as graduates, have now, if wearing their academical dress, the right of free entrance for themselves and friends; other visitors are admitted, by a regulation made five or six years ago, at the very moderate fee of threepence each person. (See p. 134.)

[341] The gift of the first Sanscrit book (described in the Benefaction-Register as being 'Gentuanâ linguâ') by one John _Ken_, in 1666, is noticed at p. 113. The book is now numbered, Walker 214.

[342] A copy of Blackwood's _Martyre de la Royne d'Escosse_ (Edinb. 1587), among Rawlinson's books, has an autograph of Drummond: 'Gŭi. Drŭ[=m]ond, a Paris, 1607.'

A.D. 1843.

The valuable collection of Oriental MSS. formed by the celebrated traveller, James Bruce, of Kinnaird, was purchased for £1000. It consists of ninety-six volumes, of which twenty-six are in Ethiopic, and seventy in Arabic; there is also one Coptic MS. on papyrus. Included in vol. iv. of an Ethiopic copy of the Old Testament is one of the three copies of the Book of Enoch, which were brought by Bruce from Abyssinia, and which were then (if they be not even still) the only manuscripts of the book to be found in Europe. One of the three had been given by Bruce himself to the University, in 1788, through the hands of Dr. Douglas, Bishop of Salisbury; it is written on forty leaves of vellum, in triple columns, and is now exhibited in the glass case near the entrance of the Library. It was from this MS. that Dr. Laurence, afterwards Archbishop of Cashel, first made the translation which he published in 1821, and then subsequently, in 1838, published the original text. The second copy ('elegantissimum et celeberrimum') was given by Bruce to Louis XVI, and is now in the Imperial Library at Paris. By the purchase of the third, the Bodleian is, therefore, the possessor of two out of the three.

Two unsuccessful attempts had previously been made to dispose of the collection by auction. It was first announced for sale by Mr. Christie, for May 17, 1827, to be disposed of in one lot; and a list was issued, abridged from the catalogue made by Dr. Alex. Murray, the editor of Bruce's _Travels_. The issue of this proposed sale is recorded by Douce in the following MS. note on his copy of the auction catalogue: 'These MSS. were put in by the owner at £5500, and after an elaborate eulogium on them by Mr. Christie, no bidding or advance took place, and they were of course withdrawn. Had the owner offered them for £500, I should think the same result would have happened.' The second attempt was made in 1842, when the MSS. were offered for sale by Mr. George Robins, on May 30, but it appears that even all the eloquence of that most moving of auctioneers failed to elicit a bid corresponding to the expectation of the seller; and so the collection fortunately remained intact, to be disposed of to our Library in the year following.

A catalogue of the Ethiopic MSS. of the collection was issued in a small quarto volume (eighty-seven pages), in 1848, as part vii. of the General Catalogue of MSS. It was compiled by a German scholar, well acquainted with this branch of Oriental literature, Dr. A. Dillmann, and contains, besides Bruce's books, three of Pococke's MSS., one of Laud's, one of Clarke's, and three others; in all thirty-five.

Valuable materials for the history of Devon were secured by the purchase (for £90) of the collections made for that purpose by Jeremiah Milles, D.D., Dean of Exeter, and Pres. of the Soc. of Antiquaries. The library of Dean Milles (who died Feb. 13, 1784) was sold by auction by Mr. Leigh Sotheby, in April; and these collections, comprised in eighteen volumes in folio, one in quarto, and one in octavo, formed a principal feature in the sale.

In this year the new Catalogue of the general Library of printed books, exclusive of the Gough and Douce libraries, and the collections of Hebrew books and Dissertations, of which already special catalogues were in print, was completed and published in three folio volumes. It had been commenced in the year 1837, and was prepared by the Rev. Arthur Browne, M.A., Chaplain of Ch. Ch. (now a retired Chaplain of the Royal Navy), whose share comprises the letters P-R, and the commencement of S; the Rev. Henry Cary, M.A. (son of the Translator of _Dante_, then Incumbent of St. Paul's, Oxford, but now, by returning to his previous profession of the Law, a barrister in Australia), who is responsible for the letters F-K, and part of L; and Rev. Alfred Hackman, M.A., Chaplain and Precentor of Ch. Ch., and now Sub-librarian, who completed the greater part of it, viz. the letters A-E, L (from _London_)-O, S (from _Shakespeare_)-Z. The whole charges of the printing of the Catalogue amounted to £2990 12_s._[343]; the previous cost of compilation was about £2000.

_Bowyer._ _Italian Municipal Statutes._ See 1838.

_Sutherland._ _Illustrated Books._ See 1839.

[343] MS. note by Dr. Bliss.

A.D. 1844.

Sir William Ouseley, the editor of the three volumes entitled _Oriental Collections_ (brother to Sir Gore Ouseley, whom he accompanied when he went as ambassador to Persia in 1810), gathered, during some forty years spent in accumulation, about 750 Oriental MSS., chiefly in Persian, but including also a few in Arabic, Sanscrit, Zend, &c. Of these, in 1831 a catalogue (in 24 pp. quarto) was issued by the owner, who wished to dispose of them collectively, but no purchaser was then found, and they consequently remained in Sir William's possession. After his death, however (in Sept. 1842), they were again proposed for sale _en masse_, and the Library became a purchaser in this year for the sum of £2000. Many of the volumes are specimens of the best styles of Persian writing and illumination, while others are of great antiquity and rarity. The printed Oriental collection was also increased by various works printed in the East Indies in 1830-1839, which were presented by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and by some Sanscrit and Mahratta books given by Rev. G. Pigott, Chaplain at Bombay.

A.D. 1845.

This year is rendered noticeable in the later annals of the Library by the fact that not a single MS. was purchased during its course. But a very valuable collection of Arabic, Persian and Sanscrit MSS. formed by Brigadier Gen. Alex. Walker, during his service in India, was presented by his son, Sir Will. Walker, of Edinburgh[344]. These are kept as a distinct collection, like other donations or purchases of similar extent; the Sanscrit portion is described in the catalogue compiled by Prof. Aufrecht. The collection of printed Hebrew books was increased by the purchase (for £176 14_s._ 6_d._) of 483 volumes from the library of the celebrated lexicographer, Gesenius, of Halle, who died Oct. 23, 1842, and whose library was sold by auction at Halle, in Jan. 1844. Two curious collections of tracts were also bought; the one in English consisting of 300 volumes, ranging from 1688 to 1766, and chiefly treating of the case of the Non-jurors, the Bangorian controversy, and the affairs of the city of London (for £22 10_s._); and the other in French, consisting only of four small volumes, but containing a very large number of '_Merveilles_,' strange histories of strange wonders, between 1557 and 1637, of great rarity and singularity. These were obtained at the sale of the library of Mr. Benj. Heywood Bright, No. 3796, for £13.

On Dec. 23, the present writer (then a Clerk of Magdalen College) was appointed Assistant, _vice_ Mr. Taunton, after upwards of five years' previous service as a supernumerary, having first entered the Library in June, 1840.

[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 Cheshire._ 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 Musæo_, 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 amassed 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 Principal 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 Græca_ (who died March 30, 1847), whence a large number of classical 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 Assistants 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 Assistant, Mr. J. C. Hyatt, Magd. Hall (B.A. 1852, now Perp. Curate of Queenshead, Yorkshire). 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 Assistants 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 manuscripts 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 assistants. 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 illustrating 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' Shropshire 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. Cassel.

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 title, 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 editorship 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 Pococke 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.

A.D. 1852.

In the Report of the University Commission, which was issued in this year, various suggestions were embodied which had been made by several witnesses. Sir Edmund Head renewed his plan of allowing books to be taken out of the Library by readers, and was supported by the opinions of Professors Wall and Jowett; but the proposal was met with the strong counter-testimony of Mr. H. E. Strickland[349], Prof. Vaughan, Dr. W. A. Greenhill (at that time a constant reader in the Library), Prof. Donkin, Mr. E. S. Foulkes, and others. And the Commissioners were not prepared to report in favour of a plan which would at once lessen what was described as being one of the great advantages of the place, namely, the certainty of finding within its walls every book which it possessed. At the same time, they were disposed to recommend a relaxation in some instances of the strictness of the rule, and concurred in a suggestion made by Dr. Macbride and Mr. Storey Maskelyne, that duplicates should be allowed to circulate. Most, however, of the suggestions for extension of facilities to readers, as well as of the reasons alleged for alteration of system, have now been answered by the opening (through the liberality of the Radcliffe Trustees) of the Radcliffe Library as a noble reading-room for both day and evening. As the hours during which the Library may be used extend now, in consequence of this addition, from nine a.m. to ten p.m., it is at once apparent that the Bodleian presents greater advantages to students than can anywhere else be enjoyed; to which is to be added the readiness and quickness (specially testified to, in 1852, by Dr. Greenhill) with which, under all ordinary circumstances, readers are supplied with the books which they require. The Commissioners in their Report called attention to a suggestion of Sir Henry Bishop, then Professor of Music, for the establishment of a classified musical library, which should comprehend, not merely the music received by the Bodleian from Stationers' Hall, but all superior foreign music as well, of every school and every age. Such collections the Professor said were only to be found at Munich and Vienna.

The Report and Evidence upon the recommendations of the Commissioners, which were issued by the Hebdomadal Board in the following year, did not differ widely in testimony or suggestions from those of the Commission. Dr. Pusey and Mr. Marriott agreed in deprecating the allowing removal of books, speaking (as did several of the witnesses before the Commission) from actual experience as constant readers in the place; and Dr. Bandinel mentioned, in a paper of observations which he contributed, the fact that he had been told by the Librarian of the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh that between 6,000 and 7,000 volumes appeared to have been lost there from the facilities afforded to borrowers. A comparative tabular statement respecting the arrangements and rules of the libraries at Berlin, Dresden, Florence, Munich, Paris and Vienna, drawn up by Mr. Coxe from the Parliamentary Report on Libraries, which showed very favourably in behalf of the Bodleian, was subjoined by Dr. Bandinel to his evidence.

The great feature of this year was the acquisition of the Italian Library of the Count Alessandro Mortara, consisting of about 1400 volumes, choice in character and condition, for £1000. The Count, who was distinguished for his literary taste and knowledge of the literature of his own country, had, although holding the nominal office of Grand Chamberlain to the Duke of Lucca, taken up his abode in Oxford some ten years previously, on account of his desire to examine the Canonici MSS. and of his friendship with Dr. Wellesley, the late Principal of New Inn Hall. He became a daily reader in the Bodleian, where the interest which he took in the place, together with his polished, yet genuine, courtesy, made him a welcome and popular visitor. It was upon returning to Italy (where he died, June 14, 1855, at Florence), that he disposed of his valuable collection. A catalogue, compiled by himself, with occasional short notes, was issued with the purchase-catalogue for the year. He also drew up a catalogue of the Italian MSS. in the Canonici collection, which was published, in a quarto volume, in 1864. (See under 1817.)

Among miscellaneous purchases were a few volumes which were wanted to make the Library set of De Bry's _Voyages_ complete, an imperfect copy of the Oxford _Liber Festivalis_ (see 1691), and a large collection of Dr. Priestley's writings (believed to have been made by himself), in thirty-nine vols.

[349] Several important suggestions were made by this gentleman. One, that the Library Books should all be stamped with a distinguishing mark, is now in process of being carried out. Another, respecting the great importance of collecting the most ephemeral local literature, especially for the county of Oxford, and of procuring books printed at provincial presses, relates to a subject which has received much more attention of late years than formerly. A third, on the desirability, acknowledged (as we have seen) in the last century, of having a general Catalogue compiled of the books found in College Libraries which are wanting in the Bodleian, has unfortunately as yet seen no accomplishment.

A.D. 1853.

A portion of the collection of Hebrew MSS. formed by Prof. Isaac Sam. Reggio, at Goritz, amounting to about seventy-two volumes, was purchased for £108. Many other MSS. in this class of literature occur yearly in the accounts at this time. But the great acquisition of 1853 was the _Breviarium secundum regulam beati Ysidori, dictum Mozarabes_, printed _on vellum_ at Toledo, by command of Cardinal Ximenes, in 1502. £200 were given for this book, which is the only vellum copy known, and which is in most immaculate condition. It is of extreme rarity even on paper, as it is believed that only thirty-five copies were printed.

An imperfect copy of Caxton's _Chronicle_, 1480, was bought for £21; and a large gathering of Norfolk tracts was obtained at the sale of Mr. Dawson Turner's library.

It was in this year that Dr. Constantine Simonides visited the Library in the hope of disposing of some of the products of his Eastern ingenuity, but failed here, as also at the British Museum, although successful in most other quarters. It is much to be lamented that the talent and ability which he undoubtedly possessed in no small degree were devoted to such unworthy purpose as his history discloses. The story of his interview with Mr. Coxe, then Sub-librarian, is well known, and was reproduced in an article in the _Cornhill Magazine_ for Oct. 1867 (p. 499); and as the version there given appears to be substantially correct, it will be sufficient to borrow it from its pages:--

'On visiting the [Bodleian Library, Mr. Simonides] showed some fragments of MSS. to Mr. Coxe, who assented to their belonging to the twelfth century. "And these, Mr. Coxe, belong to the tenth or eleventh century?" "Yes, probably." "And now, Mr. Coxe, let me show you a very ancient and valuable MS. I have for sale, and which ought to be in your Library. To what century do you consider this belongs?" "This, Mr. Simonides, I have no doubt," said Mr. Coxe, "belongs to the [latter half of the] nineteenth century." The Greek and his MS. disappeared.'

An account of this visit was given in the _Athenæum_ for March 1, 1856, and a full narrative, including a letter from Sir F. Madden respecting the dealings with Simonides on the part of the British Museum, is to be found in S. L. Sotheby's _Principia Typographica_, vol. ii. pp. 133-136f[350].

[350] The death of Simonides, from the terrible disease of leprosy, was announced as having occurred at Cairo in last year.

A.D. 1854.

A very interesting series of eighteen autograph letters from Henry Hyde, the second Earl of Clarendon, was presented to the University by 'our honoured Lord and Chancellor,' the Earl of Derby[351]. They are best described in the following letter to the Vice-Chancellor, which accompanied the gift, and which is now bound in the same volume:--

'KNOWSLEY, _Oct._ 17, 1854.

'MY DEAR SIR,--In looking over some old papers here the other day, I found (how they came here I know not) some original and apparently autograph letters, which appeared to me to be curious. They are private letters, addressed by Lord Clarendon, to the Earl of Abingdon, as Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, during, and on the suppression of, the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion. I have no doubt of their genuineness; and if from the connexion of the University with the writer[352], as well as the locality, you think they would be worth depositing in the Bodleian Library, I shall have great pleasure in offering them to the acceptance of the University for that purpose; and in that case would send with them a miniature pencil drawing of the Duke of Monmouth, which is not too large to be let into the cover of the portfolio which should contain the letters, and for the authenticity of which I can so far vouch that it has been in this house since 1729, at least; since it appears in a catalogue of the pictures and engravings here which formed the collection at that time.

'I am, my dear sir, 'Yours sincerely, 'DERBY.'

The portrait in question, which is a beautifully executed drawing, in an oak frame, marked on the back, 'Duke of Monmouth, by Foster,' is now fixed, as desired, in the present morocco binding of the volume.

A collection of early editions of the Prayer-Book (including Whitchurch's May and June editions of 1549 and that of 1552), of the Metrical Psalter, and of Visitation Articles (amongst others, Edward the Sixth's Articles of 1547, and Injunctions of the same year), with a few miscellaneous books, was bought of the Rev. T. Lathbury, M.A., the well-known writer on English Church history, for £300. Various rare English books were purchased at Mr. Pickering's sale, and foreign dissertations, &c. at that of the library of Professor Godfrey Hermann, the Greek editor and commentator (who died Dec. 31, 1848), at Leipsic, in April.

[351] A portrait of Lord Derby, in his Chancellor's robes, painted by Sir F. A. Grant, was given by him to the University about 1858, and now hangs in the Picture Gallery.

[352] The Earl was High Steward of the University.

A.D. 1855.

Three Greek Biblical MSS. of great antiquity were obtained from the collection of Prof. Tischendorf, being Nos. 3-5 of the volumes described in a small quarto catalogue issued (anonymously) by him of _Codices Græci_, &c. One of these three is of the ninth century, containing the Gospel of St. Luke, with portions of the other Gospels, which was bought for £125; another of the eighth century, containing the whole of St. Luke and St. John, bought for £140; the third, also of the eighth century, containing the greatest part of Genesis, for £108.

_Rev. T. R. Brown's Dictionary, &c. printed by himself._ See 1838.

A.D. 1856.

A volume containing two autograph letters of Luther was bought for £20, together with a large collection of printed books (formed by -- Schneider, of Berlin,) relating to him and the German Reformation, with various editions of his works, for £300. Another volume, with some small additional papers in the Reformer's hand, was subsequently obtained.

The ever-increasing Bible collection received the addition of the very rare _ed. princ._ of the Bohemian Bible, printed at Prague in 1488, which was obtained for £17 10_s._, and a still more rare edition of the Pentateuch, with New Test., &c. printed at Wittemberg in 1529, obtained for eighteen guineas. A Roman Missal, printed 'ad longum, absque ulla requisitione,' (_i.e._ in a kind of 'Prayer-book-as-read' form,) Lyons, 1550, was obtained for £20. It was arranged by Nicholas Roillet, Chanter of the Church of S. Nicetius at Lyons, with the view of avoiding difficulties and delays, 'sacerdotesque expectantibus molestos reddentes, ipsosque erga dictos circumstantes scandalum generantes, qui existimant illos non solum ignaros sed nescientes quid agendum vel faciendam habeant;' and was issued with the papal _imprimatur_ of Paul III. But as Pius V and Clem. VIII subsequently forbade any variation whatsoever from the authorized Roman form, this Missal, like the Breviary of Card. Quignones, was, with others, suppressed. And hence its rarity.

Fifty guineas were given for a very large collection of Chinese works, numbering altogether about 1100, which had been gathered by Rev. F. Evans, for some time a missionary in China. Some of the Chinese books in the Library have been subsequently examined and catalogued by Professor Summers, of King's College, London.

On May 22, a new body of Library Statutes was confirmed by Convocation, after a complete revision of the previous regulations. The principal changes, besides the omission of various obsolete requirements, were the adding five elected Curators, holding office for ten years, to the old _ex officio_ body of eight; the providing for the removal of books to the extra-mural 'Camera,' or reading-room, about to be added; the fixing the stipend of the Librarian (including all the former fees and small separate payments) at £700, and that of the Sub-librarians at £300, and the assigning to the former a retiring pension after twenty years' service of £200, and after thirty years', of £300, and to the latter, after thirty years', of £150; and the making a few alterations with regard to the times at which the Library should be closed, these times being lessened by about one week in the course of the year.

A report from the eminent architect, Mr. G. G. Scott, on the means which might be adopted for the enlargement of the Library, and for rendering it fire-proof, dated in Dec. 1855, was printed in this year, together with one from Mr. Braidwood on the warming apparatus (see under 1821). Mr. Scott's report contained suggestions for the extension of the Library throughout the whole of the quadrangle and adjoining buildings, including the Ashmolean Museum, and proposed that the Divinity School should be assigned as a reading room, for which the great degree of light afforded by its large windows appeared peculiarly to fit it. The subsequent assignment, however, of the Radcliffe Library as a reading-room for the Library, removed the immediate necessity for any other extension. In 1858 a paper on the subject, illustrated with a plan of the Library, was printed by the late Dr. Wellesley, who, after considering the various modes then suggested for the enlargement of the Library, recommended the adoption (from the British Museum) of presses running up direct from the ground through all the floors, by which the dangers attendant upon the increase of weight of the wall-pressure would be obviated.

A.D. 1857.

A collection of manuscripts, more interesting as to their history than as to their actual contents[353], was presented by William and Hubert Hamilton, in memory, and in accordance with the wish, of their celebrated father, Sir William Hamilton. It comprises fifty-eight volumes (thirty-nine in folio, sixteen in quarto, and three in octavo) from the library of the Carthusian Monastery of Erfurt, famous as the place of Luther's early abode. A short catalogue of them, by Joh. Broad, was printed at Berlin in 1841, with a prefatory notice, from which we learn that they were preserved at Erfurt until 1805, when the library was broken up and dispersed on the occupation of the city by the French army, who stabled their horses in the place where the books were deposited, and burned many of them for fuel, while others were carried away and secreted with a view to their safety. Some of the latter were bought by the Count de Buelow, on whose death they were purchased from the subsequent possessors by Broad, and finally sold by him to Sir W. Hamilton. 'Nunc in eam terram demigrant,' says the bibliopolist, 'quæ, quodcunque alicujus pretii est aut materialium aut spiritualium rerum, in suo gremio accumulare a Providentia Divina destinata videtur.' Another collection of MSS., from the same library at Erfurt, was on sale by Mr. J. M. Stark, the well-known bookseller (now of London), at Hull, in 1855, who issued a small catalogue of them in duodecimo.

A valuable collection of Italian and Spanish MSS., amounting to about forty-six volumes, came to the Library by the bequest of Rev. Joseph Mendham, M.A., of Sutton Coldfield, who died Nov. 1, 1856. The most important part of these is a series of twenty-eight volumes relating to the Council of Trent, which were purchased at the sale of the Earl of Guildford's library in 1830 by Thorpe, the bookseller, for £35, and re-sold by him to Mr. Mendham in 1832 for fifty guineas. It was chiefly from the materials afforded by these that Mr. Mendham drew up his _Memoirs of the Council of Trent_, published in 1834. They are described in Thorpe's Catalogue of MSS. on sale in 1831, and in the preface to Mr. Mendham's book.

On June 18, the Rev. Robert Payne Smith, M.A., of Pembroke College, was appointed an Assistant Sub-librarian for the Oriental department, in consequence of the increasing infirmities of the aged senior Sub-librarian, Mr. Reay.

[353] For the most part, they consist of mediæval sermons and theological treatises by writers of no great fame, together with some of the works of Aquinas.

A.D. 1858.

On Oct. 30, an offer made by the Trustees of the Ashmolean Museum for the transfer of the printed books, coins, and MSS. there contained to the Bodleian, in order to facilitate the devotion of a part of the building to the purposes of an Examination School, was accepted by the Curators; but a similar offer with regard to the antiquities was declined. The latter consequently remain in their old repository, but the collections in Natural History were transferred to the New Museum. It was not, however, until 1860, that the books were actually received into the Library, where they now fill one small room. Altogether they amount to upwards of 3700 volumes, forming five different series. First are those of Elias Ashmole himself, numbering originally 2175, but reduced by losses before the transfer to 2136, of which about 850 are MSS[354]. This collection is extremely rich in heraldic and genealogical matter, together with an abundance of astrology. The printed books are chiefly scientific and historical; these, with the books in the following collections, are now in process of incorporation into the new General Catalogue of the Library. A list of the MSS. is given in Bernard's catalogue, A.D. 1697; but a very elaborate and minute account, forming a thick quarto volume, was drawn up by Mr. W. H. Black, the well-known antiquary, and published in 1845. As this, however, was destitute of an index, it remained comparatively useless until 1866, when a full Index, edited by the writer of this volume, was published under the direction of the Delegates of the University Press.

The next collection is that of Anthony à Wood, containing about 130 MSS. and 970 printed volumes[355], which were bequeathed to the Museum by the owner on his death in Nov. 1695. The former are of extreme value for the history of Oxford and the neighbourhood; among the latter are most curious sets of the pamphlets of the time, with the ballads, fly-sheets, chap-books, almanacks, &c. just such 'unconsidered trifles' as most men suffer to perish in the using, but a few, like Wood, lay by for the amusement and information of future generations. There are also seven volumes of his own correspondence, including letters from Dugdale, Evelyn, &c. Of the MSS. a list is to be found in the old Catalogue of 1697; a fuller and better one, compiled by William Huddesford, M.A., the Keeper of the Museum, was printed in a thin octavo volume, in 1761, which was reprinted by Sir Thomas Phillips, at Middlehill, Worcestershire, in 1824. There are also bundles of charters and deeds, chiefly monastic, but nearly all more or less mutilated or injured by damp and dirt, so as to be partially useless.

The third collection is that of Dr. Martin Lister, physician to Queen Anne, who died Feb. 2, 1711/2. Besides his books, he was the donor of various other gifts to the Museum, in return for which he was created M.D. of Oxford, in 1683. The books are chiefly medical and scientific, and number in a written catalogue 1451 volumes (including thirty-two MSS.), but thirty-five of these were missing when the transfer from the Museum was made.

The collections of Sir William Dugdale, which form a fourth series, number forty-eight volumes. A list of these is in the old Catalogue of 1697.

In the fifth place there are the MSS. of the well-known antiquary, John Aubrey. These are about twenty in number, of which fifteen are in his own hand, and are described in Britton's Life of him, printed for the Wilts Topographical Society, pp. 88-123. Collections for the history of Wiltshire, entitled _Hypomnemata Antiquaria_, form one of Aubrey's own works[356], but unfortunately the second volume (marked with the letter B) is missing. It was borrowed from the Museum, in 1703, by William Aubrey, the author's brother, and was never returned. A paper on the subject was inserted by Rev. J. E. Jackson, in 1860, in vol. vii. of the Wiltshire Archæological Magazine, and a reward for information as to the present _locale_ of the missing volume was subsequently publicly offered, but to no purpose, by the same gentleman. A small MS. of _Horæ_, which had belonged to Sir Thomas Pope, the founder of Trinity College, is among Aubrey's books. A MS. of Matthew of Westminster, (now _e Mus._ 149) had been given to the Library by Aubrey, in 1675, through Ant. à Wood.

There are also five or six MSS. which were given to the Museum by William Kingsley before 1700. Some few others, which were given by E. Lhuyd and Dr. W. Borlase, together with a volume of W. Huddesford's correspondence, are now incorporated with the Ashmole MSS., and are described in Mr. Black's catalogue, as well as the latest gift of this kind which was made to the Museum, _viz._ a little volume of _Private Thoughts_, by Bishop Wilson, of Sodor and Man, which was presented in 1824 by Lieut. Brett, R.N.

Thirty-nine choice Persian and Arabic MSS., which had formed part of Sir Gore Ouseley's collection, were bought from his son, Sir Fred. Gore Ouseley, Bart., the present Professor of Music, for £500. The rest of the collection came by gift, as will be seen under the following year.

At the sale (in June-Aug.) of the library of Dr. Bliss, a large number of volumes (still kept separate) were purchased, including a volume of original letters of Charles I, Clarendon, &c., and poems by Lord Fairfax (see p. 97); together with many from the series of books of _Characters_ collected by Dr. Bliss, and from his like series, both of books printed in London shortly before the fire of 1666, and of books printed at Oxford. The Library obtained by his bequest his own interleaved copy of the _Athenæ_, with many MS. additions[357].

A copy of the octavo Bible printed by Barker in 1631 (not 1632, as generally said), in which the word 'not' was omitted in the seventh commandment, was bought for £40. For this error (which looks very much like a wicked jest) the printer was fined 1000 marks by the High Commission Court[358], and the edition was rigidly suppressed, all the copies which could be found being condemned to the flames.

Another purchase was a large collection of political tracts in seventy volumes, chiefly relating to foreign affairs, which had been formed by Mr. -- Hamilton, of the Diplomatic Service.

[354] This number includes some fifteen or sixteen volumes given by subsequent donors, but incorporated with Ashmole's own books.

[355] About fifty volumes out of Wood's whole number were missing when the Library became possessed of them.

[356] These were printed by the Wiltshire Archæological Society in 1862, in one volume quarto, under the editorship of Rev. J. E. Jackson.

[357] A very valuable Index of notes and references on all kinds of biographical, historical, and antiquarian matters, contained in forty small covers, which had been the growth of the many years of Dr. Bliss's literary researches, was bequeathed by him to Rev. H. O. Coxe, by whom it is kept in the Library for the use of readers. Several references are made to this Index in the earlier part of the volume.

[358] In Burn's _High Commission Court_, 1865, it is said (from the Reports of proceedings in the Court) that the fine inflicted on Barker was £200 and on Lucas £100. 'With some part of this fine Laud causeth a fair Greek character to be provided, for publishing such manuscripts as time and industry should make ready for the publick view; of which sort were the _Catena_ and _Theophylact_ set out by Lyndsell.' Heylin's _Cyprianus Anglicus_, p. 228.

A.D. 1859.

Numerous MSS., chiefly classical, patristic, or Italian, were purchased at the sale of M. Libri's collection in London, in March. Amongst them was a Sacramentary, of the commencement of the ninth century, which was obtained for £43; and a copy of S. Cyprian's Epistles, also of the ninth century, for £84. Four volumes of the correspondence of Scholars at home and abroad with E. H. Barker, of Thetford, were also added to the Library from the sale of Mr. Dawson Turner's library. They are now numbered Bodl. MSS. 1003-1006. And the munificent gift of a very valuable collection of 422 volumes of Arabic and Persian MSS. was received from J. B. Elliott, Esq., of Calcutta. These chiefly consist of the MSS. which Sir Gore Ouseley (who died Nov. 18, 1844,) obtained during his diplomatic service in the East, commencing his collection when stationed at Lucknow, and completing it while ambassador in Persia; of which Mr. Elliott had been the purchaser. A small remaining part had previously been bought by the Library, as noted under 1858. In 1860, Mr. Elliott added to his former gift a series of Eastern coins, and various handsome specimens of Eastern weapons; the latter are now exhibited in a case in the Picture Gallery. Five Sanscrit MSS. were received from Fitz-Edward Hall, Esq., of Saugur, who, at the same time, expressed his munificent intention of presenting hereafter the whole of his large collection.

In this year, after considerable enquiry had been made respecting different modes of cataloguing, and Mr. Coxe had reported on the arrangements adopted in the great libraries at home and some of those abroad, it was resolved by the Curators, upon that gentleman's recommendation, that the plan in use in the British Museum should be immediately introduced, for the purpose of commencing a new General Catalogue of all the printed books (excepting the Hebrew, of which a separate catalogue had been made) in the whole Library. By this plan, three or five copies, according as the case may be that of a single or double entry, are written simultaneously on prepared paper, as with a manifold-copier, the transcribers writing out in this way the entries of titles previously examined and corrected by the cataloguers. The separate titles are then mounted, arranged in alphabetical order, and bound in volumes. By this plan two copies of the Catalogue are at once written with the labour of one, while surplus slips are also provided for the formation hereafter of a classified catalogue as well. The use of the Catalogue, however, is thus confined to the Library itself; and the literary world in general must still refer to the printed Catalogues of 1843 and 1851. A commencement of the new undertaking was made in this year; but it was not until 1862 that the present staff (as to numbers) of assistants was employed, and the work completely organized. At present the letters A-E, G-H are catalogued; and the extent to which the whole Catalogue will run may be estimated from the fact that the letters B, C, and G fill sixty, sixty-five, and thirty-four volumes respectively. All the books are seen and examined separately; anonymous authors are, if possible, traced out; many errors in previous catalogues are corrected, and the number of entries is very largely increased.

A.D. 1860.

The resignation of the Librarianship by Dr. Bandinel, after forty-seven years of office in the capacity of Head, and a total of fifty of work in the Library, forms a leading feature in the Bodley Annals of this year. At the age of seventy-nine the natural infirmities of age were felt by himself to be incapacitating him for the duties which he had so long and so regularly discharged, while at the same time the continually increasing pressure of work and enlargement of the Library, made those duties much more onerous than they had been even a quarter of a century before. And so he resolved to withdraw at Michaelmas from the place to which he had been so heartily and entirely devoted, and which under his headship had been doubled in contents. The parting was not without a great struggle; it was the abandoning what had been the cherished occupation of his life, and with the ceasing of that occupation he felt a too-certain foreboding (which he expressed to the writer of these pages) that the life would soon cease as well. A well-merited tribute was paid to him by Convocation in June, in both increasing the amount of his statutable pension, so that he retired on a full stipend, and in specially enrolling him among the Curators of the Library. But he was seldom seen in the old place after his resignation; on two or three occasions only did he again mount the long flight of stairs which had of late tried both his strength and breath severely; and then, when only seven months had elapsed, on Feb. 6, 1861, he passed away. And little more than a fortnight previously, on January 20, his old colleague, Professor Reay, departed this life, at the age of seventy-eight. He also had retired on his pension at Michaelmas, 1860, and had been succeeded as Oriental Sub-librarian by Rev. R. Payne Smith (Assistant-librarian in the same department since 1857), whose appointment was confirmed by Convocation on Nov. 22. Memoirs of Dr. Bandinel and Mr. Reay are given in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, (1861, pp. 463-6), which do justice, in the case of the former, to his watchful solicitude for the Library and his thorough acquaintance with it; and in the case of the latter (evidently from intimate personal acquaintance), to his great kindliness of heart, and simplicity and gentleness of character.

The Convocation for the election of Dr. Bandinel's successor was held on November 6, when, with unanimous consent, the Rev. H. O. Coxe, M.A., Sub-librarian since 1837, was appointed to the office.

A most seasonable and valuable enlargement of the Library was effected, by an addition which henceforth marks an æra in our Annals. On June 12, Convocation thankfully accepted an offer from the Radcliffe Trustees (which had been first mooted by Dr. Acland in 1856), of the use, as a Bodleian reading-room, of the noble building hitherto under their control, the existing contents of which had (for the most part) been removed to the New Museum. Dr. Radcliffe's own original intention had been the building an additional wing to the Bodleian rather than the erecting a library of his own; and subsequently the idea had been entertained of devoting his structure to the exclusive reception of manuscripts[359]. Its appropriation, therefore, to the Bodleian upon the removal of the library of medicine and natural history, was, in some sort, a return to the founder's first design. And the return came most seasonably, when the old walls of the Schools' quadrangle were well-nigh bursting from a plethora of books, and still the cry 'They come' daily caused fresh bewilderment as to whither those that came should go. It was resolved that the new reading-room thus opportunely gained should be appropriated to new books (arranged under a system of classification) and magazines; that it should be called the 'Camera Radcliviana;' and that it should be open from ten A.M. to ten P.M., thus affording the facilities for evening use of the Bodleian which had often been desired for those who were occupied in college work during the day. It was at the close of the year 1861 that the building began to be filled by its new occupants, and on Jan. 27, 1862, (the necessary alterations and preparations having been completed in the short space of the Christmas vacation) it was announced by the Vice-Chancellor to be open as a Reading Room in connection with the Bodleian. A grant of £200 _per annum_ towards the expense of management was made by Convocation on Nov. 28, 1861, which was increased to £300 in 1865, the remainder of the charge, consisting of the incidental expenses, being defrayed from the general funds of the Library.

A large additional space for the reception of books was gained by the closing up the open ground-floor (through which was the former entrance to the reading-room), converting the spaces between the outer arches into windows, and lining the walls within with book-shelves, thus affording accommodation, according to the present reckoning, for about 50,000 volumes. The whole building may probably be reckoned as capable of containing altogether about 75,000 volumes[360].

The terms on which the Radcliffe Trustees made their offer, and which were accepted by the University, were these:--1. That the Radcliffe Building should be a reading-room to the Bodleian, or be used for any other purpose of the Bodleian Library. 2. That it should remain the property of the Trustees, being esteemed a loan to the University. 3. That no alteration should be made in the building without consent of the Trustees or a Representative approved by them. 4. That the expense of maintaining the building should be borne by the Trustees.

The transfer of this magnificent room afforded a rare opportunity for developing the usefulness of the Library to which it is now attached, and all who frequent it will acknowledge that that opportunity has been well and worthily improved under the direction of the present Librarian.

On Oct. 25, leave was granted by Convocation for the lending two Laud Manuscripts, 561 and 563, being copies of the _Historia Hierosoylmitana_, by Albert of Aix, to the French Government.

At the sale of the library of Dr. Wellesley, Principal of New Inn Hall, a copy of Boccaccio's _Corbaccio_, 1569, was purchased, on account of its possessing the autograph of Sir Thomas Bodley, to whom it had been given by the editor, J. Corbinelli.

A rare Salisbury _Primer_, printed at Rouen by Rob. Valentin in 1556, was purchased for £22. Its title affords an amusing specimen of a foreigner's mode of printing English; it runs thus--_This prymer of Salisbury vse is se tout along with houtonyser chyng, with many prayers & goodly pyctures._ It is intended hereby to be conveyed to the English reader that, without any searching, he will find his prayers and psalms set out in their proper order.

[359] In prosecution of this idea several valuable collections of Oriental MSS. were obtained, which still form part of the stores of the old Radcliffe Library. They consist of the Arabic, Persian, and Sanscrit MSS. collected by -- Frazer and by Sale, the translator of the Koran, which were obtained (as we learn from Sharpe's _Prolegomena_ to Hyde's _Dissertationes_, 1767, vol. i. p. xvii.) through Professor Thomas Hunt, at the suggestion of Dr. Gregory Sharpe; and of the collations of the MSS. of the Hebrew Old Test. by Dr. Kennicott (Librarian 1767-1783), together with his correspondence and miscellaneous _codices_. The Sanscrit MSS. of Frazer and Sale are described in Prof. Aufrecht's catalogue. Other collections in the Radcliffe Library are the classical and historical (as well as medical) books of Dr. Frewin, a physician and Camden Professor of Anc. History; and the law books of Mr. Viner, founder of the Vinerian Professorship and Scholarships; together with the works of J. Gibbs, the justly famous architect of the building in which they were kept, and some coins bequeathed by Wise, the first Librarian. Two volumes of Clarendon MSS. were bought for the Library in 1780, but were united some years since to the mass of those papers preserved in the Bodleian. It was not until the year 1811 that the Library was specially assigned to Medicine and Natural History. (See _Report on the transfer of the Radcliffe Library to the Univ. Museum_, by Dr. Acland, 1861.)

[360] An account of this assignment and arrangement of the Radcliffe Library, as also of the transfer of the Ashmolean books to the Bodleian, appeared in the _Athenæum_ for Jan. 1865, p. 20.

A.D. 1861.

One hundred and four volumes of Tamil MSS. were purchased; as well as four Samaritan MSS. of the Pentateuch, of the twelfth century, which had been brought to England by a native of Samaria.

The Syriac MSS. of the well-known Orientalist, Dr. Bernstein, were purchased by the Delegates of the Press, with a view to assisting in the great work of a Syriac Lexicon, upon which Mr. (now Dr.) Payne Smith was (and still is) engaged.

The printing of the Annual Catalogues of purchases was discontinued, after the issue of the Catalogue for this year. Written registers are now kept in the Library of all the books bought in the course of each year; and only a list of benefactors, with the statement of accounts, is annually printed for circulation in the University and amongst donors.

A.D. 1862.

A large collection of British Essayists and Periodicals was presented by the late Rev. F. W. Hope, D.C.L., the munificent benefactor to the University Museum, the founder of the Professorship of Zoology, and the donor also of a large collection of engraved portraits and other prints[361]. The collection was one which had been formed by John Thomas Hope, Esq., the donor's father. It contains some 760 specimens of its class of literature, belonging chiefly to the eighteenth century. Special thanks for the gift were returned by Convocation, on Feb. 20. A catalogue, which had been drawn up for Mr. Hope by Mr. Jacob Henry Burn, containing notices in detail of the various publications, was printed at the University Press, in 1865, in an octavo volume.

A Hebrew MS. of the Pentateuch, probably of the thirteenth century, was bought for £32 10_s._ Some tracts relating to the period of the Great Rebellion were bought at the sale of Dr. Bandinel's extensive Caroline collection.

On March 4, the Curators accepted the gift of a bust of Rev. F. W. Robertson, late incumbent of Trinity Chapel, Brighton, which had been purchased by subscription. It is now placed in the Picture Gallery.

A large number of purchase-duplicates, which had accumulated during the course of many years, were removed from the Library and sold by auction, in London, by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson, in May. Among them were some of great rarity. The sale, which lasted five days, produced £766 2_s._ 6_d._; of which £110 5_s._ were given for a specimen of the St. Alban's press, the _Rhetorica Nova_ of Gul. de Saona, printed in 1489. A second and smaller sale, containing many English works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, took place on April 12, 1865, at which a copy of Chettle's _Kind-Harts Dreame_ (1593), produced £101, and Decker's _Guls Horne-Booke_, 1609, £81. The proceeds of the whole sale amounted to £750 18_s._ 6_d._

The Rev. Alfred Hackman, M.A., Chaplain and Precentor of Ch. Ch., and P. C. of St. Paul's, Oxford, and an Assistant in the Library of twenty-five years' standing, was approved by Convocation, on April 12, as Mr. Coxe's successor in the Sub-librarianship; after a discussion, which led to the abrogation by Convocation, in February, of a provision in the Statutes forbidding the holding cure of souls in connection with that office or that of Head-librarian without special licence from the Curators.

[361] These engravings are deposited in the gallery of the Radcliffe, under the charge of a separate Keeper, the Rev. J. Treacher, M.A. They do not belong to the Bodleian.

A.D. 1863.

Among the purchases made in this year were the following: Card. Ximenes' rare treatise entitled _Crestia_, printed at Valentia in 1483 (£25); Court-Rolls of Tamworth, Solihull, and other neighbouring places, obtained from Mr. Halliwell; and a collection, in three thick folio volumes, of placards, hand-bills, &c., relating to the town of Coventry, formed by Mr. W. Reader, a printer in that place.

Capt. Montagu Montagu, R.N., who died at Bath, on July 3 in this year, bequeathed a collection of about 700 volumes, in various branches of literature, which was received at the Library about the beginning of 1864. There are about ninety editions and versions of the Psalter, with works on Psalmody, including a metrical version by Capt. Montagu himself; a large number of editions of Anacreon, Horace, Juvenal, Phædrus, Petrarch, Boileau, and Fontaine's _Fables_; a few MSS. of Juvenal, Petrarch, &c. with a large series of autograph letters, chiefly obtained at Upcott's sale. There are, besides, a number of topographical and biographical works illustrated, _more Sutherlandico_, with additional engravings, together with many parcels of separate prints arranged for the same purpose. One item of particular interest which accompanied the collection is a small sketch of Napoleon I, in profile, admirably executed by the well-known Italian artist, Giuseppe Longhi. It now hangs, framed and glazed, in the Library, together with a letter from Longhi himself, in French, dated at Milan, June 4, 1828, in which he narrates the occasion on which it was taken. He attended, in 1801, at Lyons, as a member of the 'Consulte Cisàlpine,' for the settling the affairs of the Republic of Italy, under the presidency of the First Consul. It happened that during the delivery of a long harangue, full of tedious flattery, Napoleon sat _vis-à-vis_ with the orator; and Longhi saw that an opportunity for exercising the cunning of his pencil had come. The light, which streamed in through the great window of the Church (!) where they were assembled, brought out the profile very clearly; there was little fear of being cut short by the speaker's suddenly ceasing his declamation, or of being interrupted by movement on the part of the unconscious subject of the operation, for the latter sat immersed in thought upon matters far away, while regarding the speaker with a pensive air; and so, while Napoleon sat pondering, Longhi sat sketching. And everybody, he declares with a pardonable pride, at Lyons and Paris, pronounced the likeness to be excellent. A small bust of Napoleon, now placed in the great window, came to the Library at the same time. A catalogue of Capt. Montagu's books, comprising forty octavo pages, was printed and circulated with the Annual Statement for 1864.

A.D. 1864.

The chief acquisitions in manuscript books were various Hebrew volumes (for £159), and a series of letters to Malone from Dr. Johnson, Mrs. Siddons, and others; and in printed books, a perfect copy of Cromwell's Great Bible, printed by Grafton in 1539, which was bought of Mr. Fry, the well-known collector, for £100.

A sixth part of the general catalogue of MSS. was issued, containing the Syriac, Carshunic and Mendean MSS., in number 205, which had been drawn up by Rev. R. Payne Smith, M.A., and to which several facsimiles were appended. And the eighth part, containing the Sanscrit MSS., in number 854, appeared under the editorship of Theodore Aufrecht, M.A., now Professor of Sanscrit in the University of Edinburgh. A first _fasciculus_ of this had been issued in 1859.

A.D. 1865.

At the beginning of January, a sale was held in London by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson, of the stock of the late Mr. William Henry Elkins, a bookseller, of 41, Lombard Street. At this sale, the Library was the fortunate purchaser of what appears to be a genuine _Shakespeare Autograph_. The book is Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, printed by Aldus, at Venice, in October, 1502, in octavo; and on the title is the signature 'W^m. Sh^r.' in a hand bearing no resemblance whatever to that of the Ireland forgeries, but not unlike that of the signature attached to Shakespeare's will. Opposite to the title, on a leaf pasted down on the original binding of the book, is the note, most certainly a genuine memorandum of the date to which it professedly belongs, of which a faithful facsimile is given with that of the autograph itself, in the accompanying lithograph[362]. That the note itself is no forgery is admitted by all who have examined it; the volume, therefore, is certainly, by tradition, one which belonged to the poet. The only question is, whether the name may not have been forged in consequence of the existence of this note. To this, which is the opinion of some, it may fairly be replied, that, seeing no contracted form of Shakespeare's signature is known to exist, a forger would hardly have invented one for the occasion, but would have given the name in full; while, on the other hand, if the signature be real, what more natural than that a subsequent owner should record the tradition that the indefinite 'Sh^r.' of this unimportant title-page was no other than the very definite 'Shakspere' himself? The names mentioned in the note are names, as every one knows, connected with the poet's history. _Hall_ was the marriage name of his daughter Susannah, to whom he left his house in Henley Street; and one William Hall, a glover, appears from the Stratford Records printed by Mr. Halliwell, to have had a house in that street in 1660. He, doubtless, was the donor of the volume. Susannah Hall's daughter, Elizabeth, was married to a Thomas Nash, who died in 1647; but though he died without issue, the initials 'T. N.' may well stand for some member of the family who bore the same names. That, therefore, a Hall should possess the book, and subsequently give it to (most probably) a Nash, goes far to establish its genuineness as a Shakespeare relic. In a full account of the volume, supporting its pretensions, which appeared in the _Athenæum_ for Jan. 28, 1865 (p. 126), it was pointed out that the two references to the story of Baucis and Philemon, which are found in Shakespeare's Plays, show that he was not unacquainted with the _Metamorphoses_. To this may be added a better proof of his knowledge of Ovid's writings in the fact that two lines from the _Amores_ (I. xv. 35, 36) form the motto to the _Venus and Adonis_. As the volume is somewhat dirty, and has a well-worn air, it may possibly have been used by Shakespeare during those school-keeping experiences of which Aubrey tells us; possibly, however, the wear and tear may be due to an older owner, who has plentifully interspersed his MS. notes in, apparently, a foreign hand, on many of the pages. Owing to a generally-entertained suspicion throughout the auction-room on the occasion of the sale of the volume, that the autograph must be a forgery, the Library became its possessor for the small sum of £9[363]!

A small volume, containing several papers in the handwriting of Luther, was bought for £45. The first edition of Coverdale's New Testament, printed at Antwerp, by Matthew Crom, in 1538, was added to the Biblical collection. Two interesting and important series of newspapers were obtained; the one, a set (not quite perfect) of the _London Gazette_, from 1669 to 1859, bought for £200[364]; and the other, a collection of London newspapers, from 1672 to 1737, arranged in chronological order in ninety-six volumes, obtained also for £200. This very curious collection had been formed by Mr. John Nichols; its escape from destruction by the disastrous fire at his printing-office in 1808, is mentioned at p. 99 of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for that year. It is accompanied by a MS. index, drawn up by Mr. Nichols himself. Many unknown contributions by Defoe to the journals of his time, have recently been traced in this series by a gentleman who has made a special study of the Defoe literature, Mr. W. Lee.

Considerable assistance in completing the Library sets of the Public and Private Acts of Parliament was afforded, in this year, by the late Mr. W. Salt.

Specimens of the first books printed in the Dyak language, which were issued at Singapore in 1862, were given by Rev. J. Rigaud, B.D., of Magdalene College.

On the appointment of Dr. Jacobson to the See of Chester, Mr. R. Payne Smith became his successor in the office of Regius Professor of Divinity. Professor Max Müller, M.A., was thereupon nominated to take Mr. Smith's place as the Sub-librarian in special charge of the Oriental department, and the nomination was confirmed in Convocation on Nov. 7.

[362] The lithograph represents the lower half of the title-page.

[363] The purchase of it, as of a relic 'which there is little doubt is genuine,' is noticed in an article on Books and Book-collecting in the _Cornhill Magazine_ for Oct. 1867, p. 496.

[364] The only portions of the _London Gazette_ previously to be found in the Library, were of the reign of Charles II; and these only came by the transfer of the Ashmolean Library.

A.D. 1866.

There is not much to notice under this year, save that the _Vulgaria quedam abs Terencio in Anglicam linguam traducta_, printed at Oxford before 1483, was obtained, in a volume containing also two tracts printed by J. de Westphalia, at the sale of the library of Mr. Thomas Thomson, of Edinburgh, for £36. Although complete in itself, it appears to have formed a part of a larger work, as the signatures run from n. to q., in eights.

A.D. 1867.

The closing year of these memorials is distinguished by the acquisition of a volume described by Archdeacon Cotton, in his _Typographical Gazetteer_, as being 'of the very highest rarity.' It is a fine copy of the _Breviarium Illerdense_, printed at Lerida, in Spain, in 1479, by Henry Botel. Besides being remarkable from its rarity, there is special interest attaching to the volume from the fact that it was printed at the sole expense of the bell-ringer of the cathedral! The colophon states that 'Antonius Palares, campanarum ejusdem ecclesiæ pulsator, propriis expensis fieri fecit.' The volume was bought from Mr. Boone for £36.

A somewhat imperfect copy of the rare Bible printed at Edinburgh by Arbuthnot and Bassandyne in 1579, being the first edition printed in Scotland, was another purchase of the year; as were also two thick volumes of recent transcripts of the Stuart correspondence, preserved in the Imperial Library at Paris.

Within the last few years considerable attention has been paid by the Librarian to the formation of a series of editions of the English Bible. The number now collected is very large, and approaches very nearly to a complete gathering of every edition before 1800, which has any claim to regard either from date, imprint, variety of size, correctness, or incorrectness. Early Quaker tracts have also been largely collected, together with editions of Cotton Mather's works and those of John Bunyan.

A portrait of the Prince of Wales, in academic dress, painted by Sir J. Watson Gordon, was presented towards the close of the year to the University by the Prince, in memory of his academic days, and now hangs conspicuously at the entrance of the Picture Gallery, to which it forms the latest addition.

Prof. Max Müller having resigned his Sub-librarianship on account of health, the Rev. J. W. Nutt, M.A., Fellow of All Souls' College, was approved by Convocation, on June 25, as his successor in the charge of the Oriental department.

The number of printed _volumes_ at present in the Library may be estimated at nearly 350,000. It was returned to Parliament, in 1848, as about 220,000; and with a view to this return a calculation as nearly accurate as possible was then made. An estimate has now been made of the additions received since that date; and from this it appears that some 79,500 volumes have been placed in the old Library and 45,000 in the _Camera Radcliviana_, making a total for the whole collection of about 345,000 volumes. Within the same period about 5000 additional manuscripts have been obtained, making a total of nearly 25,000. The number was returned in 1848 as being about 21,000, but this appears to have been somewhat in excess of the fact. The proportion was singularly overestimated in 1819, for Clarke, in his _Repertorium Bibliographicum_ published in that year (p. 68), states that the Library contains upwards of 160,000 volumes, of which 30,000 are manuscripts! The annual rate of ordinary increase of printed books at present, apart, of course, from the accession of any entire collection or special purchase, may be reckoned at about 3000 volumes, exclusive of magazines, of which two-thirds come from Stationers' Hall under the provisions of the Copyright Act.

Floreat Bibliotheca.

APPENDIX A.

_Account of the Muscovite Cloak mentioned at p. 40. Extracted from vol. vi. of B. Twyne's Collections (among the University Archives), f. 97._

'_Mr. Smyth's Relation of the Tartar Lambskinne garment in Bodleiana, Oxon._

'Sir Rich. Lee, knight, about the later ende of the raigne of the late Qu. Elizabeth, being by her Maiestie sent ambassador into Russia, amongest other novelties of the cuntry found by the information of the inhabitants, that in Tartaria, a cuntrie neere adioyning to Muscovia and Russia, and vnder the gouernement of the Emperour of Russia, there did some yeres growe out of the ground certaine livinge creatures in the shape of lambes, bearinge wooll vppon them, very like to the lambes of England, in this manner; viz., a stalke like the stalke of an hartichocke did growe vp out of the ground, and vppon the toppe thereof a budd, which by degrees did growe into the shape of a lambe, and became a liuinge creature, resting vppon the stalke by the navell; and as soone as it did come to life, it would eate of the grasse growinge round about it, and when it had eaten vp the grasse within its reach it would die. And then the people of the cuntry as they finde these lambes doe flea of their skins, which they preserue and keepe, esteeminge them to bee of excellent vse and vertue, especially against the plague and other noysome diseases of those cuntries.

'Vppon this information, Sir Rich. Lee was very desirous to haue some of the skyns of these Tartar lambes for his money, which at that time was not to be gotten for money; for that whensoeuer any of those lambes were at any time found, it was very rarely; and then also when they were found, they were presented to the Emperor, or to some other great man of the cuntrie, as a present of great worthe.

'At this time the Emperour had a gowne or longe cloake, made after the fashion of that cuntrie with the skins of those Tartar lambes; which garment the then Duke, and since Kinge, of Swethland was very desirous to haue and offered great summes of money for, but could by no meanes obtayne his desire.

'At this time also Sir Rich. Lee had an agatt of so great biggenesse that he made thereof a pestle and a morter, whiche the Emperour hauinge notice of, was desirous to haue for his money. Sir Rich. Lee, vnderstandinge thereof, sent it to the Emperour as a present from him, which the Emperour would not accept as a gift, neither would he haue it but for his money. Sir Richard, beinge willinge the Emperour should haue the pestle and the morter, yet lothe to playe the marchant at that time, did therefore deliuer this pestle and morter, into the hands and custodie of the Emperour's physitian to beate his physicke in it for the Emperour; which manner of giuinge this pestle and morter did so please the Emperour, as that he caused secret enquirie to be made whether there were any thinge in those cuntries which Sir Richard was desirous to haue, and by that means had notice that Sir Richard had endeuoured to haue gotten some of their lambeskyns. Wherevppon the Emperour, after Sir Richard had taken his leaue of him, and had receaued a great gift of him as an Ambassador, and was departed one dayes iourney toward England, the Emperour sent after him the before mentioned garment so made with their Tartar lambeskyns as aforesaide, and with it some fewe skynnes loose, and gaue them all vnto him freelie.

'Sir Richard Lee, travaylinge homewards, came to the Kinge of Swethlandes court, who demaunded of him of diverse thinges of the cuntrie of Muscovia; and, amongest other thinges, asked him whether he had seene the aforesaid garment, and he answered, that he had not only seene it, but had it in his possession; whereat the Kinge of Swethland admired, sayinge he had longe laboured to get it for loue or money, but could neuer obtayne it.

'Sir Rich. Lee in this iourney had not onely gotten this garment and Tartar lambeskyns, but diverse other rich furres and other rarities of great price; the greatest part whereof the Queene tooke of him, and promised him recompence for them, which she neuer performed; which was partly the cause that he concealed this garment from her duringe her life. And when Sir Rich. Lee died himselfe, he by his will gaue it to the Library in Oxford, to be kept as a monument there, beinge, as he conceiued, the fittest place for a jewell of so great worth and æstimation as that is or ought to be.

'Sir Rich. Lee was the neere kinseman of my wife; by reason whereof, I was very familiarly acquaynted with him; and vppon conference had with him about his trauayles at sundry times, I had the true relation of all the premisses from his owne mouthe. And I comminge to Oxford to the Act, and findinge this garment in Sir Tho. Bodley's studdie or closet, without any expression made of the raritie or worth of this garment, did discouer so much as I haue herein written to Mr. Russe, the Keeper of the Library; at whose request I haue sett it downe, in writinge. And in testimonie of the truthe thereof, I haue herevnto subscribed my name, the 13th of July, 1624.

'EDWARD SMYTHE.

'Transcribed out of the originall with Mr. Russe. 'This Mr. Smyth was a Counsellor of the Temple.'

It appears from this account that the box of scented wood ordered by the Curators in 1614 had never been provided, and that the cloak was already beginning to be neglected. Doubtless suspicion had been early excited as to the truth of the traveller's story which had accompanied the gift, and which could scarcely have obtained real credence later than the days of Marco Polo or Sir John Mandeville. In the Ashmolean Museum a painting is preserved which represents the _Agnus Scythicus_ in its fabled state; a full-grown lamb poised on the top of a vegetable stalk, with its legs dependent in the air[365]. But the key to the mystery is attached in the label on the frame: '_Polypodium Barometz_. Linn.' It is, in truth, only a large fern found in Tartary, of which the rhizoma is covered with the woolly fungus-like growth, found in greater or less degree on many species of ferns. If the plant be dug up and inverted, the roots being uppermost and the fronds pendent, a strong imagination might find some resemblance in the former to a wool-clad body, and in the latter to limbs, while some of the young fronds with their spiral convolutions might be compared to the horns of a ram, such as are duly represented in the painting mentioned above. A specimen of the plant may be seen in the greenhouses of the Botanic Garden, Oxford, where it is still known by the name which the fable imposed, _Agnus Scythicus_. So great is the woolly growth found upon one species of tree-fern in New Zealand, that (as the writer was informed by Mr. Baxter, the Keeper of the Botanic Garden) tons of it are yearly imported into this country for the purpose of stuffing cushions. A finer and silkier substance is found on a fern indigenous in Mexico.

[365] For acquaintance with this picture the author is indebted to Mr. Rowell, whose scientific knowledge so well fits him for the post he worthily holds as Under-keeper of the Ashmolean Museum. In Tradescant's Catalogue of the first contents of this Museum as formed by himself, published in 1656, occurs 'a coat lyned with _Agnus Scythicus_,' but it does not now exist in the collection.

APPENDIX B.

_List of Books printed on Vellum, which have been added to the Library since the year 1830[366]._

1460. _Clementis VIII Constitutiones, cum glossa Jo. Andreæ._ Ed. Pr. fol. Mogunt., Petr. Schoiffer de gernssheim. Bought in 1838 for 45_l._

1468. _Justiniani Institutiones._ Ed. Pr. fol. Mogunt. per Petr. Schoyffer de Gernssheym. Bought in 1834 for 52_l._ 10_s._

1476. _Historia Naturale da Plinio, trad, per Chr. Landino._ fol. Ven. Nic. Janson. The borders at the commencement of each book, with the principal initial letters, are exquisitely painted and illustrated with the portrait and arms of Ferdinand II of Sicily, to whom the work was dedicated, as well as those of -- Strozzi, for whom this copy was probably executed. Bequeathed by Mr. Douce. Exhibited in the glass case at the end of the Library.

1480. _Breviarium Eduense_, 4to. by order of Card. John Rolin, Bishop of Autun, 'Symon de Vetericastro eius Secretarius, parisius hoc breviarium cum pluribus similibus imprimi fecit.' Bought in 1838 for 2_l._ 4_s._

1481. _Missale Parisiense._ Ed. Pr. fol. Par., Jo. de Prato et Desid. huym. Bought in 1842 for 10_l._ 10_s._

1482. _Ordo Psalterii cum hymnis et canticis suis._ Small 4to. Ven. per Nicolaum Girardenguz. From the Canonici collection.

1484. _Officium diurnum secundum morem monachorum congregationis Sancte Justine, ord. S. Benedicti._ 8vo. Ven. per Bern. de Benaliis (&c.). Bought in 1843 for 1_l._ 14_s._

1493. _Pars hyemalis breviarii fratrum Observantialium, ord. S. Benedicti, per Germaniam._ 8vo. impensis Georii Stōchs ex Sulczbach, civis Nurembergensis. Bought in 1841 for 14_s._

_S. A._ A small duodecimo book of prayers, in German, without any title; with woodcuts. Printed with the types of Hans Schönsperger, of Augsburg. Bequeathed by Mr. Douce.

1500, Aug. 14. _Heures a lusage de_ [_Tours_; the name left blank]. 8vo. Paris, pour Anthoine Verard. With illuminations. Bought in 1844 for 6_l._

1502. _Breviarium secundum regulam beati Hysidori._ Fol. Toleti, jussu Card. Fr. Ximenes, per Petr. Hagembach. Bought in 1853 for 200_l._ See p. 280.

1505. _Breviarium secundum usum Herford._ 8vo. Rothom., per Inghilbertum Haghe. Bequeathed by Gough.

1514. _Le Chevalier de la tour et le guidon des guerres; par Geoffroy de la Tour-Landry._ Fol. Par., pour Guill. Eustace. Bequeathed by Mr. Douce.

1522. _Libri quattuor magnorum Prophetarum; his adduntur Threni_, &c. 12mo. Par., Petrus Vidoveus. Given by Rawlinson.

1529. _S. Joannes Chrysostomus in omnes Epistolas S. Pauli_; Gr. 3 vols. fol. Ven. Bought in 1843 for 45_l._

1629. _Rituale monasticum secundum consuetudinem congregationis Vallisumbrosæ._ Fol. Florent. Bought in 1843 for 7_l._ 17_s._ 6_d._

1642. _Bibliotheca Eliotæ._ _Eliotis Librarie._ Londini, anno Verbi incarnati M.D.XLII. A fragment, consisting of title, Proheme to Henry VIII in English, address to the reader in Latin, and table of errata; in all, five leaves.

1859. _Rotulus Clonensis, ex orig. in Registro Eccl. Cath. Clonensis, editus cura Ric. Caulfield._ The first book printed at Cork on vellum, and the only one so printed. Given by Dr. Caulfield in 1865.

1861. _The Souldier's Pocket Bible_; an exact reprint of the original edition of 1643, with a prefatory note by George Livermore. 12mo. Cambridge [U.S.], printed for private distribution. This copy was given by Mr. Livermore to Archd. Cotton, and by him to the Library. It was reprinted from a copy in the possession of the editor; only one other is known to exist.

1866. תגן ספר _Sepher Taghin_: Liber Coronularum, ex unico bibl. Paris. cod. MS. a B. Goldberg descriptum, nunc primum edidit, adjectis ad calcem libri aliquot exceptis ex alio codice ejusdem bibl. inedito, J. J. L. Barges, S. Theol. facult. Paris. doctor. 8vo. Lut. Par.

1867. נםים מעשה Edited by Dr. B. Goldberg, from Pococke MS. 238. 8vo. Paris. The only vellum copy printed. Bought for 3_l._

_N. D. Geological Map of the Environs of Oxford_; by C. P. Stacpoole. Bought in 1850 for 1_l._ 3_s._

* * * * *

The following vellum-printed _Horæ_ were all bequeathed by Mr. Douce:--

1498. _Les heures a lusaige de Rome._ 4to. Par., pour Simon Vostre.

---- ---- 4to. Par., per Gillet Hardouyn.

1498. _Hore secundum usum Sarum._ 8vo. Par., per Phil. Pigouchet.

1499. _Officium B. M. V. in usum Romane ecclesie._ 8vo. Lugd. Bon. de boninis.

1501. _Hore Virg. Mar. secundum usum Romanum._ 8vo. Par., Thielman Kerver.

[1501.] _Les heures a lusaige de Rome._ 8vo. Par., Simon Vostre.

1502. ---- By the same printer.

1504. ---- 8vo. Par., Anth. Chappiel.

1505. _Officium B. M. V. in usum Rom. eccl._ 8vo. Ven., Lucantonius de Giunta.

1508. _Hore secundum usum Romanum._ 8vo. Par., Thielman Kerver.

---- ---- 8vo. Par., Guill. Anabat.

1511. ---- 8vo. Par., Theilman Kerver.

[1512.] _Les heures a lusaige de Rome._ 8vo. Par., per Joh. de Brie.

[1512.] _Heures a lusaige de Sens._ 4to. Par., Jehan de brye.

1514. _Orationes et hore in usum Romanum._ 4to. (Aug. Vind.) per Jo. Schönsperger.

---- Another edition by the same printer in the same year, but without name or date.

1517. _Horæ ad usum Romanum._ 8vo. Par., Thielman Kerver.

1522. _Horæ secundum usum Romanum._ 4to. Par., Thielman Kerver.

[1522.] _Les heures a lusaige de Rome._ 8vo. Par., par Germ. Hardouyn.

1526. _Horæ secundum usum Romanum._ 8vo. Par., Thielman Kerver.

1527. _Hore in laudem B. V. Marie, secundum consuetudinem ecclesie Parisiensis._ 8vo. Par., per Sim. du bois.

[1528.] _Horæ, secundum usum Romanum, cum multis suffragiis et orationibus de novo additis._ 8vo. Par., Germ. Hardouyn.

1529. _Horæ in laudem, B. Mar., secundum usum Romanum._ 8vo. Par., apud Gotofr. Torinum.

_S. A._ _Hore B. Marie._ 8vo. M. E. Jehannot.

_S. A._ _Hore secundum usum Romanum._ 8vo. Par., G. Hardouyn.

---- Another edition by the same printer.

_S. A._ _Les heures a lusaige de Rome._ 4to. Par., per Guill. Godar.

_S. A._ _Hore secundum usum Sarum._ 4to. Rich. Pynson.

_S. A._ _Les heures a lusaige Dangiers._ 8vo. [Par.] Simon Vostre.

_S. A._ _Heures a l'usaige de Soissons._ 8vo. [Par.] Simon Vostre.

_S. A._ _Heures de nostre dame en Francoys et en Latin._ 4to. Par., Anth. Verard.

_S. A._ _Heures._ 8vo. Par., Anth. Verard.

[366] Supplemental to the list appended to Archdeacon Cotton's _Typographical Gazetteer_ in 1831. That numbered 180 separate books; the present additions amount to fifty-four, of which all but nineteen are in the Douce collection.

APPENDIX C.

_List of MSS. formerly in the possession of Cathedrals, Monasteries, Colleges, and Churches in England, Scotland, and Ireland_[367].

Aberdeen Cathedral. Ashmole, 1474.

Abingdon. Digby, 39, 146, 227 (fine Missal, with Calendar).

---- John Crystall, Monk of. Rawlinson, C. 940.

Alban's, St. Auct. F. II. 13; Bodl. 569; Laud Lat. 67; Laud Misc. 279, 358, 363, 370, 409; Rawlinson, C. 31; Rawlinson, Auct. 99 (obtained through Brother Hugh Legat, and given by Abbot John Stoke).

---- Sub-prior. Bodl. 467.

---- Sub-sacrist. Ashmole, 1796.

Alvingham, Linc. Laud Misc. 642.

Athdare, Kildare. Rawlinson, C. 320.

Barking. Laud Lat. 19.

Beauvale, or Bellavalle, Notts. Douce, 114.

Bedford. The Minorites. Laud, 176 (given by John Grene, D.D. in 1471).

Belvoir, Linc. E Mus. 249.

Bilsington, Kent. Bodl. 127 (given by John, Vicar of Newchurch).

Bordesley, Warwickshire. Bodl. 168.

Boxgrave, Sussex. Rawlinson, A. 411.

Bradsole, near Dover, Priory of St. Radegund. Rawlinson, B. 336.

Bridlington. Auct. D. _infra_, II. 7; Bodl. 357.

Byland, or Bellaland, Yorkshire. Bodl. 842 (bought from a carpenter); Laud Misc. 149.

Canterbury, Ch. Ch. Bodl. 214, 379; Laud Misc. 165; Tanner, 18, 223; Rawlinson, C. 168 (Missal, given by Archbp. Warham).

---- W. Bonyngton, a monk, 1483. Rawlinson, B. 188.

---- Another monk. Bodl. 648.

---- St. Augustine's. Bodl. 299, 381, 391, 464, 600; E Mus. 223; Laud Lat. 65; Laud Misc. 225, 296; Wood Donat. 13; Ashmole, 1431; Barlow, 32; Hatton, 94; Maresch. 33; Rawlinson, C. 7, 117, 159.

Carlisle Cathedral. Bodl. 728.

---- (a House at). Laud Misc. 582.

Chichester Cathedral(?). Bodl. 142. ('de dono Seffri. Episc.')

Cirencester, St. Mary's Abbey. Barlow, 48.

Cokersand, Lanc. Rawlinson, C. 317.

Coventry Cathedral. Digby, 33 (given by Rich. Luff, monk).

---- St. Mary's Priory. Auct. F. III. 9.

Cropthorn, Worc. Rector in 1279. Rawlinson, B. N. Auct. 169.

Croyland. Rawlinson, C. 531.

Dore, Hereford. Laud, 138; E Mus. 82.

Dover Priory. Bodl. 920 (Catalogue of the Library).

---- Hosp. of St. Bartholomew. Rawlinson, B. 335.

Dublin, Cathedral of Ch. Ch. or Holy Trinity. Rawlinson, B. N. Auct. 185 (a magnificent Psalter, written by direction of Prior Stephen de Derby; see p. 179).

---- Abbey of St. Thomas. Rawlinson, B. 500.

---- Hosp. of St. John Bapt. Rawlinson, B. 498.

---- St. Mary's Abbey, near Dublin. Rawlinson, B. 495, C. 60; Rawlinson, Misc. 1137.

---- Church of St. John Evang. Misc. Liturg. 337.

Dulci Corde, or Sweet-Heart, Galloway. Fairfax, 5, (belonged to 'Dervorgoyl de Bayll'[iol], the foundress of this house, and of Balliol College. Bought by Fairfax at Edinburgh in 1652).

Dumfermline (?). Fairfax, 8.

Dunbrothy, Wexford. Rawlinson, B. 494.

Durham Cathedral (St. Cuthbert). Laud Lat. 12; Laud Misc. 368, 489; Rawlinson, C. 4.

---- Thomas Dune, a monk. Douce, 129.

Edmund's, Bury St. Bodl. 216, 240, 297, 715, 737, 860; E Mus. 6, 7, 8, 9, 26, 27, 31, 32, 33, 36, 112; Laud Misc. 742; Rawlinson, C. 697 (all between the 11th and 13th century); Misc. Liturg. 310 (_Martyrologium_; given by Rich. Fuller, Chaplain, and Rich. Aleyne, Kerver, in 1472. Bequeathed by Rawlinson).

Ely. Laud, 112.

Evesham. Auct. D. I. 15; Laud Lat. 31; Barlow 7 (_Officia Eccles._); Rawlinson, B. N. Auct. 16.

Exeter Cathedral. Auct. D. II. 16, F. III. 6; Bodl. 579, 708 (these given by Leofric); Auct. D. I. 7 and 12 (given by Hugh, Archd. of Taunton), 9 (given by Adam de St. Bridget, Chanter), 13, 18; D. II. 8; D. _infra_, II. 9(?); D. III. 10, 11 (?); Auct. F. I. 15; Bodl. 92, 137, 147, 148, 149, 150, 162 (given by Richard Brounst, Vicar Choral), 206, 272, 273, 279, 286, 287, 289, 311, 314, 315, 333, 335, 377, 380, 393,463 (given by the Executors of Bp. Lacy), 482, 691, 707, 708, 717, 718, 720, 725, 732, 738, 744 (given by the Executors of Dr. John Snetesham), 748, 749, 786, 810, 829 (given by the Executors of Bp. Lacy), 830, 865. Wood Donat. 15 (given by Executors of John Snetesham, D.D., Canon and Chancellor, 1448).

Exeter. Hosp. of St. John Bapt. Laud, 156.

Finchale, Durham. Laud Misc. 546.

Ford, Devon. Laud Misc. 606.

Fountains' Abbey. Ashmole, 1398, 1437; Laud Misc. 310, 619.

Gainford, Durham. Thomas Heddon, Vicar. Rawlinson, A. 363.

Garendon, Leic. Ashmole, 1516.

Gisburne, Yorkshire. Laud Lat. 5.

Glastonbury. Laud Lat. 4; Laud Misc. 128 (belonged to Thomas Wason, Abbot).

Hanworth (Middlesex?); Richard, Rector. Rawlinson, B. N. Auct. 165.

Hatfield Peverel, Essex. Rawlinson, B. 189 (given by John Bebseth), Prior.

Hereford Cathedral. Rawlinson, C. 67.

---- Vicars Choral. Rawlinson, C. 427.

---- The Minorites. Hatton, 102.

Hexham ('Hextildesham'). Bodl. 236.

Hickling, Norfolk. Tanner, 194, 425.

Holme Cultram, Cumb. (S. Mar. de Holmo); Hatton, 101.

Jorevall, Yorkshire. Bodl. 514.

Kenilworth, or Kelyngworth, Warw. Auct. F. III. 13 (bequeathed by John Alward, Rector of Stoke Bruerne).

Kilmainham, Dublin. Hosp. of St. John Bapt. Rawlinson, B. 501.

Kingswood, Wilts. E Mus. 62.

Kirkstall. Laud Lat. 69; Laud Misc. 216; E Mus. 195.

Langley, Norfolk. Bodl. 242 (_Registrum_).

Leedes, Kent. Bodl. 406.

Leicester, St. Mary of the Meadows. Laud Misc. 623, 625.

Lesnes, or Lyesnes, or Westwood, Kent. Bodl. 656; Douce, 287.

Lichfield Cathedral. Ashmole, 1518.

London, St. Paul's Cathedral. Digby 89 ('Liber Magistri Thomæ Lysiaux, decani Sancti Pauli').

---- The Carmelites. Laud Lat. 87.

---- 'Domus Salutationis Matris Dei, ord. Carthus.;' _i.e._ The Charter-House. Douce, 262.

---- Hosp. of St. Mary of Elsyng, now Sion College. E Mus. 113.

Louth Park, Linc. Fairfax, 17.

(Ludlow Parish Church. _Printed Book_, D. 2. 13. Art. Seld.[368])

Maxstoke, Warwickshire. Bodl. 182.

Merton, Surrey. Digby, 147; Ashmole, 1522.

---- John Ramsey, Canon of. Seld. _supra_, 39.

Missenden, Bucks. Auct. D. I. 10; Bodl. 729.

Mottenden, or Motynden, Kent. Bodl. 643 (bought by Brother Richard de Lansyng in 1467 for 26_s._ 8_d._)

Muchelney, Somerset. Rich. Coscumbe, Prior. Ashmole, 189. ii.

New Place, Sherwood. Laud Lat. 34; Laud Misc. 428.

Norwich Cathedral (Holy Trinity). Bodl. 151, 787; Fairfax, 20; Douce, 366, (see _infra_, p. 329.)

Nutley, or Notley Abbey, Bucks. Douce, 383, iii.

Oseney, Oxford. Bodl. 655; Digby, 23 (bequeathed by Henry de Langley); Rawlinson, C. 939 (_Officia Eccles._).

Osyth, St., Essex. Laud Misc. 329.

Oxford, Balliol College. Bodl. 252.

---- Exeter College. Bodl. 42; Digby, 57[369].

---- (Hertford College. _Printed Tracts_ on the Bangorian Controversies, 8vo. I. 237, BS.)

---- Lincoln College. Bodl. 198 ('ex dono doctoris Thome Gascoigne').

---- Merton College. E Mus. 19 (given by William, Bishop of Chichester); Bodl. 50 (bequeathed by Thomas English), 689 and 757 (given by Henry Sever, Warden, in 1468), 700 and 751 (given by Richard Fitz-James, Bishop of Chichester); Digby, 155 (given by John Burbache), 216; Ashm. 835. (_Printed Book_ S. 9. 14. Th[370].).

---- St. Edmund Hall. Rawlinson, C. 900 (given by Hen. VIII).

---- St. Mary's College. Bodl. 637.

---- Staple Hall. Ashmole, 748.

---- The Minorites. Digby, 90 (given in 1388, by John de Teukesbury, with the assent of Thos. de Kyngusbury, 'Minister Angliæ').

---- (name cut off), Bodl. 215.

Paignton Parish, Devon. Rawlinson, C. 314 (Canons of Bishop Quivil).

Pershore. Bodl. 209; Barlow, 3; Rawlinson, C. 81.

Pesholme (? Will. Marschalle, Chaplain of). Bodl. 857.

Peterborough Cathedral. Barlow, 22; (see _infra_, p. 328.)

Pipewell, Northampt. Rawlinson, A. 388.

Pleshey, Essex, Trinity College. Bodl. 316.

Pontefract, Holy Trinity Hospital. Barlow, 49.

Ramsey. Bodl. 883.

---- Welles, a monk of. Bodl. 857.

Reading, St. Mary's Abbey. Auct. Digby, B. N. 11; Digby, 148, 200; Bodl. 125[371], 197, 200 (given by W. de Box), 241, 257, 550, 570, 713, 730 (?) 772, 781, 848; Laud Misc. 79, 91, 725; Auct. D. I. 19; D. II. 12; D. III. 12, 15; Auct. F. III. 8; _infra_, I. 2; Rawlinson, A. 375.

Robertsbridge, Yorkshire. Bodl. MS. 132 (written by Will. de Wodecherche, 'laicus quondam conversus Pontis Roberti[372]').

Roche, or de Rupe, Yorkshire. Rawlinson, C. 329.

Rochester Cathedral. Laud Misc. 40.

Rossevalle, Kildare. Rawlinson, C. 32 (_Ordo servitii_).

Salisbury Cathedral. Digby, 173 (given by Peter Fadir, Vicar Choral[373]); Bodl. 407, 516, 756, 765, 768, 835; Rawlinson, C. 400 (_Pontificale_, given by Bishop Martivall).

Selby. Fairfax, 12.

Sempringham. Douce, 136(?)

Shene, Surrey, Carthusian Priory. Bodl. 797; Rawlinson, C. 57 (8vo. H. 36 Th. BS., a book printed in 1608, belonged apparently to some foreign branch of this house: 'Domus Shene Anglorum').

Sherston, Wilts, The Church (in 1577). Bodl. 733.

Shrewsbury, St. Chad. Rawlinson Misc. 1131. (_Martyrol._ and _Obit._)

Sion, or Syon, Middlesex. Bodl. 630.

Southwark, St. Mary Overy. Ashmole, 1285.

---- John de Lecchelade, a Canon. Rawlinson, B. 177.

Stafford, St. Mary. Auct. F. V. 17; Hatton, 74.

---- The Minorites. Auct. F. V. 18.

Stafford, St. Thomas, near. Auct. F. III. 10.

Staindrop, Durham, The College. Rawlinson, A. 363 (given by Thos. Heddon, Vicar of Gainford, in 1515).

Tattershall, Linc. Bodl. 419.

Thorney, Cambr. Bodl. 680; Laud Misc. 364; Tanner, 10.

Titchfield, Hants. Digby, 154.

Towcester, Northampt., H. Malyng, Provost. Bodl. 731.

Trentham, Staff. Laud Misc. 453.

Tynemouth. Laud Misc. 657.

Valle Crucis, De, Denbigh. E Mus. 3.

Waltham. Laud Lat. 109; Laud Misc. 515; Rawlinson, B. N. Auct. 62 (given by Peter, Archdeacon of London); Rawlinson, C. 330.

Wardon, Bedfordshire. Laud Misc. 447.

Warter, Yorkshire. Fairfax, 9.

Waverley, Surrey. Bodl. 527.

Westminster Abbey. Rawlinson, C. 425 (_Pontificale_).

Winchcombe, or Winchelcumbe, Glouc. Douce, 368.

Winchester Cathedral ('Domus S. Swythini'). Bodl. 767.

Windsor. Bodl. 208, 822.

Witham, or Wytham, Somerset. Bodl. 801 ('Ex dono Joh. Blacman').

Worcester Cathedral. Auct. F. _infra_, I. 3; Digby, 150(?); Bodl. 861 (removed in 1590), 868; Junius, 121.

---- 'Fratres Prædicatores.' Rawlinson, C. 780.

York Minster(?) Rawlinson, C. 775.

---- Succentor(?) Douce, 225.

---- St. Mary's Abbey. Rawlinson, B. N. Auct. 11; Arch. A. Rot. 21; (see p. 329.)

---- Hosp. of St. Leonard. Rawlinson, B. 455.

[Many of Laud's MSS. came from a Carthusian Monastery near Mentz, and from the Monastery of Eberbach, in the Duchy of Baden. It is worth mentioning that No. 233 amongst his Miscellaneous MSS. belonged to John Lydgate, and No. 576 to John Foxe. Several others had been previously in the possession of Archbp. Usher, and of Lindsell, Bishop of Peterborough.

No. 76 of Digby's MSS. was bought by Dr. John Dee, at London, May 18, 1556, 'ex bibliotheca Joh. Lelandi.']

[367] This list does not profess to be complete. But it is believed to comprehend most of the MSS. which afford distinct evidence of former ownership of this kind.

[368] _Picus Mirandula de Providentia Dei_, 1508. Given to the library of the Church by Rich. Sparchiford, Archdeacon of Salop, Oct. 19, 1557. It had previously belonged to Linacer.

[369] 'Hunc librum emit ... a magistro Philips, rectore collegii Exon, a^o. Xi. 1468, una cum volvella solis et lunæ.'

[370] _Galani Conciliatio Eccl. Armenæ cum Romana_, 1650. It is satisfactory to be able to add, that the Bodleian obtained this book, as Bishop Booth obtained the Robertsbridge MS. (_infra_) 'modo legitimo;' a memorandum records that it was 'bought of Fletcher the bookseller.'

[371] On the last leaf of this MS. there is a list, faintly written with a style, of some twenty MSS. (including 'triplices cantus' for the organ), written by one monk, to which the memorandum is added: 'Hec sunt opera fratris W. de Wi[=c]b. per quadriennium apud Leom. (_i.e._ Leominster, a cell to Reading) commorantis.' The list commences, 'Nota quod frater W. de Wi[=c]b. (_probably Wicumbe_), precibus domini J. de Abbend. tunc precentoris, hortatu vero et precepto domino R. de Wygorn. tunc supprioris, collectarium cotidianum secundum usum Rading correxit et de duobus unum fecit.' The book may have belonged to either Reading or Leominster.

[372] The usual anathema is subjoined on any one stealing the book from the house of St. Mary 'de Ponte Roberti,' or in any part mutilating it; which is followed by this self-exculpatory note on the part of a subsequent possessor: 'Ego Johannes, Exon. episcopus, nescio ubi est domus prædicta, nec hunc librum abstuli, sed modo legittimo adquisivi.' This _John_ would seem to be John Booth, who was Bishop of Exeter from 1466 to 1479.

[373] The name of Peter Fader is found also in MS. Arch. Seld. B 26.

APPENDIX D.

_List of MSS. and Miscellaneous Objects of interest exhibited in the Library._

GLASS CASE NEAR THE ENTRANCE OF THE LIBRARY.

1. A Telugu MS. on palm-leaves, brought from India by Sir Thos. Strange, formerly Chief Justice of Madras, together with a style employed for writings of this kind, and a pocket-knife. Given by Sir T. Strange's daughter, Mrs. Edmund Foulkes, in 1864.

2. Drawings and engravings of Buddhist idols; brought from a Joss-house in a Llama monastery in Pekin, in 1862, and given to the Library by Lieut.-Col. Gibbes Rigaud, of the 60th Rifles.

3. Autograph book of distinguished visitors.

This book commences at the year 1820. Among the autographs which it contains may be mentioned the following in particular:--

Her Majesty the Queen, Nov. 8, 1832, with the Duchess of Kent; Dec. 12, 1860.

The Prince Consort, June 15, 1841; June 4, 1856; Jan. 9, 1857 (in company with his three eldest children); Dec. 12, 1860.

Prince of Wales, Jan. 9, 1857; March 27, 1860; June 18, 1863.

Princess of Wales, June 18, 1863.

Duke of Wellington, Oct. 20, 1835 (in company with Q. Adelaide); Sept. 14, 1839; June 15, 1841; Aug. 20, 1844.

Gul. Gesenius, Aug. 5, 1820.

Sir John Franklin, 1829.

Sir D. Wilkie, June 14, 1834.

Bishop Selwyn, June 30, 1837.

Chevalier Bunsen, Jan. 24, 1839; Aug. 20, 1844.

Princes of Ashantee, June 10, 1840.

Henry Hallam, Oct. 16, 1840.

Bishop of Malabar, Mar Athanasius Abdelmesih, June 12, 1841.

M. Berryer, Nov. 23, 1843.

W. H. Prescott, June 24, 1850.

Alfred Tennyson, June 21, 1855.

A Siamese Prince, June 29, 1858.

Lord Brougham, June 20, 1860.

Lord Palmerston, July 2, 1862.

Queen Emma of Honolulu, Aug. 14, 1865.

Chinese Ambassadors, June 7, 1866.

Until the year 1861 it was also the custom for all graduates of Cambridge and Dublin who were admitted ad _eundem_ to enter their names in this book; it is to this custom that we owe possession of the signature of the ex-Metropolitan of New Zealand[374].

4. _New Testament_, said to be bound in a piece of a waistcoat of King Charles I. See p. 53.

5. Another, bound by the Sisters of Little Gidding. See p. 53.

6. _Xiphilini Epitome Dionis Nicæi_; Gr. 4to. Par. printed by Rob. Stephens, 1551. Bound in a handsomely tooled and gilt calf binding, in the Grolier style, with the badge of Dudley, Earl of Leicester, viz. the Bear and Ragged Staff, in the centre. Bequeathed by Selden.

7. _Bacon's Essays_; in a worked binding. See p. 51.

8. Specimen of the early _Block-books_, or books printed from engraved blocks before the invention of moveable types; being the Apocalypse, represented in a series of rudely-engraved scenes, with short explanatory descriptions.

This is a copy of the edition called by Mr. S. Leigh Sotheby, in his _Principia Typographica_, the Second; it belonged to Mr. Douce, who bought it for thirty-one guineas at Mr. Inglis' sale[375].

9. The first book printed from moveable types; being a very fine copy, of the grand Latin Bible, printed by Gutenberg at Mentz about 1455. See p. 202.

A copy was sold at the auction of the library of the Duke of Sussex, in 1844, for the moderate sum of £190; when the same copy, however, was re-sold at the auction of the library of Dr. Daly, Bishop of Cashel, in 1858, it produced no less than £596.

10. A copy of the first book printed in the English language, being _The Recuyell of the Histories of Troy_, printed by Caxton, most probably at Bruges, about 1472.

This copy wants three leaves; it was given to the Library in 1750, by James Bowen, a painter of Shrewsbury, well known as a local antiquarian. A second copy, which wants seven leaves, is also in the Library. A copy, wanting forty-four leaves, was sold at Utterson's sale in 1852 to the Earl of Ashburnham for £155.

11. The English Bible, translated by Myles Coverdale from the Vulgate, and printed abroad in 1535.

This copy of the first complete Bible printed in our language, is one of the largest and soundest known to be in existence, although, like almost all other copies, it wants the title. It was formerly in the possession of Selden. A facsimile title, engraved by Mr. Fry, of Bristol, from the Marq. of Northampton's copy, accompanies it, together with another leaf in facsimile, from the Earl of Leicester's copy. Another and more imperfect copy came to the Library among the books bequeathed by Mrs. Denyer. In 1854 a copy nearly perfect, having only two leaves in facsimile by Mr. Harris, was sold at Mr. Dunn Gardner's sale for the large sum of £364; and a very imperfect copy was sold for £190 in 1857.

12. Hieronymus (_rectius_, Rufinus) _de Symbolo Apostolorum_; printed at Oxford in 1468. See p. 111.

13. Latin verses in the autograph of Milton. See p. 45.

14. The original MS. of Addison's _Letter_ (in verse) _from Italy to Lord Halifax_.

A Rawlinson MS.

15. Letter from Alex. Pope to H. Cromwell, Esq.; dated July 15, 1711.

The same volume contains various other letters from the same to the same, which were printed by Curll in 1727; one by Dryden, three by J. Norris of Bemerton, three short notes from Young, and several letters by Ladies Hester Pakington and Mary Chudleigh. It belongs to the Rawlinson collection of MSS.

16. Letter from Archbp. Laud to Sir W. Boswell, the English Resident at the Hague; dated from Lambeth, Nov. 26, 1638.

It refers to libels printed in Holland, and particularly to one against Laud, supposed to be then printing at Amsterdam, entitled, _The Beast is Wounded_. 'I thanke God I trouble not myselfe much with these things; but am very sorry for the Publicke, which suffers much by them.' Bought in 1863 at a sale at the Hague for £7 17_s._, together with a letter on diplomatic business signed by Sir Thomas Bodley, and dated at the Hague, April 11, 1589, which is now bound in the same volume.

17. Archbp. Laud's formal Letter of resignation of his office as Chancellor of the University, signed by himself, and dated from the Tower, June 22, 1641. In Latin; on parchment.

Endorsed by Ant. à Wood with this memorandum: 'Given to me by Rob. Whorwood, of Oxon, Gent., 29 Feb., 1679[376].'

18. Lord Clarendon's Letter, resigning the same office upon his going into exile; written in a secretary's hand, but signed by himself. Very touching and beautiful. It runs as follows:--

'For Mr. Vicechancellor of Oxford.

'Good Mr. Vicechancellor,

'Having found it necessary to transport myselfe out of England, and not knowing when it will please God that I shall returne againe; it becomes me to take care that the University may not be without the service of a person better able to be of use to them, then I am like to be; and I doe therefore hereby surrender the office of Chancellor into the hands of the said University, to the end that they make choyce of some other person better qualifyed to assist and protect them then I am, I am sure he can never be more affectionate to it. I desire you, as the last suite I am like to make to you, to believe that I doe not fly my Country for guilt, and how passionately soever I am pursued, that I have not done any thing to make the University ashamed of me, or to repent the good opinion they had once of me, and though I must have noe farther mention in your publique devotions (which I have alwayes exceedingly valued) I hope I shall be alwayes remembred in your private prayers as

'Good Mr. Vicechancellor, 'Your affectionate servant, 'CLARENDON.

'Calice, this 7/17 Dec. 1667.'

19. A volume of the Papers of W. Bridgeman, Under-secretary of State to James II (bequeathed to the Library by Dr. R. Rawlinson; _see p. 173_), open at a leaf containing the original declaration written and signed by the Duke of Monmouth, on the day of his execution, of the nullity of his claim to the Crown.

The following is a copy:--

'I declare y^t y^e title of King was forct upon mee, & y^t it was very much contrary to my opinion when I was proclam'd. For y^e satisfaction of the world I doe declare that y^e late King told mee that Hee was never married to my Mother.

'Haveing declar'd this I hope y^t the King who is now will not let my Children suffer on this Account. And to this I put my hand this fifteenth day of July, 1685.

'MONMOUTH.

'Declar'd by Himselfe, & sign'd in the presence of us.

'Fran. Elien. [_Turner_]. 'Tho. Bath & Wells [_Ken_]. 'Tho. Tenison. 'George Hooper.'

Beside it is placed the Proclamation of James II, ordering the apprehension of all persons dispersing the Declaration issued by Monmouth upon his landing in England; dated but one short month previously, June 15, 1685.

The same volume contains two letters from Monmouth to the King, begging for his life, and one to the Queen. These have been frequently printed.

20. A Sanscrit roll, written at the end of the last century, containing extracts from the _Bhagavadgita_; with paintings representing the incarnations of Vishnu, &c.

In a wooden case. One of the Frazer MSS.

21. A magnificent folio volume, containing a series of illustrations of Scripture History from Genesis to Job; written about the beginning of the fourteenth century.

Each page contains, in double columns, four pairs of miniatures painted, in medallion-form, upon a gorgeous ground of gold; the first of each pair represents some historical scene, which the second treats allegorically, and applies to the condition of the Church or of individual Christians. Two other volumes are to be found in the British Museum, and in the Imperial Library at Paris.

22. A small oaken platter, bearing the following inscription: 'This Salver is part of that Oak in which his Majesty K. Charles the 2d, Concealed himself from the Rebells, and was given to this University by Mrs. Lætitia Lane.'

The donor was the daughter of Col. John Lane, the chief agent in the King's escape from Worcester; she died in 1709[377].

23. Specimen of Javanese writing, being a letter from a Javanese Chief to the Resident of Soorabaya. The seal bears the date of 1780.

24. Small specimen of an Arabic MS.

25. A fragment in large Persian characters.

26. A specimen of Malabaric writing, upon a palm-leaf, three feet in length. 'Aug. 9, 1630. Ex dono Jo. Trefusis, generosi Cornubiensis, e Coll. Exon.'

27. A Russian painting upon a shell, representing a female saint called S. Parasceve, ἡ ἁγια Παρασκευη, who is found in the Greek Menology, but whose history is believed by the Bollandists to be a pious fiction.

28. A Hebrew _Bible_, beautifully written in the fourteenth century; in triple columns, with the Masoretic commentary written in very minute characters, and frequently in fantastic figures, round each page.

One of the Oppenheimer MSS.

29. _Horæ._ An illuminated MS. of the middle of the fifteenth century, in 4to., probably by a French scribe and artist.

From the Canonici collection.

30. Another MS. of the _Hours_, in folio, of the fifteenth century, beautifully illuminated, with many miniatures varying in the treatment of some of the scenes which they represent from the common type.

Traditionally said, but on what evidence does not appear, to have belonged to Henry VIII.

31. A third fifteenth-century MS. of the _Hours_, in 8vo.

From the Rawlinson collection.

32. A fourth MS. of the _Hours_, very early in the fifteenth century, or about the close of the fourteenth.

Also from the Rawlinson collection. All these copies of the _Horæ_ appear to be of French execution.

33. A pair of long white leather gloves, worked with gold thread, which were worn by Queen Elizabeth when she visited the University in 1566[378].

34. A Latin exercise book, in 4to., which appears to have been filled up by Edward VI and his sister Elizabeth, jointly.

Sentences written by the former are dated from Jan. 1548-9 to Aug. 1549. The boy-monarch has written his own name in several parts of the book. It came to the Bodleian 'ex dono doctissimi viri P. Junii, Bibliothecarii Regii, A.D. 1639.' Patrick Young also gave another book in Edward's handwriting in folio, containing Greek and Latin phrases, written very neatly in 1551-1552[379].

35. Mexican Hieroglyphics; painted on a long skin of leather.

36. The Book of _Proverbs_, written by Mrs. Esther Inglis. See p. 48.

37. Two Runic Primstaves, or wooden Clog-Almanacks: one in the form of a walking stick; the other, an oblong block, with a handle. See pp. 105, 161.

An engraving of the second may be found in the _Anglican Church Calendar illustrated_, published by Messrs. Parker. And a description of these primitive Calendars is given by Plot in his _Natural History of Staffordshire_, 1686, pp. 418-432, where there is an engraving of a Clog which was still in use in Staffordshire at that time.

38. Eight small wooden tablets, apparently a pocket-edition of a Clog-Almanack, with very quaint figures.

Given by Archbp. Laud.

39. The Book of _Enoch_, in Æthiopic. See p. 267.

40. A Persian poem, by Jami, on the history of Joseph and Potiphar's wife. Written A.D. 1569, and decorated with some very good paintings and arabesque borders[380].

One of Greaves' MSS.

41. A specimen of Telugu writing on palm-leaves; being an almanack for the year 1630.

Given by Archbp. Laud.

42. A French panegyrical poem, presented to Queen Elizabeth, in 1586, by Georges de la Motthe, a French refugee; with a prefatory address in prose.

Enriched with an exquisite portrait of the Queen, in all the grandeur of her wide circumference, and with golden hair of very _prononcée_ hue; and with a great variety of beautifully-executed monograms, symbols, &c. around each page. The binding is richly tooled and covered with designs; while in the centre on either side, protected by glass, are brilliant bosses, said to be composed of humming-birds' feathers.

'Ex dono ornatissimi, simul ac optimæ spei, juvenis D. Johannis Cope, armigeri, equitis aurati, baronetti f. natu maximi, olim Reginensis Oxon, Almæ Matris ergô. 4 Cal. Jan. 1626.'

On a fly-leaf at the end is attached a fragment from some English theological treatise, in wonderfully minute, although clear, handwriting.

43. The _Koran_, on a long and narrow roll, very elegantly written in minute characters.

Given by Archbp. Laud.

44. A Syriac fragment, on three leaves of paper.

45. A specimen of Chinese printing, on rice-paper.

46. A specimen of the Papyrus-plant, in its natural state.

47. A fine MS. of the _Koran_, from the library of Tippoo Sahib at Seringapatam.

Given by the East India Company in 1806; see p. 208.

48. A small Egyptian mummy-figure, of baked clay.

Given by Archbp. Laud.

49. A Burmese MS., written in large black characters on thirty-nine gilded palm-leaves.

'Taken from a priest's chest in an idol-house of the deserted village of Myanoung, on the Irawaddy, thirty-five miles below Prome, April 17, 1825.' Given by Rev. Joseph Dornford, Oriel College, Nov. 8, 1830.

IN THE OPPOSITE, OR NORTH, WING.

A large glass case containing a series of MSS. executed by English scribes, arranged chronologically, so as to exhibit the progress and development of the arts of caligraphy and illuminating in England. This case was added by the present Librarian three or four years ago. The following are its contents:--

1. King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of the treatise _De cura pastorali_ of Pope Gregory the Great, being the copy sent by the King to Werfrith, Bishop of Worcester.

Given by Lord Hatton; see p. 100.

2. A beautiful Latin _Psalter_ of the tenth century, written in Anglo-Saxon characters, with an interlinear translation, and decorated with grotesque initial letters.

Junius MS. 37. The volume is frequently called _Codex Vossianus_, from its having been in the possession of Isaac Voss, who gave it to Junius. Facsimiles are given by Professor Westwood, in his _Palæographia Sacra_, and in his new and splendid book of _Fac-similes of the Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and Irish MSS_[381].

3. The _Four Gospels_, in Latin, written in Anglo-Saxon characters, about the beginning of the eleventh century.

Noticed in Westwood's _Miniatures_, &c. (_ut supra_), p. 123.

It appears to have belonged to the abbey at Barking, a gift of tithes at Laleseie, by Adam, son of Leomar de Cochefeld, being entered on a leaf at the end by order of the abbess Ælfgiva. Now numbered Bodl. 155.

4. The famous _Anglo-Saxon metrical paraphrase_ of parts of Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, &c. by Cædmon[382]; illustrated, as far as Abraham's journey into Egypt, with a very curious series of drawings.

The MS. is considered to have been written about A.D. 1000. The latest description of the volume is in Westwood's magnificent book of _Fac-similes_. See p. 102.

5. The _Psalter_, _Canticles_, &c., in Latin, with a Calendar; written in the first half of the eleventh century.

Noticed in Westwood's _Miniatures and Ornaments_, &c., p. 122. Douce, 296.

6. A twelfth-century volume containing, besides various historical works, a _Bestiary_, or Natural History of Beasts, illustrated with very curious drawings.

Given by Archbp. Laud.

7. A _Bestiary_ of the beginning of the thirteenth century, enriched with many very curious paintings upon a ground of brilliant gold.

Ashmole, 1511.

8. Another _Bestiary_, of slightly later date, illuminated in the same manner.

Bodl. 764.

9. The _Apocalypse_, illustrated in a series of very curious drawings, lightly coloured. Executed about 1250.

These illuminations have been pronounced by Mr. Coxe, to be, with little or no doubt, executed by the same hand as those of MS. Ee. III. 59. in the University Library, Cambridge, a volume which contains a Life of Edward the Confessor, in French verse, and which was printed in 1858, under the editorship of H. R. Luard, M.A., in the series of Chronicles published under the authority of the Master of the Rolls. In this Life is found a particular description of Westminster Abbey, which is not elsewhere met with, and it is consequently inferred that the writer was a monk of that church. And in the course of the restorations which are now being carried on in the Chapter House (which was built about 1250), a series of mural paintings, illustrating the history of St. John, has been brought to light, one of which is a representation similar to that in the Bodley MS. of St. John 'ante portam Latinam,' and in both cases the cauldron bears the same inscription of '_Dolium_ ferventis olei.'

10. A _Primer_, written about the middle of the fourteenth century.

The arms of Edw. III (England 1 and 4, France 2 and 3) are painted on the first leaf. One of Rawlinson's MSS.

11. A beautiful _Psalter_, which belonged to Peterborough Cathedral.

'Psalterium fratris Walteri de Rouceby,' followed by the Canticles, Athanasian Creed, Litany, &c. A Calendar is prefixed, with Peterborough obits, from which it appears that Rouceby died May 4, 1341. A series of nineteen miniatures, illustrating the life of our Blessed Lord and of the Virgin Mary, precedes the Psalter. The arms of Edward III appear at the head of Ps. i. One of Bp. Barlow's MSS.; in 1604 it belonged to one John Harborne.

12. A _Psalter_, with Canticles, Hymns, &c., written in the latter half of the fourteenth century.

Apparently one of Rawlinson's MSS.

13. '_Ye Dreme of Pilgrimage of ye Soule_, translated out of French [of G. Guilevile] into Inglissh, with somwhat of addicions of ye translatour, ye zeere of our Lord, 1400.' Illustrated with curious coloured drawings.

A precursor of Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_, with which it has been compared. It was printed by Caxton in 1483, and his edition was reprinted in 1859.

This MS. was given to the Library, apparently in Bodley's time, by Sir James Lee, Knt.

14. _Commentary on the Passion of our B. Lord_ ('Scripta super totam Passionem Christi a quatuor Evangelistis formatam'), by Michael de Massa, of the order of Augustinian Hermits.

Written (as a final colophon records) by Ralph de Medyltone at Ingham (Suffolk?), A.D. 1405, for Sir Miles de Stapiltone. A drawing of the Crucifixion at the beginning. Bodl. MS. 758.

15. '_The Mirroure of the Worlde_, that some calleth Vice and Vertu;' translated from the Latin of Laurence the Frenchman (Laur. Gallus), and illustrated with some drawings of remarkable grace and spirit, supposed to be by some Flemish artist.

A MS. of the early part of the fifteenth century; on paper. Bodl. 283.

16. _Horæ_, formerly in the possession of Queen Mary I. See p. 42.

17. _Treatise of Roger Bacon_, 'de retardacione accidentium senectutis;' with two drawings. Middle of the fifteenth century. Bodl. MS. 211.

18. An English astrological Calendar, in six divisions, folded for the pocket; written in the latter half of the fourteenth century.

Extremely curious; contains prognostications of the weather, fatality of the seasons, &c., accompanied with innumerable figures of saints, illustrations of prognostics, the symbols found on the Runic Clog-Almanacks, the occupations of the several months, the signs of the Zodiac, and two quaint figures respectively labelled 'Harry ye Haywarde' with his dog 'Talbat,' and 'Peris ye Pyndare.' Formerly kept in a tin box. It contains the following note by T. Hearne: 'Oct. 17, 1719. This strange odd book (upon which I set a very great value, having never seen the like) was given me by the Rt. Reverend Father in God William [Fleetwood] Lord Bishop of Ely, to whom I am oblig'd upon many other accounts.'

19. An _Historical Roll_, upwards of thirteen feet long, showing the descent of the English Kings, from the expedition of Jason in search of the Golden Fleece to the accession of Edward I (1272). Formerly belonging to the Abbey of St. Mary at York.

Illustrated with representations of various scenes up to the landing of Brute in the Isle of Wight, and thenceforward with portraits of the monarchs.

20. _Map of the Holy Land_, on a paper roll, nearly seven feet long; written, apparently, in the first half of the fifteenth century.

In the Douce collection. Engraved in facsimile during the past year, 1867, for the Roxburghe Club, to illustrate the Itineraries of William Wey, which were edited by Rev. G. Williams, B.D., for the same Club, from Bodl. MS. 565, in 1857. The Map in many points agrees very closely with the latter, but contains also some discrepancies, and is somewhat earlier in date.

21. A _Psalter_, with the usual Canticles, Litany, &c; written about the middle of the fourteenth century.

This magnificent volume was given by Robert de Ormesby, a monk of Norwich, to the choir of the Cathedral Church, 'ad jacendum coram Suppriore qui pro tempore fuerit inperpetuum.' It is illustrated with illuminations most beautifully executed, but, at the same time, containing the most grotesque and profanely inappropriate figures, resembling those sometimes found on the _Misereres_ of collegiate churches. It is bound in a large covering of sheepskin, which by overlapping the volume has no doubt greatly contributed to preserve its freshness and beauty of condition. A facsimile from one page is to be found in Shaw's _Illuminated Ornaments_, 1833, with a description by Sir F. Madden. It belongs to the Douce collection.

* * * * *

In a separate glass case adjoining the preceding (in which was formerly exhibited a fine specimen of the typography of the Royal Press at Berlin, in a German Bible given by the King of Prussia) is now displayed a fine Bible printed at Glasgow in 1862, in two folio volumes, and illustrated with very beautiful photographs by Frith, which was called the Queen's Bible from its being dedicated by permission to Her Majesty.

In a glass case in the adjoining window is a German Bible, printed in 1541, with texts on the fly-leaves in the handwriting of Luther and Melanchthon, whose signatures, although much defaced by some possessor, are still very legible. See p. 245.

IN A GLASS CASE, WEST END OF THE LIBRARY.

1. _Plinii Historia Naturalis_; in folio. Printed 1476.

From the Douce collection. See p. 250.

2. _Breviary_ and Psalter according to the use of the Carthusian Order; written about 1480.

A specimen of Italian art, from the Canonici collection.

3. _Horæ B. M. Virg._ 12mo. An exquisite MS., of the school of Albert Durer, executed for Bona Sforza. See p. 249.

4. _Psalter_, on purple vellum, written about the close of the ninth century. From the old library of the kings of France. See p. 249.

A MS. of the _Horæ_, written on purple vellum, about 1500, is among the Canonici MSS.

5. _Boccaccio's Il Filocalo_; in folio, of the fifteenth century.

A beautiful MS., with five exquisite miniatures, and interlaced arabesque borders of the richest character. A facsimile, with a notice of the book, will be found in Shaw's _Illuminated Ornaments_. From the Canonici collection.

6. _Horæ_, quarto; fourteenth century. A beautiful book.

From the Douce collection.

7. _Horæ_, small quarto; end of the fifteenth century. The illuminations possess exquisite softness and delicacy.

Also from the Douce collection.

8. _The Miracles of the B. Virgin_, in French. A Douce MS., in folio, executed about 1460, for Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and enriched with most beautiful paintings of the tint called '_Camaieu gris_'.

9. _Horæ_, in quarto. A beautiful Douce book, the work of a French scribe in and about the year 1407.

10. _Horæ_, in duodecimo. Another gem from the Douce collection, executed about the year 1500, for the Emperor Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy his wife.

The margins are adorned with charming figures of birds, and in one instance a border is filled with representations of pottery and glass.

11. _Horæ_, in quarto, of the commencement of the sixteenth century; from the Douce collection. An exquisite specimen of Flemish art. It belonged to Mary de Medici.

12. _Horæ_, in small folio. A most sumptuous volume, executed about 1410. The illuminations are of the school of Van Eyck.

The borders of birds, butterflies, flowers, landscapes, &c., are marvels of nature in art; and many of the initials are distinguished by the utmost delicacy in design and finish in execution. Also from the Douce collection.

13. _Quatuor Evangelia_; commencement of the seventh century. See p. 24.

14. _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_ to Charles I before their marriage; in French.

The volume forms part of the Clarendon State Papers, and contains fifteen of the Queen's letters, besides some from the King, and other documents.

15. _Latin Translation by Queen Elizabeth_, while Princess, of an Italian sermon by Bern. Ochini, _De Christo_; written entirely by herself, and sent as a New-year's gift to her brother Edward VI[383].

It forms a small 8vo. volume of thirty-six pages, on vellum, and was given to the Library by J. Bowle, of Idmerston, Aug. 15, 1765. The following dedication (hitherto unprinted) is prefixed by the Princess:--

'Augustissimo et serenissimo Regi Edvardo Sexto. Si aliquid hoc tempore haberem (Serenissime Rex) quod mihi ad dandum esset accommodatum, & Maiestati tuæ congruens ad accipiendum, equidem de hac re vehementer lætarer. Tua Maiestas res magnas & excellentes meretur, et mea facultas exigua tantum suppeditare potest, sed quamvis facultate possim minima, tamen animo tibi maxima prestare cupio, & quum ab aliis opibus superer, a nemine amore & benevolentia vincor. Ita iubet natura, authoritas tua commouet, & bonitas me hortatur, ut cum princeps meus sis te officio obseruem, & cum frater meus sis vnicus & amantissimus, intimo amore afficiam. Ecce autem pro huius noui anni felici auspicio, & observantiæ meæ testimonio, offero M. T. breuem istam Bernardi Ochini orationem, ab eo Italicè primum scriptam, & a me in latinum sermonem conuersum. Argumentum quum de Christo sit, bene conuenire tibi potest, qui quotidie Christum discis, & post eum in terris proximum locum & dignitatem habes. Tractatio ita pia est & docta, ut lectio non possit non esse vtilis et fructuosa. Et si nihil aliud commendaret opus, authoritas scriptoris ornaret satis, qui propter religionem et Christum patria expulsus, cogitur in locis peregrinis & inter ignotos homines vitam traducere. Si quicquam in eo mediocre sit, mea translatio est, quæ profecto talis non est qualis esse debet, sed qualis a me effici posset. At istarum rerum omnium M. tua inter legendum iudex sit, cui ego hunc meum laborem commendo, & vna meipsam etiam dedico, Deumque precor vt M. tua multos nouos & felices annos videat & lucris ac pietate perpetuo crescat. Enfeldiæ, 30 Decembris.

'Maiestatis tuæ, 'humill. soror, '& serua, 'Elizabeta.'

16. A Persian treatise, in prose and verse, on ethics and education, entitled, _Beharistan, or, The Season of Spring_; by Nurruddin Abdurrahman, surnamed Djami.

The MS. was written at Lahore, for the Emperor of Hindustan, A.D. 1575, by Muhammed Hussein, a famous scribe, who was called the _Pen of Gold_; and illustrated by sixteen painters. Its modern velvet binding is adorned with gold corners and bosses; and a bag in which it was kept lies beside it. From the collection of Sir Gore Ouseley.

17. _Evangeliarium_, MS. in folio; of the tenth century.

A fine MS., which formerly belonged to the abbey of St. Faron, near Meaux; bought at the sale of M. Abel-Remusat's library in 1833, by Mr. Payne, and sold to Douce, apparently for the sum of £31 10_s._On the cover is an ivory diptych; in the centre, a figure of our Blessed Lord treading on 'the lion and adder, the young lion and dragon;' around, twelve scenes from His life and miracles.

18. Ivory triptych eleven inches high; North Italian work, of the fifteenth century.

In the centre the Blessed Virgin and Child between St. Leonard and another saint; on the wings, St. John the Evangelist and St. Lawrence[384].

19. _Evangelia, secundum Matt. et Marc._ A fine Douce MS. of the eleventh century, bound in thick boards, overlaid on one side with a brass plate, whereon are engraved the four Evangelists, with angels; in the centre, an ivory carving of our Lord, with the Evangelistic symbols.

20. Metal-Work.

i. Crucifix; enamelled.

ii. The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian; small, on brass.