Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A.D. 1598-A.D. 1867 Part 6

A.D. 1635-1640.

The Register for these years presents a connected series of benefactions on the part of Archbishop Laud.

On May 22, 1635, he sent to the Library the first instalment of his magnificent gifts of MSS. which consisted of 462 volumes and five rolls.

Among these were 46 Latin MSS., 'e Collegio Herbipolensi [Wurtzburg] in Germania sumpti A.D. 1631, c.u.m Suecorum Regis exercitus per universam fere Germaniam gra.s.sarentur.' Laud directs, in his letter of gift, that none of the books shall on any account be taken out of the Library, 'nisi solum ut typis mandentur, et sic publici et juris et utilitatis fiant,' upon sufficient security, to be approved by the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors; the MS., in such cases, being immediately after printing restored to its place in the Library[95]. This permission was acted upon in the year 1647-8, when Patrick Young, the Librarian of the Royal Library at St. James's, was allowed to have the use of several volumes[96].

In 1636, 181 MSS. formed the Archbishop's second gift, which were accompanied by five cabinets of coins in gold, silver, and bra.s.s, with a list arranged chronologically; an Arabic astrolabe, of bra.s.s[97]; two idols, one Egyptian, the other from the West Indies; and the fine bust of King Charles I, 'singulari artificio ex purissimo aere conflatam,'

which is now placed under the arch opening into the central portion of the Library. This beautiful work of art is believed by Mr. John Bruce, the learned Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries, who is engaged in researches into the life and productions of Hubert Le Sur, the artist of the statue at Charing Cross, to be, (as well as the bust given by Laud to St. John's College,) a specimen of the skill of that famous craftsman. The existing arrangements of the Library being found insufficient for such large accessions, the lower end was fitted up in 1638-9 for the reception of Laud's books, for the cost of which 300 was voted by Convocation[98]. In the following year, 555 more MSS. were received, together with a magical wand or staff, and some additional coins. The wand is of dark polished wood, 2 feet 9 inches long, with a grotesquely-carved figure at the head, apparently of Mexican workmans.h.i.+p: it is now kept in one of the Sub-Librarians' studies. The last gift from the munificent Chancellor of the University came in the next year, 1640, and consisted of no more than 81 MSS.; for troubles were beginning to gather now around the head of the Archbishop, and the Library at Oxford felt the blows which were levelled at Lambeth. This was accompanied with the following touching letter:--

'Viris mihi amicissimis Doctori Potter, Vice-Cancellario, reliquisque Doctoribus, Procuratoribus, necnon singulis in domo Convocationis intra almam Universitatem Oxon. congregatis.

'Non datur scribendi otium. Hoc tamen quale quale est arripio lubens, ut pauca ad vos transmittam, adhuc florentes Academici.

Tempora adsunt plusquam difficillima, nec negotia quae undique urgent faciliora sunt. Quin et quo loco res Ecclesiae sint nemo non videt.

Horum malorum fons non unus est; unus tamen, inter alios, furor est eorum qui sanam doctrinam non sustinentes (quod olim observavit S.

Hilarius) corruptam desiderant. Inter eos qui hoc stro perciti sunt quam difficile sit vivere, mihi plus satis innotescit, cui (Deo gratias!) idem est vivere et officium facere.

'Sed mittenda haec sunt, nec enim quo fata duc.u.n.t datur scire. Nec mitiora redduntur tempora aut tutiora querimoniis. Interim velim sciatis me omnia vobis fausta et felicia precari, quo tuti sitis felicesque, dum hic inter sphaeras superiores stellae cujuslibet magnitudinis vix motum suum tenent, aut prae nubium cra.s.sitie debile lumen emittunt.

'Dum sic fluctuant omnia, statui apud me in tuto (id est, apud vos spero) MS. quaedam, temporum priorum monumenta, deponere. Pauca sunt, sed prioribus similia, si non aequalia, et talia quae, non obstantibus temporum difficultatibus, in usum vestrum parare non dest.i.ti. Sunt vero inter haec Hebraica s.e.x, Graeca undecim, Arabica tringinta quatuor, Latina viginti et unum, Italica duo, Anglicana totidem, Persica quinque, quorum unum, folio digestum ampliori, historiam continet ab orbe condito ad finem imperii Saracenici, et est proculdubio magni valoris. Haec per vos in Bibliothecam Bodleianam (nomen veneror, nec superst.i.tiose) reponenda, et caeteris olim meis apponenda, cupio, et sub eisdem legibus quibus priora dedi. Non opus est multis donum hoc nostrum nimis exile ornare, nec id in votis meis unquam fuit. Hoc obnixe et quotidie a DEO Opt. Max. summis votis peto, ut Academia semper floreat, in ea Religio et Pietas et quicquid doctrinam decorare potest in altum crescat, ut tempestatibus quae nunc omnia perflant sedatis, tuto possitis et vobis et studiis et, prae omnibus, DEO frui. Quae vota semper erunt

'fidelissimi et amantissimi Cancellarii vestri, 'W. CANT.[99]

'Dat. ex aedibus meis 'Lambethanis, 6^to Nov. 1640.'

The collection, which contains in the whole nearly 1300 MSS., comprises works in very many languages: Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Armenian, Ethiopic, Chinese, Russian, Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, Irish, Anglo-Saxon, and English are all represented. It is impossible, in the limits of this survey, to point out many of the treasures with which the collection abounds; but that which is pre-eminently styled 'Codex Laudia.n.u.s' (numbered Laud, Gr. 35) must not, of course, be omitted. It is a MS. of the Acts of the Apostles, in quarto, consisting of 227 leaves, and containing the text in both Greek and Latin, in parallel columns. Its date has been variously fixed by critics, from the sixth to the eighth century; Mr. c.o.xe places it towards the end of the seventh century, with whom Dr. Tischendorf, who examined it in 1865, and for whom some photographs of portions were executed, is believed to coincide. Some leaves are wanting at the end, commencing at chap. xxvi. 29. It is the only MS. known to be extant which contains the peculiar readings (in number 74) cited by Bede in his Commentary as existing in the copy which he used; it has consequently been conjectured, with much reason, that this was the very MS. which he possessed. It was published by Thomas Hearne in 1715, printed in capitals corresponding line for line with the MS., but not with entire correctness; only 120 copies were printed, and it is therefore one of the rarest in the series of his works. A very fairly engraved facsimile of one verse (vii. 2) is to be found in Horne's _Introduction_.

Another famous MS. (No. 636) is a copy of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which ends at the year 1154, and appears to have been written in, and to have belonged to, the abbey of Peterborough, from its containing many additions relating thereto. And a third treasure calling for special mention is an Irish vellum MS. (No. 610), which contains the Psalter of Cashel, Cormac's Glossary, Poems attributed to SS. Columb-kill and Patrick, &c.[100] The Greek MSS. of the collection are fully described in vol. i. of the _Catal. Codd. Bibl. Bodl._, by Mr. H. O. c.o.xe, published in 1853; the Latin, Biblical, and Cla.s.sical, with the Miscellaneous, in Part I of the second volume, published by the same gentleman in 1858; the Oriental, in the various Catalogues of Uri, Nicoll, Pusey, Dillmann, and Payne Smith.

One of the Wurtzburg books rescued from the Swedish soldiery is a magnificent Missal printed on vellum by Jeorius Ryser in 1481, with illuminated initials. On a fly-leaf is the following note: '1481, Johannes Kewsch, vicarius in ecclesia Herb[ipolensi] hunc librum comparavit propriis expensis, et pro omnibus, scil. pergameno, impressura, rubricatione, illinatura, et ligatione, xviii. flor.' Then follows a bequest, in his own hand, in 1486, of the book to the successive vicars of St. Bartholomew, which is repeated at the end of the 'Canon Missae.' In the latter place four subsequent possessors, from 1565 to 1580, have written their names, the last of them adding, 'Omnis arbor qui non facit fructum bonum excidetur et in ignem mittetur.' The Library reference is now Auct. i. Q. i. 7.

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

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

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

Reg. Conv. R. 24. f. 128.

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

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

[100] Four volumes of the miscellaneous collection on Irish affairs made by Sir G. Carew, afterwards Earl of Totness, are also to be found here.

A list of their contents, as of those of the other volumes preserved at Lambeth and in University College, is printed in Mr. T. Duffus Hardy's _Report to the Master of the Rolls on the Carte and Carew Papers_, 8^o, Lond. 1864.

A.D. 1637.

A Bachelor of Arts and Fellow of St. John's College, one Abraham Wright, published the results of his lighter reading in the Bodleian in a little volume printed by Leonard Lichfield, which he ent.i.tled, _Delitiae Delitiarum, sive Epigrammatum ex optimis quibusque hujus et novissimi seculi Poetis in amplissima illa Bibliotheca Bodleiana, et pene omnino alibi extantibus, a???????a_.

A.D. 1640.

On Jan. 25, 1639-40, died Robert Burton, of Ch. Ch., 'Democritus junior,' and bequeathed out of his large library whatever he possessed which was wanting in the Bodleian. A list of the Latin books thus acquired is given in the Benefaction Book, followed by this sentence: 'Porro [d. d.] comdiarum, tragediarum, et schediasmatum ludicrorum (praesertim idiomate vernaculo) aliquot centurias, quas propter mult.i.tudinem non adjecimus.' These latter were just the cla.s.ses of books the admission of which the Founder had almost prohibited, viz., 'almanacks, plays, and an infinite number that are daily printed.' Even if 'some little profit might be reaped (which G.o.d knows is very little) out of some of our play-books, the benefit thereof,' said he, 'will nothing near countervail the harm that the scandal will bring upon the Library, when it shall be given out that we stuffed it full of baggage books[101].' In consequence of this well-meant but mistaken resolution, the Library was bare of just those books which Burton's collection could afford, and which now form some of its rarest and most curious divisions. In his own address 'To the Reader' of his _Anatomy of Melancholy_ he very fully describes the nature of his own gatherings. 'I hear new news every day; and those ordinary rumours of war, plagues, fires, inundations, thefts, murders, ma.s.sacres, meteors, comets, spectrums, prodigies, apparitions, of towns taken, cities besieged in France, Germany, Turkey, Persia, Poland, &c. * * * * are daily brought to our ears; new books every day, pamphlets, currantoes, stories (&c).

Now come tidings of weddings, maskings, mummeries, entertainments, jubilees, emba.s.sies, tilts and tournaments, trophies, triumphs, revels, sports, plays; then again, as in a new s.h.i.+fted scene, treasons, cheating tricks, robberies, enormous villainies, in all kinds, funerals, burials, death of princes, new discoveries, expeditions; now comical, then tragical matters.' His books are chiefly to be found in the cla.s.ses marked 4^o Art. (particularly under letter L), Theol., and Art. BS.

Amongst his smaller books is one of the only two known copies of the edition of _Venus and Adonis_ in 1602. He is specially mentioned also in the preface to Verneuil's _Nomenclator_, 1642, as being (together with Mr. Kilby of Linc. Coll., Mr. Prestwich, of All Souls', and Mr. Francis Wright, of Merton) a donor of Commentaries and Sermons. Besides his books, he bequeathed 100, with which an annual payment of 5 was obtained. For some time, however, this payment was subsequently lost; for in Barlow's Accounts for 1655, after mentioning the receipt of 40 paid by one Mr. Thomas Smith, occurs this '_Memorandum_:--that the 40 above mentioned amongst the _Recepta_ is a part of an 100 given to the Library by Mr. Rob. Burton of Ch. Ch. It was first lent to Mr. Thomas Smith, and he (by bond) was to pay to the Library 5 per annum. He breaking, or very much decay'd in his estate, and deade, this 40 was payd in by his executors, 50 more is to be payd us by University Coll.

(it was owinge to Mr. Smith, and his executors a.s.signed it over to us), and Dr. Langbaine hath in his keepinge a bond of one Spencer for 10 more.' The latter was paid in 1658, as appears from an entry, 'Recept. a Dno. Spicer (_sic_) et Hopkins, ex syngrapha;' but the former was still unpaid in 1660.

[101] _Reliquiae Bodl._ p. 278.

A.D. 1641.

The famous 'Guy Fawkes' Lantern,' which is to this day such an object of interest in the Picture Gallery to most sight-seers, was presented to the University by Robert Heywood, M.A., Brasenose College, who had been Proctor in 1639. It came into his possession from his being the son of a Justice of the Peace who a.s.sisted in searching the cellars of the Parliament House, and arrested Fawkes with the lantern in his hand. In 1640 this Justice Heywood was wounded by a Roman Catholic when, while still holding office as a Justice for Westminster, he was engaged in proposing the oaths to the recusants of that city[102]. The following inscription is attached to it, engraved upon a bra.s.s plate: 'Laterna illa ipsa, qua usus est et c.u.m qua deprehensus Guido Faux in crypta subterranea, ubi domo Parlamenti difflandae operam dabat. Ex dono Rob.

Heywood, nuper Academiae Procuratoris, Apr. 4, 1641.' From being for many years exposed to the handling of every visitor, it became much broken; but it has now for a long time been secured from further injury by being enclosed in a gla.s.s case.

In May an order was made by the Curators that no strangers should have the use of any MSS. without finding sureties for the safety of the same, in consequence of a suspicion that whole pages had been in some cases abstracted. Hereupon a very earnest, and, in sooth, indignant, remonstrance was presented to the 'Curatores vigilantissimi' by the strangers then residing in Oxford 'studiorum causa.' The original doc.u.ment is preserved in Wood MS. F. 27, and is signed by eleven persons from Prussia and other parts of Germany, six Danes, and one Englishman (John Wyberd), a medical student. Some of these visitors are found, by reference to the Register of Readers, to have been students for a considerable time; the Baron ab Eulenberg, for instance, having been admitted on Jan. 18, 1638-9, and one Ven, a Dane, in 1633. The memorialists say that there is not even the very slightest ground for attributing such an offence to any of them, and that the Librarian himself candidly confesses that it has never been proved to him that strangers have ever done anything of the kind; they urge the difficulty of their finding sponsors for their honesty when they themselves are strangers and foreigners; they appeal to Bodley's own statutes as providing sufficiently for the contingency by ordering the Librarian to number the pages of a MS. before giving it out, and to examine it when returned; they fortify their arguments by abundant references to the civil law; they upbraid those who,--'internecino exterorum atque advenarum odio aestuantes (O celebratam Britanniae hospitalitatem!),'--have originated the calumny; and, finally, warn the Curators against giving occasion for suspicion to the learned men of the whole world that 'doctos Angliae viros, priscae hospitalitatis immemores, majori exterorum quam Athenienses Megarensium odio flagrare.' The memorial is endorsed: 'De hac re amplius deliberandum censebant Praefecti ult. Maii, 1641;' and no doubt the obnoxious order was soon repealed.

Half a century later, on Nov. 8, 1693, the order was in a certain degree renewed: it was then enjoined 'that no one be permitted to _transcribe_ any ma.n.u.script, but such as have a right to study in the Library.' The revival, however, was not due to any revived fear of foreigners; the following reason is given in a letter of information on Library matters from Dr. Hyde to Hudson, his successor, written on the latter's appointment in 1701:--'Some in the University have been very troublesome in pressing that their Servitors may transcribe ma.n.u.scripts for them, though not sworn to the Library, nor yet capable of being sworn; wherefore the Curators made an order (as you will find in the Book of Orders in the Archives) "that none were capable of transcribing, except those who had the right of studying in the Library," viz.

Batchelors[103].' But no doubt this order also soon became dormant, even if it were not definitely repealed.

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

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

A.D. 1642.

'The Kinge, Jul. 11, 1642, had 500 out of Sir Th. Bodlyes Chest, as appeares by Dr. Chaworthes acquittance in the same box.' (Barlow's Library Accounts for 1657. _MS._) This loan was, of course, never repaid. It is regularly carried on in the Annual Accounts up to the year 1782.

Nov. 30. 'At night the Library doore was allmost broken open. Suspitio de incendio, &c.' (Brian Twyne's _Musterings of the Univ._, in Hearne's _Chron. Dunst._ p. 757.)

It must have been about the close of this year or beginning of the next, while the king was in winter quarters at Oxford, that the visit was paid to the Library, which is the subject of the following well-known anecdote. It is here quoted from the earliest authority in which it is found, viz. Welwood's _Memoirs_, Lond. 1700. pp. 105-107:--

'The King being at Oxford during the Civil Wars, went one day to see the Publick Library, where he was show'd among other Books, a Virgil n.o.bly printed and exquisitely bound. The Lord Falkland, to divert the King, would have his Majesty make a trial of his fortune by the _Sortes Virgilianae_, which everybody knows was an usual kind of augury some ages past. Whereupon the King opening the book, the period which happen'd to come up was that part of Dido's imprecation against aeneas, which Mr.

Dryden translates thus:--

"Yet let a race untam'd, and haughty foes, His peaceful entrance with dire arts oppose, Oppress'd with numbers in th' unequal field, His men discourag'd, and himself expell'd, Let him for succour sue from place to place, Torn from his subjects, and his son's embrace.

First let him see his friends in battel slain, And their untimely fate lament in vain: And when at length the cruel war shall cease, On hard conditions may he buy his peace.

Nor let him then enjoy supreme command, But fall untimely by some hostile hand, And lye unburi'd in the common sand."

(aeneid, iv. 88.)

It is said K. Charles seem'd concerned at this accident, and that the Lord Falkland observing it, would likewise try his own fortune in the same manner; hoping he might fall upon some pa.s.sage that could have no relation to his case, and thereby divert the King's thoughts from any impression the other might have upon him. But the place that Falkland stumbled upon was yet more suited to his destiny than the other had been to the King's, being the following expressions of Evander upon the untimely death of his son Pallas, as they are translated by the same hand:--

"O Pallas, thou hast fail'd thy plighted word, To fight with reason, not to tempt the sword.

I warned thee, but in vain, for well I knew What perils youthful ardor would pursue; That boiling blood would carry thee too far, Young as thou wert in dangers, raw to war.

Oh! curst essay of arms, disastrous doom, Prelude of b.l.o.o.d.y fields and fights to come."

(aeneid, xi. 220.)'