The Bodleian Horary at Oxford 
 by 
 Falconer Uadan
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 VViliiam P. V.red.en
 
 
 THE 
 
 BODLEIAN LIBRARY 
 
 AT OXFORD 
 
 FALCONER MADAN 
 
 f 
 
 LONDON 
 DUCKWORTH & CO. 

 
 PLAN 
 
 OF BODLEIAN 
 
 READING ROOMS 
 
 AND 
 PICTURE GALLERY
 
 THE 
 
 BODLEIAN LIBRARY 
 AT OXFORD 
 
 BRIEFLY DESCRIBED BY 
 
 FALCONER MADAN, MA. 
 
 HONORARY FELLOW OF BRASENOSE COLLEGE, OXFORD, 
 LATE BODLEY'S LIBRARIAN 
 
 DUCKWORTH i^ CO. 
 
 3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN
 
 Firsl jniMished 1919
 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The present volume is a short description of a great 
 library, and forms part of a series of treatises on educational 
 subjects which may, it is hoped, constitute some vindication 
 of a classical and liberal education. The author trusts 
 that this sketch of the history and contents of the Bodleian, 
 which ranks first among the institutions of the University, 
 may be of use to encourage the " studies of good 
 learning," and thereby to carry forward in some measure 
 the ideals of Oxford. The chief difficulty has been to 
 compress the subject "wdthin the necessary limits of the 
 series, but the list of authorities on p. 64 will indicate 
 sources of further information. 
 
 Permission to make use of the plan which forms the 
 frontispiece was courteously granted by Dr. Cowley, the 
 present Librarian of the Bodleian. 
 
 November, 1919. 
 
 di^H4 1 r.
 
 LIST OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PACE 
 
 I. Libraries and their Kinds ..... 7 
 
 II. Sir Thomas Bodley and his Foundation, 1598-1613 14 
 
 III. The Bodleian Library, 1613-1860 . . . .23 
 
 IV. The Bodleian Library in Modern T^^ies . . 34 
 
 V. The Manuscript and Other Treasures of the 
 
 Library ........ 43 
 
 VI. Methods and Materials of Modern Study . . 57 
 
 Index . . . . . . . ... 66 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 
 
 Plan op Bodleian Reading Rooms and Picturk 
 Gallery
 
 BODLEIAN LIBRARY 
 (THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD) 
 
 Notice to Readers 
 
 (All readers must at their first coming be entered in the Admiaaion 
 Registers and make the usual declaration.) 
 
 The Bodleian Library was founded in 1602, and for size and im- 
 portance (together) ranks first among University hbraries, second 
 among English-speaking peoples, and about eighth in the world. 
 Readers are therefore requested to use it, not for trivial purposes, 
 but for study and research. 
 
 The Old Reading Room (O.R.R.) and Upper Reading Room 
 (U.R.R.) are open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Jan. Nov. Dec. ; to 4 p.m. 
 in Feb. Mar. Aug. Sept. Oct. ; to 5 p.m. in Apr. May, Jime, July. 
 The Cajnera Reading Room is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. The 
 Camera contains most books printed since 1883, except Bibliography, 
 Law, Music, English Drama, British Topography and Antiquities, 
 with a few other sections. At Bodley there is a Reference library 
 (books marked R and ^), and at the Camera a large Select and 
 Reference library (marked S). 
 
 General Catalogue oj Printed Books. There is a copy in the U.R.R 
 (Bodley), and at the Camera. Catalogues oj MSS. The official 
 copies are in the O.R.R. : working copies are also in the O.R.R. and 
 in the Cam. R.R. Forms for ordering Books and MSS. are in each 
 Reading Room. 
 
 Seats. Any unoccupied desk may be taken by a reader, except 
 that twelve desks at the Selden End are assigned by the Librarian. 
 The number of seats is, in O.R.R. 63, in U.R.R. 24, in Cam. R.R. 74 
 (-{-12 for Music students and 12 in the Science Room). 
 
 Reserving books. MSS. and rare books shoviid be used in the 
 O.R.R. and cannot be reserved, but should te given up each time 
 that the reader leaves. An ordinary book or an orderly pile of books, 
 if reserved by a slip of paper bearing name and date, is left, in 
 O.R.R. 3 days at seat, 7 days more in an adjacent reserve (but at 
 Selden End, 10 days at seat) : in U.R.R. 3 days at seat, 7 in reserve : 
 in the Cam. R.R. books to be reserved should be brought to the 
 Assistajit's table (each work with the reserving slip), and will there be 
 reserved for 7 days. Unreserved books and all Reference and Select 
 books are cleared away daily. A reasonable limit for reserved books 
 is in general twenty vokimea. 
 
 Tracing and painting need special permission. Photogiapl y is 
 undertaken by the Clarendon Press : order forms are supplied on 
 application. 
 
 For further information see a Manual jor Readers, supplied gratia 
 on application.
 
 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY 
 AT OXFORD 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 LIBRAHIES AND THEIR KINDS 
 
 The two most important human inventions are perhaps 
 
 Speech and Writing. In no adequate way could 
 ■y^UjiK^ man fully express his mental activities except 
 
 by speech : nor could he adequately record them 
 except by writing. And to some extent the development 
 of the two ran a parallel course, for just as early Speech is 
 largely an imitation of natural sounds (Onomatopoeia), so 
 early Writing is probably, in the first instance, entirely from 
 pictures (pictograms), which from the need of acceleration 
 became worn down to simpler forms, and finally to letters ; 
 the sense similarly declining from the plain or derivative 
 ideas arising from pictures, to mere syllables with no intrinsic 
 meaning, and finally to simple sounds corresponding to letters. 
 But even this latest stage was reached in the Valley of the 
 Nile by, or not long after, 3000 B.C., as is testified by a stele 
 representing the cult of Send, a king of the second EgyjDtian 
 Dynasty (now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford), in 
 which the letters S, N, D occur in a cartouche ; while in 
 1750 the North American Indians used pictograms, and the 
 practice is not yet extinct, for we use the symbol rS" 
 
 As soon as Writing occurs in a portable form, whether as 
 
 cylinders of baked clay in Assyria, or as tablets 
 LHiraries °^ bark, wood or wax, or as sheets of parchment 
 
 or paper, there is a volume, and there is the 
 possibility of a collection of books which fornas a Library. 
 The earliest library of wliich a plan can be reconstructed was 
 discovered at Nineveh by Layard and dates from about 
 700 B.C. Of early Egyptian libraries no trace has been found ; 
 but under the Macodaaiah dynasty of the Pbolomies the great 
 library. at Alexandria in Egypt was founded about 285 B.C.
 
 8 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 About libraries in Greece inforination is very scant until the 
 time of Euripides (fifth centiu-y B.C.) In Italy, the earUest 
 public library was founded soon after 39 B.C. by C. Asinius 
 PoUio, and under Augustus at least two more were instituted 
 at Rome ; and by the fourth century at least twenty-five 
 or so were there erected, but all of them are stated to have 
 been closed down, " bybliotheeis sepulcrorum ritu in per- 
 petuum clausis " {Ammianus Marcellintts). Of course these 
 public libraries had been preceded by private collections, of 
 which records are few and far between. 
 
 Before the second centiuy B.C. the contents of Greek and 
 Roman libraries were not books in the form to which we are 
 accustomed, but rolls of papyrus, and the fittings of libraries 
 were accordingly shelves with vertical divisions forming 
 pigeon-holes, into which a roll or rolls were thriist. But the 
 advantages of parchment as a material to bear writing were 
 so obvious that the long rolls wrapped round a stick (rotuli) 
 gave way gi'adually to the well-known form appropriate to 
 parchment or paper, namely sewn and bound leaves {codices) 
 either quarto — which was found at first to be the most con- 
 venient size — or folio or octavo. The receptacles in libraries 
 (at Rome) were no longer pigeon-holes {nidi, foruli) or long 
 narrow boxes {loculamenta), but undivided shelves (either 
 fixed to the wall, pegmata, or standing against it, plutei). 
 The wall space above these various forms of shelving was 
 usually filled with decorative portraits or busts of great 
 authors. Perhaps it is not accidental that in the great library 
 collected by Sir Robert Cotton (now in the British Museinn) 
 the various parts were called (as they are still referred to) by 
 the names of the Roman Emperors whose busts siuruounted 
 each division, and in the Bodleian, after the Civil War, the wall 
 divisions of the Picture Gallery were surmounted by a series of 
 ornamental medalUons and portraits above the ordinary pic- 
 tures on the walls. The books, whether disposed in regiilar 
 book cases or in cupboards {armaria) with doors, were in Roman 
 times laid on their side. 
 
 The classical tradition concerning the care of books was 
 Tvr rt- apparently carried on with httle change duiing 
 
 Libraries ^^^® ^^* ^^® centuries of the Christian era. Ecclesi- 
 
 astical hbraries were kept in churches, as classical 
 libraries were usually connected with temples. It is usual to 
 date the organization of mediseval collections from the Rule 
 of St. Benedict in the sixth century ; and the Order which he 
 founded, with its direct offshoots, the Cluniacs, Carthusians 
 and Cistercians, were foremost in assigning a place to litera- 
 ture in the daily duties of the monk. The gradual evolution
 
 LIBRARIES AND THEIR KINDS 9 
 
 of the library can be traced from the time when a few volumes 
 covdd be accommodated in a press or presses in a recess or 
 small room, usually at the north-east corner of the cloister 
 near the chapter-house, to the fully developed collections of 
 the fifteenth century, housed in a large separate room, which 
 was almost always on the first floor, perhaps to avoid damp 
 and to secure a good light. 
 
 The following figm'es will illustrate the size of some con- 
 siderable mediasval libraries in various places and times. 
 
 Date. Place. Volumes. 
 
 A.D. 831 St. Riquier (French abbey) . . . 250 
 
 10th cent. Bobbio (Italian monastery) . . . 700 
 
 12th cent. Dm-ham Cathedral .... about 700 
 
 1300 . Clirist Church Cathedral, Canterbury about 1850 
 
 1395 . Durham Cathedral 921 
 
 1418 . Peterhouse, Cambridge .... 380 
 
 1424 . University Library, Cambridge . . .122 
 
 1472 . Queens' College, Cambridge . . . 199 
 
 1473 . University Library, Cambridge . . . 330 
 
 The earliest fittings for the convenience of readers which 
 still exist suggest that at any rate in collegiate 
 Fitting institutions the first kind of desk was on what 
 
 Mr. J. Willis Clark termed the Lectern system. 
 One has to imagine a double lectern (that is, two plain lecterns 
 placed back to back) so prolonged as to hold say five to 
 fifteen volumes on each side, every volume lying on its side 
 and being chained to the desk. The reader stood or sat, and 
 the open book lay before him at a convenient angle, as in 
 church lecterns. The system was obviously very wasteful of 
 space, and was evolved from the time when one or two books 
 only were brought out of the cupboard*^ {armarium) for a 
 reader's use on a desk resembling a lectern, near a window. 
 In the fifteenth century the noi-mal type of library was a 
 narrow room of considerable length, lighted by narrow 
 windows at short intervals. From the wall-spaces between the 
 windows there projected into the room at right angles to the 
 wall the lectern desks described above, the desks by this 
 time being probably fitted beneath with shelves on which the- 
 (chained) books could stand upright, and be pulled out on to ^ 
 the lectern for purposes of reading. 
 
 Next came the " Stall system." In this, the cases projecting 
 from the wall are just book-cases, of three or four or even more 
 shelves on each side of the case, and the lectern part is super- 
 seded by a flat desk in front of, and attached to, the shelves
 
 10 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD" J:; 
 
 at which'a reader sits, and on which he places the (chained) 
 book he takes down from a shelf above him. The earhest 
 example of these is at Corpus Cliristi College, Oxford (1517), 
 and they are stiU in use in the Old Reading Room (" Duke 
 Humphrey ") of the Bodleian ; and in the Chapter library at 
 Hereford, the very chains of the books are still preserved. 
 
 The modern practice of lining the walls of our rooms with 
 book-shelves, though in one sense a revereion to an ancient 
 type, in another is a definite change of system, of which 
 examples are found^in the sixteenth century abroad, but the 
 first in England is in the Bodleian. In the Old Reading Room 
 Sir Thomas Bodley reproduced the staU system. But when 
 in his last days he erected an additional room (the Arts End) 
 his choice fell on the newer idea that a wide space shovild be 
 left in the middle of the room, and the books be all placed 
 against the walls (1613). The lower books (foUos) were still 
 chained, and could only be used at the desks attached ; such 
 was the case, for instance, with the First Foho of Shakespeare, 
 marked S. 2.17 Art. (see p. 46). The Gallery books were 
 quartos and octavos, not chained, and given out to readers 
 below by one of the officers of the Library. Tliis arrangement 
 was imitated in the Selden End, which was completed in 
 1640. 
 
 So far an attempt has been made to sketch briefly the 
 evolution of a Ubrary in ancient and mediaeval 
 Lib ri° times. The plan of the present chapter of gener- 
 
 alities now requires that we should consider the 
 kinds of modern Ubrary, and the position which the Bodleian 
 holds among them. 
 
 There are hbraries and Hbraries. There are Ubraries of 
 Reference or, as they are sometimes termed. Deposit ; and 
 there are Ubraries of the second rank, adapted for local and 
 popular use. These two kinds are typical, and faU apart, a* 
 wiU be seen, by the application of a simple test. 
 
 The first pubUc literary need of a district is a Ubrary of the 
 latter type, one in wliich it is more important that the books 
 should be in general use by lending and by free access to the 
 shelves, than that they should be invested with a fictitious 
 importance and too jealously guarded. This is the way to 
 fan the faint sparks of literary instinct, and is still the common 
 condition of most viUages and even towns. But wherever 
 Uterature has taken a long and fu-m hold there is a desire for 
 a pubUc library of another kind. By tliis time private Ubraries 
 abound, and every serious student siu'rounds himself •with the 
 ordinary books on his special subject. And the pubUc library 
 shares in this general elevation of the personal standard ; it
 
 LIBRARIES AND THEIR KINDS II 
 
 becomes a necessary complement to individual effort. It 
 suppUes not only the ordinary works on every subject, but 
 also the extraordinary and special books, and owing to the 
 value of its contents has to restrict or abolish the custom of 
 lending, in order that there may be continuous accessibility 
 to its volumes. Tliis division into two kinds is deep and real. 
 The two fall apart according to their answer to the question. 
 Do you in any real sense aim at being complete ? AH libraries 
 of the second order confess that, in cases where they aim at 
 any completeness, it is in a special subdivision or set of sub- 
 divisions of literature — incunabuUi, local books, and so on, or 
 a working series of general reference volumes, or a depart- 
 mental library rich in books on a particular science. But 
 every hbrary of the first class must have universality and 
 completeness (within human limitations) as its theoretical aim, 
 and must have made substantial progi'ess towards its goal. 
 In countries like Great Britain and the United States there are 
 almost nxmaberless libraries, many of them really large ones ; 
 but above them there tower the few, the very few, Libraries 
 of Deposit. These are the super-Dreadnoughts of the Uterary 
 world, and the Bodleian claims to be among them. It is an 
 especial glory of Sir Thomas Bodley that he, a man of the 
 world as well as a genviine scholar, planned from the first a 
 library of the highest order. 
 
 Of this highest class it may be said that a really great library 
 should have Universal scope, Independence, Size, Pernaanence, 
 Wealth, and multiform UtiUty. Its Catalogue is not a mere 
 book-finder, but a scientific work. Open access and lending 
 are given up, but the Reference library is large. The aim of 
 the British Museiun to possess the largest French Library out- 
 side France, and so with other foreign departments, and to 
 store all local newspapers, is beyond praise. 
 
 Within the second class of libraries the manifold and 
 various needs of modern students have resulted in a large 
 number of kinds, which have been so seldom and so incom- 
 pletely methodized that the foUowi ng first attempt at their 
 classification may be allowed, though cross-divisions cannot 
 be entirely avoided. 
 
 LIBRARIES 
 
 A. Public — general : 
 
 e.g. National, Free, Lending, Circulating, Village. 
 
 B. Public — special : 
 
 e.g. Learned, Theological, Branch, Local. 
 
 C. Institutional — general : 
 
 e.g. Proprietary, Subscription, University, College, 
 Travelling.
 
 12 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 D. Institutional — special : 
 
 e.g. Technical, Professional, Departmental, Museum, 
 Children's. 
 
 E. Private — general : , 
 
 e.g. Aristocratic or dilettante, Scholarly, working Refer- 
 ence. 
 
 F. Private — special : 
 
 Libraries of Collectors of special kinds of boola. 
 
 It remains to indicate the place among libraries which the 
 Bodleian Library, the Library of the University 
 Libraries °^ Oxford, appears to occupy among the libraries 
 
 of the world. In the absence of all proper stand- 
 ardization of statistics, size (as estimated by the reputed 
 number of volumes, not works) must be first regarded, and next 
 importance, such as that due to manuscripts, incunabula and 
 the like. Mere size may not connote importance, for the 
 million volumes claimed by Messrs. Foyle, of 121 Charihg Cross 
 Road, London, do not raise their twenty miles of shelving to 
 the rank of a really great library. So too the large collections 
 of printed books in the United States are as yet wanting in 
 the special importance derived from the ancient and cardinal 
 manuscripts which enrich some of the libraries of Europe. 
 
 The following Hbraries of the Old World contain a million 
 or more volumes, in the opinion of Dr. Fortescue, late Keeper 
 of the Printed Books in the British Museum, expressed in 
 1912, and compared with nuinbers given in the last edition 
 of Minerva (1913), and with other sources of information. 
 
 Library. ' Printed volumes. MS. volumes. 
 
 British Museimi, London 3,750,000 FoH. 60,000. 
 National Library, Paris . 3,500,000 i^o?-<. 111,000 Min. 
 
 3,500,000 Min. 1 1 1,000 Min. 
 Petrograd . . . 1,880,000 Fort. 
 
 2,044,000 Min. 124,000 Min. 
 Berlin .... 1,400,000 Fort. 
 
 1,450,000 Min. 30,000 Min. 
 Munich . . . 1,100,000 Fort. 
 
 1,100,000 Min. 50,000 Min. 
 Vienna . . . 1,000,000 FoH. 
 
 1,000,000 Min. 27,000 Min. 
 
 The value of the MSS. (45,000 Min.) in the Vatican Library 
 at Rome raises it to the first rank, though its f)rinted volumes 
 are only reckoned to be 400,000 (Min.). The size of the great 
 libraries in the United States is undoubted, but, as has been
 
 LIBRARIES AND THEIR KINDS 
 
 13 
 
 ren.aa.'ked, the absence of large and valuable collections of MSS. 
 reduces their importance. In the Library of Congress at Wash- 
 ington, where the printed volmnes (" books and pamphlets ") 
 are estimated in the Annual Report for 1915 at 2,364,000, 
 the mileage of occupied shelves is believed to be eighty or more, 
 which is not far from double that of the British Museiun. 
 The New York Public Library is estimated to contain about 
 1,920,000 volumes (Fort.) or 2,090,000 (Min.). The Boston 
 Public Library is beUeved to possess 1,050,000 volumes (Min.). 
 A statistical siu'vey of the Bodleian Library was made in 
 1915, with the following results : — 
 
 
 About 
 
 
 About 
 
 Printed volumes 
 
 1,050,000 
 
 Separate items (in- 
 
 
 Of which folios 
 
 175,000 
 
 cluding fly-sheets 
 
 
 quartos . 
 
 350,000 
 
 etc.) . 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 octavos . 
 
 525,000 
 
 Manuscript volumes 
 
 40,000 
 
 Separate pieces 
 
 . 2,060,000 
 
 (Not counting char- 
 
 
 
 
 ters, roUs, etc.) . 
 
 20,000 
 
 (Full details are jorinted in No. 9, Vol. I, of the Bodleian 
 Quarterly Record, April, 1916. The total number of printed 
 books in the world, i.e. separate works, has been estimated 
 at about 12,000,000.) 
 
 The Bodleian may fairly claim to rank in size about ninth, 
 and in size and importance (together) about eighth. It is the 
 largest and most important University library in the world, 
 and the largest (at any rate in the Old World) which is not 
 aided out of State funds. It claims also to be one of the 
 earliest public libraries of Europe, in the sense that it has 
 always been open to those who bring a sufficiejit recommenda- 
 tion, practically without distinction of class or nationality. 
 In early days a small charge was made on first admission.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 SIR TH03MAS BODLEY AND HIS FOUNDATION, 1598-1613 
 
 The cradle of the University is in the vaulted chamber at the 
 north-east corner of St. Mary's Church, still called 
 Unlversitv ^^^^ ^^^ Congregation House. The present building 
 Libraries. ^^^ begun in 1320 on behalf of Thomas de Cobham, 
 Bishop of Worcester, and consisted of a lower 
 chamber for University meetings and an upper chamber for 
 a hbrary. The shell was finished by his death in 1327 ; but 
 not tiU a dispute with Oriel College about the possession of 
 Cobham's books was settled in 1410, was there a library in fuU 
 establishment. The books were taken from the two chests in 
 which they had lain since 1337 in the lower room, and were 
 chained in the upper room to desks with seats fixed beside 
 them. In 1412 a statute settled the regulations, and ensured 
 that the hbrarian^ should also be a chaplain of the Univer- 
 sity. 
 
 In 1345 Richard de Bury, Bishop of Dm'ham, author of the 
 first book on the love of books (the Philobihlon), bequeathed 
 his hbrary to Durham CoUege (now Trinity College), but it is 
 hardly doubtful that the books never reached Oxford, and 
 that his intended library " free to all scholars " never came 
 into being. 
 
 The second University hbrary was built over the Divinity 
 School, cliiefly because the gifts of MSS. by Hvunphrey, duke 
 of Gloucester, far exceeded the capacity of the little solar at 
 St. Mary's to receive thern. The School was begim about 1420, 
 and by 1480 both it and the book-room were complete. The 
 latter is now the " Old Reading Room " of Bodley's founda- 
 tion. But between 1550 and 1556 the Commissioners appointed 
 by Edward VI for the reformation of the University wantonly 
 destroyed almost the whole of the contents of the hbrary, so 
 much so that on January 25, 1556, the University gave orders 
 
 ^ The classical Latin titles for '' Librarian " foimd in inscrip- 
 tions are : — Procurator bibliothecarum (perhaps a wider terra thai) 
 Librarian), Magister a bibliotheca, Bibliothecarius (used by Marcus 
 Aurelius). Librarius was a ininor library official : Librarius a manv, 
 a secretary in the library. 
 
 ^ 14
 
 5 SIR f HOMAS BODLEY AND HIS FOUNDATION 15 
 
 that the very fitting of the library should be sold. There 
 were to books left to attract a reader. Of the six hundi'ed or 
 more MSS. in the old room, not more than eleven can be still 
 identified (at Oxford, the British Museum and Paris) and 
 only fou" are still in their old home (MSS. Hatton 36, Duke 
 Humphrey b. 1 and d. 1, Selden B. 50). 
 
 From 1556 till 1598 a dead silence falls on'the University 
 library : the bare walls are there, and perhaps the roof 
 also, but no books and "no voice, nor any that answered." 
 So too the University hbrary at Cambridge (which is first 
 mentioned in 1397) was used as a Theological School from 
 1647 to 1586 (" quoniam ut nunc nuUi est usui " bibhotheca, 
 as the grace says), but the books were on the shelves all the 
 while, to the number of about 180. 
 
 Sir Thomas Bodley, a " worthy of Devon " and a diplomat 
 high in the esteem of Queen Elizabeth, came of 
 Bodlev"^^^ an old Devonshire stock which probably origin- 
 ated in Budleigh. When the founder of it left 
 Budleigh at some unrecorded time, he would be at once known 
 as Thomas (or whatever the name may have been) de Budleigh 
 or Bodley. A family of that name^was settled for many 
 generations at Dunscombe, a hamlet of Crediton, and John 
 Bodley, the father of Sir Thomas, had left Dunscombe and 
 settled in Exeter, when his son was born there on March 2, 
 1545. His wife was Joan {nee Hone) of Ottery St. Mary. 
 The whole family was worried out of England in Queen Mary's 
 reign, and the young Thomas was brovight up at Geneva till 
 the accession of Queen Ehzabeth, when the whole family 
 returned to England, and settled in London. In 1559 the 
 son was entered at Magdalen CoUege, Oxford, liis tutor, 
 Laurence Hvxmphrey (who in 1561 was elected President), 
 having shared the exile of John Bodley. After Bodley's 
 degree in 1563 he became a Fellow of Merton, and successively 
 Greek lecturer. Natural Pliilosophy lectvu"er. Proctor (1569-70), 
 and deputy Public Orator. There is evidence also that he 
 studied Hebrew at Oxford as well as in his younger days at 
 Geneva. Lastly, he travelled for nearly four years in Italy, 
 France and Germany. 
 
 Bodley was thei'efore well-equipped for a career of pubUc 
 Ufe, and woi-thy to ascend that admu-a,ble ladder which the 
 Queen set up through the Chancellors of the two Universities, 
 to attract the best inen of the time to the service of the state. 
 After two years' preliminary employment in London iiis 
 diplomatic career opened in 1585. It continued till 1598, 
 when hia activity and statesmanship had shewn itself in 
 missions to Denmark, Germany, France and the Low Coun-
 
 16 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 tries. In 1597 he married a rich widow, Mrs. Anne Ball /Jie'e 
 Carey), of Totnes, but had no family by her.^ 
 
 At last, at the age of fifty-two, being tired of statecraA and 
 the Com't, and " for the loue " he bore to hia " raaerend 
 Mother the Vniversitie of Oxon," and in order to "do the 
 true part of a profitable member in the State " he deeided to 
 offer to restore the old University library, or in his own 
 memorable words " examining exactlye for the rest ol my hfe, 
 what course I might take, and haueing sowght (as I thought) 
 all the wayes to the wood, to select the most proper, I con- 
 cluded at the last, to set vp my Staffe at the Librarie dore in 
 Oxon ; being throwghly perswaded, that in my solitude, and 
 surcease from the Commonwealth affayers, I coulde not busie 
 my selfe to better purpose, then by redusing that place (which 
 then in euery part laye ruined and wast) to the publique vse 
 of Studients. For the effecting whereof, I fomid my seHe 
 furnished in a competent proportion, of such fower kindes of 
 ayds, as vnles I had them all, there was no hope of good 
 successe : for without some kinde of knowledg, as well in the 
 learned and moderne tongues, as in sundry other sorts of 
 Scholasticall literature, without some purse habilitie to goe 
 tlu'owgh with the charge, without very great store of honor- 
 able friends, to fu^rther the designe, and without speciaU good 
 leasure to follow such a worke, it could but have proued a 
 vayne attempt and inconsiderate." To have knowledge what 
 to do, money to do it, friends to help it, and leisure to see it 
 done — on those four qualifications the Founder based his offer 
 to the University, dated February 23, 1598. The old dismantled 
 roona with its bare fifteenth century walls was there, making 
 its mute appeal, and at last the Hour and the Man came. The 
 "spacious times of great Elizabeth" provided, not a youtliful 
 enthusiastjbut a man of world-wide experience,with all the learn- 
 ing which Oxford could impart, with ample means, with friends 
 at Coiu't, and with a fixed purpose for hi^ years of retirement. 
 
 The offer was of course accepted with gratitude, and the 
 
 work began at once. In four and a half years, 
 
 UbrSr °^ Monday, November 8, 1602, the new pubhc 
 
 hbrary of the University^ was solemnly opened, 
 
 ^ His arms were : — Quarterly, 1st and 4th argent five martlets 
 in saltii'e, with a crescent gules for difference, on a cliief azure three 
 ducal crowns or (for Bodley), 2nd and 3rd argent, two bars wavy 
 between three hone-stones sable two and one (for Hone). Motto, 
 Quarta perennis (a reference to the three crowns, wliich were taken 
 from the University Anns, presijgiably in 1604, when Bodley was 
 knighted). 
 
 ^ Bibliotheca Bodleiana is found in 1605 : Bodhiana in 1654 ; 
 Bodley' 8 Library in 1666 ; Bodleian Library in 1695 ; Bodley in
 
 SIR THOMAS BODLEY AND HIS FOUND ATIOX 17 
 
 with about two thousand volumes. The appearance of the 
 room can be gathered from Bodley's own letters and the 
 existing fittings. On the frontispiece of the present volume 
 it is marked old beadestg room, an oblong chamber standing 
 by itself, witli ten alcoves on either side, each with its own 
 window, and a bookcase at right angles to the waU, which 
 separates each study from its neighbours. The entrance was 
 by a staircase at the We&t or Selden end, in a porch of the 
 Divinity School below. At the farthest (or East) end of the 
 room the two last alcoves were the Librarian's and Under- 
 keeper's studies, and there was an East window to hght the 
 central passage, facing wliich window were two closed cup- 
 boards or "Archives " on each side of the gangway. The present 
 room is so little altered from its first condition that all these 
 featvu-es can be still recognised or understood. In 1602 the 
 two thousand volumes would occupy about one quarter of 
 the accommodation, and no doubt the fohos were soon chained 
 in their places, wliile the quartos and octavos were relegat-ed 
 to the cupboards and to a gallery over ihe door at the West 
 end. These latter, having no chains, were given out as 
 required. The windows, painted ceiling, bookcases and cup- 
 boards remain as in 1602, but the central .passage was several 
 inches lower than the floor of the alcoves. There is even a 
 register of the names of the readers and whether they came 
 in the morning (8-11) or afternoon (2-5, or 1-4, according to 
 the season), for the whole of the first year. Moreover the:"- is 
 a catalogue of the entire contents of the shelves in the order in 
 which the books stood on the opening day, 
 
 Bodley's first " Protobibliothecarius Bodleianus " was 
 Dr James Thomas James, ^ who had issued an editioi;* of 
 Richard de Bury's Philobiblon in 1598, and in 
 1600 the Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis (catalogues of MSS. 
 at Oxford and Cambridge), besides being well known as" a 
 learned defender of Protestantism. The appointment was 
 probably formally made in 1602, when delegates were 
 appointed to superintend the Library. His sole assistant for 
 some years was the " Cleaner," but some of the delegates 
 were able to give informal help. 
 
 But, as may be well imagined, Bodley was in these early 
 days a host in himself. All the details of management were 
 referred to hina, and as the Library had as yet no endowment, 
 
 1706 ; Bodleian in 1749. The term " Bodley " is now some 
 times used for the old part of the Library, as compared witli the 
 " Camera." 
 
 1 New College : matr., 1592 ; Fellow; D.D., 1614 ; died, 1629 ; 
 Librarian, 1602-1620. 
 B
 
 18 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 all the accessions by piH-chase were paid for by him. Fortu- 
 nately a long series of letters from Bodley to James between 
 1601 and 1612 is preserved, and displays to us every stage of 
 the evolution of the Bodleian, and also the humorous conflicts 
 between the Founder, pursuing an ideal and controlling at 
 every point the management of his institution, and liia 
 Librarian, a student intent on his own literary aims, obstinate, 
 and not over desirous of spending the six hours a day at the 
 Library which Bodley considered reasonable, in addition to 
 the four he needed for his own work. Bodley wished his 
 Librarians to be " some one that is noted and knowen for a 
 diligent Student, and in all his conuersation to be trustie, 
 actiue, and discreete, a graduat also and a Linguist, not en- 
 combred with mariage, nor with a benefice of Cure," and 
 James greatly irritated him by extorting a most reluctant 
 leave both to marry and to hold the Rectory of St. Aldate's. 
 The Founder's style is racy and pertinent : when James 
 desires an increase of his stipend of £22 : 13 : 4 a year, Bodley 
 writes " I do not doubt but to give you very good satisfaction : 
 but till your Travels [i.e. travails] and Troubles are seen to 
 every Student, it will be best in my OiDinion, not to charge the 
 Spit with too much Roast-meat." When benefactors are 
 about, Bodley is specially alert in converting promise into 
 performance : in a casd of promise they " should be called on, 
 with all the good speed that Conveniency, fit Time and good 
 Manners will afford. For many Men's Minds do alter so soon, 
 as it will be I'equisite always to open the Poak, when the Pig 
 is presented."^ The relations of the two were on the whole 
 cordial, and James worked hard for the Library. The worth 
 of the nascent foundation was recognized in 1604 by the confer- 
 ment of knighthood on Bodley, and its permanent endowment 
 began in 1609 by the gift by him of lands at Cookham and in 
 Distaff Lane, London. ^ 
 
 By 1605 the Library was in full working order, and two 
 
 great events distinguish the year. On Augvist 30 
 ^^° , T King James I paid a visit to the Library, examined 
 
 various MSS., especially some Old English 
 versions of the Bible, praised the " garden " whence came the 
 
 ^ The Letters are well worth republishing, with notes, for Hearne'e 
 edition in 1703 [Reliquioe Bodleiance) exhibit them in a hopelessly 
 haphazard order, devoid of all chronological seqvience. 
 
 2 Bodley, however, reserved a life interest in this endowment, 
 and the only independent income of the Librarian and Sub-Librarian 
 as such was 8d. payable to the former and 4d. to the latter from 
 every newly admitted reader — a provision made in the Statutes of 
 1610.
 
 SIR THOMAS BODLEY AND HIS FOUNDATION 19 
 
 " fruits " he had observed in University men, and in a burst 
 of benevolence promised any precious and rare volumes from 
 the royal libraries which Bodley might select.^ Bodley was 
 greatly excited about the royal visit, and even as early as 
 June had warned James that his speech " must be short and 
 sweet, and full of Stuff " and " may not exceed the Length 
 of six Pater N osiers." He ordered the Library to be well 
 swept, the books cleansed from dust, " the Floor to be well 
 washed and dried, and after rubbed with a Uttle Rosemary : 
 for a stronger sent. I shovild not like." Finally, he adds, "I 
 know, as near as you can, you will frame your Meditation, 
 to the Kang's Pronunciation of i and au." 
 
 The second event of 1605 was the issue of the first printed 
 Catalogue of the printed books and MSS, The 
 cataioBTie three Catalogues issued in the seventeenth centuiy 
 ^ ■ (1605, 1620, 1674) were all pioneers in bibUo- 
 graphy, and the fifth (1843-51) marks the end of the long 
 period during which the Bodleian was the largest Ubrary 
 in the British Empire. Of the first, Bodley writes that 
 " the general Conceit, as well of other Nations as of our 
 own at home, of the Library-store, is so great, that they 
 imagine in a manner, there is nothing wanting in it." Yet in 
 the Arts section, which includes Liter atvn'e and History, there 
 are only thirty-six books in the English language. The Library 
 was intended for scholars and students, and it is to be feared 
 that Bodley included nearly all English books among the 
 " Baggage Books " and " Riff Raff " which were excluded. 
 So keen, however, was Bodley that nothing shoiild escape him 
 which was worth having, that he wrote in 1607, "You shall 
 never see that any good Books shall be lost for want of buying, 
 though I find no Contributers : albeit you need not doubt, 
 but I shall always find sufficient money." The books are 
 arranged in the Catalogue in the order in which they stood on 
 the shelves, divided into the Faculties of Theology, Medicine, 
 Law, Arts, and further subdivided according to the first letter 
 of the author's name (Th. A — Z, Med. A — Z, etc.), but there 
 is an alphabetical index of authors. James also planned (and 
 partly executed) a series of Svibject Catalogues, and proposed 
 what would now be called an Undergraduates' library, but 
 the latter received scant encouragement from the Founder. 
 The spirit in which he worked is weU expressed by his entry 
 on an interesting occasion in an Album Amicorum of Frederick 
 Kemener, " Non qucero quod mihi vtile est sed quod muUis. 
 
 ' This grant was hastily made, but actually passed tinder the 
 Privy Seal, though its execution was for intelligible r'saeons stopppd. 
 
 B 2
 
 20 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 Aiiioris ergo scripsit Tho : James primus Bibliothecarius 
 eodem die quo prime Bibliotheca patuit studentibus viz. 
 Anno 1602. Die Nouembris 8°." 
 
 The outstanding occurrence in the later years of the 
 
 Founder's life was luidoubtedly the Agreement 
 c mn°°^'^ with the Stationers' Company (that is to say the 
 Agreement. whole body of Ucensed printers and pubUshera in 
 
 Great Britain) by which one copy of every book 
 issued by a member of the Company was sent to the Bodleian, 
 gratis. The date of the Agreement is December 12, 1610 (the 
 Company) and February 22, 1611 (Congregation), and far- 
 reaching were its effects. The idea was suggested to Bodley 
 by his Librarian, and there were many "Rubs and Delays." 
 The advantage to the publishers was that whenever an edition 
 ran out of print, there would always be a " perfect copy " 
 available for reprint or amendment, and the presentation of 
 a piece of plate worth £50 settled their remaining scruples. 
 The first book which came in imder the Agreement was 
 Thomas Man's Christian Religion substantially . . . treatised 
 (London, pr. by Felix Eangston for Thomas Man, 1611) sent 
 by John Man, Master of the Company, and bearing a note in 
 Bodley's own hand. The Library has never lost this privilege 
 — which is long antecedent to, and independent of, the Copy- 
 right Acts. The grant was confirmed by an Order of Star- 
 Chamber on July 11, 1637. The first similar grant by Parlia- 
 ment was made, no doubt on grounds of public utility, to the 
 Bodleiaii and a few other hbraries in 1662, and the first Copy- 
 right Act, recognizing the Bodleian right and granting it to 
 eight other hbraries, was in 1709. The latest is dated 
 1912. 
 
 By the time of the Founder's death (January 28, 1613) 
 
 the Library had a set of Statutes (1610) and a 
 Constitution settled constitution, the Librarian having an 
 
 Under-keeper and a Janitor under him, and being 
 himself under eight CWators, who could call him to account 
 for remissness or misconduct, but left him very large powers 
 in matters of detail. The Library was open on ail weekdays 
 from 8 to 11 a.m., except when there was a University Sermon 
 or other service, and in the afternoons from 2-5 from Easter 
 to Michaelmas, or 1-4 from Michaelmas to Easter. All 
 Doctors, Masters and Bachelors could claim the right of read- 
 ing, except that Bachelors of Arts must be of two years stand- 
 ing. All others had to take an oath at entry, and if not 
 benefactors or highborn, and especially if foreigners, had to 
 obtain a decree in their favour in Congregation. Lending out 
 books was absolutely forbidden.
 
 SIR THOMAS BODLEY AND HIS FOUNDATION 21 
 
 Bodley had seen the first extension of his Library when the 
 " Arts End " (see frontispiece) was built in 
 Extension 1610-12, All the Arts books were there placed, 
 allowing the older part to retain the books of the 
 three superior Faculties of Theology, Medicine and Juris- 
 prudence. But shortly before his death the University had 
 formed a plan of building the " Schools Quadrangle," or 
 rather three sides, which together with the Arts End would 
 form a quadrangle, and Bodley in his Will (January 2, 1613) 
 wrote " for as much as the perpetuaU preseruation, support & 
 maintenance of the Publique Librarie . . . dothe greatly 
 surpasse all my other worldly cares, and because I doe foresee 
 that in proces of time there must of necessitie be very gi'eat 
 want of . . . stowage for Bookes," he provides for a second- 
 floor room to over-top the two stories needed for the Lecture 
 Rooms or Schools of the University, and to form a reserve of 
 space for an overflow of books. This was conapleted in 1618. 
 The accounts for August 1613, to July 1614, the fii-st complete 
 year since Bodley's death, show an income of £137 from 
 property, and expenditure of £110 (stipends £51, estabhsh- 
 ment £6, pvu'chase of books £13, binding £14, miscellaneous 
 £24). 
 
 We need not be sm-jarised that with such a founder and such 
 B nef ti ^ building and administration, the Bodleian 
 gathered treasures witliin its walls from its 
 earliest days. Of these a few may be mentioned. The great 
 Registrum Benejactorum instituted by Bodley begins in 1600, 
 two years before the opening of the Libraiy, showing how 
 keen was the spirit he stirred up among his friends, but no 
 gifts of single volumes are recorded. Accordingly we can only 
 conjecture that the Founder himself gave the fine MS. French 
 Romance of Alexander, with the Travels of Marco Polo, 
 which was certainly received before 1605 (s.c. 2464). It is 
 notable for the illuminations, including a remarkable view of 
 Venice in the fourteenth century, and for the numerous 
 marginal pictures of customs, trades and amusements (perhaps 
 Enghsh). In 1601 in the Thomas Allen donation came " the 
 patriarch of all Welsh books known," written in 820 (s.c. 2176). 
 Li another part of the same volume is a contemporary portrait 
 of St. Dunstan {d. 988), who owned that part. In the following 
 year the Dean and Chapter of Exeter gave eighty-one Latin 
 MSS., one of which is the famous Leofric Missal (s.c. 2675), 
 one of the very few Missals known to have been used in a pre- 
 Conquest English Church, in this case Exeter Cathedral. It 
 is striking, and touching, that Sir Robert Cotton, who was 
 forming his own great collection, now represented by the
 
 22 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 Cottonian Collection in the British Museum, was a firm friend 
 of his rival collector and presented to his friend's new Library, 
 in 1603, eleven MSS. of value, including Latin Gospels, perhaps 
 of the seventh centuiy (s.c. 2698). In 1605 the Librarian was 
 able to say that the Library contained books in thirty or more 
 languages, and that it was already frequented by foreigners 
 (Italian, French, German, Polish, SwecMsh and other), and 
 Bacon calls it " an ark to save learning from deluge." The 
 Oriental literature may be regarded as beginning in tliis year 
 with the donation and purchase of Chinese books. The Dean 
 and Chapter of Windsor imitated their brethren of Exeter in 
 1612, by sending sixty-seven volumes of MSS,, chiefly 
 theological.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE BODLEIAN LIBKARY, 1613-1860 
 
 The scale of the present work will not allow of more than a 
 sketch of the development of the Library for the long period 
 included in the chapter heading above. The chief treasures, 
 more in detail, will be mentioned in Chapter V. 
 
 There was an ebb-tide in the Library affairs for some years 
 
 after Bodley's death on January 28, 1613 — a kind 
 Fears ^^ reaction. James was getting old (though he 
 
 did not resign till 1620), and a set-back was 
 experienced from the defalcations of Sir John Bennet, one of 
 Bodley's executors, who defrauded the nascent institution of 
 at least £450. It must have been to some extent a doubtful 
 time. The good sliip had been weU built, launched and 
 eqiiipped, but would it stand the open sea, when its designer 
 and builder was no longer at hand and its capacity of enduring 
 stress was as yet untried ? Looking back on the development 
 of the Bodleian, we can now see that the memory of Bodley's 
 personality, and the results of his practical wisdom as dis- 
 played in the Statutes, did carry on the Library tradition 
 until the gathering clouds of the Civil War ; that then it 
 secured its position by being perhaps the only safe repository 
 for literary collections during the Civil War and Common- 
 wealth troubles ; that throughout the ensviing century and a 
 half it attracted immense donations ; so that in fact until 
 about 1850 it remained the premier library in the kingdom, 
 though the British Museum had been founded in 1753. Since 
 1850 the great National Library has assumed clear pre- 
 eminence, having the support of public funds and being 
 acknowledged by all to be the chief library of the Empire. 
 In 1620 a new catalogue of the Library was published by 
 
 Bodley's Librarian, Dr. Thomas James, which is 
 Cata'iopTie ^^ ^^® form to which we are all accustomed — that 
 
 is to say it is an Author-catalogue, arranged by 
 authors' names in alphabetical order. Enghsh literature is 
 still quite a subordinate feature in it, owing to the Founder's 
 principles ; and under Shakespeare's name no single entry is 
 to be found. Another curious feature is that no English trans- 
 lations of Latin or Greek or even Fi'ench or Italian books are 
 allowed to appear. Those who knew no Greek or Latin, and 
 needed " cribs " were not welcomed. James resigned his 
 
 23
 
 24 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 office in this year and was succeeded by John Rouse/ the 
 friend of Milton. His. puritanical tendencies undoubtedly 
 helped him to save the Library from damage dioring the 
 sieges of Oxford in the great war. 
 
 At last, in 1629, began the flow of Collections towards the 
 Library, soon after Laud had become Bishop of 
 Accessions London. In that year arrived " that famous 
 hbrary of Giacomo Barocci " (as Ussher calls it), 
 consisting of 242 Greek MSS. The donor was the Chancellor 
 of the University, the Earl of Pembroke, and twenty-four MSS. 
 which were omitted came in 1654 tlii-ough OUver Cromwell. 
 Sir Thomas Roe, the EngUsh ambassador to Turkey, also sent 
 twenty-eight Greek MSS. The original manuscript of Leland's 
 Itinerary and Collectanea came in 1632 from William Burton, 
 the historian of Leicestershire. They contain topographical 
 and literary notes of the earliest survey of England (with the 
 partial exception of Wilham of Worcester, whose joui'neyings 
 were chiefly in Somerset, including Bristol, and Norfolk), and 
 with some later transcripts form the whole of the sources of 
 the text. In 1634 came 238 MSS. forming the Digby collec- 
 tion, which is of special value for the early history of science 
 in England, containing for instance the earUest meteorological 
 observations known, by William de Merle, Fellow of Merton, 
 taken from 1337 to 1344. Thirty-six more (Oriental) MSS. 
 came from Sir Kenelm Digby among the Laudian MSS. in 1639. 
 
 But the great name of Archbishop Laud overshadows all 
 the rest of this period. By great good-fortune 
 Gifts ^ ^^^ Western extension of the Old Reading Room 
 
 (now called the Selden End, which balances the 
 Eastern extension or Arts End, see frontispiece) was begun in 
 1634 and finished in 1640, and into the new room thei"e poured 
 the manuscript treasures acquired by the Archbishop to the 
 number of 1242 volumes. It is a miscellaneous collection in 
 at least twenty languages. Western and Oriental, partly 
 acquired from Germany, especially Wiirzbvirg. The two out- 
 standing volmnes are Codex E of the Acts, an uncial Greek- 
 Latin text of the seventh century, once owned by the Vener- 
 able Bede (s.c. 1119), and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written 
 at Peterborough and continued to 1154, tlii-ee-quarters of a 
 century later than any other copy of the famous Clironicle 
 (s.c. 1003) ; others are mentioned in Chapter V. 
 
 Tlie bequest of Robert Bm*ton's books in 1640 was especially 
 valuable, because the author of the Anatomy oj Melancholy 
 read so discursively, and collected not only the graver works 
 
 ^ Jolm Rouse or Russe, matr. from Balliol 1596, Fellow of Oriel, 
 1600-52, M.A., 1604 : Librarian, 1620-52.
 
 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY, 1613-1860 25 
 
 which Bodley loved, but especially the lighter literature of the 
 day : it is satisfactory to note that aU these were accepted by 
 Rouse, as indeed they would have been by James. 
 
 The Civil War was an anxious time for the Library, from 
 
 the difficulty of safeguarding it from irruption 
 Wai°*^^ and violence. The care with which the Library 
 
 has always guarded its contents from the risk of 
 loss by lending out is well exemplified by Rouse's action when 
 the King, on December 30, 1645, demanded the Histoire 
 Universelle of Aubigne. Rouse went to liim and read out the 
 Statute against lending, and the King with a very good grace 
 gave way.^ The original order, coimtersigned by the Vice- 
 ChanceUor (" His Majestyes use is in command to us. S. Fell, 
 Vice Can.") is still preserved in the Library. The second 
 siege of the city was followed by its capitulation on June 20, 
 1646, and " the first thing Generall Fairfax did was to set a 
 good guard of soldiers to preserve the Bodleian Library. . . . 
 Had he not taken this special care, that noble library had 
 been utterly destroyed." The register of books given out to 
 readers shows a fair niunber of students, but Dr. John Allibond 
 [Rusticd AcademicB descriptio, 1648) records a different 
 condition : 
 
 " Consceiido orbis illud Decus Neglectos vidi libros multoa, 
 Bodleio fundatore. Quod minime rrurandum, 
 
 Scd intus erat nullum peons Nam Bardos inter tot et stultos, 
 Excepto Janitore. There's few could understand 
 
 'em." 
 
 Rouse was tactful enough to entertain Fairfax and Cromwell 
 with a complimentary speech when the University gave them 
 a banquet in the Library on May 19, 1649, and on the whole 
 the Cromwellian visitation left the place alone, even when the 
 learned Dr. Thomas Barlow- succeeded to Rouse's place in 
 April, 1652. 
 
 In 1659 the library of the " Learned Selden " arrived by 
 
 bequest, after five years' delay, and comprised 
 
 Gtft8°'^ about 360 MSS. with about eight thousand printed 
 
 volumes, chiefly classics, theology and history ; 
 
 but among them are several unique early printed English talcs 
 
 and romances, such as Dan Hew of Leicestre, the Battayh of 
 
 ^ Exactly the same incident ocourred with the Protector, Crom- 
 well, when a MS. was ordered by him. Barlow induced him also to 
 forgo his wish. This was in April, 1654, the year in which Cromwell 
 presented twenty-four MSS. 
 
 2 Thomas Barlow, matr. from Queen's, 1625 ; Fellow. 1633-57 ; 
 Provost, 1657-75 ; D.D., 1660 ; Bp. of Lincoln, 1675-91 ; Librar- 
 ian, 1652-60.
 
 26 TEIE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 Egyngecourt, the Mylner of Abyngton. The Latin MSS. not 
 sent perished in a fire at the Temple, in London, in 1680. The 
 arrangement of the new acquisition in what is now called the 
 Selden End fell to Thomas Lockey,^ who succeeded Barlow 
 in September, 1660, but resigned in 1665, when Thomas Hyde- 
 succeeded. In the next year came the first Sanskrit MS. (in 
 "Gentoo,"now s.c. 2862), presented by anEast India merchant. 
 The Adversaria of Isaac Casaubon (largely the notes of that 
 great scholar on Greek writers) were bequeathed by his son 
 and arrived in 1673, together with the invaluable papers of 
 Roger Dodsworth, whose name deserved to be on the title- 
 page of " Dugdale's " Monasticon Anglicanum. Dodsworth 
 copied enormous masses of Yorkshire and North of England 
 deeds and pedigrees just before the Civil War, in which very 
 many of the originals perished. Fairfax had helped Dodsworth 
 with an annuity, and bequeathed Dodsworth's and some other 
 valuable MSS. to the Library wliich he had guarded from 
 harm in 1646. 
 
 The third Catalogue of the Library, which came out in 1674, 
 
 was a foUo of imposing dimensions, and though 
 Catalogue ^^® MSS. are no longer included, was probably the 
 
 largest which had till then appeared anywhere. 
 It was of such general utility in the learned world that, for 
 instance. Convocation deemed it worthy of presentation to 
 Cosmo de Medici, and an interleaved copy of it was the only 
 one used in the Mazarine Library at Paris till as late as 1761. 
 It took nine years to prepare, and is attributed to Dr. Hyde, 
 the Librarian. The period which ended with Hyde's resigna- 
 tion in 1701 wound up with a large accession of Old and 
 Middle English MSS. which came partly by the purchase of 
 112 Hatton MSS. in 1671 (including the copy of the EngUsh 
 translation of Gregory's De cura pastorali made by Alfred, 
 which the king presented to Worcester Cathedral, and also a 
 translation of the same author's Dialogi, with a preface by 
 King Alfred), and partly by the extensive collections of 
 Franciscus Junius (Fran5ois Du Jon), a pioneer of Anglo- 
 Saxon studies, which arrived (after purchase) in 1677. The 
 chief treasures (the Csedmon and Ormulum) are described in 
 Chapter V. The Oriental collections were also more than 
 doubled by the purchase of the 420 Pococke MSS. in 1692 
 (chiefly Hebrew and Arabic), and of the six hundred Hunting- 
 
 1 Thomas Lockey, matr. from Ch. Ch., 1621 ; D.D., 1660 ; 
 d. 1679 ; Librarian, 1660-65. 
 
 2 Thomas Hyde, matr. from Queen's, 1654 ; D.D., 1682 ; Prof, 
 of Arabic, 1691-7 ; Prof, of Hebrew, 1697-1703 ; d. 1703 ; Librar- 
 ian, 1665-1701.
 
 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY, 1613-1860 27 
 
 ton MSS. (of the same general character) in the next year. 
 And probably these judicious and valuable pui'chases led to 
 the bequest by Ai'chbishop Narcissus Marsh of about seven 
 hundi-ed additional Oriental MSS. in 1713. 
 
 In 1681 a historic incident took place in what is now three 
 
 of the Oriental Rooms of the Bodleian, but was 
 Parliament then the Geometry School. The ParUament was 
 
 held in Oxford on March 21-28 in that year, and 
 Kling Charles II, having a secret promise of pecuniary aid 
 from the French King, felt strong enough to do without 
 consulting Parliament on a matter of the Protestant succession, 
 and determined to put a sudden and dramatic end to the 
 Session. The House of Lords was in the Geometry School, 
 which stretches North from the great Tower, on the first floor. 
 It had a broad staircase to itself. The House of Commons was 
 summoned to the same School on Monday, March 28, to hear 
 the King's speech, about the subject of which nothing was 
 known. To avoid confusion, the Commons were not allowed 
 to lose the broad staircase, but were hustled up a narrow wind- 
 ing stone staircase in the Tower itself, and when at the level 
 of the first floor were precipitated into a room, and at last 
 down five steps into the House of Lords. They arrived in a 
 panting and dishevelled condition, only to hear a sudden and 
 curt Royal Message, read by the King himself, announcing 
 an immediate Dissolution of Parliament ! The comedy then 
 took a new turn, in which the King was protagonist. He 
 bolted in great haste, scuttled across the quadrangle as fast 
 as dignity and robes would allow, bundled into his coach, and 
 was at Shotover, on the way to London, before the city in 
 general became aware that the ParUament, which thought it 
 had the King in its power from his want of supphes, was 
 dissolved. The scene would have been broadly hiunorous, 
 but for its sinister political significance. 
 
 The first century of the Library was worthily concluded 
 
 with a useful and laborious Catalogue of all the 
 c^taJ^*^ known and accessible collections of MSS. in 
 
 MSS Great Britain, which is known as Bernard's or 
 
 the Old Catalogue, and is due to the labovu's of 
 Dr. Edward Bernard, Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. It 
 was published in 1697, and shows that Oxford (in the Bodleian 
 and the Colleges) jjossessed more than half of the whole 
 number. The printed books at this time may be estimated 
 at about twenty-five thousand and the MSS. at about 
 seven thousand. The century itself is cut deeply into 
 two parts by the Civil War. Before it the Library prospered 
 through its Founder and those who knew and remembered 

 
 28 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 him. After it a considerable number of small collections 
 found their way by donation or bequest, chiefly (as has been 
 noted above) from a feeling of the insecurity of private owner- 
 ship ; and some large purchases were made. On the whole 
 the Library easily maintained its reputation as the largest 
 and most valuable in the kingdom. 
 
 In 1696-7 the inconae was £341, and the expenditvue £125, 
 the chief items being £51 only to the tloree officers (Librarian, 
 Under-Librarian, Janitor), £19 for estabhshment, £17 for the 
 Curators' dinner, £8 for binding and — six shiUings for books ! 
 The last detail was a consequence of the money required in 
 the next year for the piirchase of the Bernard printed books. 
 The average expenditure on books was about £30 a year. 
 
 The eighteenth century in the Universities, and indeed in 
 the country at large, is usually described as one 
 Elo-hteenth °^ general torpor, with a low standard of taste, 
 Centm-y. but brightened by inany examples of conspicuous 
 
 individual merit. This may be true, and the 
 annals of the Oxford Press seem to bear it out. But it is true 
 also that hterature has much to say for itself during this 
 period, and that one study at least was strongly developing 
 itself — the study of English antiqviities. The Bodleian itself 
 may be said to have languished, in a sense, until about 1750, 
 and then to have waked up, under the astonishing series of large 
 gifts of which it was the recipient. In fact the hvmdred years 
 from 1735 to 1835 may be called the Century of Great Donations. 
 
 ^Vhen Dr. John Hudson^ succeeded Hyde, and Hearne 
 entered the Library as (Janitor and) Assistant, both in 1701, 
 a good deal of activity was exhibited. In 1704 Dr. Charlett 
 testified that " Our PubUc Library, which for some years had 
 stood stiU, is now in a thriving condition by the active 
 dihgence and curiosity of Dr. Hudson, who spares no author, ' 
 no bookseller, but solicits all to augment that vast treasure." 
 But in 1716, after bickerings on other grounds, Hearne was 
 turned out of his place, as a Nonjuror, and Hudson became 
 careless before his death, in 1719. Joseph Bowles 2, who 
 succeeded Hudson, and died at the age of thirty-foiu" in 1729, 
 seems to have been unequal to the position he obtained, 
 though om- cliief testimony comes from Hearne who cordially 
 hated liiin. Robert Fysher,* the next Librarian, was not a 
 
 1 Jolin Hudson, matr. from Queen's, 1677 ; Fellow of Univ. 
 Coll., 1686-1711 ; D.D., 1701 ; Principal of St. Maiy Hall, 1712-19 ; 
 Librarian, 1701-19. 
 
 ^ Joseph Bowles, matr. from Hart Hall, 1713 ; then of St. Mary 
 Hall ; Fellow of Oriel ; d. 1729 ; Librarian, 1719-29. 
 
 3 Robert Fysher, matr. from Ch. Ch., 1715 ; M.A., 1724 ; Fellow 
 of Oriel, 1726-47 ; Librarian, 1729-47. ■
 
 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY, 1613-1860 29 
 
 man of mark, and appears to have^been disabled by ill-health 
 from fuUy performing his duties. 
 
 The growth of the printed books had up to this point been 
 The Printed much more normal than the acquisition of MSS. 
 Books. The only printed collections of any notable size 
 
 since Robert Burton's, in 1640, had been those of 
 Selden (see p. 000), Marshall (1685) and Barlow (1693). The 
 right to every published book no doubt gave an impression 
 that httle help was needed, especially when such was the lack 
 of bibliographical principle that, for instance, the original 
 first two editions of Shakespeare's Plays (the First and 
 Second Folios) were cleared out and sold as duplicates or 
 " doubles," when the Third Foho came out with seven addi- 
 tional plays. The First Folio thus turned out was bought 
 back for £3000 in 1905 (see page 46). The tide began to 
 turn towards the middle of the eighteenth century, partly 
 perhaps from the example of the munificent gift of Bishop 
 Moore's books to the University Library, at Cambridge, made 
 by George I in 1715, whereby besides 1790 MSS. nearly 
 twenty-nine thousand printed books were acquired by it. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Tanner, Bishop of St. Asaph, formerly Arch- 
 deacon of Norfolk, died in 1735 and left to the Bodleian his 
 collection, consisting of a large number of Civil War papers, 
 Norwich collections and ecclesiastical, literary, and historical 
 MSS., including the papers of Archbishop Sancroft. The 
 printed boolcs were also of value and extent. These all arrived 
 in 1736, and the Library seems to have responded to this 
 stimulus by issuing its fourth Catalogue in 1738, 
 Catalogue ^ careful edition in two folio volumes based on 
 actual inspection of the books and not on former 
 catalogues. Much of the work shows Heame's accurate hand. 
 
 In 1747 FyBher died and Humphrey Owen^ succeeded, 
 
 who in his twenty-one years of office saw the 
 
 Oarte, Walker, Library doubled in size in the department of MSS. 
 
 oSS' ^"^^^ ^^^^' ^^ ^'^^^' *^® ^^^- °^ Thomas Carte, 
 jyjgg which arrived by gift (and subsequently bequest) 
 
 from the collector. The seventeenth century Irish 
 papers in this collection are of enormous extent (largely 
 Ormonde papers from Kilkenny), and many volumes are 
 materials for Carte's History of England. Next came, in 1756, 
 the whole of the papers on which John Walker based his 
 Sufferings of the Clergy in 1640-60 (printed in 1714), comprising 
 hundreds of autograph accounts of the lives of dispossessed 
 ministers under the Commonwealth. 
 
 * Huinphiey Owen, matr. from Jesus, 1718 ; D.D., 1763 ; Prin- 
 cipal of Jesus, 1763-68 ; d. 1768 ; Librarian, 1747-68.
 
 30 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 In tliis year arrived 5206 volumes of MSS., with a large 
 printed collection, by the bequest of Dr. Richard RawliiiSon, 
 Bishop among the Nonjurors, who died in 1755. The extent 
 of the gift entirely overwhelmed the Library staff, and it 
 remained almost undescribed till 1862. Rawlinson picked up 
 everything from everywhere, like Sir Thomas Phillipps, but 
 while the ghost of the latter sees all that he lived for in process 
 of dispersal, the Rawlinson collection is absolutely intact 
 and worthily honoured. History and topogi'aphy are the 
 chief subjects, but Classics, English poetry. Service books, 
 Oxford authors since Wood's death, and the whole of Thomas 
 Hearne, the Oxford antiquary's papers, are among the rest. 
 The Thurloe State Papers in sixty-seven volumes, Samuel 
 Pepys's Admiralty and other papers in twenty-eight volumes 
 are here, and some most valuable ancient Irish MSS. worthy 
 of a place by the side of Laud's, with niunerous volumes of 
 literary correspondence, wliich in conjunction with the 
 Ballard collection received in the same year (1756) contain 
 perhaps one-half of the literary letters of 1660-1750. 
 
 In 1759 came the series of Clarendon State Papers, presented 
 by the grand-daughters of the author of the History of the 
 Rebellion, in fulfilment of their brother's wish. They may be 
 described as the bulk of the original Royahst sources for the 
 history of the Civil War. Many additional parts of the 
 Clarendon collections have been gathered to the rest in later 
 years and from various sources. The original gift, by its 
 condition that the profits of any Clarendon publication should 
 belong to the University, has resulted, not only in the 
 University Press being called by Clarendon's name, but also 
 in the building of the Clarendon Laboratory in 1869, and in 
 the creation of that rare privilege, a perpetual copyright in 
 the History of the Rebellion. It may be said that the history 
 of the period 1640-1700 in Great Britain and Ireland cannot 
 be written without reference to the Clarendon, Carte, Walker 
 and Rawlinson collections. 
 
 The minor acquisitions of the rest of the eighteenth century 
 (the Dawkins and Himt Oriental MSS. in 1759 and 1774, the 
 Bro\Tne Willis (Buckinghamshire, and EngUsh Cathedral) MSS. 
 in 1760, and the Bridge's Northamptonshire ^Dapers in 1795) 
 were all by gift and bequest, and of the nineteen large collec- 
 tions received between 1700 and 1800 not one was purchased, 
 Wlien Dr. Owen died in 1768, Dr. John Price ^ succeeded. He 
 had been Janitor from some time before 1757, and Sub- 
 Librarian from 1761. His long reign ended in 1813, and his 
 
 1 John Price, matr. from Jesus, 1754 ; M.A., 1760 ; d. 1813 ; 
 Librarian, 1768-1813. Jesus College men ruled the Library from 
 1747 to 1813.
 
 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY, 1613-1860 31 
 
 successor, Dr. Bulkeley Bandinel, held the office still longer, 
 dying in 1860 (see p. 34). 
 
 A great effort was made from 1766 to 1787 to accomplish a 
 
 catalogue of the Oriental MSS. which were a 
 of Oriental notable featvire of the Library, thanks to the 
 mss Laud, Marshall, Pococke, Huntington, Marsh 
 
 and Hunt collections. The Catalogue of 1787, 
 containing the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, 
 Persian, Turkish and Coptic MSS., was the work of Johann Uri, 
 a Hungarian, who resided at Oxford for this purpose, and died 
 there in 1796. The Arabic catalogue was continued by a 
 second part undertaken by Alexander Nicoll and E. B. Pusey, 
 and issued in 1835. Other parts have been continued by 
 volumes in the Quarto series. 
 
 In 1789 the first modern extension of the Library began. 
 
 How it managed to contain the accessions of the 
 EsDansion eighteenth century within the compass of the 
 
 Old Reading Room, Arts End and Selden End, 
 which it possessed in 1640, it is difficult to imagine; but no 
 doubt much uncatalogued matter was stacked in the Picture 
 Gallery and adjacent rooms. At last the pressure became so 
 great that the books simply burst into the Anatomy School, 
 thenceforward known as the Auctarium, on the first floor of 
 the Schools Quadrangle. The gradual annexation of the 
 whole of the Quadrangle, 1789-1882, is too much a matter of 
 detail to be narrated here.'- The whole of the first floor was 
 annexed by 1835, and the loan of the Rad cliff e Camera, in 
 1860, greatly eased the situation. The first ground floor-room 
 acquii-ed was the Logic School in 1845. The progress of 
 bibliography can be traced in the large purchases made in 1789 
 at the Pinelli sale and in 1780 at the Crevenna sale, in Florence 
 and Amsterdam respectively. The books bought were 
 chiefly Editiones Principes and other early printed books, 
 and £1550 was borrowed from the Colleges for the piu^pose, 
 all faithfully repaid by 1795. The Mazarine Bible, a copy of 
 which fetched £5800 in 1911, was bought for £100 in 1793. 
 
 The Wight Musical MSS., bequeathed in 1801, were the 
 The Nineteenth foundation of the musical collection, and were 
 OentTiry, and rich in English music between the Restoration 
 Dr. Bandinel. and 1800. Not till 1885 was the old University 
 collection, founded by Dr. William Heather in 1626, and kept 
 in the Music School, transferred to the Bodleian. Four con- 
 siderable classical collections of MSS. were purchased at this 
 period, the D'Orville (1804), E. D. Clarke (1809), Canonici 
 
 ' It is told in the Bodleian Quarterly Record, vol. ii, No. 15 (1917), 
 with plans.
 
 32 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 (1817) and Meerman (1824). The Canonici MSS. were aix»a.ssed 
 by a Venetian Jesuit and abound in liturgical and Italian MSS. 
 as well as in classics. They number 2047, and were purchased 
 for £5444. Tliese were accompanied by two very laj-ge mixed 
 collections of MSS. and printed books, both bequeatlied — the 
 Gough British Topograpliical collection in 1809, 
 SdS)uoe ^"^ ^^^ Douce collection, in 1834. About 3700 
 volumes came in the former, including a vast 
 series of topographical prints and maps. Among the latter 
 are some large fragments of tapestry maps of England from 
 the first English loom, established by Sheldon in EUzabeth's 
 reign. Richard Gough (d. 1809) had been for many years 
 Director of the Society of Antiquaries, and possessed almost 
 every book on British Topography. Francis Douce's interests 
 lay in illuminated and other MSS. and in English literature, 
 and he bequeathed about five hundred of the former class 
 and seventeen thousand printed books, with charters and 
 coins. These two great gifts greatly enhanced the value of 
 the Bodleian in their different kinds. 
 
 An incident on Saturday, April 19, 1806, occasioned a 
 singularly apt quotation, and shows that modern smartness 
 had not at that time penetrated the Bodleian. A would-be 
 reader came that morning soon after 8 a.m., the hour of open- 
 ing (8-2 and 3-5 were the hours enjoined since 1769), and 
 found no one there, and the door stiU locked. Before departing 
 he affixed a paper (stiU preserved) bearing the Greek of the 
 following passage (Luke xi. 52), " Woe unto you, for ye have 
 taken away the key of knowledge : ye entered not in yourselves 
 and them that were entering in ye hindered." 
 
 The Shakespearean FoUos and Quartos in the Library were, 
 comparatively few until the year 1821. The 
 and Ma^ne^ nuinber of entries imder the naine were in the 
 1605 catalogue, 0; in 1620, 0; in 1635, 1; in 
 1674, 3 ; in 1738, 6. Fortunately the great and famovis 
 dramatic collections of Edmund Malone brought in the above 
 year a complete set of the Folios and some fifty early Quartos 
 or Poems, including the only copy of the first edition of 
 Shakespeare's first pubhcation, the Venus and Adonic of 1593. 
 Thanks to these and other accessions the Bodleian now 
 possesses 70 out of the 101 Quartos issued before 1700, and 
 more than five thousand volumes of Shakespearean literatm-e. 
 
 Not till about 1818 was it recognized that a temperature of 
 25°-30° Falirenheit was inimical to the comfort of readers, 
 and not till 1821 were two pipes for introducing hot air 
 inserted, and it is recorded that even this was " wholly in- 
 effectual." In 1845 st-eajji warming was attempted, but that
 
 THE BODLEIAN LIBRABY, 1613-1860 33 
 
 too " did not give satisfaction." In 1861 the hot-water system 
 was introduced, which with various improvements is still in use. 
 In Tiew of the trend of Oxford studies in the past, it is not 
 surprising that Classical MSS. and printed books, wliether 
 texts oi commentaries, are a feature of the University hbrary, 
 and it probably contains in addition more academical disserta- 
 tions thar. are to be found elsewhere. Each dissertation, it 
 should be remembered, has its particxilar justification for the 
 degree gained by it, however minute the point discussed may 
 be.^ The foundation of this department was laid in 1827 
 when about 43,400 foreign dissertations were purchased at 
 Altona, and large additions were made in 1828, 1836-7 and 
 1846, as well as by systematic exchange in more recent years. 
 
 In 1828 the Hebrew MSS., wliich had liitherto 
 MSS^ ^ been inferior in value and mmiber to the Arabic, 
 
 received a great augmentation by the purchase 
 en bloc of the Oppenheimer Collection of both manuscript and 
 printed Hebrew literature. It is noticeable how large donations 
 tend to produce further accessions in the same hne. The Uri 
 Catalogue of Oriental MSS. with its Second Part, noticed 
 above, and the p\irchase of the Oppenheimer hbrary seem to 
 have called attention to this department, and from 1837 on 
 a stream of minor donations and pin-chases set in. These 
 were the Hodgson SanskritMSS. (1837), Wilson Sanski-it (1842, 
 bought), Bruce Arabic and Etliiopic (1843, bought), Ouseley 
 Persian (1844 bought). Walker (1847), Michael Hebrew (184, 
 bought), Mill Sanskrit (1849, bought), EUiott Persian (1859). 
 The period closes with the last of the printed Catalogues of 
 
 the Printed Books. This was a great undertaking, 
 and S^t ^"^ ^^^^ ^^^ reward in being the largest presentation 
 
 Catalogue. °^ printed liter atui'e which had ever been issued. 
 
 It is contained in four foUo volumes, issued 
 between 1843 and 1851, the last recording the accessions of 
 1835-47. At the same time the Quarto Series of detailed 
 Catalogues of Manuscripts was started (in 1845), which has now 
 extended to some twenty volumes. The gaps left in this 
 monumental series are filled up by the shorter but not in- 
 adequate descriptions of the Summary Catalogue in octavo form, 
 which was instituted in 1890, and fulfils a useful purpose. 
 
 1 The writer cannot forget an occasion when Professor Henrj- 
 Nettlesliip was about to write a paper for the Oxford Philological 
 Society on the Alapa Manumissionis. When looking up sonic 
 references in the General Catalogue he suddenly lighted on a title 
 "De Afapa Manumissionis.'' On ordering it, he found a dissertation 
 of a youthful German student of the eighteenth century, who pro- 
 vided many references known to the Professor, and added more.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE BODLEIAN IN MODERN TIMES 
 
 Dr. Btjlkeley Bandinel^ was the last of the old type of 
 librarian, the gentlemanly old-fasliioned scholar, 
 and Coxe ^° whom the Library was a pleasant preserve to 
 
 which like-minded students were moderately 
 welcome, if they knew what they wanted and did not give 
 too much trouble to the officers. He assiduously bought the 
 best books, used his personal influence to induce the University 
 to make purchases of entire libraries, and cultivated the 
 probable, and even the possible, benefactor with success. 
 But administration in the modern sense, and the organization 
 of a staff to provide for the wants of the general reader who 
 needed to be allured to literature, were secondary aims. 
 
 The Reverend Henry Octavius Coxe,^ who became Bodley's 
 Librarian in 1860, had had experience in the British Museum 
 and had been sent by the Government in 1857 to report on, 
 and if possible acquire, valuable MSS, (chiefly Greek) in the 
 monasteries of the Levant. He was a trained hbrarian, with 
 just the right addition, that is to say special excellence in 
 some one Une, in this case paleography. His work was to 
 develop the Library in modern ways, not by a cataclysm but 
 with delicate appreciation of what the past had done in its 
 own way. 
 
 Several events make the date 1860 a notable one, besides 
 Mr. Coxe's election. In that year the Radcliffe 
 in 18^^^^ Trustees made the splendid offer of the loan of the 
 
 RadcUffe Camera, the gi'eat domed building in 
 the centre of Radcliffe Square, as a modern Reading Room 
 and general augmentation of the Bodleian. It solved many 
 difficulties in a most excellent way. It provided new storage 
 room, it made it possible to have a properly fitted second 
 Reading Room instead^jSf inopportune alteration of " Duke 
 Humphrey," and it solved the problem of lengthening the 
 
 1 Bulkeley Bandinel, matr. from New College, 1800 ; D.D., 
 1823 ; d. 1861 ; Librarian, 1813-60. 
 
 2 Henrv Octavius Coxe, matr. from Worcester, 1829 ; M.A., 
 1836; d/l881. Sub-Librarian, 1838-60; Librarian, 1860-81. 
 
 34
 
 THE BODLEIAN IN MODERN TIMES 35 
 
 hours during which students could use the library. Artificial 
 lights were then impossible in the Old Reading Room. In 
 1860 also came the valuable collections which formed the 
 Uterary part of the Ashmolean Museum, including the exten- 
 sive collections of Anthony Wood, the Oxford antiquary, the 
 historical and heraldic MSS. of Ashmole himself, with the 
 Lister, Dugdale and Aubrey papers, all relating to English 
 history and biography. And in 1860 also was definitely begun 
 a new general Catalogue of Printed Books on a modern 
 system, the Catalogue in fact wliieh is still in use. This took 
 nineteen years to form, at a cost of £14,500, occupying (when 
 completed in 1878) about 720 large foUo volumes, now ex- 
 panded to 1200. These great changes engaged the cliief 
 attention of the staff, and the next considerable event is the 
 transfer of aU the older records of the Ai-chdeaconry of Oxford 
 in 1878. This acquisition has resulted eventually in the 
 Bodleian becoming the gi'eat repository of material for the 
 local liistory of the three " home counties " of Oxfordshire, 
 Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, which form the Oxford 
 diocese. In this year also was issued a Calendar of the Charters, 
 Deeds and Rolls in the Library, chiefly the work of a self- 
 educated student named Wilham Henry Turner, formerly a 
 chemist in the city. On July 8, 1881, Coxe died, having had 
 twenty-one years to carry out his works of reform, and to 
 introduce new principles of Hbrarianship. In 1878 he was 
 President of the first annual meeting of the new Library 
 Association, held at Oxford, the transactions of which were 
 published in the ensuing year and contain an interesting 
 account of the Library. 
 
 To Mr. Coxe succeeded in 1882 a librarian of a very different 
 
 type, brought up in the newest school and one 
 ExDaMl °^ founders of the Library Association. Into 
 
 every depaiiment of the Bodleian Mr. E. W. B. 
 Nicholson^ threw great energy and a super-active inind. Of 
 the large ground-floor rooms of the Quadrangle no fewer than 
 four were handed over in 1882 and afforded a gi-eat oppor- 
 tunity for a comprehensive scheme of rearrangement. The 
 staff, which in 1882 were twenty-four, were gradually raised to 
 more than seventy, partly by the introduction of boys (or 
 "junior assistants") for the fetching, dist ibution and re- 
 placement of books and for the simpler processes in dealing 
 with new accessions. A fresh code of Cataloguing Rules was 
 drawn up, and improved from time to time. A large Select 
 
 ' Edward Williams Byron Nicholson, matr. from Trinity; M.A. ; 
 cl. 1912 ; Librarian, 1882-1912.
 
 36 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 library (in addition to a Reference library) was instituted 
 at the Camera. The number of closed week-days — which ased 
 to be twenty-six in the year — was much reduced. Accession 
 lists were introduced. The Library was divided into ten 
 sections, for each of wlaich a Senior Assistant was made 
 responsible. Photograpliy, for the rej)roduction of MSS., was 
 introduced in 1890. The Sheldonian Basement (1884), the 
 Ashmolean Basement (1897) and the New Examination Schools 
 Basement (1897) were obtained for the use of the Library. 
 The nimaber of readers increased, in response to all these 
 arrangements for their convenience, and a large Upper Reading 
 Room was obtained by annexing, in accordance with Sir 
 Thomas Bodley's original plan (see p. 21), part of the Picture 
 Gallery (1907). The expenses of preparing and fitting up the 
 room, and ol shelving a large collection of periodicals in it 
 for reference, were borne by the present Earl Brassey, who 
 also provided funds for a Catalogue Revision Staff. But the 
 greatest work undertaken in Mr. Nicholson's term of office was 
 the Underground Bookstore, a subterraneous cavern between 
 the Bodleian Quadrangle and the Camera, beneath the grass, 
 capable of holding a milhon books (see p. 39) : the funds 
 (£12000) were provided by the Oxford University Endowment 
 Trustees. A notable feature of his time was the wiUingness of 
 some Colleges and Institutions to deposit their MSS. on 
 revocable loan in the Bodleian, to the great convenience of 
 scholars. In tliis way the MSS. of University CoUege, the 
 Savile and Music School Libraries, the MSS. of Jesus College 
 and those of the Clarendon Press came in 1882-86, followed 
 by the Brasenose, Hertford, Lincoln and New College Collec- 
 tions. Among the greater accessions were the Shelley Collec- 
 tion (1893), and the 6330 Sanskrit MSS. presented by Sir 
 Chandra Shum Shere, of Nepal (1909). 
 
 When Mr. Nicholson died, on March 17, 1912, the present 
 writer^ succeeded to his position. In 1913 a new Bodleian 
 Statute (in Enghsh), based on the old Latin code but putting 
 the Curators more clearly in their position of Governors of 
 the Library, and otherwise designed to meet modern require- 
 ments, came into force. Two large and valuable donations 
 were received in that year and in 1914, namely, 17,000 
 voltmaes of Chinese literature frona Sir Edmund Backlioase, of 
 Pekin, and Professor Ingram By water's very choice hbrary of 
 about four thousand volmnes on Ai'istotle and liis commenta- 
 
 1 Falconer Madan, matr. from Brasenose, 1870 ; M.A., 1877 ; 
 Fellow, 1876-80 and 1889-1902 ; Hon. Fellow from 1912. Sub- 
 Librarian, 1880-1912 ; Librarian. 1912-19.
 
 THE BODLEIAN IN MODERN TIMES 37 
 
 tors, and of Humanist scholars up to about 1650. Then the 
 War came, and checked many of the activities 
 of the Bodleian. Forty-one members of the Staff 
 were called away on military sei-vice of one kind or another, 
 including all of the Regular Staff who were of mihtary age,^ 
 for the Library made no claim for exemption. The more 
 valuable MSS. and printed books had to be put away in 
 safes protected by sand-bags, and were thereby withdrawn 
 from use. On three occasions an alarm of air-raids brought 
 many of the staff to the quadrangle between midnight and 
 3 a.m. The readers diminished by about one-third. On 
 the other hand, no department was closed down, nor any 
 change made in the pubUc service, the gaps were filled 
 by the capable assistance of ladies of the Catalogue Revision 
 Staff and men in some way disabled from military work, and 
 in 1916 it was found possible to hold a Shakespeare Tercen- 
 tenary Exhibition with success. The British Museum was 
 unable to undertake this at the time, and the Bodleian with 
 every right stepped into the gap. A full account of this and 
 of the whole history of the Library during the war will be 
 found in the Bodleian Quarterly Record, which was started in 
 April, 1914. 
 
 In Jmie, 1919, Dr. Cowley^ succeeded to the chair of office, 
 and may be expected to carry on the Library through a success- 
 ful ei'a of change and progress which the arrival of peace has 
 made possible. 
 
 The Bodleian at the Peesent Time 
 
 • The position of the Bodleian Library among the great 
 libraries of the world has been stated on p. 13. A general 
 desci'iption may now be given of its buildings, organization 
 and facilities accorded to students, at the present time. 
 
 A. BuiIiDlNGS AND READING RoOMS 
 
 The Buildings may be conveniently divided into three 
 parts : 1. The older part (" Bodley ") ; 2. The modern part 
 
 ' Two members fell in action, R. A. Abrams, M.A., a Senior 
 Assistant, and H. G. Duma, a member of the Extra Staff, both 
 lieutenants. 
 
 2 Artlnu- Ernest Cowley, matr. from Trinity, 1879 ; D.Litt., 
 1908 ; Fellow of Magdalen from 1902. Assistant Sub-Librarian, 
 J 896-9; Sub-Librarian^|1900-19 ; Librarian from 1919.
 
 38 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 (the " Camera " and Underground Booltstore) ; 3. Certain 
 ovitlying store rooms in Universitj'^ buildings. 
 
 The older part consists, as will be clear from a glance at 
 
 the frontispiece, of an H-shaped building, and three 
 Reading: sides of a Quadrangle fitted on to it. Readers who 
 
 Room. have followed the history outhned in preceding 
 
 chapters will understand that the very cradle of 
 the whole Library Ues in the part marked on the plan " Old 
 Reading Room." That is Sir Thomas Bodley's own first 
 room, which had been superposed on the Divinity School in 
 the latter part of the fifteenth century, finished in 1480, and 
 taken over in a derelict condition by the Founder. No one 
 can enter the room without a feehng of veneration for its 
 antiquity and associations. The first extension (also in the 
 Founder's life-time) was the Arts End on the East, matched 
 before the Civil War by the corresponding Selden End on 
 the West. Since all three rooms were on the fu'st-floor level, 
 there is a space below, and a vaulted walk or ambulatory 
 bears up the Arts End, while the Convocation House, built by 
 the University, is under the Selden End. The contents of 
 this triple room on the fh-st floor are chiefly the printed books 
 acquired before 1750, still divided according to the four 
 Faculties — TheologJ^ Medicine, Law and Arts. So firmly 
 fixed are some of these that the present writer, haxdng lost all 
 trace in the General Catalogue of a book to be found under 
 the word Parantinis in the 1605 Catalogue, in despair ordered 
 it by its shelf mark in 1605 (8° L. 20 Th.), to see what would 
 turn up, and it came. The fittings, ceiling and desks are 
 hardly altered from what Sir Thomas Bodley ordained and 
 saw. America as well as England may claim this heritage, 
 for it presents the same appearance now as it presented years 
 before the Pilgrim Fathers sailed in 1620. 
 
 The three sides of the School Quadrangle which adjoin the 
 
 Arts End now contain the most valuable part of 
 Quad/angle^ the Library. In the Gallery are the Upper 
 
 Reading Room (with the General Catalogue and 
 the selected periodicals) and the Picture Gallery (with a 
 quarter of a mile of bibhography). On the first-floor on the 
 South side are the chief manuscript collections ; on the East 
 side the Bywater, Douce and (north of the Tower) the Oriental 
 MSS, and printed books ; on the North side the Malone, 
 Tanner, and Gough books, with all the Bibles. On the gi'ound- 
 floor are placed the Mope Collection of engraved portraits 
 (about 300,000) — which is under separate trustees and is not 
 reaUy Bodleian property — the Music School (containing the 
 printed and manuscript music and, at present, the Back-
 
 THE BODLEIAN IN MODERN TIMES 39 
 
 house Chinese collection), the Meerman room (with a number 
 of smaller sets of books), the Law Room, the Foreign Periodical 
 Room and the Map Room. 
 
 The Camera Reading Room holds comparatively few books, 
 not being a store-room, but the volumes kept in it 
 Camera ^^^ ^^® most-used modern works to the number 
 
 of about 27,000. But the Camera Basement, and 
 the Underground Bookstore which adjoins it, hold the great 
 bulk of the books of the last forty years. These are arranged 
 by an elaborate system of subject division, the more im- 
 portant sections being in the Basement, while the less-used 
 subjects (Minor Theology, Minor Prose and Verse, Scientific 
 handbooks now superseded for ordinary use, and the Hke) 
 are kept in the L^nderground Bookstore, with gigantic series 
 such as the earlier editions of the Ordnance Survey, the 
 Times from 1806, the London Gazette and some others. But 
 certain entire sections, though modern books, are still retained 
 in the older part of the Bodleian ("Bodley") as being 
 specially related to the studies pursued there : such are 
 Bibliography, Palaeography, British topography, Family 
 history and Numismatics. 
 
 Lastly, some outlying buildings have been lent as store- 
 rooms. Half of the Sheldonian Theatre Basement 
 
 2!^^*!r^„v„= keeps the Parhamentary Blue Books, and such 
 store Rooms. ^ ii.u-Dji-i.i- 
 
 newspapers and journals as the Bodleian takes in. 
 
 The Basement of the Old Ashmolean holds the " Year-books " 
 (so called from the accessions between 1824 and 1850 being 
 aiTanged, not by subject but in order of acquisition) and in 
 general the octavo books received between 1824 and 1883. 
 Finally, beneath the New Examination Schools are preserved 
 directories, some old magazines and aU novels. 
 
 In 1915 the numbers of volumes in these three main divi- 
 sions were found to be : — 
 
 In " Bodley " 422,000 
 
 (Old Reading Room 61,000) 
 In the " Camera " and L^ndorground Store. 321,000 
 In outlying buildings .... 279,000 
 
 Total .... 1,022,000 
 
 B. Organization 
 
 The whole Library is subject ultimately to the authority 
 
 of the Board of Curators, fifteen in number. Of 
 
 ura ois. these, eight are official (the Vice-Chancel lor and 
 
 two Proctors, and the five Regius Professors of Divinity, Civil 
 
 Law, Medicine, Hebrew and Greek) ; and seven are chosen
 
 40 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 for ten years by Congregation from its resident members. The 
 Curators meet at least twice a term, and hold an Annual 
 Visitation of the Library on November 8, the anniversary of 
 the opening of the Bodleian in 1602. The income and ex- 
 penditure and even the regulations of the Library are under 
 their control. 
 
 The three officers are the responsible officials, and any one 
 Officers °^ them can take complete charge of the Library. 
 
 They are the Librarian and the two Sub-Librarians ; 
 by custom one of the latter is an Oriental scholar. At the age 
 of sixty-five they retire, unless specially retained for a few 
 additional years. They may not hold a cure of souls, nor 
 undertake outside work incompatible with the due discharge 
 of their office. But the two Sub-Librarians are subordinate 
 to the Librarian in all matters concerning their duties and 
 work. 
 
 The Senior Assistants are at present thirteen in number. 
 Assistants "^^^ ^^ them are in charge of the ten Sections of 
 the Library, and are responsible for its proper 
 condition. One is the Librarian's Secretary, one the Financial 
 Assistant, two are Superintendents of the Upper Reading 
 Room, and of the Camera, and one is in charge of the Stores. 
 Their maximum (pre-war) salary is £250. There is also a 
 class of Minor Assistants, who have less responsibility and less 
 difficult work. 
 
 The Janitor at " Bodley " is on Sir Thomas Bodley's original 
 foundation, and has charge of the Picture Gallery, and the 
 admission of visitors. There is now also a Janitor at the 
 Camera. 
 
 The Jmiior Assistants (aged 14 to 19) undertake the supply 
 and replacement of books, and such work as the preparation 
 of lists, and especially hand lists, showing what books are 
 added to the shelves, with other duties varying according to 
 their powers. The Curators give annual prizes at Christmas 
 to this class, for conduct, industry and intelUgence. 
 
 The Extra Staff is apparently a class peculiar to the Bodleian, 
 ox ^ instituted by Nicholson. They are to a large extent 
 former Junior Assistants, retained for a time 
 on the Staff vmder conditions wlaich allow them to carry on 
 their own studifes (as, for instance, for a University Degree). 
 It is found that their experience of the Library in the past 
 makes their services of special value, while on the other hand 
 they are allowed to choose a normal scheme of hours and take 
 what holidays they please, being paid by the hour (from 
 6d. to 2s.). They deal with arrears, or miscellaneous work, 
 according to their special powers or the library requirements.
 
 THE BODLEIAN IN MODERN TIMES 41 
 
 Some of the Extra Staff are usually specialists temporarily 
 engaged, such as the members of the Catalogue Revision Staff. 
 The entire normal staff consists of about seventy persons. 
 
 One of the customs of the Library now associated with the 
 Annual Visitation is the Oratio Bodleiana, in Latin, delivered 
 in the Congregation House on November 8 by a Master of 
 Arts of Christ Chiu'ch, on the set subject of Praise of Sir 
 Thomas Bodley and of Hebrew Studies. It was founded in 
 1682 under the will of Dr. John Morris, Regius Professor of 
 Hebrew, who died in 1648. The Orator is selected by the 
 Dean of Clu'ist Church, and deUvers the Oration before the 
 Curators of the Library. For the last fifty years the speeches 
 have been preserved, and are of some value as contemporary 
 annals. 
 
 C. Facilities for Readers 
 
 Anyone desirous of becoming a reader is required to bring 
 
 .^ . . a personal recommendation signed by some one 
 
 Admission. . ^ ., , ... \ • .l i / 
 
 m a responsible position. A printed form is sup- 
 
 phed for the purpose. On admission he signs a statutory pro- 
 mise of good conduct in matters relating to the Library, and 
 can choose a seat in any of the three reading-rooms. Pre- 
 ferably he will use the older books and manuscripts in the 
 Old Reading Room, and modern books in the other two. 
 
 The two parts of the Bodleian are only closed 
 Hours^etc togetJier on six weekdays in the year (Good 
 
 Friday, Easter Eve, Christmas Eve, Christmas 
 Day and the two following week days), and are otherwise 
 open, with a few exceptions for cleaning pvu'poses, from 9 a.m. 
 to 3, 4 or 5 p.m., according to the season. The Camera is 
 similarly open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Readers who use 
 printed books have only to order them from the General 
 Catalogue, or, if reference books, take them down from the 
 shelves. For manuscripts there are three indexes which 
 cover the whole ground : that of the Old Catalogue of 1697 
 (soon to be superseded by the other two) ; that of the Quarto 
 Catalogues, combined ; and that of the Summary Catalogue. 
 The Oriental MSS. have in general their own indexes. Ordinary 
 books can be reserved at the seat : manuscripts and valuable 
 printed books are given up each day, and kept for re-issue. 
 Free access to the shelves is not possible in so large a library, 
 but arrangements are made to suit reasonable requirements : 
 the Reference books are numerous, and the Subject Catalogue 
 and hsts of Accessions are provided. A Manual for Readers, 
 giving further detail, can be obtained on application, without 
 payment, as well as the Rules for Cataloguiiig and lists 
 of the numerous collections, both manuscript and printed.
 
 42 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 The Catalogues of Manuscripts are numerous, but consist 
 Oataloffues chiefly (for western languages) of three parts : 
 1. The Old Catalogue of 1697, described on p. 27, 
 which has its own index ; 2. The Quarto Series of detailed 
 Catalogues,^ each with its index, but also indexed in one long 
 alphabet of combined slips available for general use ; 3. The 
 Smumary Catalogue filling up gaps in the other two classes, 
 with a sunilar slip index. The whole ground is covered in more 
 or less detail by these three. 
 
 All the Printed Books are in the General Catalogue of 
 printed books, one copy of which is in Bodley, and one at 
 the Camera. This is an Author Catalogue of the usual kind, 
 anonymous books being entered under their title, and official 
 books under the institution which issues them. A third copy 
 of the Catalogue is arranged by subjects, but is at present 
 kept in loose bundles of slips. The Cataloguing Rules are 
 separately printed, as noted above. 
 
 D. Finance 
 
 The normal income is about £11,000 (Dividends, rents, etc. 
 £2800 : University allowances £5100 ; internal income £250 ; 
 From Colleges £2000 ; Oxford University Endowment Fund, 
 and various donors £850). The expenditure may be placed at 
 £10,800 (Staff £6700 ; EstabUshment £1250 ; Pm-chases 
 £2000 ; Binding £700 ; Miscellaneous £150). The large 
 expenditure on the Staff compared with the pui'chases is due 
 to the great number of books received under the Copyright 
 Act. In 1841 a bequest of £36,000 was received under the 
 Will of the Rev. Robert Mason, of Queen's College. The 
 resources of the Library are however obvioiisly inadequate, 
 although the University bears the cost of the upkeep of the 
 fabric and permanent fittings. Details for 1882-1918 will be 
 foimd summarized in the Bodleian Quarterly Becord, No. 21, 
 or in detail in the pubhshed Annual Reports. During the 
 years 1908-1916, the Library has received more than £25,000 
 from the O. U. Endowment Fund, expended chiefly on the 
 the New Reading Room and Underground Book-store. 
 
 Manuscripts and printed books are not lent out except 
 under a Special Decree of Convocation in each case, and was 
 finally decided on May 31, 1887, in accordance with the 
 principles of the Fovmder and the traditions both of the 
 Bodleian and the British Museum (see pp. 10, 11, 20, 25). 
 
 1 JFull details of all the Catalogues are in^the Manual jor Readers, 
 mentioned above.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE MANUSCRIPT AND OTHER TREASURES 
 
 The antiquity, the historical associations, and the treasures 
 of the Library combine to give it a peculiar 
 the BodleiMi' fascination. Founded in the " spacious times of 
 great EUzabeth," and even then carrying on the 
 traditions of the University hbrary first mentioned in 1320 ; 
 exhibiting a normal evolution in fabric and contents, without 
 great catastrophes or change of place ; and as the receptacle 
 of so many and such great collections that it might be called 
 the National Library for the first century and a half of its 
 development, its very walls are vocal with multitudinous 
 memories, much more its shelves and volumes and acces- 
 sories. Who can walk down the Old Reading Room, with 
 its quiet alcoves, each with its own window looking out 
 on the Sheldonian Theatre or, if so be, the quiet lawn of 
 Exeter College Garden ; or note the old-fashioned fittings, 
 adapted for the mediaeval system of chaining books, and still 
 comfortable, though not too luxurious ; or enjoy the spacious- 
 ness of the Selden End, with its outlook on St. Mary's and its 
 restfiil gloom, without feehng that he has found an earthly 
 paradise, a true home of study, a Temple of the Religio 
 Orammatici ? And when the volumes are found to match 
 the surroundings, and to be such as rank high in the esteem 
 of the whole world, whether as historical monuments, or for 
 beauty of illustration, or as affording ample ground for study 
 and research, great is the content of mind which they engender. 
 The present chapter is designed partly to illustrate these 
 points, and also to be a guide to some of the most prominent 
 treasures of this great repository. It will, in the first place, 
 describe a few of the curiosities of association which cluster 
 round certain volimies, and then settle down to what is by 
 comparison a mere list of valuable books, whether written or 
 printed. Neither part should be taken as in any way ex- 
 haustive. 
 
 Examples of Association. 
 
 The Excavations at Oxyrhynchus (120 miles south of 
 
 Cairo) produced in 1897 large quantities of Greek 
 
 ^1^^^^°^ papyri, but perhaps the most interesting of all 
 
 was a dirty, tattered and torn piece about 6x4 
 
 inches, such as one would throw into the waste paper basket. 
 
 43
 
 44 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 Yet it contains the AOriA IHZOT, Sayings of Our Lord, as 
 transmitted by oral tradition till they were written down, 
 possibly within the first century. The fragment is quite 
 independent of our Four Gospels, and here alone are found 
 such sayings as " Wherever there is one alone, I say, I am with 
 him," " Raise the stone, and thou shalt find Me ; cleave the 
 wood, and there am I." Perhaps there never was a greater 
 contrast between external appearance and intrinsic worth, 
 for the genuineness of the sayings is contested by few. A 
 second leaf from another MS. of the same kind was subsequently 
 discovered and is now in the British Museum. 
 
 At Oxyrhynchus was foiind also a school-boy's letter to 
 
 his father, an example of the immutability of 
 L ^°g °°^''°^'^ basal human nature. It is in Greek, on papjTus, 
 
 written in the second or third century of our era. 
 This is part of it : " Theon to his father Theon gi-eeting. 
 It was a fine thing of you not to take me with you to town. 
 . . . Mother said to Archelaiis ' He upsets me : take liim 
 away.' So send for me, I implore you. If you won't send, I 
 won't eat, I won't drink : there now." The appeal to what 
 his mother said about him to a house-friend, was a master 
 stroke, the boy thought, but the effect may have been dimin- 
 ished in his father's eyes by the undoubted fact that the 
 grammar and spelling of the letter leave a good deal to be 
 desired. That completes the picture. But we may be pretty 
 sure that no tragedy followed the missive. Ha\ang done his 
 best to bring his father into the right path the youthful 
 Theon undoubtedly sat down to a good dinner and calmly 
 awaited the course of events. A chilling interval no doubt 
 followed, and a prosaic reply that Theon had better keep his 
 temper and not upset his mother. Little did Theon think 
 that his boyish letter would, after seventeen hundred years, 
 become an interesting treasure in a great library. 
 
 The earliest personal name in the long range of English 
 _ , Literature is Csedmon, the herdman of Whitby, 
 
 m the seventh century. Ihe only ancient MS. 
 of Cfedmon's metrical paraphrase of parts of the Old Testa- 
 ment is the Junius MS. in the Bodleian, written in England 
 about the year 1000, and illustrated by a native pre-Conquest 
 artist. The question of how much of the MS. is Casdmon's 
 own composition cannot be here dealt with, but part corre- 
 sponds closely with a prose version written in the eighth 
 century and contained in a Cambridge MS. of Bede, and the 
 Genesis part of the present MS. is known to be of North- 
 umbrian !|origin. Much of the interest lies in the pen-and-ink 
 drawings which illustrate the Genesis. For instance, the ark
 
 rpHE MANUSCRIPT AND OTHER TREASURES 45 
 
 is represented by a set of boxes erected on the deck of the 
 largest vessel which the artist had ever seen, namely a 
 Scandina\'ian war-galley with its turned up fore- and stern- 
 posts and its side steering. Out of the boxes peer the animals 
 and birds, while the steersman has an aspect of lofty detach- 
 ment which should do credit to an artist of the present day. 
 There is no pseudo -archaism in the illustrations, but an in- 
 valuable record of buildings, costumes and Ufe in England, 
 half a century before the Conquest. 
 
 The chief ancient Biblical MS. possessed by the Library is 
 
 a Grseco-Latin uncial Acts, probably wi-itten in 
 o/the^ ^^^ sixth century, given by Archbishop Laud 
 
 Apostles. ^^'^ known as Codex E of the Acts. The Latin 
 
 closely follows the Greek text, and is not the 
 Vulgate version. In the seventh century the MS. was in 
 Sardinia, and much interest attaches to it from the fact that 
 the Venerable Bede {d. 735) used it, and probably owned it ; 
 for about seventy readings which are stated to occui* in his 
 Betractatio in Actus are all found, and often solely, in this 
 codex. It also has afiflnities with the great Cambridge MS., the 
 Codex Bezse, a manuscript which has in the last few years estab- 
 lished some claim to represent the oldest tradition of the text, 
 A small vokuiie in bro^vn calf binding was sold at Sotheby's 
 
 on July 26, 1887, described as " Evangelia iv. 
 Mar aret' * * * Manuscript on vellum . . . illuminated in 
 Gospel-book, gold and colours . . . saec. xiv," and was bought 
 
 for a very moderate sum by the Bodleian. It 
 turned out to be a Gospel-book (containing the portions of the 
 Gospels wliich occur in the Mass) wi'itten in England about 
 A.D. 1000, and bearing four full-page miniatures of the 
 Evangelists with other illumination. On the second leaf is a 
 Latin poein of the eleventh century, teUing a strange tale, 
 that a miracle had been worked on this volume. It had been 
 taken to a trysting-place in order that by its sanctity it might 
 bind the parties to an agi'eement, but on its way di-opped 
 unnoticed into a river out of the folds of the priest's di'ess 
 who was carrying it. When its absence was noted, the party 
 slowly retraced its steps, and at last saw it in the river. A 
 soldier plunged in head first and rescued it, and it was found 
 to be miraculously unhurt " except two leaves which you 
 see at each end, in which from the water some crinkling is 
 apparent." The poem specially records that the silken sheets 
 which protected the illuminations were washed out of the 
 book by the stream, and ends " May the King and noble Queen 
 find everlasting salvation, whose book was recently saved 
 from the waves," The clue to this was found in the Life of
 
 46 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland, whose chapel is still a 
 venerated shrine in Edinburgh Castle. She was a sister of 
 Edgar ^theling, fled to the North, and in 1070 married Mal- 
 colm Canmore, King of Scotland. Her mild and civiUzing 
 influence on the Scottish Court and country till her death in 
 1093 led to canonization in 1251. The Life of her, probab.y 
 by her confessor Turgot, contains the whole story in similar 
 terms in prose, and establishes beyond a doubt that this 
 vokime was her especial treasure and constant companion. 
 She must often have used it both in Dunfermline Abbey, which 
 she founded, and in her chapel in the Castle at Edinburgh. 
 Even the " crinkling " mentioned is still visible, but as to 
 the miracle, the clear water of a Scotch stream would do Uttle 
 harm even to an illuminated volume. It is, however, an 
 undoubted relic, valuable alike for its litm-gical contents, its 
 romantic history and its associations. 
 
 A worn and tattered copy of the First Foho of .Shakespeare 
 (1623), plainly bound in contemporary calf, was 
 Shakespeare, brought up to the Library on January 23, 1905, 
 from a Mi". Turbutt's library at Ogston Hall, 
 Derbyshire, for ad\ace about repairc to the binding. Fortun- 
 ately Mr. Strickland Gibson, a Senior Assistant, who studies 
 Oxford bindings, had not neglected, as so many do, the poorer 
 and mediocre covers, such as the one described ; and he soon 
 recognized on it the peculiarities of Oxford binders, and was 
 able after a little investigation to establish the fact that the 
 long-lost original First Folio, sent in sheets from the publisher 
 in 1623 under Sir Thomas Bodley's Agreement (see p. 20), 
 had revisited its old home in the guise of a dubious stranger, but 
 wearing stiU its ancient coat, much out at elbows. The 
 identification is complete, and there is no doubt that the 
 book had been sold after the Restoration as superseded. The 
 special interest of the volvune is two-fold — first, it is the only 
 copy which went straight from the publisher to a public 
 institution, and is therefore in some respects the only standard 
 copy in existence ; secondly, that the wear and tear of the 
 book when it was chained in Bodley as S. 2.17 Art. (which can 
 be proved to have been occasioned in the Libraiy, and not at 
 a later period) indicates, as nothing else can, which plays were 
 most to the taste of the Bachelors of Arts before the Civil War. 
 An estimate has been made from the comparative deteriora- 
 tion of each leaf, and the result is the following list of prefer- 
 ences : Romeo and Juliet ; Julius Caesar ; The Tempest. Next : 
 Henry I V, part i ; Macbeth and Cymheline equal. The Tragedies 
 were most read, and the Histories least ; the Comedies being 
 intermediate.
 
 THE MANUSCRIPT AND OTHER TREASURES 47 
 
 John Rouse, who steered the Bodleian tlirough the stormy 
 waters of the Ci%al War, was a personal friend of 
 mitonand Milton, and vrrote to him to complain that no 
 copy of his (Milton's) Poems, London, 1645, was 
 to be found in the Library. Milton sent a copy, and inserted 
 in it a long Latin poem " ad Joannem Rousium . . . de hbro 
 poematum . . . Ode Joannis Miltonij." Milton at this time 
 was only Cromwell's Latin Secretary, so the book was allowed 
 to go up in the ordinary com-se, as 8° M. 168 Art., to one of 
 the Galleries of the Arts End. After about a hvmdred and 
 fifty years, it was rediscovered as a valuable autograph of the 
 great poet, and is now exhibited in the glass cases. 
 
 The smallest MS. in the Library measures three-quarters of 
 an inch square and about a quarter inch in thick- 
 
 Tii6 sTnA.iiflS'f'. . . 
 
 jjg ness, and very appropriately contains shorthand 
 
 writing. It was so likely to be lost that INIr. Coxe 
 chained it to a piece of wood eighteen inches long. Know- 
 ledge of its history and contenta was completely lost until 
 in 1912 a visitor saw it, and made a suggestion wliich was 
 found to be true, that it was a sermon wi-itten by Jeremiah 
 Rich "the Semigi'apher," in his pec\iliar stenogi'aphy, and 
 referred to in a broadside of about 1654 as " now shown in the 
 PubUck Library in Oxford." Rich claimed that he could write 
 so small that his pen could scarcely be seen to move. 
 
 Imagine the Coimcil Chamber of King Charles II, the 
 King himself at one end. Lord Clarendon the 
 Clarendon's Historian of the RebeUion at the other, and the 
 Notes. Lords of the Council ranged along the sides : 
 
 date 1660-1665. The Kling often desired to obtain 
 the immediate opinion of Clarendon on matters which came 
 before the Council, whether it was a question of arrangements 
 for Parhament, or the dismissal of an officer of state, or the 
 hanging of some traitors ; and his custom was to send a slip 
 of paper to liis Chancellor wdth his own query at the top, and 
 room for the reply. These papers flew backwards and forwards 
 between the two, and, as filled in, they may be regarded as the 
 most personal and intimate State Papers which exist. They 
 should have been at once destroyed, but Clarendon kept them, 
 and they are now preserved in the Bodleian. Many are of 
 the highest interest, asreveahng the undisguised opinions and 
 feelings of the King. Here is one of less intrinsic importance, 
 Clarendon's contributions being in italic : — 
 
 *' I would willingly make a visite to my sister at Tunbridge 
 for a night, or two at furthest, when do you thinke I 
 can best spare that time ?
 
 48 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 I know no reason why you may not for such a tyme (2 nights) 
 go the next weeke, about Wensday or Thursday, and 
 returne tyme enough for the adjournement : which yet 
 ought to he the weeke followinge. [Then, added as an 
 after thought] / suppose you will go with a light 
 Trayne [i.e. you will not take the whole court with 
 you, sui'ely ?]. 
 
 I intend to take nothing but my night bag. 
 
 Yes, you will not go without 40 or 50 horse. 
 
 I counte that part of my night bag." 
 
 It may be added that the King is greatly superior to his 
 Minister, both in handwriting and spelling. The date is 
 December, 1660. 
 
 The Rev. James Gi'anger (d. 1776) published a History of 
 England in 1769 on the theory that a sei'ies of 
 s th d biographies best brings out the historical features 
 Colleotion °^ each successive generation. The work ob\'iously 
 lent itself to illustration by engraved portraits, 
 and now any books enriched by its owner with additional 
 inserted illustrations is said to be " grangerized." The most 
 magnificent example of this not wholly commendable practice 
 is to be found in the Sutherland Collection presented to the 
 Bodleian in 1837. Mr. Alexander Sutherland took a foUo 
 edition of Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, the Life of 
 Clarendon, and Burnet's History of My Own Times, inlaid each 
 leaf and illustrated them with not less than 20,000 portraits 
 and views of persorus and places which are mentioned, even 
 incidentally, in the histories. The result is contained in sixty- 
 one elephant foUo volimies. The quality of the engravings is 
 of the finest, and when an engi-aving was lacking, a copy in 
 colours of some original picture took its place. For instance, 
 the portraits of Charles I number 743, of Cromwell 373, of 
 Charles II 552 ; the views of London 309 and of Westminster 
 166. Mrs. Sutherland completed this sumptuous work after 
 her husband's death, and printed a complete catalogue of the 
 whole. Among the topographical prints is the original draw- 
 ing by Antonio van der Wyngaerde, of London, in about 
 1560, which is the earliest detailed view of that city. The 
 Library also contains the only copies of the earliest (engraved) 
 views of Oxford (by Agas, 1578) and of Cambridge (by Hamond, 
 1592). 
 
 These are ten specimens of the associations and stories 
 wliich gather round the volumes of the Bodleian, but space 
 does not allow this section to be extended.
 
 THE MANUSCRIPT AND OTHER TREASURES 49 
 
 THE CHIEF COLLECTIONS OF THE BODLEIAN 
 LIBRARY 
 
 (In order of acquisition) 
 
 WITH NOTES OF SOME OF THE MORE IMPORTANT 
 VOLUMES IN THEM 
 
 A. Manuscripts 
 Out of the 200 collections of Manuscripts only the more 
 valuable are mentioned, and of their contents only the most 
 striking volumes. In the latter division the numeral in brackets 
 is the number of the volume in the Old Catalogue of 1697 
 (1-8716), or in the Summary Catalogue (1-8716 and 8717- 
 36587). The use of the Roman numerals which here follow 
 (i-x) will enable a reader to recognize the general character 
 of each collection. 
 
 The following subjects are characterized for brevity bj' 
 members as below : — 
 i. Bibles and Liturgies, 
 ii. Theology and Chiirch 
 
 History, 
 iii. Greek Literatui'e. 
 iv. Latin Literature. 
 v. English Language and 
 
 Literatiire. 
 vi. British History. 
 
 vii. British Topography, 
 viii. Colonial and Fore'gn 
 Literature,History and 
 Geography, 
 ix. Sciences and Arts. 
 X. Miscellaneous (used only 
 when the miscellaneous 
 element is large). 
 
 The following statistics of early Greek and Latin MSS. in the 
 Bodleian, excluding papyri, deeds and fragments, may be 
 interesting. Lists of the volumes, with titles, wall be found in 
 the Bodleian Quarterly Record, Nos. 3, 7, 11, 12 (see p. 64). 
 
 Cent. Greek Latin 
 
 The oldest complete MS. in the Library 
 is a Chinese scroll, written by Wang Hsi 
 Chih about A.D. 400. The oldest 
 printed book is also Chinese, the volumin- 
 ous Spring and Autumn Annals of Con- 
 fucius, printed about A.D. 1150. Both 
 I were in the Backhouse donations of 1914. 
 
 Seventeenth Century 
 
 1. Exeter Cathedral (1602 : 86 vols. ; i, ii). 
 
 Persius, 11th cent. (2455) ; Prudentius, 11th cent. (2666) ; 
 Leofric Missal, 10th cent. (2675) ; Latin Gospels wi'itten in 
 Brittany, 10th cent. (2719). 
 
 2. Windsor (1612 ; 67 vols. ; ii). 
 
 3. Ttoyne (1612 ; 20 vols. ; ix). 
 
 J. SavUe (1620; 61 vols. ; iii, etc.). 
 
 6th-7th 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 8th 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 9th 
 
 12 
 
 54 
 
 10th 
 
 21 
 
 63 
 
 11th 
 
 115 
 
 130 
 
 12th 
 
 87 
 
 552
 
 50 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 5. Barocci (1629 ; 244 vols. ; i, ii, iii). 
 
 Canons of the Church, 11th cent. (26) ; Grammarians, 
 11th cent. (50); Chronicon John Malalte, 12th cent. (182); 
 Epistolae Photii, 10th cent. (217) ; early MSS. of the Fathers ; 
 all in Greek, 
 
 6. Roe (1629 ; 28 vols. ; iii). 
 
 Catena in Epistolas Pauli, in Greek, 10th cent. (262). 
 
 7. Dighy (1634-9 ; 238 vols. ; v, vi, ix, x). 
 
 Chanson de Roland, 12th cent. (1624), the earliest MS. of 
 the first French Roman de geste ; the Abingdon Missal, 
 15th cent., ilhiminated (1828). 
 
 8. Laud (1635-40 ; abt. 1230 vols. ; i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, x). 
 
 Canons of Coiuicils, Greek, 11th cent. (7156) ; Irish poems, 
 13th cent. (784) ; Sidonius ApolUnaris, 10th cent. (838) ; 
 ^Ifric's Heptateuch, 11th cent. (942) ; Gregory's Cura 
 Pastoralis, 9th cent. (1000) ; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, to 
 A.D. 1154 (1003); Egbert's Penitential, in Old Enghsh. 
 11th cent. (1054) ; Codex E of the Acts, Grffico-Latin, 7th 
 cent. (1119), see p. 45 ; The " Psalter " of Cashel, in Irish, 
 12th cent. (1132); Lives of Saints, in English, 14th cent. 
 (1486) ; Quintus Curtius, 15th cent., with illuminations (1526) ; 
 Augustine de Trinitate, 8th cent. (1556); Martianus Capella, 
 11th cent. (1597). 
 
 9. Cromwell (1654 ; 24 vols. ; iii). 
 
 10. Selden (1659 ; 351 vols. ; ii, iii, iv, vi, x). 
 
 Mexican records, the Mendoza Codex, 16th cent. (3134) ; 
 English Carols, with music, 15th cent. (3340); The King's 
 Quair, etc., 15th cent. (3354); Latin pieces in the hand 
 of William of Malmesbury, 12th cent. (3362) ; The Acts, 
 in Latin uncials written in England, 8th cent. (3418). 
 
 11. Casaubon (1671 ; 61 vols. ; iii, etc.). 
 
 12. Hatton (1671 ; 112 vols. ; v, etc.). 
 
 King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care, 9th 
 cent. (4113) ; Rule of St. Benedict, in Latin, 7th cent. (4118) ; 
 Collectis Canonum Hibernensium, 9th cent. (4119) ; Anglo- 
 Saxon homilies, 11th cent. (5210, 5134-6). 
 
 13. Fairfax and Dodsworth (1673 ; 114 vols. ; v, vi, vii). 
 
 14. Junius (1678; 121 vols. ; v). 
 
 The Ormulum, the original MS. of the first EngUsh religious 
 poem after the Conquest, abt. 1315 (5113) ; Caedmon, see p. 
 44 (5123). 
 
 15. Marshall (1685 ; 159 vols. ; x.). 
 
 16. Barlow (1691 ; 54 vols. ; i, ii, vi, etc.). 
 
 17. PococA-e (1692 ; 420 vols. ; x, Arabic, etc.). 
 
 Edrisi's Geography in Arabic, with maps (5737). 
 
 18. Huntington (1693 ; 646 vols. ; x, Arabic, etc.). 
 
 Arabic descr. of Egypt.-aHth cent. (5749) ; autograph signa- 
 ture of Moses Maimonides (5757) ; Coptic Gospels, 12th cent. 
 (5860) ; a Tartar Bakktiar Nameh (MS. Himt, 598).
 
 THE MANUSCRIPT AND OTHER TREASURES 51 
 
 19. Bernard (1698 ; 171 vols. ; iii, iv, x.^etc), I 
 
 Vendome chronicle, 11th to 14th cent. (8537, cf. 14715); 
 Maximianvis, 12th cent. (8849). 
 Miscellaneous MSS. — Seventeenth Century. 
 
 Early Latin treatises written in Cornwall, 9th-10th cent. 
 (2026) ; Early Latin treatises written in Brittany and Wales, 
 9th-llth cent., owned by Dixnstan (2176); Old'Enghsh 
 Gospels, 11th cent. (2382) ; Romance of Alexander, and 
 Marco Polo's Travels, in French, with notable illuminations, 
 14th-15th cent. (2464) ; Sir Thonias Bodley's Letters to his 
 first Librarian, 17th cent. (2541) ; The Tropary of Ethelred, 
 in Latin, 10th cent. (2558) ; Cornish plaj^s, 1.5th cent. (2639, 
 cf. 10714) ; Latm Gospels, Codes O, 7th cent., once called St. 
 Augustine's (2698) ; Pliny's Epistolse, 15th cent., a relic 
 of Duke Humphrey's library at Oxford (2934) ; Bible History 
 in Latin, Gen.-Job, with fine miniatures, xiii (2937) ; Latin 
 Psalter, 13th cent., with illuminations and binding (3055) ; 
 Hours of Qu. Mary, 15th cent. (3083) ; the original MS. of 
 much of Wj'cUffe's English Bible, 14th cent. (3093) ; Latin 
 Acts of Coimcils, 7th cent. (3686-8) ; Edrisi's Geography in 
 Arabic, with 33 maps (3837) ; a " vast massy " volume of 
 Middle English Verse, 14th cent., known as the Vernon MS. 
 (3938) ; Tiie MacRegol Gospels, in Latin, with Old Enghsh 
 Version, abt. a.d. 800 (3946) ; the original MS. of John 
 Leland's C'oZZectoHea and Itinerary (5102-5112"', after 6615); 
 Anglo-Saxon Canons, 10th cent. (5232) ; Terence, 12th cent., 
 with classical drawings (27603). 
 
 Eighteenth Centuby 
 
 20. Jones (1708 ; 61 vols. ; vi). 
 
 21. Marsh (1714 ; 744 vols. ; x, Oriental). 
 
 22. Tanner (1736 ; 627 vols. ; ii, v). See p. 29. 
 
 English historical papers, 1570-1699 (9841-9906, 10288-90). 
 
 23. Carte (1753, etc. ; 278 ; vi). See p. 29. 
 
 Original earliest existing jotunal of the Irish Parliament, 
 1585-6 (10507) ; original letter-book of the confederate 
 Catholics at Kilkenny, 1642-5 (10510). 
 
 24. >S'^ Amand (1755 ; 62 vols. ; iii, iv). 
 
 25. Ballard (1756 ; 72 vols. ; vi). 
 
 26. John Walker (1756 ; 25 vols. ; ii, vi). See p. 29. 
 
 27. Rawlinson (1756 ; 5206 vols. ; i., ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii, 
 ix, x). See p. 30. 
 
 Thurloe State Papers. 1638-60 (10884-10950); Pepys' 
 Papers, abt. 1650-90 (11054-11121) ; Parish notes for Oxford- 
 shire, abt. 1720 (11740-4); old Irish MSS., annals, cartu- 
 laries and poetrj- (between 11822 and 11861 ); Prudentius, 
 abt. A.D. 1000 (12541); perhaps "The earliest English 
 musical composition," abt. 1220 (14765) ; Avianus, 11th 
 cent. (14836) ; Latin Gospels of St. Luke and St. John, 8th
 
 52 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 cent. (14890) ; royal letters to Qu. Elizabeth (14976) ; Oxford 
 University Bedel's book, 16th cent. (15411) ; Prayers for the 
 use of \Vladislaw, King of Poland, abt. 1434 (15857) ; Holman's 
 Esses MSS. (15988-16018). 
 
 28. Clarendon (1759 etc. • 145 vols, ; vi). See p. 30. 
 
 Letters of Charles I and Henrietta Maria (16183-4, cf. 15003, 
 16177, 30253) ; Council notes of Charles I and Clarendon, 
 1660-2 (16186-7 ; see p. 47). 
 
 29. Dawkins {nri9; GQ-vols.? ; x, Syriac). 
 
 30. Willis (1760 ; 110 vols. ; vii). 
 
 31. Hunt (1774 ; abt. 200 vols. ; x, Oriental). 
 
 32. Bradley (1776, etc. ; 51 vols. ; ix). 
 
 33. Holmes (1789, etc. ; 163 vols. ; i, iii). 
 31. Bridge (1795 ; 52 vols. ; vii, Northants). 
 Miscellaneous MSS. — Eighteenth Century. 
 
 Ussher's Collectanea (27610-7) ; Register of Committee 
 for plundered ministers, 1645-53 (27619-26) : Bale's Carmeli- 
 tana (27635) ; Portraits of Rajahs (27697) ; Furney's Glouces- 
 tersliire Collections (27825-30) ; autograph poems by James I 
 (27843-44). 
 
 Nineteenth CENTURy, and After 
 
 35. Wi ht (1801 ; 209 vols. ; ix, Music). 
 
 36. D'Orville (1804 : 618 vols. ; iii, iv, etc.). 
 
 Moissac psalter, 11th cent. (16923) ; Horace, 11th cent. 
 (17036) ; papers on the Greek Anthology (17112-143. 17150- 
 168), and on Theocritus (17144-149, 17169-76); Euchd in 
 Greek, a.d. 888 (17179). 
 
 37. Oough (1809 ; 866 vols. ; i, vi, vii). See p/32. 
 
 Large Map of Great Britain, 14th cent. (17610); Dr. Charles 
 Mason's Cambridge Collections (17755-88) ; Hutchison's 
 Collections for Dorset (17867-902, cf. 25532-3) ; Pegge's 
 Lincoliishire Collections (18003-9); Blomefield's Norfolk 
 Collections (18056-69) ; Peter le Neve's do. (18085-91) ; 
 Bowen's Shropshire Collections (18189-207) ; Beckwith's 
 Yorkshire Collections (18269-80) ; the Gaignieres Drawings 
 of French Monuments, abt. a.d. 1700 (18346-61). 
 38* E. D. Clarke (1809 ; 91 vols. ; iii, iv, x). 
 
 St. Gregory Nazianzen's poems, 10th cent. (18374) '''■ 
 Dialogues of Plato, written a.d. 895 ;i8400). 
 39. Canonici (1817 ; 2047 vols. ; i, ii, iii, iv, viii, x). 
 
 Greek Evangeliaria, 9th cent. (18538, 18545) ; Catullus, 14th 
 cent. (18611); Jurenal, 11th cent., with a genuine passage 
 found in no other MS. (18622) ; Virgil, 10th cent. (18631) ; 
 the Ranshoven Latin Gospels, a.d. 1178 (18953); Dalmatian 
 Liturgy, in Latin, 11th cent. (19379) ; Rabanus Maurus de 
 Computo, 9th cent. (19829); Notitia Dignitatum, with 
 illuminations in old Roman style (19854) ;g Boccaccio's
 
 THE MANUSCRIPT AND OTHER TREASURES 53 
 
 Philocopo, 15th cent., illuminated (20137) ; Pirro Ligorio's 
 drawings of Rome, Iwth cent. (20190) ; old Slavonic service 
 books (20639-41). 
 
 40. Saibante (1820 ; 52 vols. ; iii). 
 
 Ai'rian's Discourses of Epictetus, in Greek, 12th cent., the 
 archetvpe of all existing MSS. (20531). 
 
 41. Malone (1821 ; 30 vols. ; v). 
 
 42. Mterman (1824 ; 59 vols. ; iii, iv). 
 
 Physiologus, 10th cent. (20618) : Donatus, 9th cent. 
 (20624) ; Livy, bks. i-x, abt. a.d. 1000 (20631) ; Jerome's 
 Chronicle of Eusebius, in Latin, 6th cent. (20632) ; Macrobius, 
 abt. A.D. 1000 (21637). 
 
 43. Boreal (1828; 153 vols. ; viii, Icelandic). 
 
 44. Oppenheimer (1829 ; 780 vols. ; x, Hebrew). 
 
 45. Douce (1834 ; 497 vols. ; i, v, ix, Illumination). Seep. 32. 
 
 Hoius, with fine miniatm-es (Gonzaga, 21603 ; Sforza, 
 21614 ; Medici, 21616 ; Maximilian, 21793-4) ; a Codex 
 purpureus of the Psalter, 9th cent. (21633) ; Piimasius, on 
 the Apocalypse, 8th cent. (21714) ; Gospel lections in Latin, 
 10th cent., with carved ivory binding (21750) ; Apocalypse 
 in Latin, with fuie illuminations, 13th cent. (21754) ; Latin 
 Gospels, 11th cent., with carved ivory binding (21866) ; the 
 Ormesby Psalter, 14th cent. (21941) ; Miracles de la Vierge, 
 15th cent, miniatiu-es (21949) ; Map of the Holy Land, abt. 
 1400 (21964). 
 
 46. Blakeway (1840; 26 vol^. ; vii, Shropshire). 
 
 47. Wilson (1842 ; 546 vols. ; x, Sanski-it). 
 
 48. Bruce (1843 ; 96 vols. ; x, Arabic, Ethiopic). 
 
 Book of Enoch (22731) ; Gnostic treatise-in Coptic (22753). 
 
 49. Mill 5 (1843 ; 21 vols. ; vii, Devon). 
 
 50. OuseUy (1844, 1858 ; 590 vols. ; x, Persian). 
 
 Persian illuminations (24643-50, etc.). 
 
 51. A. Walker (1845 ; 215 vols. ; x. Oriental). 
 
 52. Michael (1841, 1850; 690 vols. ; x. Hebrew). 
 
 53. Mill (1849, 1858 ; 195 vols. ; x, Sanskrit, etc.) 
 
 54. ElU tt (1859 ; 387 vols. ; x, Persian). 
 
 55. Ashmole, Wood, Lister, Dugdale, Aubrey (1860 ; 128 vols. ; 
 vi, vii Oxford, ix). 
 
 These collections contsun more valuable material relating 
 to Oxford liistory than can be detailed. Lichfield Chapter 
 records (MS. Ashm. 794, etc.). Order of the Garter (MSS. 
 Ashm. 1097-1135, etc.); Bestiarium, 12th cent (MS- 
 Ashm. 1511); Reliquiae Lhuydianae, 17th-18th cent. 
 (25184-93, 25198, 25202-3) ; Letters to Anthony Wood, 
 I7thcent. (25213-9). 
 
 56. Tamil (1860 ; 103 vols. ; x, Tamil). 
 
 57. Montagu (1864 ; 62 vols. ; iv, v, etc.). 
 
 Autograph Letters (25426-50). 
 8. W. N. Clarke (1868 ; 18 vol^., vii, Berka).
 
 54 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 59. Ou./o/d Diocesan Papers (1878, 1914, 1915; abt. 1000 vote, 
 or boxes ; ii, vii, etc.) See p. 35. 
 
 60. Savile (1884 ; 147 vols.; ix.). 
 
 61. Music School (1885 ; 778 vols. ; ix, Mu-sic). 
 
 62. Hultzsch (1887 ; 437 vols. ; x, Sanski-it). 
 
 63. Shelley (1893 ; 12 vols. ; v, Shelley). 
 
 64. Hallam (1896 ; 149 vols. ; v, dialects). 
 
 65. Chandra (1909 ; 6330 pieces ; x, Sanskrit). 
 
 66. Backhouse (1913 ; x, Chinese). 
 Miscellaneous MSS., from 1801 (i-x). 
 
 Watson's Chesliire and Lancashire Collections (25562-78) ; 
 Herculanean Papyri (28047-60) ; Greek N.T., the Codex 
 Ebnerianus (28118) ; Sheldon papers, English liistory, 1585- 
 1724 (28181-87, cf. 28473) ; Oxford Siege papers, 1643-6 
 (28189) ; Yriarte Spanish MSS. (28360-85) ; Burnet MSS. 
 (28386-95) ; Aubrey's Montunenta Britannica (28426-27) ; 
 Gower's Cheshhe Collectiona (28483-87, cf. 30704) ; Cornish 
 Plays (28556-57); Greek Gospels, Codex A, 9th cent. (28643); 
 Grenesis in Greek, 9th cent. (28644) ; Greek Gospels, 10th 
 cent.. Codex F (28645) ; Reader's Coventry Collections 
 (28854-8) ; a supposed Shakespeai'e signature (28902) ; 
 Turner's Oxfordshire Collections (29019-46) ; Poems by 
 Chatterton, xviii (29126) ; Welsh pedigrees (29205-7) ; 
 Jones' Devonshire Collections (29462-69) ; Barret's Sacred 
 Warr, 17th cent., the longest poem in the world (29573) ; 
 Ford's Suffolk Collections (29670-79) ; Mark Pattison Papere; 
 Gospel book of St. Margaret of Scotland, 11th cent. (29744, 
 see p. 45) ; Parts of Iliad 2, 2nd cent. (29896) ; Oxford Barbers' 
 Company Records (31110-27); Ecolesiasticus in Hebrew 
 (32358) ; the Bower Sanski-it MS., 5th cent. (32602) ; The 
 Logia (32901, see p. 43) ; a imique York Gradual (32940) ; 
 The Bakhshale and Weber Sanskrit MSS. (33178-79) ; the 
 Brett Nonjuror papers (MSS. Eng. 00th. c. 24-43) ; nearly 
 4000 inscrited Ostraca. in 1914. 
 Miscellaneous MSS. (various dates of acquisition). | 
 
 Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, in French, etc., 14th 
 cent. (30142); Gohardica, 13th cent. (30151); Ciceroniana 
 (30350-419) ; Registers of the Com-t of the Marches of Wales, 
 16th cent. (30435, cf. 33088) ; Warren Hastings (30463-78). 
 
 In Greek : Psalter, etc., ix (1982) ; Xenophon's Cyi'opsedia, 
 xii (2936) ; Manuel Phile, with miniatures, xvi (3078)'; Schoha 
 on the Odyssey, xi (28347) ; Miniatm-es of Saints, xiv (2919). 
 
 B. Printed Books 
 
 The separate printed works in the Library, which are con- 
 tained in about 160 collections, amount to over two million, 
 and cannot possibly be shortly described. They are all in 
 the General Catalogue of printed books, of which two copies 
 are available for the use of readers.
 
 THE MANUSCRIPT AND OTHER TREASURES 55 
 
 It has to be remembered that since 1610 (aee p. 20) the 
 Library has had a right to a copy of every book pubhshed in 
 the United Kingdom, and receives about 300 hterary items 
 (books, pamphlets, sheets of music, etc.) a day. But every 
 foreign book and periodical has to be purchased, and though 
 much has been done, the foreign literature is not fully adequate. 
 All that can be accomplished is to provide, in this department, 
 a large and useful working Ubrary. It is in English Literature, 
 in Theology and in Classics that the Bodleian can be justly 
 called firstrate. 
 
 The number of Incunabula is about 5600,^ of which the 
 Caxtons are sixty. Space only allows in this place a mention 
 of such out of the collections of printed books as have a dis- 
 tinctive character and are still kept together, with a few other 
 notes. 
 
 Ashmole (English antiquities, heraldry, astrology). 
 
 Dissertations. 
 
 Douce (EngUsh Uterature). 
 
 Georgian (Georgian language and literature : the Wardrop 
 Collection). 
 
 Gough (British topography). 
 
 Hope (old periodicals). 
 
 Line. (i.e. Bp. Barlow's books, seventeenth century). 
 
 Malone (English dramatic hterature, including a large set 
 of foUos and quartos of Shakespeare's works). 
 
 Nichols Newspapers (1672-1737, bound in one long chron- 
 ological order). 
 
 Pamphlets (with a long English series in chronological 
 order). Oxford 15th cent, press. 
 
 ParUamentary Bluebooks. 
 
 Rawlinson (miscellaneous seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
 tury lit rature). 
 
 Selden (British history). 
 
 Tanner (English literature). 
 
 Trctatus Lutheran! (the Reformation in Germany). 
 
 Among rarities other than IncunabiUa may be mentioned 
 as specimens : — 
 Nine blockbooks. 
 The only copy of the first edition of Shakespeare's fii'st 
 
 publication, 159 ) (see p. 32). 
 Two collections of early sixteenth century English romances, 
 
 all rare, some unique (S. Selden, d. 45 and 4° L. 71 Art. 
 
 ^ All these Eire enumerated in R. G. C. Proctor's Index lo the 
 Early Printed Books in the British Museum, 1898-1900. The 
 Caxtong are fullv dosoribed in De Bicoi's Census oj Caxtons, 19.
 
 56 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 The original Bodleian First Folio of Shakespeare, 1623 (see 
 
 p. 46). 
 The only copy of the Bay Psalm-book (1640) outside the 
 
 United States, which possess nine copies only. 
 Lord Kingsborough's Antiquities of Mexico, on vellum, 
 
 1831-48, 7 atlas foUo volumes. 
 
 PlCTTJKES AND COINS 
 
 During the seventeenth century the Bodleian became, 
 very nattirally, the depository of other things than books. It 
 was an eminently safe place for the deposit of both artistic and 
 numismatical collections, as well as for curiosities of every 
 kind. The Ashmolean Museum, opened in 1683, was the 
 first public museum in Great Britain, and was full of similar 
 objects intended to promote the study of natural history, 
 anthropology (as we now call it) and science ; and from about 
 1750 it diverted to itself the streams of donation in those 
 kinds. But throughout the eighteenth century pictures and 
 coins flowed into the Bodleian, where the ample Picture 
 Gallery, provided by the forethought of the Founder, was able 
 to house them all. The coin collection began with a large 
 gift from Archbishop Laud in 1636, and Freke, Rawlinson, 
 Brown Willis, Ingram and many others augmented it, till it 
 has now reached about 60,000 pieces, and is ready for trans- 
 ference to its proper place, the New Ashmolean. The pictures 
 also which were primarily of artistic value have been within 
 the last thirty years for the most part transferred to the New 
 Ashmolean, and the ceremonial ones (Chancellors in their 
 robes, royal personages and the Uke) are in the New Examina- 
 tion Schools, leaving still a large number which are of historical, 
 literary or Bodleian interest to adorn the Picture Gallery. 
 All are described fully in Mrs. Poole's Catalogue of Portraits in 
 Oxford, vol. i (1912).
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 METHODS AND MATERIALS OF MODERN STUDY 
 
 Man lives in the present, for the future, but emphatically by 
 the past. He cannot possibly understand wha^t he sees 
 (whether in politics, theology, literature or science), without 
 realizing how it came to be. If he attempts to avoid this 
 necessary study of the past, or affects to despise it, he is beaten 
 in the race of life by those who are wiser than himself. Every 
 characteristic of a living person or nation, the stock of ideas 
 and ideals by which they live, their very habits and daily 
 life, all have roots deep in the past. If this truth is grasped — 
 and it is not less true because it can be clearly and shortly 
 stated — Ubraries are seen at once to be a necessary adjunct 
 to all education and all civilization. Carlyle saw this when he 
 wrote with characteristic exaggeration that the Modern 
 University is a Library of Books. 
 
 But, as is pointed out at p. 10 above, there are libraries 
 and libraries. However valuable elementary and circulating 
 and private libraries may be (and they are the necessary 
 lower rungs of the ladder of progress), it is for the great Libraries 
 of Deposit that the educated student reserves his time, his 
 energies and his admiration. The certainty of finding aU, or 
 nearly aU, the authorities on his subject, and of finding them 
 at hand, is his delight. If he further discovers a large store of 
 manuscripts from which new information may be drawn, or 
 old texts improved, his pleasure amounts to enthusiasm. 
 
 The Bodleian, it is submitted, satisfies these conditions of 
 contentment, and is, and always will be, both for British and 
 foreign students of theology, history, literature or science, a 
 potent element in post-graduate education at Oxford. That 
 it is not fully used, is true ; and that it needs much more help 
 before it can exercise its proper functions, is also true. But 
 it has been greatly aided and stimulated by three centuries of 
 goodwill, energy and benefaction ; and it does what it can, 
 both in giving free access to all who are properly recommended 
 to it, and in providing catalogues and indexes for their use ; it 
 is only the lack of adequate endowment which prevents it 
 from greatly increasing its utiUty and influence. 
 
 There are several departments of study in which the Library 
 
 67
 
 58 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 is able to furnish ample manuscript materials for original 
 research. Among them may be mentioned especially Theology, 
 Classics, English liistory and English hterature, the local 
 history of the British Isles (especially of Oxford and its 
 neighbourhood), and Oriental hterature (especially Hebrew, 
 Sanskrit, Arabic and Chinese). To these may be added Music, 
 old Irish literature and Liturgies without exhausting the list 
 of specialities. The printed collections are rich in Enghsh 
 books of all dates (aspecially Bibles and Theology), in Classics, 
 Historical books of reference, and old literature of various 
 kinds. 
 
 Much has been written lately about the pitfalls which await 
 the historical researcher, whether he attempts to interpret 
 the documents of a past age or to enter into its ideas. This is 
 not the place for an enumeration of these difificulties, but 
 they are well summarized (with a short bibUography) in C. G. 
 Crvunp's Logic of History (Helps for Students of History, 
 No. 6 : 1919 ; price 8d.). Classical students are at no loss for 
 guides,^ and it is open to all others simply to take a book 
 or edition of repute, and study its methods, the enumera- 
 tion of MSS., the grouping of them, and the principles of text- 
 construction and criticism. But at every step they need a 
 large Ubrary, and the Bodleian combines the advantages 
 usually only found in a great city with the amenity and sur- 
 roundings of a country town. 
 
 Even in this short manual it may be of practical use to 
 give two actual examples of historical method, applied in one 
 case to prehistoric remains in and the other to elucidation of 
 old and vague clironicles. They are given in the behef that 
 an ounce of practice is worth a hundred-weight of precept. 
 
 1. Stonehenoe 
 
 What is the date, approximately, when Stonehenge was 
 erected ? The data are that it Ues in a part of Salisbury 
 Plain which is dotted with a large number of barrows, early 
 and late in date. How can the building, the stones and the 
 gi-ound be made to give up evidence as to date ? 
 
 In 1889 Sir Arthvir Evans investigated the question in a 
 paper in the Archceological Review for January in that year. 
 
 1. Many of the barrows, two of which are in obvious connec- 
 tion with the great stones, are shown by their forms and 
 contents to be of the largest type of Bronze Age barrows, 
 known a 6 Round Barrows (for instance, gold rehcs, gltkss 
 
 ^ Tht la*, est works on the subject are Professor A. C. Clark's 
 Descent oj MSS. (1919) and (with a wider scope) F. W. Hall's 
 Companion to Classical Texts (1913).
 
 METHODS OF MODERN STUDY 59 
 
 beads, ivory and cremated remains are signs of lateness). 
 This being so, it is significant that chippings of the stones 
 brought from a distance to Stonehenge are found even in 
 undisturbed barrows of this kind, where the action of earth- 
 worms and rabbits in introducing foreign elements is hardly 
 possible. It is clear, therefore, that the building of Stone- 
 henge was at least begun late in that period. There is the 
 point also that with the exception of two, the circumjacent 
 barrows are not in any relation with the great cii'cle, and are 
 therefore not later. 
 
 2. The contents of the barrows earUer than Stonehenge 
 have some imported articles which must have come from the 
 continent not before the fifth century B.C. One even is stated 
 to have contained a socketed celt, pointing to the late fourth 
 century. But late Celtic antiquities are wholly absent, 
 which makes it hardly possible that the barrows should be as 
 late as the second century B.C. 
 
 3. The skilful hewing and fitting of the huge blocks of 
 Wiltshire Sarsen stone are of the same stage in technical 
 development as the trihths of Syria and TripoU, and the 
 great Doric temple of Segesta in Sicily, which latter was con- 
 structed about 415 B.C. 
 
 From these and similar indications he concludes that the 
 gradual building of the great monument was probably between 
 300 and 150 B.C. He is now inclined to place the date earlier. 
 
 In 1901 a smaU committee of the Society of Antiquaries 
 and two other societies reported on the desirabihty of setting 
 upright a vQry large leaning stone at Stonehenge, which showed 
 signs of breaking up as well as of falling still fvu-ther down. 
 It was successfully raised in September of that year, and it ia 
 from the necessary excavations — which were very carefully 
 and scientifically conducted — that various data were collected 
 by Mr. WiUiam Gowland, and printed in Archceologia, vol. 58 
 (1902). 
 
 No object of metal was fovmd, except one small trace of 
 bronze or copper. From this circumstance he concludes that 
 Stonehenge was constructed at the time when the Neohtliic 
 Age was passing into the Bronze Age, and that has been 
 tentatively placed at about 1400 B.C., or not later. Sir Norman 
 Lockyer, he mentions, had recently attempted to determine 
 the date on the hypothesis that the monument was a solar 
 temple, since, as is well known, the midsummer sun rises 
 exactly in the line of the chief avenue from the temple, and 
 exactly over a large detached stone placed no doubt for this 
 very purpose. He deduced a date as early as 1700 B.C. 
 
 It is disappointing to observe the discrepancy between these
 
 00 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 results. But it is particularly instructive, and a salutary 
 warning to all who attempt scientific enquiries into historical 
 problems, to note that both results are based on sound method. 
 Good method, in short, is not sufficient : the data must also 
 be adequate, and where indetei'minate they must, as in this 
 case, be approached, tested and used with the greatest caution. 
 For instance, the absence of bronze tools is not conclusive 
 evidence that the Bronze Age had not begun, and therefore 
 that Stonehenge was earlier than about B.C. 1500, for the 
 stone implements found were sufficient for their work and 
 much more easily obtained than bronze tools. Moreover, the 
 stone implements are stated not to be of the characteristic 
 late Stone Age types, and may therefore have been improvised. 
 
 2. The Loss of ICtng John's Treastjbes in the Wash, 
 A.D. 1216 
 
 Every one has read how King John in his last days lost all 
 his baggage train in the waves of the Wash (the great bay or 
 inlet which separates Lincolnshire from Norfolk), and is 
 supposed hardly to have saved his own life. The ordinary 
 histories go on to say that he died soon after of chagrin at 
 the disaster, and that Henry III was crowned in a gold circlet 
 because the Crown had been lost with the rest of John's 
 treasvire. The old chroniclers are vague and avoid detail, 
 and it is the kind of story which lends itself to exaggeration. 
 It seems to have struck Sir WiUiam St. John Hope that it 
 might be worth while to investigate closely the exact circimi- 
 stances, and to consider what was lost, and where. Such 
 a quest might indicate possibilities even of the recovery of the 
 treasure, if the spot coiild be ascertained, and the brilliant 
 results of his appUcation of scientific method have more than 
 justified his attempt, and afford a really interesting example 
 for imitation. 
 
 1. First, the chroniclers' accounts were noted and com- 
 pared. Roger of Wendover, Matthew Paris and the Cogges- 
 hall chronicler state in varying terms that the King and his 
 army barely escaped, and that the baggage which followed 
 was lost in wlxirlpools or quicksands in the "Well stream;" 
 which disembogues into the sea through the Wash. These 
 are original authorities, and Sir WiUiam observes that the 
 first-named was at the time Prior of Belvoir in Leicestershire, 
 about forty miles only from the scene, and that the priory 
 was of the same (Cistercian) order as that of Swineshead, 
 where the King lodged on the night after the catastrophe, 
 and where he fell ill. 
 
 2. The route followed by the King himself can fortunately
 
 METHODS OF MODERN STUDY 61 
 
 be absolutely ascertained from the fact that every day he 
 made grants which are registered among the Patent and Close 
 Rolls, and each is marked as made at a certain place. We at 
 once learn, therefore, that the King, who had swept much of 
 Norfolk clear of its gold and silver treasures in/evenge for the 
 revolt of the Barons, loft ling's Lynn on October 11, 1216, 
 for Wisbeach, went thus round the head of the great indenta- 
 tion of the Wash, and journeyed thence on the fateful 12th 
 to Swineshead, in Lincolnshire, where he ordered his baggage 
 to join him by a direct route northward from King's Lynn 
 across the Wash at low tide. All this is ascertained fact, and 
 we learn already that the King himseK was never in danger, 
 but only his baggage train, and its guard and the attendant 
 forces. 
 
 3. There is no question of the great changes in the coast 
 line during the last seven hundred years. Whereas the sea 
 used to cover what is now flat and fruitful meadow land, 
 almost as far as Wisbeach, the water is now kept out by the 
 silt it has deposited and by embankmentb. The accounts of 
 later writers on the disaster, Camden, Brady and local anti- 
 quaries, mention the old lines of embankment and with this 
 help they can still be traced. Thus emerges the important 
 fact that there was a definite ford of no great width straight 
 across the Wash and across the Well stream, now called 
 the Welland ; the route to the ford is marked by a road and a 
 line of old churches and villages. 
 
 4. Next, military historians were asked to estimate the prob- 
 able amoTint of baggage and the numbers and composition 
 of the train and its guard. It was estimated that the whole 
 cavalcade would be something like three miles long, not 
 caf)able of moving more than 2^ miles an horn* at best, the 
 crossing being not less than 4| miles, from Cross Keys northward 
 to Long Sutton, and the channels, where the lon^ and narrow 
 ford encounters its chief difficulty, not far from Long Sutton. 
 
 5. On the great day, October 12, 1216, what were the 
 tides ? An official of the Nautical Almanac Office specially 
 worked out the problem, with the result : Low water about 
 noon, high water about 6 p.m., the sunset being at 5.15 p.m. 
 It was a spring-tide, favourable for crossing, as so much of 
 the route would be uncovered at low water, but it is clear 
 that the available time for crossing the long ford and the mid- 
 stream of the Welland would not be more than from about 
 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. — barely time enough, even if all went well. 
 
 The position is now clear. Probably the whole train crossed 
 the Lynn stream (the Ousc) from King's hynn the day before, 
 and camped as near their supplies at Lynn as possible, in fact
 
 62 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 jiist across the river. In the fogs and mists of October, the 
 train would hardly start on the 12th tiU about 8, and would 
 reach Cross Keys a little before noon. For so unwieldly a 
 cavalcade that was too late. WTien the Welland was reached 
 the tide would be in full flow, and when the long train of 
 baggage wagons, men, soldiers, mules and horses, excitedly 
 endeavoured to turn back all would be in confusion. They 
 were like the Egyptians in the Red Sea. As none escaped, 
 the whole train must have been on the sands ; the ghastly 
 scene of tiirmoil and death in the quicksands and swiftly 
 rising waters must be left to the imagination ; no circum- 
 stance of horror was absent. The Kang probably watched the 
 scene from the northern bank, and saw the hideous tumult 
 and disorder, and the struggles for life. 
 
 6. But the treasure fell into soft, shifting quicksands, silt 
 and mud. To what depth ? Sir William approached the 
 Great Northern Railway Company, who built in 1887 a new 
 swing-bridge over the river near the spot, and foiind that 
 probably at 23 feet, certainly at 32 feet, the slowly sinking gold 
 silver and jewels would be stopped. The composition of every 
 foot of depth, whether silt, clay or sand is known. 
 
 7. The fact that the Welland stream, now 240 feet across 
 and 27 feet deep, had in old days no one definite channel, 
 but roamed divided over the wide delta, with much less 
 force and depth than now, completes the enquiry. No part of 
 the treasure would be carried out to sea, but all would sink 
 slowly down to its present place. 
 
 A trench cut in those meadows from East to West on the 
 line of tlie old ford would encounter mules' bones and human 
 bones, which could be thence tracked with certainty both 
 North and South. On that line will certainly be found, un- 
 injured and secure, Edward the Confessor's Crown, all the 
 other contents of the King's movable Chapel and his other 
 portable treasures, with countless pieces of plate and relics 
 and jewels from the rich abbeys and churches of Norfolk. 
 
 Such is an outUne of a successful apphcation of method to 
 the vague accounts of a great disaster. 
 
 In conclusion, some specimens may be given of various kinds 
 of material which await, so far as the writer knows, investiga- 
 tion. Some may turn out to be used or printed, some not 
 to deserve printing, but they may at least lead on intending 
 researchers to adopt the only satisfactory plan, which is to 
 read through the Catalogues of the manuscript collections, 
 and find what suits their tastes and capabiUties. The field of 
 Oxford history is so plentiful and so untilled that it can be 
 found by any one without trouble, and it is therefore here
 
 METHODS OF MODERN STUDY 63 
 
 passed over. Any one inspired to cultivate it will find a wealth 
 of materieil, both antiquarian, topical and Uteraiy. The 
 following jottings are divided under a few general headings, 
 but are otherwise in no order and could be indefinitely ex- 
 tended. The Bodleian statute requires that the leave of the 
 Librarian or Curators be obtained before any manioscript is 
 copied with a view to publication. The purpose is, not to 
 stifle research, but to eliminate incompetent or conflicting 
 editors. 
 
 Historical 
 
 Register of Lands about Agen, in Gascony, Latin, 13th 
 cent. (2933). 
 
 Chronicle of England to 1221, Latin, 14th cent. (2444). 
 
 Fountains Abbey records (1892, etc.). 
 
 Rich, n and London, a Latin poem, a.d. 1393 (3631). 
 
 MiUtary expenses of Henry VIII (30300). 
 
 Pococke's Tour in Ireland, 1758 (30722). 
 
 Letterbook of a Parliamentarian officer (Bradshaw) 1648-60 
 (25573). 
 
 Triple picture of the battle of Pinkie, 1647 (30492). 
 
 Civil War Scouts' reports (33552). 
 
 Gulielmus G«meticensis, Ilistoria Normannorum, abt. a.d. 
 1100 (2580). 
 
 Latin Chronicle of the First Crusade and England, 1095- 
 1118 (2402). 
 
 Letters to Bp. Bm-net (30175). 
 
 Literary 
 
 Latin Dialogue between Magister and Discipulus on the 
 Latin tongue, 11th cent. (2737). 
 
 " The Chaimce of the Dyse " (dice), etc.. Middle Enghsli 
 verse, 15th cent. (2078). 
 
 Middle Enghsh treatise of a son instructing his mother 
 abt. 1400 (2315). 
 
 The history of Greek Studies in Europe (Hody), late 17th 
 cent. (8887-90, 8901-3, etc.). 
 
 Middle English verse (3440, 29003, 30314, etc.). 
 
 MiaceUaneovia 
 
 Heame's autograph autobiogi'aphy (15603), 
 Pointer on clog-almanacks, 18th cent. (13478). 
 Aubrey on English arcliitecture, a.d. 1671 (28427). 
 Letters from China, a.d. 1701 (27874). 
 Laws, etc., of the Swanimote, a.d. 1587 (30273). 
 Malone correspondence, a.d. 1767-1811 (28578).
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Tlie chief books on the Bodleian Library are : — 
 
 Macray, W. D., Annals of the Bodleian, 2nd edition, 1890 
 (the standard work on its history to 1880). 25s. 
 
 Reliqicice Bodleiance . . . containing his Life . . . and a 
 Collection of Letters to Dr. James, etc. (edited by Thomas 
 Hearne, London, 1703). Unfortunately the letters, being 
 not fully dated, are in almost haphazard order. 
 
 Nicholson, E. W. B., the Bodleian Library in 1882-7, a 
 Report, 1888, and thereafter Annual Reports issued as 
 parts of the Oxford University Gazette. . 
 
 Pietas Oxoniensis, 1902 (chiefly written by E. W. B. Nicholson ; 
 not sold), contains a Life of Bodley, Account of the early 
 Library, full list of the Catalogues, and the like. 
 
 Clark, Andrew, A Bodleian Guide for Visitors, 1906. Is. 6d. 
 
 Gibson, S., Some Oxford Libraries, 1914. 2s. 6d. 
 
 The Bodleian Qvxtrterly Record from 1914 : issued quarterly 
 at 6d. This contains a statistical survey of the Library 
 (No. 9), Annals 1880-1919 (Nos. 15, 19, 20, 21), Lists of 
 Early MSS., Essays on the early Catalogues, etc., etc. 
 
 A Manual for Readers, contains information for readers on 
 admission. Lists of the Bodleian Catalogues, etc. the Rules 
 for Cataloguing and Lists of the Manuscripts and Printed 
 Collections, and of their Catalogues, can be obtained on 
 application.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Agar, Ralph, 48 
 Alexander, Romance of, 51 
 Allibond, Dr. John, 25 
 America. Set United States 
 Ashmole colln., 35, 53 
 Aubrey MSS., 63 
 
 Backhouse MSS., 54 
 
 " Baggage books," 19 
 
 Ball, Anne, 16 
 
 BaUard MSS., 51 
 
 Barlow colln., 29, 50 
 
 Barlow, Bp. Thomas, Bodley's 
 
 Librarian {d. 1691), 25 
 Bandinel, Dr. Bulkeley, Bodley's 
 
 Librarian ((i. 1861), 31-4 
 Barocci MSS., 24, 50 
 Bay Psalm book, 66 
 Beckwith MSS., 52 
 Bede, the Venerable. 24, 44 
 Benedictine Order, 8 
 Berlin library, 12 
 Bernard colln., 51 
 Bernard, Di. Edward, 27, 28, 42 
 Bible, the Mazarine, 31 
 
 — N.T.— Gospels (Codex 0, Latin) 
 61 ; (MacRegol), 51 
 
 Acts (Codex E, Greek), 45 
 
 Blakeway MSS.. 53 
 
 Blomefield MSS., 62 
 
 Bodleian Library — Bodley's offer 
 
 to found it (1598), 16 
 — position among other libraries, 1 2 
 
 — stages of its history, see list of 
 contents 
 
 — Admission, 13, 20, 41 
 
 — Arts End, 21, 38 
 
 — Associations and Attractions, 
 42-8, 57-8 
 
 — Number of books, 13, 27, 39 
 
 — Books (order on shelves, 1605), 
 19,38 
 
 — Oldest piinted book, 49 
 
 — Printed books, 29, 64-5 
 
 — List of chief books in it, 64 
 
 Bodleian, Buildings, 37-9 
 
 — Buildings, plan of, frontispiece 
 
 — Cameri, 31, 34, 36, 39 
 
 — Catalogues — Fii'st printed 
 (1606), 19 
 
 Second prmted (1620), 23 
 
 Third printed (1674), 26 
 
 Fourth printed (1738), 29 
 
 Fifth prmted (1843-51), 33 
 
 Present Catalogue of Printed 
 
 Books, 35, 42 
 Bernard's " Old Catalogue " 
 
 of MSS. (1697), 27, 42 
 Oriental MSS. (1787-1835), 
 
 31 
 
 Quarto series, 33, 42 
 
 Subject Catalogue, 19 
 
 Summary' Catalogue, 33, 42 
 
 — Catalogue Revision, 36, 37 
 
 — Charters and Rolls, 13, 35 
 
 — Collections and special MSS. 
 See under their names 
 
 — Curators, 40 
 
 — Days and Hours of opening, 
 20, 32, 41 
 
 — Dissertations, 33 
 
 — "Duke Humphrey.'^ See Read- 
 ing Room, Old 
 
 — Finance, 42, 18w, 21, 28 
 
 — Incunabula and Blockbooks, 65 
 
 — Janitor, 20, 40 
 
 — Languages represented (1606), 
 22 
 
 — Lending out books, 20, 25, 42 
 
 — Bodley's Librarian, 18, 20, 40 
 
 — Smallest Manuscript, 47 
 
 — Classical Manuscripts (statis- 
 tics), 49 
 
 — Noteworthy Manuscripts, 49- 
 54 and passim. 
 
 — Oldest complete Manuscript 49 
 
 — Early names, 16?! 
 
 — Oralis Bodleiana, 41 
 
 — Picture Gallery, 8, 21, 36, 38 
 
 — Pictures and Coins, 66 
 
 66
 
 66 
 
 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 Bodleian, Contents of the Quad- 
 rangle, 38 
 
 — Headers, 41 
 
 — Old Reading Room, 10, 14, 17, 
 38 
 
 — Upper Reading Room, 36 
 
 — Registrum Benefactoruni, 21 
 
 — Materials for research, 62-3 
 
 — Selden End, 10, 24, 26, 38 
 
 — Statistics of size, 13 
 
 — Sta§ (Oificers, Assistants, Extra 
 Staff, etc.), 20, 35, 40 
 
 — Statutes, 20, 36 
 
 — Sub -Librarians, 20, 40 
 
 — Underground Bookstore, 36, 39 
 
 — Underkeeper, 20 
 
 — Effect of the War, 37 
 
 — Warining, 32 
 
 Bodleian Quarterly Record, 37 
 Bodley, Mrs. Anne, nee Carey, 16 
 Bodley, Sir Thomas, 15-21 
 Books, earliest, 7 
 
 — Early forms of, 8 
 Boreal MSS., 53 
 Bowen MSS., 52 
 
 Bowles, Joseph, Bodlev's Librar- 
 ian (d. 1729), 28 
 
 Bradley MSS., 52 
 
 Brassev, Eail, 36 
 
 Brett MSS., 54 
 
 Biidge MSS., 52 
 
 British Museum, 8, 11, 15, 23, 42, 
 44 
 
 Browne Willis MSS., 52 
 
 Bruce MSS., 53 
 
 Burton, Robert, 24 
 
 Burton, William, 24 
 
 Bywater, Ingram, 36 
 
 Csedmon, 44 
 
 Cambridge, unique earliest view 
 of, 48 
 
 — University Library, 15, 29, 44, 
 45 
 
 Canonici MSS., 52 
 
 Carey, Anne. 16 
 
 Carte MSS., 29, 51 
 
 Casaubon MSS., 26, 50 
 
 Catullus, 52 
 
 " Century of Great Donations," 28 
 
 Chandra MSS., 36, 54 
 
 Chanson de Roland, 50 
 
 Charles I, King, 25 
 
 Charles II, King, 27, 47 
 
 Chinese, 22, 36 
 
 Clarendon, 1st Earl of, 30, 47, 52 
 
 Clarke (E.D.) MSS., 52 
 
 Clarke (W.N.) MSS., 53 
 
 Cobham, Bp. Thomas de, 14 
 
 Codex E of the Acts, 50 
 
 Codex Ebnerianus, 54 
 
 Codex of the Latin Gospels, 51 
 
 Confucius, 49 
 
 Copyright Acts, 20 
 
 Cotton, Sir Robert, 8, 21 
 
 Cowley, Di. Arthur Ernest, Bod- 
 ley's Librarian (1919- ), 37 
 
 Coxe, Rev. Henrys Octavius, Bod- 
 ley's Librarian {d. 1881), 34-5 
 
 Crevenna sale (1780). 31 
 
 Cromwell MSS., 24, 29, 50 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 25 
 
 Dawkins M^., 52 
 Deposit, libraries of, 10, 50 
 Digby MSS., 24, 50 
 Dodsworth MSS., 26, 50 
 D'OrviUe MSS., 52 
 Dugdale MSS., 53 
 Dunstan, St., 21 
 
 " Duke Humphrey." See Bodleian 
 Library — Old Reading Room 
 
 Earliest English musical com- 
 position, 51 
 ElUott MSS., 53 
 Ethelred Tropary. 51 
 Euclid (A.D. 888),' 52 
 Evans, Sir Arthur John, 58 
 Exeter Cathecb:al MSS., 21, 49 
 
 Fairfax MSS., 26, 50 
 Fairfax, Lord, 25 
 Foyle, Messrs., of London, 12 
 FurneyMSS.,52 
 
 Fysher, Robert, Bodley's Librar- 
 ian (d. 1747), 28-9 
 
 Gaigni^res drawings, 62 
 Gerrtoo. See Sanskrit 
 Georgian books, 55 
 Gloucester, Humphrey Duk» of, 
 
 14 
 Gospel-book of St. Margaret of 
 
 Scotland, 45 
 Gough colln., 52 
 Gower MSS., 54 
 Gowland, WiUiam, 59
 
 INDEX 
 
 Orangerism, 48 
 
 HallamMSS.,54 
 
 Hamond, John, 48 
 
 Hatton aiSS., 26, 50 
 
 Hearne, Thomas, 28-30, 52 
 
 Heather, Dr. William, 31 
 
 Hebrew, 33 
 
 Herculanean papyri, 54 
 
 Hereford, 10 
 
 Holman's Essex MSS., 52 
 
 Holmes MSS., 52 
 
 Hope collection of Engraved 
 
 Portraits, 38 
 Hope, Sir William St. John, 60 
 Hudson, Dr. John, Bodiey's 
 
 Librarian (c?. 1719), 28 
 Hultzsch MSS., 54 
 Hunt MSS., 52 
 Huntington MSS., 26, 50 
 Hutchins MSS., 52 
 Hyde, Dr. Thomas, Bodiey's 
 
 Librarian {d. 1703), 26 
 
 James I, King, 18 
 
 James, Dr. Thomas, Bodiey's 
 
 Librarian {d. 1629), 17-23 
 Jerome's Chronicle of Eusebius, 53 
 John, King, 60-2 
 Jones :MSS., 51 
 Junius MSS., 26, 50 
 
 King's Quail, 50 
 
 Laud MSS., 24, 50 
 
 Laud, Archbp. William, 24, 50 
 
 Lectern System, in libraiies, 9 
 
 Leiand, John, 24 
 
 Le Neve MSS. 52 
 
 Leofric Missal, 21, 49 
 
 " Librarian," classical terms for, 
 
 14 
 Libraries, earliest, 7-8 
 
 — mediaBval, 8-10 
 
 — kinas of, 10-12 
 
 — statistics of great, 12 
 Library Association, 35 
 Lister colln., 53 
 
 Lockey, Dr. Thomas, Bodiey's 
 
 Librarian (<i. 1679), 26 
 London, unique earliest view 
 
 of, 48 
 
 — See British Museum 
 Longest poem in the world, 54 
 Luther literatu-^e, 65 
 
 MacRegol Gospels, 51 
 
 Madan, Falconer, Bodiey's Li- 
 brarian (1912-19), 36-7 
 
 Malone collns., 53 
 
 Margaret, St., Queen of Scotland 
 46 
 
 Marsh MSS.. 27, 51 
 
 Marshall coUn., 29, 50 
 
 Mason MSS., 52 
 
 Meerman MSS., 53 
 
 Mendoza Codex, 50 
 
 Merle, WiUiam de, 24, 50 
 
 Mexican records, 50, 56 
 
 Michael MSS., 53 
 
 Mill MSS., 53 
 
 MiUes MSS., 53 
 
 Milton, John, 47 
 
 Modem study, its methods and 
 materials, 57-62 
 
 Montagu colln., 53 
 
 Morris, Dr. John, 41 
 
 Munich library, 12 
 
 Music (perh. the earliest English 
 composition), 51 
 
 Music School MSS., 36, c4 
 
 Nettleship, Prof. Henry, 33 
 Nichols Newspapers, 55 
 Nicholson, Edward Williams 
 
 Byion, Bodiey's Librarian {</. 
 
 1912), 35-6 
 Nicoll, Alexander, 31 
 
 Onomatopoeia, 7 
 
 Oppenheimer colln., 33, 53 
 
 Oiiental MSS., etc., 22, 31, 33, 36 
 
 Ormesby Psalter, 53 
 
 Ormulum, 50 
 
 OuseleyMSS.,53 
 
 Owen, Dr. Humphrey, Bodiey's 
 
 Librarian {d. 1768),"'29-30 
 Oxford. See Bodleian Library 
 
 — unique earliest view of, 48 _ ; 
 
 — Ashmolean Museum, 56 
 
 — Clarendon Press, 30, 36 
 
 — Colleges (loan of MSS.), 36 
 
 — Corpus Christi college, 10 
 
 — Examination schools, 36, 39 
 
 — Jesus college, 30/i 
 
 — i\Iagdalen college, 15 
 
 — Old Ashmolean Basement, 36 
 39 
 
 — Oriel college, 14
 
 68 
 
 THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AT OXFORD 
 
 Oxford, Radcliffe Camera. See 
 Bodleian Library — Camera 
 
 — Schools Quadrangle, 31 
 
 — Sheldonian Theatre and Base- 
 ment, 36, 39 
 
 — University libraries, old, 14 
 Oxford Barbers' company, 54 
 Oxford Diocesan papers, 35, 54 
 Oxford University Endowment 
 
 Fund, 36 
 
 Paris, 26 
 
 — National library, 12, 15 
 Parliament at Oxford (1681), 27 
 Pegge MSS., 52 
 
 Pembroke, Earl of, 24 
 
 Pepys MSS., 30, 51 
 
 Peterborough, 24 
 
 Petrograd library, 12 
 
 Photography, 36 
 
 Pictograms, 7 
 
 PineUi sale (1789), 31 
 
 Plato (A.D. 895), 52 
 
 Pococke MSS., 26, 50 
 
 Price, John, Bodley's Librarian 
 
 {d. 1813), 30 
 Pusey, Edw. Bouverie, 31 
 
 Rawlinson coUn., 30, 51 
 Reference, libraries of, 10, (56) 
 Rich, Jeremiah, 47 
 fi,oe MSS., 24, 50 
 Roland, Chanson de, 50 
 Rolls of papyms, etc., 8 
 Romance of Alexander, 51 
 Rome. See Vatican library 
 Rouse, John, Bodley's Librarian 
 {d. 1652), 24-5, 47 
 
 Saibante MSS., 53 
 St. Amand colln., 51 
 Bancroft MSS., 29 
 Sanskrit (" Gentoo "), 26, 36 
 Savile coUn., 36, 49, 54 
 Sayings of Our Lord, 44 
 Schoolboy's Letter, 44 
 
 Selden colln., 25, 50 
 Send, monument of, 7 
 Shakespeare, William, 23, 29, 32 
 46, 54 (signature), 55 {bis), 56 
 Sheldon MSS., 54 
 SheUey MSS., 36, 54 
 Speech, early, 7 
 Stall system, in libraries, 9 
 Stationers Company, London, 20 
 Stonehenge, 58-60 
 Sutherland Collection, 48 
 
 Tamil MSS., 53 
 Tanner coUn., 29, 51 
 Tapestry maps, 32 
 Thurloe MSS., 30, 51 
 Tractatus Lutherani, 55 
 Turbutt Shakespeare, 46 
 Turner MSS., 54 
 Turner, Will. Henry, 35 
 Twyne MSS., 49 
 
 United States libraries, 12-13 
 Uri, Johann, 31 
 Ussher's Collectanea, 52 
 
 Vatican Library, 12 
 Venice, 21 
 Vernon MS., 51 
 Vieima library, 12 
 
 Walker (A.) MSS., 63 
 
 Walker (John) MSS., 29, 51 
 
 Wall sj'stem, in libraiies, 10 
 
 Wang Hsi Chih, 49 
 
 Wardrop colln., 55 
 
 Wash, the, 60-62 
 
 Watson MSS., 54 
 
 Wight MSS., 52 
 
 Willis MSS., 52 
 
 Wilson MSS., 53 
 
 Windsoi MSS, 22, 49 
 
 Wood colk., 53 
 
 Writing, earliest, 7 
 
 Wiirzburg, 24 
 
 Wyngaerde, Antonio van den, 48 
 
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