Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A.D. 1598-A.D. 1867.
by William Dunn Macray.
PREFACE.
This volume is an attempt to tell a tale which has not been told with any particularity and fulness since the days of Anthony a Wood, and yet a tale which, since those days, has been continually growing in interest, and engaging in fresh scenes the attention and admiration of successive generations. Fragments of the tale, it is true, have been told at times; latest of all, an abstract, brief but accurate, has been given in Mr. Edwards" valuable _Memoirs of Libraries_. But the present narrative, while it embraces a wider range, is, at the same time, independent throughout of all that have preceded it, being largely compiled from sources available only to those who are familiar with the stores of the Library and habituated to their use, as well as from private accounts and papers, for access to which, as for other kind a.s.sistance, the writer is indebted to the Librarian. Yet it is only as an _attempt_ that the volume asks to be received and judged; for a work of this kind cannot at once attain completeness. Its very size will show to those who are acquainted with its subject, that minuteness in detail cannot be expected. The difficulty has been, out of the abundance of materials, to compile an epitome which should at once be concise and yet not, through conciseness, be deprived of interest. To point out all the special treasures in each branch in which the Library is rich, as it would occupy the extent of several volumes, so it would require the combined knowledge of several students, each in his several sphere.
While, therefore, no portion of the Library has been unnoticed, it will, the writer trusts, be readily pardoned, should those portions with which he is specially acquainted, and in the direction of which his own line of work specially leads, seem to any to occupy more prominence than others of equal importance. It is worthy of notice that, in tracing the growth and history of the Library, the fact of its older divisions having undergone comparatively little change in arrangement, greatly facilitates examination, and, at the same time, often imparts an interest of its own to well-nigh each successive shelf of books; for each tier has thus its own record of successive benefactions and successive purchases to display, and leads us on step by step from one year to another.
"_Bowers of Paradise!_" Thus it was that an enthusiastic Hebrew student, writing of the Bodleian but a few years ago, apostrophized the little cells and curtained cages wherein readers sit, while hedged in and canopied with all the wisdom and learning of bygone generations, which here bloom their blossoms and yield up their fruits. And, as if answering in actual living type to the parable which the Eastern metaphor suggests, these cells from year to year have been and (though of late more infrequently) still are, the resort of grand and grave old bees, majestic in size and deportment, of sonorous sound, and covered with the dust, as it were, of ages. Just as a solemn rookery befits an ancestral mansion, so these Bees of the Bodleian form a fitting accompaniment to the place of their choice. And while the Metaphor well describes the character of that place whither men resort for refreshment amidst the work of the world and for the recruiting of mental strength for the doing of such work, so the Type well describes those who from the bowers gather sweetness and wealth, first for their own enriching and next for the enriching of others. Long then in these bowers may there be found busy hives of men; above all, those that gather thence, abundantly, such Wisdom as is _prae melle ori_.
BODLEIAN LIBRARY, _May_ 30, 1868.
ANNALS OF THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY.
In the north-east corner of St. Mary"s Church, a church full of nooks little known to ordinary visitors, is a dark vaulted chamber (dark, because its windows have been built up), whose doors, when opened, only now reveal the abiding-place of the University fire-engines. Here of old sat the Chancellor of the University, surrounded by the Doctors and Masters of the Great Congregation, in a fashion which was formerly depicted in the great west window of St. Mary"s Church, and is still represented on the University seal, and which, in the early part of the last century, was adopted by Dr. Richard Rawlinson as his book-plate, being engraved from the impression attached to his own diploma in Civil Law. Above this chamber there is another, lighted by four windows, containing forty-five feet in length and twenty in breadth, and now a.s.signed as the lecture-room of the Professor of Law. Here was begun about 1367, and finally established and furnished in 1409, the first actual University Library, called after Bishop Thomas Cobham, of Worcester, who about 1320 (seven years before his death) had commenced preparations for the building of the room and the making provision for its contents[1]. Wood tells us that before this time there were indeed some books kept in chests in St. Mary"s Church, which were to be lent out under pledges, as well as some chained to desks, which were only to be read _in situ_; but _this_ University chest soon gave way to the formal Library, as, at a later period, another University chest was lost in funded investments and a banker"s balance[2]. Another precursor of the general Library was found in the collection bequeathed to Durham College (on the site of which now stands Trinity College) in 1345 by one of its founders, the earnest lover and preserver of books, Philip of Bury; he of that charming book, that "tractatus vere pulcherrimus," the _Philobiblion_. He,--who apostrophizes books as the masters who teach without flogging or fleecing, without punishment or payment; as ears of corn, full of grain, to be rubbed only by apostolic hands; as golden pots of manna; as Noah"s ark and Jacob"s ladder, and Joshua"s stones of testimony and Gideon"s lamps and David"s scrip, and who says that in the n.o.blest monasteries of England he found precious volumes defiled and injured by mice and worms, and abandoned to moths,--gave strict injunctions for the care of the large collection, gathered from all quarters, with which he enriched his College[3]. It was to be free for purposes of study to all scholars, who might have the loan of any work of which there was a duplicate, provided they left a pledge exceeding it in value, but for purposes of transcription no volume was to go beyond the walls of the house. A register was to be kept, and a yearly visitation was to be held[4]. Some of these books, on the dissolution of the College by Henry VIII, are said to have been transferred to Duke Humphrey"s Library, and some to Balliol College.
The Librarian of Cobham"s Library was also ent.i.tled Chaplain to the University, and as such was ordered, in 1412, to offer ma.s.ses yearly for those who were benefactors of the University and Library, and was endowed with half a mark yearly, as well as with 5 issuing from the a.s.size of bread and ale, which had been granted to the University by King Henry IV, who was also a princ.i.p.al contributor to the completion of the Library, and is therefore to this day duly remembered in the Bidding-Prayer at all the academic "Commemorationes Solenniores." But no trace remains of the devotional and sacred duties once attaching to the office, and laymen have been eligible to it from the time of Bodley"s re-foundation. The old regal stipend, however, amounting at last to 6 13_s._ 4_d._, continued to be paid to the Librarian, until in 1856, by the revised code of statutes, various small payments were consolidated; it is found entered in the annual printed accounts up to that year.
But not a score of years had pa.s.sed after Cobham"s Library had been actually completed and opened before the building of a room more worthy of the University was commenced. In 1426 the University began to erect the present n.o.ble Divinity School for the exercises in that faculty; but as their own means soon failed they betook themselves to all likely quarters to procure help. And Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, the patron of all learning[5], and the fosterer of the New School of theological thought, the protector of Pec.o.c.k, responded so liberally to the pet.i.tion of the University for aid to the fabric of their Material School, that he is styled (says Wood) in the Bedell"s Book its Founder, while the roof to this day perpetuates his memory among the shields of arms of benefactors with which its graceful pendants terminate. His gifts of money for the School were quickly followed by still larger gifts of books for the Library. Between the years 1439 and 1446 he appears to have forwarded about 600 MSS., which were for the time deposited in chests in Cobham"s Library. The first donation, consisting of 129 volumes, was forwarded in November, 1439. The letter of thanks from Convocation is dated the 25th of that month, and on the same day a letter was sent to the House of Commons, to the "ryght worshypfull syres, the Speker, knyghtes, and burges (_sic_) of the worshepfull parlament," informing them that the Duke had magnified the University "with a thousand pounds worth and more of preciose bokes," and therefore beseeching their "sage discrecions to considere the gloriose gifts of the graciose prince ... for the comyn profyte and worshyp of the Reme, to thanke hym hertyly, and also prey G.o.dde to thanke hym in tyme comyng wher goode dedys ben rewarded." Statutes for the regulation of the gift were made on the same day, prayers appointed, and provision made for the observance of the Duke"s obit[6]. A catalogue of 364 of the MSS. is printed, from the lists preserved in the University Register, p. 758, vol. ii. of Rev. H. Anstey"s _Doc.u.ments Ill.u.s.trative of Social and Academic Life at Oxford_, published in the series of Chronicles issued by the Master of the Rolls. The extent of these gifts rendered the room at St. Mary"s quite insufficient for the purpose to which it was a.s.signed, and the University therefore, in a letter to the Duke, dated July 14, 1444, informed him of their intention to erect a more suitable building, of which (as a delicate way, probably, of bespeaking his aid towards the cost, as well as of testifying their grat.i.tude for past benefactions) they formally offered him the t.i.tle of Founder. In the subjoined note is given an extract from this letter (copied from the Register of Convocation), which is interesting from its description of the inconveniences of the old room, and the advantages of the new site[7]. And this new building, first contemplated in A.D. 1444 and finished about 1480, forms now the central portion of the great Reading-Room, still retaining its old advantages of convenience and of seclusion "a strepitu saeculari."
The Duke"s MSS. were, as became the object of his gift, very varied in character. With works in Divinity are mingled in the catalogue a large number in Medicine and Science, together with some in lighter literature, amongst which latter are found no less than seven MSS. of Petrarch and three of Boccaccio. Some additional MSS., being "all the Latyn bokes that he had," together with 100 towards the completion of the "Divyne Scoles," which the Duke had intended to bequeath, but the formal bequest of which was prevented by his dying intestate in 1447, were subsequently procured, although with considerable difficulty[8].
But only three out of the whole number of his MSS. are now known to exist in the present Library. One of these is a fine copy of books iv.-ix. of Valerius Maximus, with the commentary by D. de Burgo, and with an index by John de Whethamstede, Abbot of St. Alban"s (now marked, Auctarium, F. infra, i. 1[9]); the second is a translation by L. Aretine of the Politics of Aristotle (marked, Auct. F. v. 27); and the third, the Epistles of Pliny (Auct. F. ii. 23). The first bears the Duke"s arms; the second has an original dedication to him by the translator; the last (which was restored to the University by Dr. Robert Master, Oct. 30, 1620) contains his own autograph. Six MSS. now in the British Museum, which formerly belonged to the Duke, are described in Sir H.
Ellis" _Letters of Eminent Literary Men_, (printed by the Camden Society,) pp. 357-8. Two of these appear in the List of Humphrey"s benefaction to Oxford; for Harl. 1705, which is a translation of Plato"s Politics by Peter Candidus, or White, who gave it to the Duke, is doubtless the book entered at the end of the List as "Item, novam traductionem totius Politeiae Platonicae;" while Cotton, Nero. D. v., the Acts of the Council of Constance, appears at fol. 67. Another of these six MSS., Harl. 988, is an anonymous commentary on the Canticles[10], which formerly belonged to Sir Robert Cotton, and which contains an inscription by him intended to commemorate his returning it to the University Library in 1602. It came into Harley"s possession amongst Bishop Stillingfleet"s MSS., all of which were bought by him. A letter from Wanley to Hearne, in which the book is mentioned, is preserved in the Bodleian in a Rawlinson MS. (Letters xvii.) under date of Oct. 13, 1714, Hearne"s reply to which is printed by Sir H. Ellis, _ubi supra_; while Wanley"s rejoinder is also found in the above MS, dated Oct. 27, in which he says, "As for my Lord"s MS. of the Canticles, designed for the Bodleyan Library by Sir Robert Cotton, I know not how you find it to have once belonged to Humphrey, duke of Gloucester. My Lord has indeed two of his books, which we know to have been his, for certain; because one of them (which was given to his Lordship) hath a note therein of his hand-writing, and the other hath his armes and stile on the outside, as also his library-mark. This last (which was bought of Sir Simonds D"Ewes), together with the Cotton MS. of the Canticles, I besought his Lordship to give to the University for your Library, and I hope his Lordship will do so in a little time." Another of the Duke"s books, being Capgrave"s Commentary on Genesis, which occurs in the second list of those given to the University, is now in the library of Oriel College. One volume, containing, among other philosophical treatises, Plato"s _Phaedo_, _Timaeus_, &c., with the Duke"s autograph, "Cest livre a moy Homfrey duc de Gloucestre" (given to him by an Abbot of St. Alban"s) is in Corpus Christi College, 243. And a copy of Wickliffe"s Bible, in two volumes, which bears Humphrey"s arms, is amongst the Egerton MSS.
(617-8), Brit. Mus.
The large increase of treasures which these benefactions brought to the University probably caused the first inst.i.tution of a formal Visitation.
On Nov. 29, 1449, we find that Visitors were appointed by Congregation for the purpose of receiving from the Chaplain an account of the books contained in the Library[11].
Duke Humphrey was followed in the good work of the Divinity School and Library by another whose name still retains its place in the formal list of benefactors, Bishop Thomas Kempe, of London, who, besides contributing very largely in money towards the completion of the former, sent some books to the latter in 1487, some seven years after the new room had been finally completed and opened for use. But Antony Wood (in whose pages records of other benefactors may be found) tells us that very few years pa.s.sed before the Library began to lose some of its newly-acquired treasures; for Scholars borrowed books upon petty and insufficient pledges, and so chose to forfeit the latter rather than return the former[12], while tradition reported that Polydore Virgil, the historian, being at length refused any further opportunities of abstraction, obtained a special licence from Henry VIII for the taking out any MS. for his use! From this traditionary report Sir H. Ellis, in his introduction to a translation of Virgil"s history, printed for the Camden Society in 1844, endeavours to vindicate his author"s reputation, but more by conjecture than evidence. In 1513 a Chaplain and Librarian was elected, named Adam Kirkebote[13]. The new Librarian, soon after, supplicated Congregation that on Festival Days he should not be bound to open the Library before twelve o"clock; a practice which, commencing at that day, does still unto this (the Library on Holy Days during Term being now not opened until the conclusion of the University sermon, at eleven o"clock) witness to the religious spirit which pervades all the old inst.i.tutions of Oxford. In 1527, when one Flecher was Chaplain, it is recorded[14] that "Magister" Claymond (doubtless the President of Corpus Christi College, of that name) was permitted by vote of Congregation to take Pliny"s Natural History out of the Library. In 1543 Humphrey Burnford was elected Chaplain on Oct. 31, in the room of -- Whytt, deceased[15]. It was probably during his tenure of office that the Library was destroyed. For in 1550 the Commissioners deputed by Edward VI for reformation of the University visited the Libraries in the spirit of John Knox, destroying, without examination, all MSS.
ornamented by illuminations or rubricated initials as being eminently Popish, and leaving the rest exposed to any chance of injury and robbery. The traditions which Wood has recorded as having been learned at the mouths of aged men who had in their turn received them from those who were contemporaneous with the Visitation, are abundantly confirmed by the well-known descriptions of Leland and Bale of what went on in other places, and therefore, although no direct doc.u.mentary evidence of the proceedings of the spoilers is known to exist, we may believe that Wood"s account of pillage and waste, of MSS. burned, and sold to tailors for their measures, to bookbinders for covers, and the like, until not one remained _in situ_, is not a whit exaggerated. One solitary entry there is, however, in the University Register (I. fol. 157^a), which, while it records the completion of the catastrophe, sufficiently thereby corroborates the story of all that preceded, viz. the entry which tells that in Convocation on Jan. 25, 1555-6, "electi sunt hii venerabiles viri, Vice-cancellarius et Procuratores, Magister Morwent, praeses Corporis Christi, et Magister Wright, ad vendenda subsellia librorum in publica Academiae bibliotheca, ipsius Universitatis nomine." The books of the "public" library had all disappeared; what need then to retain the shelves and stalls, when no one thought of replacing their contents, and when the University could turn an honest penny by their sale? and so the _venerabiles viri_ made a timber-yard of Duke Humphrey"s treasure-house.
But four years after the final despoiling of the Library there was an undergraduate entered at Magdalen College, who, by the good Providence which always out of evil brings somewhat to counterpoise and correct, was to be moved by the sight of the ruin and desolation to restore what his seniors had destroyed, and to reconstruct the old Plantagenet"s Library on such a basis, and with such means for carrying on its re-edification, that the glory of the latter house should soon eclipse that of the former. All around him he doubtless found traces of the recent destruction; his stationer may have sold him books bound in fragments of those MSS. for which the University but a century before had consecrated the memory of the donors in her solemn prayers; the tailor who measured him for his sad-coloured doublet, may have done it with a strip of parchment brilliant with gold, that had consequently been condemned as Popish, or covered with strange symbols of an old heathen Greek"s devising, that probably pa.s.sed for magical and unlawful incantations. And the soul of the young student must have burned with shame and indignation at the apathy which had not merely tolerated this destruction by strangers, but had contentedly a.s.sisted in carrying it out to its thorough completion. Himself a successful student, he became eager to help others to whom thus the advantages of a library were denied; and, for a while without fee or reward, undertook a public Greek lecture in the Hall of Merton College, to which college he had been elected in 1563[16]. And when, after years thus spent in academic pursuits, THOMAS BODLEY betook himself to diplomatic service abroad, he still, amidst all the distractions of foreign and domestic politics, preserved his affection for the scenes and the studies of his early familiarity. So, when the days came wherein statecraft began to weary him and Courts ceased to charm, his thoughts reverted to the place where, free from these, he might still, although in a more private capacity, labour for the good of the commonwealth; he remembered the room once precious to students, "scientiarum sedes," as the University had called it of old, but now dest.i.tute alike both of science and of seats. "And thus," says he himself, "I concluded at the last to set up my staff at the Library-door in Oxon; being thoroughly persuaded that, in my solitude and surcease from the commonwealth-affairs, I could not busy myself to better purpose than by reducing that place (which then in every part lay ruined and waste) to the publick use of students[17]." So therefore, on Feb. 23, 1597-8, he wrote a letter to the Vice-Chancellor, offering that whereas "there hath bin heretofore a publike library in Oxford, which, you know, is apparant by the roome itself remayning, and by your statute records, I will take the charge and cost upon me, to reduce it again to his former use," first by fitting it up with shelves and seats, next by procuring benefactions of books, and lastly by endowing it with an annual rent[18]. This offer being accepted with great grat.i.tude, other letters followed from him in March, in which he desired that delegates should be chosen to consider the best mode of fitting up the room, and mentioned an offer on the part of his own College, Merton, to provide timber for the purpose. Two years were spent in the carrying out of this work and in the preliminary arrangements.
Amongst these preparations was the putting up the beautiful roof which to this day is such an object of deserved admiration. It is divided into square compartments, on each of which are painted the arms of the University, being the open Bible, with seven seals[19], between three ducal crowns, on the open pages of which are the words (so truly fitting for a Christian School) "DOMINUS Illuminatio mea[20];" while on bosses that intervene between each compartment are painted the arms of Bodley himself, being five martlets with a crescent for difference, quartered with the arms of Hone (his mother"s family), two bars wavy between three billets; on a chief the three ducal crowns of the University shield, "quarum merito gloriam ab Academia derivavit." (Wake, _Rex Platon_. p.
12.) The striking motto "Quarta perennis erit" was a.s.signed to Bodley at the same time with this academic augmentation[21]. When, in 1610, the eastern wing of the Library was erected, a similar roof was added, as was also done to the Picture Gallery (built between 1613-1619); in the latter room the roof, having become decayed and out of repair, was unhappily altogether removed in the year 1831, and a plaster ceiling, divided into compartments, subst.i.tuted. A few of the panels of this roof have been preserved, one bearing the figures of two cats, which used to be an object of interest to juvenile visitors, and a series bearing the letters which compose Sir Thomas Bodley"s name, together with a portrait of him upon a centre panel. A high-backed arm-chair, the Librarian"s seat of office in the Library, was formed out of oak from the roof, and an engraving hangs in the Gallery which represents the room before its change for the worse.
On June 25, 1600, Bodley wrote to the Vice-Chancellor, mentioning that, as the mechanical work was now brought to a good pa.s.s, he had begun to busy himself in the gathering of books, and had provided a Register for the enrolment of the names of all benefactors, with particulars of their gifts. This Register (formerly, like all the books in folio, chained to its desk), consisting of two large folio volumes, on vellum, now lies on a table in the great room, and is an object of notice by most visitors.
The volumes are ornamented exteriorly with silver-gilt bosses on their ma.s.sy covers, on which are engraved the arms of Bodley and those of the University, and interiorly in many places with the donors" coats of arms painted in their proper colours, and with various devices. Vol. i.
extends from 1600 to 1688, containing 428 pages in double columns; and commences with a printed record of the gifts for the first four years, on pp. 1-90. The following printed t.i.tle is prefixed: "Munificentissimis atque optimis cujusvis ordinis, dignitatis, s.e.xus, qui Bibliothecam hanc libris, aut pecuniis numeratis ad libros coemendos, aliove quovis genere ampliarunt, Thomas Bodleius, eques auratus, honorarium hoc volumen, in quod hujuscemodi donationes, simulque nomina donantium singillatim referuntur, pietatis, memoriae, virtutisque causa, dedit, dedicavit." A paragraph follows, which mentions Bodley"s own work of refitting and endowing, and notes that his own large gifts are not entered because he hopes throughout his life to make continually large additions. The whole of this t.i.tle is printed in the preface to James" first Catalogue, issued in 1605, who was probably part-writer of it[22]. Wake (_Rex Platonicus_, p. 120) speaks of the Register, "aureis umbilicis fibulisque fulgidum," as always lying "eminentissimo loco," a prominent object of notice to all who entered the Library. Vol. ii. extends from 1692 to 1795, ending in the middle of the volume, on p. 216; but there is reason to fear that there are many omissions in the later portion of its period. Each volume has an index of names. The gifts of the princ.i.p.al donors, as recorded in this Register up to its close, are printed in Gutch"s edition of _Wood"s History_, vol. ii. part ii. pp.
920-950. It will not be necessary, therefore, to mention here the names of many, but of such only as are "e principibus principes." From the year 1796 inclusive, when the gifts of donors began to be entered in the annual printed catalogues of purchases and statements of accounts, this MS. Register ceased to be used.
Among the first and largest benefactors in the year 1600 occur Lord Buckhurst (afterwards Earl of Dorset), the Earl of Ess.e.x, Lords Hunsdon, Montacute, [editions of the Fathers], Lisle (afterwards Leicester), Lumley[23], and William Gent, who gave a large collection of books, chiefly medical.
Many volumes were given about this time by Bodley, which had been collected in Italy by Bill, the London bookseller, who was employed by Sir Thomas to travel on the Continent as his agent for this purpose.
The famous copy of the French _Romance of Alexander_ (now numbered Bodl.
264) must have been one of the MSS. given by Bodley himself at the commencement of his work, as it is found entered in the printed Catalogue of 1605, but does not occur in the Benefactors" Register. It is decorated with a large number of beautiful paintings on a chequered background of gold and colour; but its special interest lies in the ill.u.s.trations at the foot of about half the pages, which exhibit the most quaint and grotesque representations of customs, trades, amus.e.m.e.nts, dress, &c., of the time. Some of these were engraved by Strutt; and four specimens, together with one of the larger miniatures ill.u.s.trating the text, are given by Dibdin in his _Bibl. Decam._ vol.
i., where, at pp. 198-201, he discourses, in his own peculiar fashion, on the merits of the volume. A notice of the book may also be found in Warton"s _Hist. of Engl. Poetry_, edit. 1840, vol. i. p. 142. At f. 208 is the following colophon, which is of much interest, as affording evidence that the work of the painter occupied upwards of five years:--
"Che define li romans du boin roi Alixandre, Et les veus du pavon, les accompliss.e.m.e.ns, Le Restor du pavon et le pris, qui fu perescript Le xviii^e ior de Decembre, lan M.ccc.x.x.xviii.
Explicit iste liber, scriptor sit crimine liber, Xpristus scriptorem custodiat ac det honorem.
(_In gold letters._) "Che liure fu perfais de le enluminure au xviii^e jour dauryl. Per Jehan de grise, Lan de grace, M.ccc.xliij."
This is followed by a continuation (of later date) of the romance, in Northern-English verse, on seven leaves[24]; and lastly, by a French Romance of the "grant kaan a la graunt cite de Tambaluc." A scribe"s name is given in the following lines on f. 208, but in a hand apparently not that of any part of the book:--
"Laus tibi sit Christe, quoniam liber explicit iste.
Nomen scriptoris est Thomas Plenus Amoris[25]."
The earliest owner"s name occurring in the volume is that of "Richart de Widevelle, seigneur de Rivieres," recorded in an inscription on the cover at the end, which proceeds to say that "le dist Seigneur acetast le dist liure lan de grace mille cccclxvi. le premier jour de lan a Londres." Rivers" own autograph follows ("Ryverys"), with some words in French, written in a perfectly frantic scrawl. Subsequent owners were "Gyles Strangwayes" and "Jaspere Ffylolle" (whose signatures are engraved by Dibdin, _ubi supra_), and "Thomas Smythe[26]."
[1] When Duke Humphrey"s Library was completed, and the books were removed thither, this upper room took the place of that beneath it as the Convocation House, "in which upper room," says Hearne, "was brave painted gla.s.s containing the arms of the benefactors, which painted gla.s.s continued till the times of the late rebellion." (Bliss, _Reliquiae Hearnianae_, ii. 693.)
[2] The original treasure-chest, from which all academic money-grants are still said to be made, is preserved in the Bursary of Corpus Christi College, in which college it was kept in accordance with the statutes of the University, t.i.t. xx. -- 1.
[3] The Bishop"s Bibliomania is thus noticed by a contemporary, W. de Chambre, in his _Continuatio Hist. Dunelm._ (_Hist. Dunelm. Scriptt.
tres_; Surtees Society, 1839, p. 130):--"Iste summe delectabatur in mult.i.tudine librorum. Plures enim libros habuit, sicut pa.s.sim dicebatur, quam omnes Pontifices Angliae. Et praeter eos quos habuit in diversis maneriis suis, repositos separatim, ubicunque c.u.m sua familia residebat, tot libri jacebant sparsim in camera qua dormivit, quod ingredientes vix stare poterant vel incedere nisi librum aliquem pedibus conculcarent."
The bedroom of the late centenarian President of Magdalene College, Dr.
Routh, was in this respect just like Bishop Bury"s; and as the latter sent his library from Durham to be in some sort a nucleus for an University Library at Oxford, so the former bequeathed his to Durham that it might a.s.sist the development of the University Library there.
[4] _Philobiblion_, cap. xix.
[5] His love of literature was evinced by the motto which, according to Leland, was frequently written by him in his books: "Moun bien mondain."
(Hearne"s _MS. Diary_, x.x.xvi. 199.) Hearne, in his esteem for the memory of this "religious, good, and learned Prince," quaintly says that he used, whenever he saw his handwriting in the Bodleian Library (where it occurs several times), "to show a sort of particular respect" to it.
(_Preface to Langtoft_, p. xx.) Was this "sort of respect" a reverential kiss, such as that with which (as Warton in his _Companion to the Guide_ tells us) he saluted the pavement of sheeps" trotters, supposed by him to be a Roman tesselated floor?
[6] Register of Convoc. F., ff. 53^b, 54^b. The subsequent gifts are entered in the same Register as follows:--
1. Last day of Feb., 1440. A letter to thank the Duke for 126 volumes brought by John Kyrkeby. (f. 57^b.)
2. Nov. 10, 1441. Letter acknowledging ten books (Treatises of Augustine, Raba.n.u.s, &c.,) received through Will. Say, proctor, and John Kyrkeby. (ff. 59^b-60.)
3. Jan. 25, 1443. Letter of thanks for 139 volumes. (f. 63.)
4. Oct. 1443. Letter for another gift, number of volumes not specified. (f. 66.)
5. Feb. 25, 1443 (-4?). Catalogue of 135 volumes. (ff. 67-68^b.)
6. Feb. 1446. Letter of thanks for another gift, not specified. (f.
75^b.)
[7] "Nemo illos [libros] sine admiratione conspicit, cunctis una voce testantibus, se nunquam libros tanta claritate conspicuos, tanta gravitate refertos vidisse.... Et uc per hoc, si quid maximo addi possit, tantae munificentiae gloria fiat ill.u.s.trior, optamus sacram et celebrem scientiarum sedem reparari, ubi honorificentius et ad utilitatem studentium multo commodius libri vestri, ab aliis segregati, collocentur. Jam enim si quis, ut fit, uni libro inhaereat, aliis studere volentibus ad tres vel quatuor pro vicinitate colligationis praecludit accessum. Itaque locus huic rei n.o.bis maxime videtur idoneus ubi venerabilis vir, modo Cancellarius noster, semper reverendus pater amantissimus Magister Thomas Chace, spectabilem novarum Scolarum fabricam ad caetera suae virtutis testimonia insigni mensura ab humo erexit, quam nos cito, quoad exigua suppetebat facultas, promovimus. Hic locus, propterea quod a strepitu saeculari removetur, Bibliotecae admodum videtur conveniens, cujus fundationis t.i.tulum, si Magnanimitati vestrae acceptabilis fuerit, c.u.m omni devotione offerrimus." Register F. ff.