43. The _Koran_, on a long and narrow roll, very elegantly written in minute characters.
Given by Archbp. Laud.
44. A Syriac fragment, on three leaves of paper.
45. A specimen of Chinese printing, on rice-paper.
46. A specimen of the Papyrus-plant, in its natural state.
47. A fine MS. of the _Koran_, from the library of Tippoo Sahib at Seringapatam.
Given by the East India Company in 1806; see p. 208.
48. A small Egyptian mummy-figure, of baked clay.
Given by Archbp. Laud.
49. A Burmese MS., written in large black characters on thirty-nine gilded palm-leaves.
"Taken from a priest"s chest in an idol-house of the deserted village of Myanoung, on the Irawaddy, thirty-five miles below Prome, April 17, 1825." Given by Rev. Joseph Dornford, Oriel College, Nov.
8, 1830.
IN THE OPPOSITE, OR NORTH, WING.
A large gla.s.s case containing a series of MSS. executed by English scribes, arranged chronologically, so as to exhibit the progress and development of the arts of caligraphy and illuminating in England. This case was added by the present Librarian three or four years ago. The following are its contents:--
1. King Alfred"s Anglo-Saxon version of the treatise _De cura pastorali_ of Pope Gregory the Great, being the copy sent by the King to Werfrith, Bishop of Worcester.
Given by Lord Hatton; see p. 100.
2. A beautiful Latin _Psalter_ of the tenth century, written in Anglo-Saxon characters, with an interlinear translation, and decorated with grotesque initial letters.
Junius MS. 37. The volume is frequently called _Codex Vossia.n.u.s_, from its having been in the possession of Isaac Voss, who gave it to Junius. Facsimiles are given by Professor Westwood, in his _Palaeographia Sacra_, and in his new and splendid book of _Fac-similes of the Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and Irish MSS_[381].
3. The _Four Gospels_, in Latin, written in Anglo-Saxon characters, about the beginning of the eleventh century.
Noticed in Westwood"s _Miniatures_, &c. (_ut supra_), p. 123.
It appears to have belonged to the abbey at Barking, a gift of t.i.thes at Laleseie, by Adam, son of Leomar de Cochefeld, being entered on a leaf at the end by order of the abbess aelfgiva. Now numbered Bodl. 155.
4. The famous _Anglo-Saxon metrical paraphrase_ of parts of Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, &c. by Caedmon[382]; ill.u.s.trated, as far as Abraham"s journey into Egypt, with a very curious series of drawings.
The MS. is considered to have been written about A.D. 1000. The latest description of the volume is in Westwood"s magnificent book of _Fac-similes_. See p. 102.
5. The _Psalter_, _Canticles_, &c., in Latin, with a Calendar; written in the first half of the eleventh century.
Noticed in Westwood"s _Miniatures and Ornaments_, &c., p. 122. Douce, 296.
6. A twelfth-century volume containing, besides various historical works, a _Bestiary_, or Natural History of Beasts, ill.u.s.trated with very curious drawings.
Given by Archbp. Laud.
7. A _Bestiary_ of the beginning of the thirteenth century, enriched with many very curious paintings upon a ground of brilliant gold.
Ashmole, 1511.
8. Another _Bestiary_, of slightly later date, illuminated in the same manner.
Bodl. 764.
9. The _Apocalypse_, ill.u.s.trated in a series of very curious drawings, lightly coloured. Executed about 1250.
These illuminations have been p.r.o.nounced by Mr. c.o.xe, to be, with little or no doubt, executed by the same hand as those of MS. Ee.
III. 59. in the University Library, Cambridge, a volume which contains a Life of Edward the Confessor, in French verse, and which was printed in 1858, under the editorship of H. R. Luard, M.A., in the series of Chronicles published under the authority of the Master of the Rolls. In this Life is found a particular description of Westminster Abbey, which is not elsewhere met with, and it is consequently inferred that the writer was a monk of that church. And in the course of the restorations which are now being carried on in the Chapter House (which was built about 1250), a series of mural paintings, ill.u.s.trating the history of St. John, has been brought to light, one of which is a representation similar to that in the Bodley MS. of St. John "ante portam Latinam," and in both cases the cauldron bears the same inscription of "_Dolium_ ferventis olei."
10. A _Primer_, written about the middle of the fourteenth century.
The arms of Edw. III (England 1 and 4, France 2 and 3) are painted on the first leaf. One of Rawlinson"s MSS.
11. A beautiful _Psalter_, which belonged to Peterborough Cathedral.
"Psalterium fratris Walteri de Rouceby," followed by the Canticles, Athanasian Creed, Litany, &c. A Calendar is prefixed, with Peterborough obits, from which it appears that Rouceby died May 4, 1341. A series of nineteen miniatures, ill.u.s.trating the life of our Blessed Lord and of the Virgin Mary, precedes the Psalter. The arms of Edward III appear at the head of Ps. i. One of Bp. Barlow"s MSS.; in 1604 it belonged to one John Harborne.
12. A _Psalter_, with Canticles, Hymns, &c., written in the latter half of the fourteenth century.
Apparently one of Rawlinson"s MSS.
13. "_Ye Dreme of Pilgrimage of ye Soule_, translated out of French [of G. Guilevile] into Inglissh, with somwhat of addicions of ye translatour, ye zeere of our Lord, 1400." Ill.u.s.trated with curious coloured drawings.
A precursor of Bunyan"s _Pilgrim"s Progress_, with which it has been compared. It was printed by Caxton in 1483, and his edition was reprinted in 1859.
This MS. was given to the Library, apparently in Bodley"s time, by Sir James Lee, Knt.
14. _Commentary on the Pa.s.sion of our B. Lord_ ("Scripta super totam Pa.s.sionem Christi a quatuor Evangelistis formatam"), by Michael de Ma.s.sa, of the order of Augustinian Hermits.
Written (as a final colophon records) by Ralph de Medyltone at Ingham (Suffolk?), A.D. 1405, for Sir Miles de Stapiltone. A drawing of the Crucifixion at the beginning. Bodl. MS. 758.
15. "_The Mirroure of the Worlde_, that some calleth Vice and Vertu;"
translated from the Latin of Laurence the Frenchman (Laur. Gallus), and ill.u.s.trated with some drawings of remarkable grace and spirit, supposed to be by some Flemish artist.
A MS. of the early part of the fifteenth century; on paper. Bodl.
283.
16. _Horae_, formerly in the possession of Queen Mary I. See p. 42.
17. _Treatise of Roger Bacon_, "de r.e.t.a.r.dacione accidentium senectutis;"
with two drawings. Middle of the fifteenth century. Bodl. MS. 211.