The antiquity, the historical associations, and the treasures of the Library combine to give it a peculiar fascination. Founded in the “spacious times of great Elizabeth,” and even then carrying on the traditions of the University library 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 accessories. 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 mediæval system of chaining books, and still comfortable, though not too luxurious; or enjoy the spaciousness of the Selden End, with its outlook on St. Mary’s and its restful gloom, without feeling that he has found an earthly paradise, a true home of study, a Temple of the Religio Grammatici? 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 volumes, 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 exhaustive.
Examples of Association.
The Excavations at Oxyrhynchus (120 miles south of Cairo) produced in 1897 large quantities of Greek papyri, but perhaps the most interesting of all was a dirty, tattered and torn piece about 6 × 4 inches, such as one would throw into the waste paper basket. Yet it contains the ΛΟΓΙΑ ΙΗΣΟΥ, 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 found also a school-boy’s letter to his father, an example of the immutability of basal human nature. It is in Greek, on papyrus, written in the second or third century of our era. This is part of it: “Theon to his father Theon greeting. It was a fine thing of you not to take me with you to town.... Mother said to Archelaüs ‘He upsets me: take him 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 diminished 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. Having 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 Cædmon, the herdman of Whitby, in the seventh century. The only ancient MS. of Cædmon’s metrical paraphrase of parts of the Old Testament 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 Cædmon’s own composition cannot be here dealt with, but part corresponds 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 Northumbrian origin. Much of the interest lies in the pen-and-ink drawings which illustrate the Genesis. For instance, the ark is represented by a set of boxes erected on the deck of the largest vessel which the artist had ever seen, namely a Scandinavian war-galley with its turned up fore- and sternposts and its side steering. Out of the boxes peer the animals and birds, while the steersman has an aspect of lofty detachment which should do credit to an artist of the present day. There is no pseudo-archaism in the illustrations, but an invaluable record of buildings, costumes and life in England, half a century before the Conquest.
The chief ancient Biblical MS. possessed by the Library is a Græco-Latin uncial Acts, probably written in the sixth century, given by Archbishop Laud and 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 occur in his Retractatio in Actus are all found, and often solely, in this codex. It also has affinities with the great Cambridge MS., the Codex Bezæ, a manuscript which has in the last few years established some claim to represent the oldest tradition of the text.
A small volume in brown calf binding was sold at Sotheby’s on July 26, 1887, described as “Evangelia iv. ... Manuscript on vellum ... illuminated in 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 which occur in the Mass) written 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 poem of the eleventh century, telling 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 agreement, but on its way dropped unnoticed into a river out of the folds of the priest’s dress 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 St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland, whose chapel is still a venerated shrine in Edinburgh Castle. She was a sister of Edgar Ætheling, fled to the North, and in 1070 married Malcolm Canmore, King of Scotland. Her mild and civilizing influence on the Scottish Court and country till her death in 1093 led to canonization in 1251. The Life of her, probably by her confessor Turgot, contains the whole story in similar terms in prose, and establishes beyond a doubt that this volume 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 little harm even to an illuminated volume. It is, however, an undoubted relic, valuable alike for its liturgical contents, its romantic history and its associations.
A worn and tattered copy of the First Folio of Shakespeare (1623), plainly bound in contemporary calf, was brought up to the Library on January 23, 1905, from a Mr. Turbutt’s library at Ogston Hall, Derbyshire, for advice about repairs to the binding. Fortunately 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 still 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 volume 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 Library, 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 deterioration of each leaf, and the result is the following list of preferences: Romeo and Juliet; Julius Cæsar; The Tempest. Next: Henry IV, part i; Macbeth and Cymbeline equal. The Tragedies were most read, and the Histories least; the Comedies being intermediate.
John Rouse, who steered the Bodleian through the stormy waters of the Civil War, was a personal friend of Milton, and wrote 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 libro 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 course, as 8ᵒ M. 168 Art., to one of the Galleries of the Arts End. After about a hundred 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 thickness, and very appropriately contains shorthand writing. It was so likely to be lost that Mr. Coxe chained it to a piece of wood eighteen inches long. Knowledge of its history and contents was completely lost until in 1912 a visitor saw it, and made a suggestion which was found to be true, that it was a sermon written by Jeremiah Rich “the Semigrapher,” in his peculiar stenography, and referred to in a broadside of about 1664 as “now shown in the Publick Library in Oxford.” Rich claimed that he could write so small that his pen could scarcely be seen to move.
Imagine the Council Chamber of King Charles II, the King himself at one end, Lord Clarendon the Historian of the Rebellion at the other, and the Lords of the Council ranged along the sides: date 1660-1665. The King often desired to obtain the immediate opinion of Clarendon on matters which came before the Council, whether it was a question of arrangements for Parliament, 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 his Chancellor with 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, as revealing 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?
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 be the weeke followinge. [Then, added as an after thought] I suppose you will go with a light Trayne [i.e. you will not take the whole court with you, surely?].
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 Granger (d. 1776) published a History of England in 1769 on the theory that a series of biographies best brings out the historical features of each successive generation. The work obviously 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 folio 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 persons and places which are mentioned, even incidentally, in the histories. The result is contained in sixty-one elephant folio volumes. The quality of the engravings is of the finest, and when an engraving 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 drawing 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 which gather round the volumes of the Bodleian, but space does not allow this section to be extended.
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 by members as below:—
| i. | Bibles and Liturgies. |
| ii. | Theology and Church History. |
| iii. | Greek Literature. |
| iv. | Latin Literature. |
| v. | English Language and Literature. |
| vi. | British History. |
| vii. | British Topography. |
| viii. | Colonial and Foreign 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, will be found in the Bodleian Quarterly Record, Nos. 3, 7, 11, 12 (see p. 64).
| Cent. | Greek | Latin |
|---|---|---|
| 6th-7th | 2 | 7 |
| 8th | 1 | 8 |
| 9th | 12 | 54 |
| 10th | 21 | 63 |
| 11th | 115 | 130 |
| 12th | 87 | 552 |
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 voluminous Spring and Autumn Annals of Confucius, printed about A.D. 1150. Both 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 written in Brittany, 10th cent. (2719).
2. Windsor (1612; 67 vols.; ii).
3. Twyne (1612; 20 vols.; ix).
4. Savile (1620; 61 vols.; iii, etc.).
5. Barocci (1629; 244 vols.; i, ii, iii).
Canons of the Church, 11th cent. (26); Grammarians, 11th cent. (50); Chronicon John Malalæ, 12th cent. (182); Epistolæ 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. Digby (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., illuminated (1828).
8. Laud (1635-40; abt. 1230 vols.; i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, x).
Canons of Councils, Greek, 11th cent. (715b); Irish poems, 13th cent. (784); Sidonius Apollinaris, 10th cent. (838); Ælfric’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 English, 11th cent. (1054); Codex E of the Acts, Græco-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 English religious poem after the Conquest, abt. 1315 (5113); Cædmon, see p. 44 (5123).
15. Marshall (1685; 159 vols.; x.).
16. Barlow (1691; 54 vols.; i, ii, vi, etc.).
17. Pococke (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, 14th cent. (5749); autograph signature of Moses Maimonides (5757); Coptic Gospels, 12th cent. (5860); a Tartar Bakhtiar Nameh (MS. Hunt, 596).
19. Bernard (1698; 171 vols.; iii, iv, x. etc.).
Vendôme chronicle, 11th to 14th cent. (8537, cf. 14715); Maximianus, 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-11th cent., owned by Dunstan (2176); Old English Gospels, 11th cent. (2382); Romance of Alexander, and Marco Polo’s Travels, in French, with notable illuminations, 14th-15th cent. (2464); Sir Thomas Bodley’s Letters to his first Librarian, 17th cent. (2541); The Tropary of Ethelred, in Latin, 10th cent. (2558); Cornish plays, 15th cent. (2639, cf. 10714); Latin Gospels, Codex O, 7th cent., once called St. Augustine’s (2698); Pliny’s Epistolæ, 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 Wycliffe’s English Bible, 14th cent. (3093); Latin Acts of Councils, 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); The MacRegol Gospels, in Latin, with Old English Version, abt. A.D. 800 (3946); the original MS. of John Leland’s Collectanea and Itinerary (5102-5112*, after 6615); Anglo-Saxon Canons, 10th cent. (5232); Terence, 12th cent., with classical drawings (27603).
Eighteenth Century
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 journal of the Irish Parliament, 1585-6 (10507); original letter-book of the confederate Catholics at Kilkenny, 1642-5 (10510).
24. St. 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 Oxfordshire, abt. 1720 (11740-4); old Irish MSS., annals, cartularies and poetry (between 11822 and 11861); Prudentius, abt. A.D. 1000 (12541); perhaps “The earliest English musical composition,” abt. 1220 (14755); Avianus, 11th cent. (14836); Latin Gospels of St. Luke and St. John, 8th cent. (14890); royal letters to Qu. Elizabeth (14976); Oxford University Bedel’s book, 16th cent. (15411); Prayers for the use of Wladislaw, King of Poland, abt. 1434 (15857); Holman’s Essex 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 (1759; 60 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).
34. 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 Carmelitana (27635); Portraits of Rajahs (27697); Furney’s Gloucestershire Collections (27825-30); autograph poems by James I (27843-44).
Nineteenth Century, and After
35. Wight (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); Euclid in Greek, A.D. 888 (17179).
37. Gough (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 Lincolnshire 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 Gaignières 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. 896 (18400).
39. Canonici (1817; 2047 vols.; i, ii, iii, iv, viii, x).
Greek Evangeliaria, 9th cent. (18538, 18545); Catullus, 14th cent. (18611); Juvenal, 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); Boccaccio’s Philocopo, 15th cent., illuminated (20137); Pirro Ligorio’s drawings of Rome, 16th cent. (20190); old Slavonic service books (20639-41).
40. Saibante (1820; 52 vols.; iii).
Arrian’s Discourses of Epictetus, in Greek, 12th cent., the archetype of all existing MSS. (20531).
41. Malone (1821; 30 vols.; v).
42. Meerman (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). See p. 32.
Hours, with fine miniatures (Gonzaga, 21603; Sforza, 21614; Medici, 21616; Maximilian, 21793-4); a Codex purpureus of the Psalter, 9th cent. (21633); Primasius, on the Apocalypse, 8th cent. (21714); Gospel lections in Latin, 10th cent., with carved ivory binding (21750); Apocalypse in Latin, with fine 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. miniatures (21949); Map of the Holy Land, abt. 1400 (21964).
46. Blakeway (1840; 26 vols.; vii, Shropshire).
47. Wilson (1842; 546 vols.; x, Sanskrit).
48. Bruce (1843; 96 vols.; x, Arabic, Ethiopic).
Book of Enoch (22731); Gnostic treatise in Coptic (22753).
49. Milles (1843; 21 vols.; vii, Devon).
50. Ouseley (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. Elliott (1859; 387 vols.; x, Persian).
55. Ashmole, Wood, Lister, Dugdale, Aubrey (1860; 128 vols.; vi, vii Oxford, ix).
These collections contain more valuable material relating to Oxford history 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); Reliquiæ Lhuydianæ, 17th-18th cent. (25184-93, 25198, 25202-3); Letters to Anthony Wood, 17th cent. (25213-9).
56. Tamil (1860; 103 vols.; x, Tamil).
57. Montagu (1864; 62 vols.; iv, v, etc.).
Autograph Letters (25426-50).
58. W. N. Clarke (1868; 18 vols., vii, Berks).
59. Oxford Diocesan Papers (1878, 1914, 1916; abt. 1000 vols. or boxes; ii, vii, etc.) See p. 35.
60. Savile (1884; 147 vols.; ix.).
61. Music School (1885; 778 vols.; ix, Music).
62. Hultzsch (1887; 437 vols.; x, Sanskrit).
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 Cheshire and Lancashire Collections (25562-78); Herculanean Papyri (28047-60); Greek N.T., the Codex Ebnerianus (28118); Sheldon papers, English history, 1585-1724 (28181-87, cf. 28473); Oxford Siege papers, 1643-6 (28189); Yriarte Spanish MSS. (28360-85); Burnet MSS. (28386-95); Aubrey’s Monumenta Britannica (28426-27); Gower’s Cheshire Collections (28483-87, cf. 30704); Cornish Plays (28556-57); Greek Gospels, Codex Α, 9th cent. (28643); Genesis in Greek, 9th cent. (28644); Greek Gospels, 10th cent., Codex Γ (28645); Reader’s Coventry Collections (28854-8); a supposed Shakespeare 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 Papers; 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); Ecclesiasticus in Hebrew (32358); the Bower Sanskrit MS., 5th cent. (32602); The Logia (32901, see p. 43); a unique York Gradual (32940); The Bakhshale and Weber Sanskrit MSS. (33178-79); the Brett Nonjuror papers (MSS. Eng. 00th. c. 24-43); nearly 4000 inscribed Ostraca, in 1914.
Miscellaneous MSS. (various dates of acquisition).
Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, in French, etc., 14th cent. (30142); Goliardica, 13th cent. (30151); Ciceroniana (30350-419); Registers of the Court of the Marches of Wales, 16th cent. (30435, cf. 33088); Warren Hastings (30463-78).
In Greek: Psalter, etc., ix (1982); Xenophon’s Cyropædia, xii (2936); Manuel Phile, with miniatures, xvi (3078); Scholia on the Odyssey, xi (28347); Miniatures of Saints, xiv (2919).
B. Printed Books
The separate printed works in the Library, which are contained 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.
It has to be remembered that since 1610 (see p. 20) the Library has had a right to a copy of every book published in the United Kingdom, and receives about 300 literary 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 library. 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,[27] 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 distinctive character and are still kept together, with a few other notes.
Ashmole (English antiquities, heraldry, astrology).
Dissertations.
Douce (English literature).
Georgian (Georgian language and literature: the Wardrop Collection).
Gough (British topography).
Hope (old periodicals).
Linc. (i.e. Bp. Barlow’s books, seventeenth century).
Malone (English dramatic literature, including a large set of folios and quartos of Shakespeare’s works).
Nichols Newspapers (1672-1737, bound in one long chronological order).
Pamphlets (with a long English series in chronological order). Oxford 15th cent. press.
Parliamentary Bluebooks.
Rawlinson (miscellaneous seventeenth and eighteenth century literature).
Selden (British history).
Tanner (English literature).
Tractatus Lutherani (the Reformation in Germany).
Among rarities other than Incunabula may be mentioned as specimens:—
Nine blockbooks.
The only copy of the first edition of Shakespeare’s first publication, 1593 (see p. 32).
Two collections of early sixteenth century English romances, all rare, some unique (S. Selden, d. 45 and 4ᵒ L. 71 Art.)
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 folio volumes.
Pictures and Coins
During the seventeenth century the Bodleian became, very naturally, 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 transference 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 like) are in the New Examination 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).