[19] From 'The Library,' by leave of the editor.
From time to time attention has been called to the letter in which John
Durie put together, for the first time in England, a series of
suggestions on the duties of a Librarian, but, so far as I am aware,
Durie's letter has never been reprinted in full, and I propose here to
preface it with a few notes on the author's own career as a librarian,
for which the Calendars of State Papers offer some materials. Of Durie's
long life--he was born in 1596 and did not die till 1680--we need
concern ourselves with only a very few months. As we shall see, his
employer Whitelock asserts that he was a German, but this is a mistake,
for he was born in Edinburgh, although the persecuted life of his
father, Robert Durie, caused him to be educated abroad, chiefly at
Sedan. From an early period he devoted himself to the cause of religious
unity among the Protestant Churches of Europe, and in this cause he
laboured all his life, possibly with more zeal than wisdom. When he
found how hardly religious unity was to be achieved he was ready, we are
told, to regard the acceptance of the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles'
Creed, and the Ten Commandments as the sole requirement for
intercommunion. In the seventeenth century this certainly amounted to
latitudinarianism, and it is not easy to acquit Durie of a disposition
to run both with hare and hounds, which did not escape the observation
of his contemporaries. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was a
Royalist and acted for some time as Chaplain to the Princess Mary of
Orange at the Hague. But he wearied of this employment, returned to
England, served the Commonwealth, both as librarian and as literary hack
in offices peculiarly distasteful to the Royalists, and yet after the
Restoration did not fail to endeavour to explain away his defection. A
political comprehensiveness such as this may perhaps explain the reason
why, despite his journeyings all over the north of Europe, Durie's
efforts after religious unity so signally failed to attract theologians
of any party. The believers in black and the believers in white will
hardly admire the man who adopts grey as the only wear, and endeavours
to make it serve for each in turn.
The excellence of Durie's treatise on library-management speaks for
itself, but it seems not altogether unlikely that it was composed for
the special purpose of the author's advancement. It is prefaced by a
short letter by Samuel Hartlib, the friend of Milton, and Durie, as we
shall see, shortly afterwards was employed to translate Milton's
'Eiconoclastes' into French. On August 5, 1650 (the year in which the
'Reformed Librarie-Keeper' was published), Durie had been granted
liberty by the Council of State, to which Milton was Latin Secretary, to
abide in the Commonwealth, and on August 21 this grant was confirmed by
warrant 'granting license to Mr. Durie to stay in England till further
order, on security for good behaviour.' Now some weeks before this the
Council of State had taken into consideration what should be done with
the Royal Collections of books, manuscripts, and medals, and had
resolved to appoint Whitelocke their keeper, and to allow him the
services of an Assistant. If Durie's 'Reformed Librarie-Keeper' was
written at this juncture, at the suggestion of Milton and Hartlib in
order to forward his claims to the Assistant-ship, it was certainly very
well timed, and it is not unlikely that this was actually the case.
Whitelocke's account of the matter, under date July 30, 1650, is as
follows:
'July 30. Referred to the Council of State to preserve the books
and medals at St. James's from imbezzlement.
'After this Order past, the Council propounded it to me, whether I
would take upon me the Charge and Care of these precious Medals and
Books, and to be the Library-Keeper, and to appoint whom I thought
fit to look to them under me.
'I knew the greatness of the charge, and considered the prejudice
that might fall out, by being responsible for those rich jewels,
the imbezzlement whereof would be attempted by many, and my other
occupations would not permit me to give much personal attendance on
this business, nor to enjoy much of the delight of perusing them.
'Yet I, being informed of a design in some to have them sold and
transported beyond sea, which I thought would be a dishonour and a
damage to our nation, and to all scholars therein, and fearing that
in other hands they might be more subject to imbezzleing, and being
willing to preserve them for publick use, I did accept of the
trouble of being Library-Keeper at St. James's and therein was
encouraged and much persuaded to it by Mr. Selden, who swore that
if I did not undertake the charge of them--all those rare Monuments
of Antiquity, those choice Books and Manuscripts would be lost, and
there were not the like to them, except only in the Vatican, in any
other Library in Christendom.
'The Council made an order for me to be Library-Keeper of St.
James's and to have lodgings in the house belonging to the place,
and recommended to me Mr. Duery, a German by birth, a good scholar,
and a great traveller and friend to the Parliament, to be my Deputy
in that place, but at my liking.
'I was willing to have a Deputy by their recommendation, being
thereby I should be the less answerable, and I appointed Mr. Duery
to have the keys, to go to Mr. Patrick Young the former
Library-Keeper to the late King, to inquire for an inventory of the
Books and Medals, and to see an exact one made forthwith of all of
them.'--'Whitelocke's Memorials,' p. 416.
Whitelocke's narrative, though under date July 30, of course embraces
also the events of the subsequent months. As the following entries from
the Calendar of State Papers for 1560 will show, Durie did not receive
his appointment till the following October:
'Oct. 28.--24. John Durie appointed Library-Keeper of the books at
St. James's, as also of the medals, and to have the lodgings
belonging to that place, and to make an inventory of the books,
medals and MSS., and present it to Council.
'Oct. 29.--1. Mr. Dury to be Library-Keeper at St. James's House,
and Col. Berkstead to appoint convenient lodgings for him.
'Nov. 7.--2. The new chapel of St. James's to be used as a library,
and Mr. Durie to take care that the books and medals be removed
there as soon as it is finished.
'Nov. 21.--12. Lord Commissioner Lisle, Sir Hen. Vane, and Mr.
Challoner added to the Committee formerly appointed for the
library--viz., Lord Commissioner Whitelock, Visct. Lisle, and Sir
Gilbert Pickering; Mr. Dury, the Library-Keeper, is to apply to
them upon all emergencies, and receive instructions for the safe
preservation of the library and medals, and to prepare directions
to be given to the surveyor of the works for fitting the new chapel
for the use of a library.'
We hear no more of Durie till May 20th, 1651, when the Council of State
ordered him 'to proceed in translating Mr. Milton's book, written in
answer to the King's book, and Mr. Frost to give him such fit reward for
his pains as he shall think fit.' In the following October we have this
interesting entry, which shows that he was by no means neglectful of his
duties:
'Oct. [6?]--56. John Dury, Library-Keeper at St. James's, to the
Council of State. The books and manuscripts will be utterly
spoiled if not immediately looked after, as they lie upon the floor
in confused heaps, so that not only the rain and dust, but the
rats, mice, and other vermin can easily get at them, and none of
these inconveniences can be prevented, unless you order the
trustees for sale of the late King's goods to deliver me the keys.
'The trustees long since made a catalogue of the books, and an
inventory of the medals, so that there is nothing more left for
them to do, and they might therefore be also desired to deliver up
such catalogues and inventory; if there should be anything to
complete, I am willing to assist them therein, so that the work may
not linger, and the library be utterly spoiled, and remain useless
to the public.' [One page.]
This is the last entry we have concerning Durie as a librarian. His
translation (published in 1652) of 'Mr. Milton's book written in answer
to the late King's book,' _i.e._ 'Eiconoclastes,' was brought to a
completion, and there is an Order in Council that no custom duty should
be charged upon its export. Then we have Durie's petition for his fee
for the translation, and then he goes off to Sweden with Whitelocke, his
rooms at St. James's are assigned to another, and our interest in him
sensibly wanes.
The title-page of Durie's tiny pamphlet runs as follows:--'The |
Reformed | Librarie-Keeper | with a supplement to the | Reformed School,
| as subordinate to Colleges in | Universities. | By | John Durie |
whereunto is added | I. An idea of Mathematicks. II. The description of
one of the chiefest | Libraries which is in Germanie, erected | and
ordered by one of the most Learned | Princes in Europe. | London |
Printed by William Du-Gard, and are | to bee sold by Robert Littleberrie
at the | sign of the Unicorn in Little | Britain. 1650.'
The supplement to the Reformed School comes first, and our tract is
preceded by a false title of its own:--'The | Reformed |
Librarie-Keeper. | By | John Durie | [Device of Fleur-de-Lys.] London |
Printed by William Du-Gard, | Anno Dom. 1650.' The two letters are
preceded by Hartlib's preface, and followed by the two appendices
mentioned on the title-page, neither of which, in all likelihood, is by
Durie himself. Of the two letters only the first is here reprinted, the
second being a mere feeble repetition of it clothed in religious
phraseology. The one here given is to some extent marred by Durie's
riding to death of the metaphor of 'trading' for exchange of
information. Despite this fault, it is full of excellent sense, and
shows throughout a lofty sense of the functions of a librarian. I
reprint it here as it stands, with a careful retention of the original
spelling and punctuation:--