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, tantæ munificentiæ gloria fiat illustrior, 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 inhæreat, aliis studere
volentibus ad tres vel quatuor pro vicinitate colligationis præcludit
accessum. Itaque locus huic rei nobis maxime videtur idoneus ubi
venerabilis vir, modo Cancellarius noster, semper reverendus pater
amantissimus Magister Thomas Chace, spectabilem novarum Scolarum
fabricam ad cætera suæ virtutis testimonia insigni mensura ab humo
erexit, quam nos cito, quoad exigua suppetebat facultas, promovimus. Hic
locus, propterea quod a strepitu sæculari removetur, Bibliotecæ admodum
videtur conveniens, cujus fundationis titulum, si Magnanimitati vestræ
acceptabilis fuerit, cum omni devotione offerrimus.' Register F. ff.
71^b, 72. We find from an entry on the latter page that on January 13,
1444 (-5), 'liber Platonis in Phedro' (_sic_) was lent by Convocation to
the Duke.
[8] They were not received by August, 1450, on the 28th of which month a
letter was written from Convocation to Thomas Bokelonde, Esq., and John
Summerset, M.D., on the subject. (Register F. ff. 88^b-9.)
[9] It contains inscriptions recording its gift by Whethamstede 'ad usum
scolarium studencium Oxoniæ,' with anathemas upon those who should
alienate it, or destroy, were it but its title: 'Si quis rapiat, raptim
titulumve retractet, vel Judæ laqueum vel furcas sensiat.'
[10] Two treatises on the Canticles, by Gilbert Porret and Musca, were
contained in the Duke's first gift to Oxford. (Anstey, vol. ii. p. 759.)
[11] Wood MS. F. 27. (Bodl. Libr.)
[12] A sale of a collection of (apparently) these forfeited pledges, or
else of books deposited as securities for loans of money, took place in
the year 1546. On Jan. 18, 1545-6, the following decree passed
Convocation: 'Decretum est authoritate Convocationis Magnæ ut cistæ in
domo inferiori sub domo Congregationis, et omnes libri pro pignoribus
jacentes, aut etiam alii in eadem domo inventi, venderentur, secundum
arbitrium quinque in eadem Convocatione eligendorum. Electi itaque sunt
et a Vice-Cancellario admissi ibidem, Doctor Standishe, Mr. Parret,
procurator, Mr. Slythers, Mr. Symonds, et Mr. Wattsone.' Reg. I. 107^b.
[13] Wood MS. F. 27.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid. fol. 94^a.
[16] Bodley appears to have been altogether an accomplished linguist.
James, in the preface to the first Catalogue of 1605, after speaking of
his proficiency in the classical languages, adds, 'Linguas vero
exoticas, veluti Italicam, Gallicam, Hispanicam, Hebræam præcipue,
cæterarum omnium parentem, tam perfecte callet, ut illo neminem fere
scientiorem invenies.' And in one of four letters addressed to him on
the interpretation of passages in the Old Testament, which are printed
among the Epistles of J. Drusius, _De Quæsitis_ (1595, p. 40), Drusius
says, 'Vere dicam, Bodlæe, et intelligis optime litteras Hebræas, et
amas unice earum peritos.' The same volume contains also one letter to
his brothers, Laurence, Miles, and Josias, on the _Pastor_ of Hermas.
[17] _Reliquiæ Bodleianæ_, p. 14.
[18] This letter (with the subsequent correspondence) is printed by
Hearne, at the end of the Chronicle of John of Glastonbury, vol. ii. p.
612, from the Reg. of Convoc. M^a. f. 31^a.
[19] Most probably intended to refer to the Apocalyptic book (Rev. v.
1.), and to signify the unsealing of Divine Revelation, the fountain of
all wisdom, by our Blessed Lord. Sir J. Wake prefers to take the seven
seals as representing the seven liberal arts.
[20] The motto appears to have varied. It is sometimes given in titles
of books printed at Oxford about the time of James I, as 'Sapientiæ et
Felicitatis;' and in an heraldic MS. of the seventeenth century as 'XX.
Exod. Decem ... Omnipotens mandata. Verbum Dei manet in eternum. Amen.'
(Rawl. B. xl. f. 81.) Others [have] this, 'Veritas liberabit, Bonitas
regnabit;' and others this, 'In principio erat Verbum,' &c. (Hearne, in
Rawl. MS. C. 876, f. 51.)
[21] Wake notices it as a singular coincidence that the Library was
first opened on the day of the 'Quatuor coronati Martyres,' Nov. 8,
whom, by mistake, he calls 'Tres.'
[22] See _Reliquiæ Bodleianæ_, p. 158.
[23] One of the books given by Lord Lumley has the autograph of Cranmer,
'Thomas Cantuarien.,' on the title-page. The book, appositely enough,
bears the title of _Sicbardi Antidotum contra diversas omnium fere
sæculorum bæreses_, fol. Bas. 1528.
[24] Printed by Rev. J. Stevenson at the end of the _Romance of
Alexander_, edited by him for the Roxburghe Club in 1849, from Ashmole
MS. 44.
[25] _Plenus-Amoris_, or _Fullalove_, seems to have been the name of a
family of scribes. But the expression seems often also to have been used
for the mere sake of rhyme. In the colophon of a translation of Alan
Chartier in Rawl. A. 338, are these lines:--
'Nomen scriptoris,
Dei gracia, Plenus Amoris:
Careat meroris
Deus det sibi omnibus horis.'
Peter Plenus-Amoris was the scribe of Fairfax 6; Thomas, of Univ. Coll.
MS. 142; William, of All Souls' 51; Geoffrey, of Sloane 513 (Brit. Mus.)
In the following instances the name appears to be used only
rhythmically:--
'Nomen scriptoris est Jhon Wilde plenus amoris.'--(_Rawlinson B._ 214.)
'Nomen scriptoris Jon. semper plenus amoris,
Esteby cognomen, cui semper det Deus homen' (_sic_).--(_Bodl._ 643.)
[26] Probably this book is the 'large liure en fraunceis tresbien
esluminez de le Rymance de Alexandre,' once in the library of Tho. of
Woodstock, Duke of Glouc. See Mr. Coxe's pref. to Gower's _Vox Clam._
(Roxb. Club, 1850,) p. 50.