The bust of Bodley, which is seen in the large room, was sent by
Sackville, Earl of Dorset, the Chancellor of the University. It
attracted the notice of King James upon his entering the Library on the
fourth day of his visit to Oxford in August of this year, who, upon
reading its inscription, indulged in the very mild pun that the Founder
should rather be called Sir Thomas Godly than Bodly[39]. And, looking on
the well-filled cases, he said he had often had proof from the
University of the fruits of talent and ability, but had never before
seen the garden where those fruits grew and whence they were gathered.
He examined various MSS. of the Holy Scriptures, and especially of the
old English version, as well as of the Ethiopic, on the authority of
which, 'more suo, summo cum judicio disceptavit.' Then, taking up
Gaguinus' treatise _De Puritate Conceptionis Virg. Mar._, printed at
Paris in 1498, he remarked that the author had so written about purity
as if he wished that it should only be found on the title of his book;
and said it had often been his desire that such objectionable writings
(especially on religious subjects) could be altogether suppressed rather
than be tolerated to the corruption of minds and manners. He admitted,
however, that probably there was no disadvantage from their being stored
up in collections of this kind. Moved to a wonderful temper of
liberality, the king then offered to present from all the libraries of
the royal palaces whatsoever precious and rare books Sir T. Bodley, on
examination, might choose to carry away; and promised that the grant
should be made under seal, lest any hindrance should arise. It
appears[40] that this (somewhat hasty) grant was actually passed under
the Privy Seal about the beginning of November in the same year, and
that Bodley expected to carry off a great many MSS. from Whitehall.
Probably the full execution of his intentions was hindered, as he
himself appears to have suspected might happen; at any rate, there is
very little in the Library that tells of having come from the royal
collections, except a few folio editions of the Fathers which once were
in the possession of Hen. VIII, as his arms stamped upon the covers
testify[41], and three or four MSS. which bear like evidence of having
belonged to James I. Upon leaving the room, after spending considerable
time in its examination, the king exclaimed that were he not King James
he would be an University man; and that, were it his fate at any time to
be a captive, he would wish to be shut up, could he but have the choice,
in this place as his prison, to be bound with its chains, and to consume
his days amongst its books as his fellows in captivity[42].
In this year appeared the first Catalogue of the Library, compiled by
Thomas James. It is a quarto volume, published by Joseph Barnes at
Oxford, consisting of 425 pages, with an Appendix of 230 more; the
Preface is dated June 27. The book is dedicated to Henry, Prince of
Wales[43]. It includes both printed books and MSS. arranged
alphabetically under the four classes of Theology, Medicine, Law, and
Arts, with lists of expositors of Holy Scripture, commentators on
Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen, and in Civil and Canon Law. The legal
and medical lists were added at Bodley's special desire[44]. A
continuation of this classified index, embracing writers on Arts and
Sciences, Geography and History, is to be found in Rawlinson MS.
_Miscell._ 730. It was drawn up by James, after his quitting the
Library, for the use of young students in the faculty of Arts, in order
to show his continued interest in them and in the place of his old
occupation. In the preface he thus describes the arrangement of his
book: 'Exhibeo, primo, libros distributos secundum facultates suas;
secundo, dissectos in minutissimas portiones vel sectiones, idque
alphabetice; tertio, habetis cognitos et exploratos auctores singulos
qui de singulis subjectis vel generatim vel speciatim scripserunt
libros, tractatus, epistolas; postremo, ne quid desit, habetis editiones
certas, et maxime ex parte ex pluribus selectas et meliores, cito
parabiles, digitos ad pluteos et pluteorum sectiones intendendo.' This
volume came into Rawlinson's possession from Hearne, who notes in it:
'This MS. came out of the study of Dr. Anthony Hall, of Queen's College,
Oxford, who married the widow of Dr. John Hudson, to whom this book once
belong'd.'
[39] This would-be witticism is made the subject of a quatrain in the
_Justa Funebria Bodlei_, p. 108.
[40] _Reliquiæ Bodl._ pp. 205, 339.
[41] His arms also occur in several places in a Greek MS. now numbered
Auct. E. I. 15. And there is one volume among Selden's books (8^o. A.
24, Art. Seld.) which appears to possess considerable interest as having
come from the library of the many-wived king. It is a fine copy of Æsop,
with the _Batrachomyomachia_, &c., printed by Froben in 1518, which may
be conjectured, from the binding, to have been a gift from Henry to Anne
Boleyn. The cover is of embossed calf; on one side is the Tudor rose
supported by angels, with the sun, moon, and four stars above, encircled
by the lines:--
'Hec rosa virtutis de celo missa sereno,
Eternum florens regia sceptra feret.'
Below are the initials A. H., conjoined with a knot. On the other side
is a representation of the Annunciation, with the same initials
repeated.
[42] The account of the king's visit is given in Sir J. Wake's _Rex
Platonicus_, pp. 116-123.
[43] At the suggestion of Bodley, who thought that more reward was to be
gained from the prince than from the king. (_Reliquiæ Bodl._ 206.)
[44] _Reliquiæ Bodl._ pp. 195, 256.