Twenty-nine MSS., all of which, except three, are Greek, were given by
Sir Thomas Roe, who had previously been ambassador in Turkey, and who
afterwards sat, at the commencement of the Long Parliament, as Burgess
for the University, in company with Selden. One of the three exceptions
is an original copy of the Synodal Epistles of the Council of Basle,
with the leaden seal attached; and another, a valuable Arabic MS. of the
Apostolic Canons, &c., which is noticed at length by Selden in the second
book of his treatise, _De Synedriis Hebræorum_. Roe proposed that his
books should be permitted to be lent out for purposes of printing, on
proper security being given; a proposition which was accepted by
Convocation[80]. Special licence of borrowing Lord Pembroke's (the
Barocci) and Roe's MSS. was granted by the donors themselves to Dr.
Lindsell (afterwards Bishop of Peterborough and Hereford) and Patrick
Young, the keeper of the King's Library at St. James's. The latter is
found, from the Register of Readers, to have used his privilege as late
as Feb. and March, 1647-8, various volumes of Pembroke's MSS. being then
lent to him, together with some marked 'Archbp.', which were doubtless
Laud's[81].
The copy of Bacon's _Essays_ (1625) which was presented by the author to
the Duke of Buckingham, was given to the Library by Lewis Roberts, a
merchant of London. It is now exhibited among the curiosities in the
first glass case, as a specimen of binding, being clad in green velvet,
embroidered with gold and silver thread, with the head of the duke
worked in silk. The same donor also presented the copy of Bishop
Williams' Funeral Sermon on James I, which had been given to the same
duke by the author. Several other specimens of embroidered bindings are
preserved in the Library, which are all, it is believed, comprehended in
the following list[82]:--
1. A part of L. Tomson's version of the New Test., printed by Barker, in
16^o (in 1578?), now marked MS. _e Musæo_, 242. This belonged to Queen
Elizabeth, and is bound in a covering worked by herself, with various
mottos, _e.g._ 'Celum patria,' 'Scopus vitæ Xpũs,' &c. And on a
fly-leaf occurs this note in her handwriting: 'August[ine?]. I walke
manie times into the pleasant fieldes of the Holye Scriptures, where I
plucke up the goodlie greene herbes of sentences by pruning, eate them
by reading, chawe them by musing, and laie them up at length in the hie
seate of memorie by gathering them together; that so hauing tasted thy
sweetenes I may the lesse perceave the bitternes of this miserable
life[83].'
2. Another of Elizabeth's bibliopegic achievements is the cover of her
own translation from the French of _The Miroir or Glasse of the
synnefull Soule_, executed when only eleven years old. She says that she
translated it 'out of frenche ryme into englishe prose, joyning the
sentences together as well as the capacitie of my symple witte and small
lerning coulde extende themselves;' and prefixes a dedication, dated
'from Assherige, the laste daye of the yeare of our Lord God, 1544,' in
which, 'to our moste noble and vertuous quene Katherin, Elizabeth her
humble daughter wisheth perpetuall felicitie and everlasting ioye.' The
volume consists of 63 small quarto leaves, and has the queen's initials
K. P. embroidered within an ornamental border of gold and silver thread,
on a ground of blue corded silk. It is numbered Cherry MS. 38.
3. _Dialogue de la Vie et de la Mort_, trans. from the Italian by J.
Louveau, and printed in imitation of MS., second edit., 12^o. Lyon,
1558. Red velvet, embroidered with gold and silver thread. A French
inscription on a fly-leaf is in a handwriting resembling that of Queen
Elizabeth. Bodl. MS., 660.
4. A Testament in 16^o, printed by Norton and Bill in 1625. Very thick
and clumsy embroidery: on one side, David, in a flowing wig, playing on
the harp, with a dog, dragon-fly, &c; on the other, Abraham, in a
similar wig and with a falling collar, stopped in the sacrifice of his
son. There is a tradition that this formed part of a waistcoat of
Charles I; but it is not known on what evidence it rests, nor does the
material seem likely to have been so employed. In the Douce collection.
Exhibited in the glass case at the entrance of the Library.
5. Bible, 8^o Lond. 1639. Landscape, &c., worked in silk, with embroidery
in gold and silver thread. Arch Bodl. D subt. 75.
6. Prayer-book, New Test., and Metrical Psalms, 1630-1, bound by the
nuns of Little Gidding. Exhibited in the glass case. Bought in 1866 for
£10[84].
7. New Testament, printed at Cambridge in 1628, in 16^mo. This was the
first edition printed there of any portion of the Authorized Version,
and only the second of any English translation[85]. The binding of the
Library copy (which was bought, in 1859, for five guineas) is covered
with silver filigree work.
Among Dr. Rawlinson's multifarious collections is a volume of curious
early specimens of worked samplers, humorously lettered on the back,
'Works of Learned Ladies.'
[80] 'Reg. Conv. R. 1628. f. 6.' MS. note by Dr. P. Bliss.
[81] See _sub anno_ 1635.
[82] A lady, whose name is not mentioned, but who is graced with the
appellation of 'heroina,' is recorded to have given to the University
the Life of our Blessed Lord depicted in needle-work, 'byssina et aurata
textura,' which was duly presented in Convocation on July 9, 1636. [Reg.
Conv. R. 24.] It is not now preserved in the Library.
[83] This note is printed and the book described in Hearne's Appendix to
_Titi Livii Forojul. Vit. Hen. V_, and, from thence, in Ballard's
_Lives_; but not very correctly in either case. Also in Bliss' _Reliqq.
Hearn._ i. 104.
[84] In the life of Rich. Ferrar, junior, in Wordsworth's _Eccl. Biogr._
(third edit. vol. iv. p. 232) a note is quoted from a MS. stating that a
copy of Ferrar's _Whole Law of God_, bound by the nuns of Gidding in
green velvet, was given to the University Library by Archbp. Laud. This
is a mistake; the book in question was given by the Archbishop to the
library of his own college, St. John's, where it still remains.
[85] The first was the Genevan Version, printed in 1591.