In this year John Rushworth, of Lincoln's Inn, the historian of the Long
Parliament, was a member of the Parliament held at Oxford. Probably it
may have been at this time that he presented to the Library one of its
most precious κειμηλια, called, from its donor, 'Codex
Rushworthianus.' (Auct. D. 2. 19.) In 1665, Junius mentions it in the
Preface to his _Glossarium Gothicum_, as being then still in Rushworth's
own hands[140]. It is a MS. of the Latin Gospels, written by an Irish
scribe, Mac-Regol, (who records his name on the last leaf, 'Macregol
dipincxit hoc evangelium,' &c.,) and glossed with an interlinear
Anglo-Saxon version by Owun and by Færmen, a priest at Harewood. The
volume is traditionally reported to have been in Bede's possession, but
since the Irish annals record the death of Mac Riagoil, a scribe and
abbot of Birr in 820, the volume must be about a century too late. It
has been published in full, together with the Lindisfarne Gospels, by
the Surtees Society in 3 vols., under the editorship of Rev. J.
Stevenson and George Waring, Esq., M.A. A description is given in Prof.
Westwood's _Palæographia Sacra Pictoria_.
Nine shillings were paid for the carriage of a mummy from London,
probably one of those which are now in the Ashmolean Museum. It was
given by Aaron Goodyear, a Turkey merchant, who gave also a model of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and various little images,
and in 1684 more than forty coins.
[140] It is strange that no entry of the gift of this priceless volume
is found in the Register of Benefactions, any more than of that of the
Vernon MS.