Thirty pounds were paid in this year to Antony à Wood for twenty-five
MSS. out of his library[146]. These are volumes of great value,
including Chartularies of the Abbeys of Glastonbury and Malmesbury, and
of the Preceptory of Sandford, Oxon, copies of Papal bulls relating to
England, a register of lands in Leicestershire _temp._ Hen. VI, &c.
The rest of Wood's MSS., and printed books, came to the Library,
together with the other collections preserved in the Ashmolean Museum,
in 1860.
It is said that Wood in this year estimated the number of MSS. in the
Library at 10,141. This must have been the number of separate books, not
volumes, as in 1697 the latter appear from Bernard's Catalogue to have
been about 6700.
[146] In Bernard's Catalogue the purchase is said to have been made in
1692, but this is an error, as it is entered in the accounts of 1690.