The MSS. _Adversaria_ of Dr. J. E. Grabe came to the Library in this
year after the death of Bishop Smalridge (Sept. 27, 1719), in accordance
with the will of their writer, who at his death (Nov. 12, 1712)
bequeathed them first to Hickes and next to Smalridge, with the final
reversion to the Bodleian. They form forty-three volumes. Some account
of them is given in Hickes' _Discourse_ prefixed to Grabe's _Defects and
Omissions in Whiston's Collection of Testimonies, &c._ (8^o. Lond.
1712), and they are fully catalogued by Mr. Coxe in vol. i. of the
general Catalogue of MSS., cols. 851-876. In a written list of them,
preserved in the Library, Dr. Bandinel has noted that several volumes of
the series were purloined before they came to Oxford, while remaining in
the possession of a friend after Grabe's death.
A Zend MS. very well and clearly written (dated in the year 1005 of the
era of Yezdegird, _i.e._ A.D. 1635), of the _Leges Sacræ, Ritus, &c.
Zoroastris_, was received from G. Bowcher, a merchant in the East
Indies. It was given in 1718, but not forwarded until 1723, when it was
brought from India by Rev. Rich. Cobbe, M.A. It is now numbered Bodl.
Or. 321. And a Coptic Lexicon, compiled and prepared for the press by
Rev. Thos. Edward, M.A., a former Chaplain of Ch. Ch., was bought for
the sum of ten guineas, which was specially granted from the University
Chest. It is now numbered Bodl. Orient. 344. The author was originally
of St. John's College, Cambridge, and tells us in his preface that
Bishop Fell, who was also Dean of Ch. Ch., meeting him there in the
house of Dr. Edmund Castell, with whom he was living, brought him to
Oxford by appointing him a Chaplain of the Cathedral, with the view of
carrying on the study of the Coptic language, which had fallen to the
ground upon the death of Dr. Marshal of Lincoln College. But just when
Edward was prepared to begin printing the results of his labours, his
patron, the Bishop, died; and, as he found no one else cared for the
subject, he took the College living of Badby in Northamptonshire, and
quitted Oxford. He finally became Rector of Aldwinkle in the same
county, and died there in the year 1721. His book is dated 1711. It is
cited by Archdeacon Tattam in his _Lexicon Ægyptiaco-Latinum_. Another
MS. Coptic Lexicon, in two volumes, was purchased in 1857.