On May 31, the Reader in Chemistry, Thomas Beddoes, M.D., of Pembroke
College, issued a printed Memorial to the Curators 'concerning the state
of the Bodleian Library, and the conduct of the Principal Librarian.'
The utmost laxity appears from this statement to have prevailed with
regard to attendance, and to the hours of opening the Library; the
Librarian was always absent on Saturdays and Mondays, as on those days
he was occupied in journeys to and from a curacy eleven miles distant,
which he held together with a living more remote; and the Library which
should then in summer have been opened at eight was found unopened
between nine and ten, and unopened also after University sermons. The
Librarian is charged besides with having discouraged readers by neglect
and incivility, with being very careless in regard to the value and
condition of books purchased by the Library[264], and with having but
little knowledge of foreign publications. An anecdote is related
(amongst others) of his lending _Cook's Voyages_, which had been
presented by King Geo. III, to the Rector of Lincoln College, and
telling him that the longer he kept it the better, 'for if it was known
to be in the Library, he (Mr. Price) should be perpetually plagued with
enquiries after it[265].' In consequence of these complaints, the
Curators, in 1788, prepared on their part a new form of Statute, while
the Heads of Houses prepared another. This separate action led to a
paper war between the two bodies, in which the Regius Professors of
Divinity, Law, Medicine, Hebrew and Greek, (Randolph, Vansittart,
Vivian, Blayney and Jackson) appeared on the Curators' side of the
question, and, as the Hebdomadal Board persisted in pressing their own
scheme, they at length (with the exception of Blayney) adopted the
strong step, on the day when the rival plan was proposed in Convocation
(June 23, 1788), of formally protesting before a notary public against
this violation of their privileges. The consequence was that the Statute
was withdrawn, and the proposal for a new code abandoned by both
parties. The chief points of difference were, that the Curators objected
to the proposal being put forward as 'cum consensu Curatorum' instead of
'ex relatione Curatorum,' to the increase of the Librarian's stipend to
£150, to the appointment of two Sub-librarians instead of one, and to
the leaving the appointment of these in the hands of the Librarian (in
accordance with Bodley's own Statute) instead of assigning it to the
Curators.
Eleven Arabic and Persian MSS. were given by Turner Camac, Esq., co.
Down.
A first part of a Catalogue of the Oriental MSS., comprehending those in
Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Æthiopic, Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Coptic,
was issued in this year, in folio. It was compiled by John Uri, a
Hungarian, who had studied Oriental literature under Schultens, at
Leyden, and who was recommended for this purpose to Archbp. Secker, by
Sir Joseph Yorke, then Ambassador in the Netherlands. Many years were
occupied in the preparation of this volume, as Uri appears to have
commenced his work in 1766, his signature occurring in the 'Registrum
admissorum' under Feb. 17, in that year[266]. Sixty closely-printed
folio pages of corrections and additions are, however, supplied by Dr.
Pusey, in the second part of the Catalogue, which he completed after Dr.
Nicoll's death and published in 1835. In his preface to this part, Dr.
Pusey remarks that Uri frequently copied with carelessness; and that the
whole series of Arabic MSS. was found to need re-examination from the
discovery that all kinds of cheats and impositions had been played upon
all the purchasers of Eastern MSS., Pococke alone excepted, by the
cunning sellers with whom they dealt, particularly in the passing off of
supposititious works for genuine[267]. And upon carrying out this
re-examination, the following was found to be the result:--
'Varias errorum formas deprehendi, titulis nunc charta coopertis,
nunc atramento oblitis, nunc cultro pæne abrasis; auctorum porro
nominibus paullulum immutatis quo notiora quædam referrent; numeris
etiam, quibus singula volumina signata sunt, permutatis, quo quis
opus imperfectum pro integro habeat, paginis denique pauculis operi
alieno a fronte assutis.'
[264] Among other instances the purchase (in 1784) of Sir John Hill's
_Vegetable System_, at the cost of £140, is mentioned.
[265] It appears incidentally, from this pamphlet, that three o'clock
was the dinner-hour at almost every College at that time.
[266] He died suddenly at his lodgings in Oxford, Oct. 18, 1796, aged
upwards of seventy (_Gent. Magaz._, vol. lxvi. p. 884.)
[267] The late Dr. Simonides was evidently by no means the first in his
art, although probably _facile princeps_.