A collection of 153 Northern MSS., chiefly in the Icelandic and Danish
languages, formed by Finn Magnusen, was purchased from him for
£350[313]. A catalogue (56 pp. quarto) was published in the year 1832.
Amongst them are many early and curious volumes in poetry and history.
Other collections of MSS. were sold by the same collector to the British
Museum and to the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh.
A large number of Aldines were obtained at the sale of the collection of
M. Renouard, the Aldine bibliographer, which took place in London, June
26-30. And the rare first edition of John Knox's _Historie of the Church
of Scotland_ was purchased for sixteen guineas.
Some additional rooms on the second story of the Schools' quadrangle, on
the north and east sides, which went by the names of the Schools of
Geometry and Medicine, were permanently attached to the Library, by vote
of Convocation, on June 5.
On June 26, the nomination of the Rev. Stephen Reay, M.A., of St.
Alban's Hall (afterwards B.D., and Laudian Professor of Arabic in 1840),
as Sub-librarian in the room of Mr. C. H. Cox, was approved in
Convocation. Mr. Reay was appointed to the charge of the Oriental
department, his knowledge of Hebrew specially qualifying him for the
care of the yearly increasing mass of Rabbinical lore. To this branch he
added, and retained to the close of his life, the care of the 'Progress'
Room, or room containing the publications, foreign and English, which
appeared in parts. And on Dec. 20, the Rev. John Besly, M.A., Fellow of
Balliol (afterwards D.C.L., and Vicar of Long Benton, Northumberland,
deceased April 17, 1868, aged sixty-eight), was confirmed as Mr. Reay's
colleague, in the place of Dr. Bliss.
[313] Some notes by G. J. Thorkelin on Northern Antiquities were bought
in 1846.