The resignation of the Librarianship by Dr. Bandinel, after forty-seven
years of office in the capacity of Head, and a total of fifty of work in
the Library, forms a leading feature in the Bodley Annals of this year.
At the age of seventy-nine the natural infirmities of age were felt by
himself to be incapacitating him for the duties which he had so long and
so regularly discharged, while at the same time the continually
increasing pressure of work and enlargement of the Library, made those
duties much more onerous than they had been even a quarter of a century
before. And so he resolved to withdraw at Michaelmas from the place to
which he had been so heartily and entirely devoted, and which under his
headship had been doubled in contents. The parting was not without a
great struggle; it was the abandoning what had been the cherished
occupation of his life, and with the ceasing of that occupation he felt
a too-certain foreboding (which he expressed to the writer of these
pages) that the life would soon cease as well. A well-merited tribute
was paid to him by Convocation in June, in both increasing the amount of
his statutable pension, so that he retired on a full stipend, and in
specially enrolling him among the Curators of the Library. But he was
seldom seen in the old place after his resignation; on two or three
occasions only did he again mount the long flight of stairs which had of
late tried both his strength and breath severely; and then, when only
seven months had elapsed, on Feb. 6, 1861, he passed away. And little
more than a fortnight previously, on January 20, his old colleague,
Professor Reay, departed this life, at the age of seventy-eight. He also
had retired on his pension at Michaelmas, 1860, and had been succeeded
as Oriental Sub-librarian by Rev. R. Payne Smith (Assistant-librarian in
the same department since 1857), whose appointment was confirmed by
Convocation on Nov. 22. Memoirs of Dr. Bandinel and Mr. Reay are given
in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, (1861, pp. 463-6), which do justice, in
the case of the former, to his watchful solicitude for the Library and
his thorough acquaintance with it; and in the case of the latter
(evidently from intimate personal acquaintance), to his great kindliness
of heart, and simplicity and gentleness of character.
The Convocation for the election of Dr. Bandinel's successor was held on
November 6, when, with unanimous consent, the Rev. H. O. Coxe, M.A.,
Sub-librarian since 1837, was appointed to the office.
A most seasonable and valuable enlargement of the Library was effected,
by an addition which henceforth marks an æra in our Annals. On June 12,
Convocation thankfully accepted an offer from the Radcliffe Trustees
(which had been first mooted by Dr. Acland in 1856), of the use, as a
Bodleian reading-room, of the noble building hitherto under their
control, the existing contents of which had (for the most part) been
removed to the New Museum. Dr. Radcliffe's own original intention had
been the building an additional wing to the Bodleian rather than the
erecting a library of his own; and subsequently the idea had been
entertained of devoting his structure to the exclusive reception of
manuscripts[359]. Its appropriation, therefore, to the Bodleian upon
the removal of the library of medicine and natural history, was, in some
sort, a return to the founder's first design. And the return came most
seasonably, when the old walls of the Schools' quadrangle were well-nigh
bursting from a plethora of books, and still the cry 'They come' daily
caused fresh bewilderment as to whither those that came should go. It
was resolved that the new reading-room thus opportunely gained should be
appropriated to new books (arranged under a system of classification)
and magazines; that it should be called the 'Camera Radcliviana;' and
that it should be open from ten A.M. to ten P.M., thus affording the
facilities for evening use of the Bodleian which had often been desired
for those who were occupied in college work during the day. It was at
the close of the year 1861 that the building began to be filled by its
new occupants, and on Jan. 27, 1862, (the necessary alterations and
preparations having been completed in the short space of the Christmas
vacation) it was announced by the Vice-Chancellor to be open as a
Reading Room in connection with the Bodleian. A grant of £200 _per
annum_ towards the expense of management was made by Convocation on
Nov. 28, 1861, which was increased to £300 in 1865, the remainder of the
charge, consisting of the incidental expenses, being defrayed from the
general funds of the Library.
A large additional space for the reception of books was gained by the
closing up the open ground-floor (through which was the former entrance
to the reading-room), converting the spaces between the outer arches
into windows, and lining the walls within with book-shelves, thus
affording accommodation, according to the present reckoning, for about
50,000 volumes. The whole building may probably be reckoned as capable
of containing altogether about 75,000 volumes[360].
The terms on which the Radcliffe Trustees made their offer, and which
were accepted by the University, were these:--1. That the Radcliffe
Building should be a reading-room to the Bodleian, or be used for any
other purpose of the Bodleian Library. 2. That it should remain the
property of the Trustees, being esteemed a loan to the University. 3.
That no alteration should be made in the building without consent of the
Trustees or a Representative approved by them. 4. That the expense of
maintaining the building should be borne by the Trustees.
The transfer of this magnificent room afforded a rare opportunity for
developing the usefulness of the Library to which it is now attached,
and all who frequent it will acknowledge that that opportunity has been
well and worthily improved under the direction of the present Librarian.
On Oct. 25, leave was granted by Convocation for the lending two Laud
Manuscripts, 561 and 563, being copies of the _Historia
Hierosoylmitana_, by Albert of Aix, to the French Government.
At the sale of the library of Dr. Wellesley, Principal of New Inn Hall,
a copy of Boccaccio's _Corbaccio_, 1569, was purchased, on account of
its possessing the autograph of Sir Thomas Bodley, to whom it had been
given by the editor, J. Corbinelli.
A rare Salisbury _Primer_, printed at Rouen by Rob. Valentin in 1556,
was purchased for £22. Its title affords an amusing specimen of a
foreigner's mode of printing English; it runs thus--_This prymer of
Salisbury vse is se tout along with houtonyser chyng, with many prayers
& goodly pyctures._ It is intended hereby to be conveyed to the English
reader that, without any searching, he will find his prayers and psalms
set out in their proper order.
[359] In prosecution of this idea several valuable collections of
Oriental MSS. were obtained, which still form part of the stores of the
old Radcliffe Library. They consist of the Arabic, Persian, and Sanscrit
MSS. collected by -- Frazer and by Sale, the translator of the Koran,
which were obtained (as we learn from Sharpe's _Prolegomena_ to Hyde's
_Dissertationes_, 1767, vol. i. p. xvii.) through Professor Thomas Hunt,
at the suggestion of Dr. Gregory Sharpe; and of the collations of the
MSS. of the Hebrew Old Test. by Dr. Kennicott (Librarian 1767-1783),
together with his correspondence and miscellaneous _codices_. The
Sanscrit MSS. of Frazer and Sale are described in Prof. Aufrecht's
catalogue. Other collections in the Radcliffe Library are the classical
and historical (as well as medical) books of Dr. Frewin, a physician and
Camden Professor of Anc. History; and the law books of Mr. Viner,
founder of the Vinerian Professorship and Scholarships; together with
the works of J. Gibbs, the justly famous architect of the building in
which they were kept, and some coins bequeathed by Wise, the first
Librarian. Two volumes of Clarendon MSS. were bought for the Library in
1780, but were united some years since to the mass of those papers
preserved in the Bodleian. It was not until the year 1811 that the
Library was specially assigned to Medicine and Natural History. (See
_Report on the transfer of the Radcliffe Library to the Univ. Museum_,
by Dr. Acland, 1861.)
[360] An account of this assignment and arrangement of the Radcliffe
Library, as also of the transfer of the Ashmolean books to the Bodleian,
appeared in the _Athenæum_ for Jan. 1865, p. 20.