1682
]
A small volume, containing several papers in the handwriting of Luther,
was bought for £45. The first edition of Coverdale's New Testament,
printed at Antwerp, by Matthew Crom, in 1538, was added to the Biblical
collection. Two interesting and important series of newspapers were
obtained; the one, a set (not quite perfect) of the _London Gazette_,
from 1669 to 1859, bought for £200[364]; and the other, a collection of
London newspapers, from 1672 to 1737, arranged in chronological order in
ninety-six volumes, obtained also for £200. This very curious collection
had been formed by Mr. John Nichols; its escape from destruction by the
disastrous fire at his printing-office in 1808, is mentioned at p. 99 of
the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for that year. It is accompanied by a MS.
index, drawn up by Mr. Nichols himself. Many unknown contributions by
Defoe to the journals of his time, have recently been traced in this
series by a gentleman who has made a special study of the Defoe
literature, Mr. W. Lee.
Considerable assistance in completing the Library sets of the Public and
Private Acts of Parliament was afforded, in this year, by the late Mr.
W. Salt.
Specimens of the first books printed in the Dyak language, which were
issued at Singapore in 1862, were given by Rev. J. Rigaud, B.D., of
Magdalene College.
On the appointment of Dr. Jacobson to the See of Chester, Mr. R. Payne
Smith became his successor in the office of Regius Professor of
Divinity. Professor Max Müller, M.A., was thereupon nominated to take
Mr. Smith's place as the Sub-librarian in special charge of the Oriental
department, and the nomination was confirmed in Convocation on Nov. 7.
[362] The lithograph represents the lower half of the title-page.
[363] The purchase of it, as of a relic 'which there is little doubt is
genuine,' is noticed in an article on Books and Book-collecting in the
_Cornhill Magazine_ for Oct. 1867, p. 496.
[364] The only portions of the _London Gazette_ previously to be found
in the Library, were of the reign of Charles II; and these only came by
the transfer of the Ashmolean Library.