Carved by Mr. Thomas Wyatt, of Oxford, about 1830.
[374] Many autographs of distinguished literary men are found in the old
Registers of all the persons admitted to read in the Library, since in
these the readers themselves generally entered their own names. The
first 'Liber admissorum' contains the names of both graduates and
non-academics, the names in the first case being only in part autograph;
it commences about the year 1610, and ends, in the case of graduates,
arranged under their several colleges, about 1676; in the case of
strangers, at 1692. The second Register, which is 'peregrinorum et
aliorum admissorum' alone, begins at 1682 and ends at 1833. The first
existing register of books used by readers begins Jan. 3, 1647-8, and
ends Dec. 30, 1649. The following are some of the names, of some special
mark, which are found in the Admission-books:--
Joh. Jonstonus, M.D., 1633.
Joh. Fred. Gronovius, June 25, 1639.
George Bull, 'SS. Theol. Studiosus, per dispensat,' July 5, 1656.
Andrew Marvell, Sept. 30, 1665.
Sir Winston Churchill, Oct. 4, 1665.
Henry Dodwell, Oct. 20, 1666.
Thomas Rymer, June 20, 1683.
Edmund Calamy, 'Londinensis,' Aug. 18, 1691, and in 1722.
Sir George Mackenzie, Dec. 14, 1694, and several times subsequently.
Joh. Ern. Grabe, Nov. 10, 1697.
Thomas Madox, Sept. 21, 1705.
Joshua Barnes, July 22, 1706.
William Whiston, Sept. 28, 1710.
C. Wesley, 'Æidis Xti alumnus,' April 19, 1729.
Joh. Dav. Michaelis, Oct. 9, 1741.
W. Blackstone, 'S.C.L.' Feb. 11, 1742-3.
Benj. Kennicott, 'Coll. Wadh. Schol.' July 15, 1746.
George Ballard, Dec. 9, 1747.
Edw. Rowe Mores, Commoner of Queen's College, Aug. 29, 1748.
John Uri, 'Korosini, Hungarus,' Feb. 17, 1766.
Edw. Gibbon, 'Coll. Magd. olim Soc. Com.' Oct. 17, 1766.
Joh. Schweighäuser, June 13, 1769.
J. J. Griesbach, March 22, 1770.
Hen. Alb. Schultens, Oct. 16, 1772.
John Macbride, 'ex Coll. Exon.' (the late venerable Principal of Magd.
Hall, who was only removed by death at the beginning of the present
year), May 10, 1797.
Philip Bliss, Feb. 9, 1809.
[375] Of this xylographic _Apocalypse_ the Library possesses two other
editions; one being that called by Mr. Sotheby the Fourth, which was
given by Archbp. Laud, and the other being that called the Fifth by
Sotheby, but 'Editio princeps' by Heinecken, which was bought in 1853
for £120 5_s._ Other Block-books in the Library are, (1) two editions of
the _Biblia Pauperum_, or Scenes from Bible History; one coloured, the
other (which belonged to Douce) uncoloured; (2) the _Historia B. M. V.
ex Cantico Canticorum_, being the edition called the Second by Sotheby;
(3) _Propugnacula, seu Turris Sapientiæ_, a broadside, bought in 1853
for six guineas. A facsimile of this is given in vol. ii. of Sotheby's
_Principia_; (4) _Speculum Humanæ Salvationis._ In this book, which is
the second Latin edition of the work (formerly described as the _Editio
princeps_), twenty pages are taken off from wood-blocks, and the rest
from moveable type. The copy belonged to Douce. It came previously 'ex
Musæo Pauli Girardot de Prefond,' but is not mentioned in De Bure's
catalogue of that library, published in 1757. It is said that a copy of
this book has been sold for the large sum of 300 guineas.
[376] A touching letter, in English, dated June 28, which Laud
forwarded, together with this formal document, is printed in vol. ii. of
Wharton's edition of his _Remains_, p. 217. In the same volume are
included copies of all the letters which accompanied the Archbishop's
gifts to the Library. The following reply (_ibid._ p. 177) to a
notification from the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Frewen, of the visitation of
his collection, and of the giving special charge to the Librarian
respecting their safe custody, seeing that they stood unchained, and in
a place frequented by strangers who came to see them, should have been
noticed in its due place in the _Annals_.
'SIR,
'I thank you heartily for your care of my books. And I beseech you
that the Library-keeper may be very watchful to look to them since
they stand unchain'd. And I would to God the place in the Library
for them were once ready, that they might be set up safe, and
chained as the other books are; and yet then, if there be not care
taken, you may have some of the best and choisest tractats cut out
of the covers and purloin'd, as hath been done in some other
libraries.'
'W. CANT.
'Lambeth, Nov, 15, 1639.'
[377] Pedigree of the family of Lane, p. 392 of the _Boscobel Tracts_,
edited by J. Hughes, A.M., second edition, 1857.
[378] No. 7762 in the catalogue of the South Kensington Museum, in 1862.
[379] Mr. John Gough Nichols, in his collection of the _Literary Remains
of Edw. VI_, printed by the Roxburghe Club in 1857 (vol. i. pp.
cccxxiii-cccxxv), describes these volumes at length, and assigns the
whole of both of them to the pen of the King, but some part of the first
volume corresponds much more closely with the usual style of Elizabeth's
early writing, and a memorandum by Hearne testifies that it was regarded
in his day as having been written by her.
[380] 'The poem of Joseph and Zuleikha, in the Public Library at Oxford,
is perhaps the most beautiful MS. in the world; the margins of every
page are gilt and adorned with garlands of flowers, and the handwriting
is elegant to the highest degree.' (I. Disraeli's _Romances_, 1799, p.
52.)
[381] This book, which has appeared since the earlier sheets of this
volume were printed, contains descriptions, with facsimiles, of the
Leofric, Dunstan, and Mac-Regol MSS. and of the Rawlinsonian Life of St.
Columba, besides those noticed above.
[382] Cædmon was a monk of St. Hilda's Abbey, and died in 680. Bede
(_Eccl. Hist._ iv. 24) tells the well-known story of his being
miraculously enabled by a vision to compose vernacular verses, when
previously he had been entirely unable to compose or sing a line, so
that when present as a layman at feasts where, on the principle of 'no
song, no supper,' every one was expected to raise a lay in his turn, he
was wont, when he saw the harp coming round, to rise from his place and
go home supperless.
[383] This MS. is noticed by Warton in his _Life of Sir T. Pope_, p. 73,
where he also quotes Hearne's account of Elizabeth's New Testament,
which is described at p. 52 _supra_.
[384] Lent to the South Kensington Museum in 1862, from the catalogue of
which exhibition (under No. 202) the above description is taken.
[385] Rawlinson, C. 876, f. 52.
[386] _Catalogue of the South Kensington Exhibition_, 1862, p. 672.
[387] Another specimen of Mr. Rassam's caligraphic skill is to be seen
in the Common Room of Magdalene College (in which College he was
entertained for some time), where the College arms are represented in
the same manner.
[388] Besides some restorations from the Randolph Gallery of portraits
formerly removed thither.
[389] An engraving of a roundel (then, with others, in the possession of
John Fenton of Fishguard) of which the exact counterpart is found in one
of these sets, is given in the _Gent. Magaz._ for 1799, p. 465. As it is
not known how long the Library has been in possession of its present
collection, it is possible that Mr. Fenton's series may now be included
in it. A description of a set of the time of James I may be found in
vol. xxxiv of the _Archæologia_, pp. 225-230; and a notice of the
Bodleian trenchers in _Notes and Queries_, 1866, p. 472, and other
communications on the subject in the first volume for 1867.