Calderwood’s Altare Damascenum, seu Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ
Politeia. Lugd. Bat. 1708, 4to.
Oertilii Theologia Æthiopum. Wittebergæ, 1746, 12mo.
Relandi Antiquitates Sacræ Hebræorum, 1741, 4to.
Reynolds on English Church Government, 1743, 8vo.
Richardson’s Prælectiones Ecclesiasticæ. Schoettgenii Horæ
Hebraicæ. Dresdæ, 1733, in 2 vols. 4to.
Vitringa, Commentaria in Esaiam, and his Archisynagogus.
Francqueræ, 1685, in 3 quarto volumes, with some other of his
pieces, and
Wyttenbach, Tentamen Theologiæ Dogmaticæ. Francof. 1747, in 3
vols. 12mo.
I may here also notice Saurin’s Discourses, Amst. 1720, in 11 octavo
volumes; and the Sermons delivered at the Boyle Lecture, London, 1739,
in 3 folio volumes; Bossuet’s Discourses, Jeremy Taylor’s Sermons,
and Cooper’s Sermons on Predestination, and those of South, Skeeler,
Smalridge, Smith, Stebbing, Stevens, Straight, Tebeck, Wake, Walker,
Warburton, Warren, Weston, Waterland, Whichcote, Wishart, Whitby, and
Zirlzendorff.
Also Miscellaneous Sermons from 1690 to 1713, in 13 volumes, from 1709 to
1714, in 9 volumes, from 1708 to 1763, in 26 volumes, all in octavo, and
another Collection of Occasional, Funeral, and Miscellaneous Sermons, in
23 quarto volumes.
To these may be added a copious Collection of Theological Tracts in 72
octavo volumes, of which the 19th appears to be missing; and a Series
of Tracts on the Bangorian Controversy from 1717 to 1723, in 12 volumes
octavo.
Before quitting the subject of Ecclesiastical History, it affords me
great satisfaction to notice three editions of Parker, de Antiquitate
Ecclesiæ Britannicæ, the first printed at Lambeth by John Daye, in 1572,
the second at Hanover, in 1605, and the third, augmented by Dr. Drake and
printed at London in 1729, all in folio. Of these, the first edition,
published under the Archbishop’s own eye, is on every account highly
valuable. The present copy is filled with notes in the hand writing of
John Parker, son of the Archbishop, and contains several ancient deeds,
described in a letter from Dr. Ducarel to Archbishop Secker, dated July
15, 1758. At the end of the Life of Archbishop Parker a fine portrait of
him by Hogenberg, is pasted at the end of the volume. According to Dr.
Ducarel this book was missing from the MS. Library at Lambeth, from 1720
until 1757; when Trevor, Bishop of Durham, having had the good fortune to
recover it, restored it to its original and proper repository.
To this I may add the translation from this edition of the Lives of LXX
Archbishops of Canterbury, 1572, 12mo., made, according to Hearne, by
John Josselin, with marginal notes by some Puritan. “It is a very great
rarity,” adds the indefatigable Antiquary of Oxford.
Of Works relating to Civil and Canon Law, I may here notice merely
Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois; Gothofredi Corpus Juris Civilis; Gibson’s
Codex; Justitiani Institutiones; Spencer de legibus Hebræorum;
Puffendorf’s Laws of Nature and Nations; Cay’s Statutes at large, London,
1758, in 5 vols. folio, with Observations on the Statutes, by Daines
Barrington, 1766, 4to.; and the Corpus Juris Canonici, Boehmeri, 1747, in
3 vols. 4to.; and Watson’s Clergyman’s Law.
Of Works relating to Antiquity in general, this Collection embraces
Sallengre, Novus Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanarum; the Marmora
Arundeliana, edited by Selden, London, 1628, 4to.; the Marmora
Oxoniensia, 1763, folio; Arbuthnot on Coins; Clarke’s Coins, 1767, 4to.;
Wise, Catalogus Nummorum in Bibliothecâ Bodleianâ, 1750, folio; Jameson’s
Spicilegium Antiquitatum Egyptiacarum, Glasguæ, 1720, octavo.
The Works of Science and Natural History include, Celsius de Plant. S. S.
1748; Ray’s Synopsis; Stirpium Britanniæ; Emerson’s Mathematical Works;
Euclid’s Elements; Keill’s Astronomical Works; Maclaurin’s Account of his
Discoveries; the Philosophical Transactions abridged, London, 1749, in 9
vols. 4to.; Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, London, 1742,
in 5 octavo volumes; Ronayne and Simpson’s Algebra; Sprat’s History of
the Royal Society; Well’s Elementa Arithmetica; Watts’ Logic, and other
works; Whiston’s Elements of Euclid, and Theory of the Earth, with his
Life, &c.; Lettres sur l’Histoire Naturelle de Buffon, &c. Hamburgh,
1751, in 5 volumes, 12mo.; and Woodward’s Theory of the Earth, 1723, 8vo.
In Works of Natural History, this Collection, though not rich, possesses
the Works of Aldrovandus and Kepler; Evelyn’s Sylva; Gesneri Historia
Animalium; Grew’s Anatomy of Plants, and Museum of the Royal Society;
Hooke’s Micrographia; Martin Lister’s Historiæ Animalium Angliæ tres
Tractatus, Londini, 1678, 4to.; Eduardi Luidii Lithophylacii Britannici
Iconographia, Londini, 1699, 8vo.; Newton, Optics and Principia; Raii
Catalogus Plantarum Angliæ, and his Methodus Plantarum, &c.; Van Rheede,
Hortus Malabaricus; Scheuchzer, Itinera Alpina, and Herbarium Diluvianum;
the Museum Wormianum, 1655, folio; Warren, Geologia, Lond. 1690, 8vo.;
Sprat’s History of the Royal Society, and the Philosophical Transactions
from 1665 to 1774, completed by Archbishop Cornwallis, and continued to
the present day.
The Medical Works which occurred to me were those of Boerhaave, and
Dr. R. Mead; Collins’ Anatomy, London, 1685, in 2 folio volumes; the
Pharmacopœias of Amsterdam and London; and Sydenham Opera Medica
Universa; Culpepper’s English Physician; Flud, Opera Medica varia;
Harvey, de Motu Sanguinis, Lond. 1628, 4to.; Pharmacopœia Londinensis,
and the Works of Galen.
Among the Foreign Miscellanies I would merely mention the Works of
Bochart; some Philosophical Tracts by Buxtorf, and Kuster; the Works of
Le Clerc; Rousseau’s Letters; some Pieces by Voltaire; and Zimmermanni
Opuscula, Tiguri, 1751, in three quarto volumes.
Among the Geographical Works, I found those of Ptolemy, Baudrand, and
Cluvier; Ortelii Thesaurus Geographicus, and Wells’ Geography.
Of Voyages and Travels I observed Maundrell’s Journey, Dampier and
Frobisher’s Voyages; Hakluyt’s Voyages, 1598, in 3 volumes folio;
Lithgow’s Travels, London, 1632, 4to.; Breydenbach, Peregrinationes in
Terram Sanctam, Moguntiæ, 1486, folio; Marco Polo, Travels, 1579, 4to.;
Purchas’ Pilgrimes, 1625-6, in 5 volumes, folio; and Wheler’s Greece,
London, 1682, folio.
The Heraldic Works in this Collection embrace Ashmole’s Order of the
Garter; Collins’s Peerage; Dugdale’s Baronage, folio; and his Usage of
Arms, in 8vo.; Favine’s Theatre of Honor, London, 1623, folio; Gwillim’s
Heraldry, London, 1632 and 1660, both in folio; Hemminges’ Theatrum
Genealogicum; Milles’s Catalogue of Honor, London, 1610, folio, a noble
copy upon large paper, in calf binding; Norden’s Mirrour of Honour,
London, 1597, 4to.; Philipot on Heraldry, London, 1672, 8vo.; Sandford’s
Genealogical History of the Kings of England, by Stebbing, London, 1707,
folio, upon large paper; and the Genealogy of the Kings of Scotland,
Edinburgh, 1603, 4to.; Douglas’ Peerage of Scotland, and the English
Baronetage, London, 1741, in 5 octavo volumes.
In this place I may briefly mention Lelandi Genethliacon, Lond. 1543,
4to. and his Assertio Arturii, Lond. 1544, 4to.
The Chronological Works in this Collection comprehend Blair’s Chronology;
Beveridge’s Institutiones Chronologicæ; Jackson’s Chronological
Antiquities; Kennedy’s Astronomical Chronology, London, 1762, 4to.;
Newton’s Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms, amended; Bishop Squire’s Essay
on Greek Chronology; Wise’s History and Chronology of the Fabulous
Ages; and a Collection of Almanacks from 1695 to 1714; the Chronicon
Alexandrinum, 1615, 4to.; the Persian Chronology, by Livelie, London,
1597, 8vo.; the English Chronology, Oxford, 1696, 12mo.; Chronologia
Sacra, Parisiis, 1652; the Fasciculus Temporum, Lovaniæ, 1476, folio,
and Norimbergæ, 1481, folio; Petavii Doctrina Temporum; and Jackson’s
Chronological Antiquities.
The consideration of ancient time leads the mind naturally back to the
great authors of Greece and Rome, of whose immortal Works many grace the
shelves of this great Collection.
The Archiepiscopal Library includes various editions of the Works of
Aristotle, Arrian, Aulus Gellius, Bion, and Moschus, Cicero, Columella,
Cornelius Nepos, Dion Cassius, Dionysius Halicarnassensis, Florus,
Horace, Plato, Plautus, Pindar, Quintilian, Seneca, and Thucydides.
The scholar will here find editions of the Works of Ælian, Æsop,
Arrian, Athenagoras, Æmilius Probus, Ausonius, Boethius, Cæsar, Quintus
Calaber, Celsus, Catullus, Claudian, Quintus Curtius, Dictys Cretensis,
Diodorus Siculus, Diogenes Laertius, Dionysius Areopagita, Dionysius
Periegetes, Ennius, Eutropius, Pompeius Festus, Valerius Flaccus,
Florus, Herodotus, Hesiod, Hierocles, Hippocrates, Homer, Iamblichus,
Isocrates, Silius Italicus, Justin, Lucan, Lucretius, Macrobius, Martial,
Ammianus Marcellinus, Valerius Maximus, Menander, Moschus, Musæus,
Cornelius Nepos, Oppian, Orpheus, Ovid, Pausanias, Persius, Petronius
Arbiter, Phædrus, Philostratus, Pliny the Younger, Plautus, Propertius,
Quintilian, Sallust, Seneca, Solinus, Stobæus, Strabo, Suetonius,
Symmachus, Tacitus & Terence, Tibullus, Terentius Varro, Vegetius, and
Virgil.
We also find on these shelves, Burton, Tragœdiarum Græcarum Delectus;
Carter’s Epictetus; Creech’s Lucretius; Fawkes’ Theocritus; Whiston’s
Josephus; Veteris Geographiæ Scriptores Minores, à Wells. Oxonii,
1698, in 4 octavo volumes; Cellarii, Geographia; Gally’s Characters of
Theophrastus; Gale’s Opuscula Mythologica; and Melmoth’s Cicero.
Among the editions of the Classics, I observed Aristotle, by Du Val;
Anacreon, Stephani, Lutet. Par. 1556, 4to.; Antoninus, Gatakeri; Apicius,
1541, 4to.; Appian, Par. 1592, folio; Apuleius, 1610; Aristides, 1593;
Aristophanes, Kusteri, Amst. 1710, folio; Aristotelis et Theophrasti
Opera, Venetiis apud Aldum, 1495-8, in 5 volumes, folio, with numerous
editions of detached pieces by the Stagyrite; Athenæus Casauboni,
Aurelius Victor, 1596, 12mo.; Callimachus, Spanheim; Cæsar, by Clarke,
on large paper, in red morocco, folio; Ciceronis Opera Lambini, with
various editions of his Works separately published; Dares, Phrygius,
Xylandri; Demosthenes, Wolfii; Dio Cassius, Xylandri; Dionysius
Halicarnassensis, Hudsoni, Epictetus, Coloniæ, 1594; Euripides,
Barnesii; Frontini Stratagemata, Lugd. Bat. 1633, folio; Herodian,
Gr. Basileæ, 8vo.; Horatius Bentleii, et in usum Delphini; Libanii
Orationes; Livius, Gruteri, et Clerici; Lucianus, Basileæ, 1563, in
4 octavo volumes; Lycophron Potteri; Phalaris Epistolæ; Philemonis
Reliquiæ; Photii Bibliotheca Hœschelii, et ejusdem Epistolæ; Panegyrici
Veteres, Duaci, 1585, 8vo.; Pindarus Westii, Oxonii, 1697, folio; Plato,
Ficini, et Serrani; Plinii Historia Naturalis, Dalecampii; Plotini Opera
Philosophica; Plutarchus, Xylandri & Rualdi; Sappho, 1568; Polybius,
Casauboni, including the Treatise De Tolerandâ Obsidione of Æneas
Tacticus; Statius, Calderini, 1600; Stephanus de Urbibus; Theophrasti
Characteres à Needham, Lond. 1712, 8vo.; Thucydides, Hudsoni; Tyrtæus,
Antv. 1568; and Xenophontis Opera, Leunclavii.
The editions of the Classics which fell more particularly under my
observation, were Æliani, Historia Animalium; Gronovii, Anacreon,
Glasguæ, 1744, 12mo. Aristophanes, Bergleri; Aurelius Victor, Pitisci;
Callimachus, Ernesti; Cæsar, Delphini; Claudianus, Barthii; Diogenes
Laertius, Casauboni; Diodorus Siculus, Wesselingii; Epictetus, Uptoni;
Euripides, Marklandi, cum Exercitationibus, Musgravii; Herodotus,
Wesselingii; Herodiani Historia, Oxonii, 1678, 8vo.; Hesiodus, Robinsoni;
Homerus, Clarkei & Ernesti; Josephus, Havercampi; Isocrates, Battie;
Justini Historia, Delphini; Juvenalis, Delphini; Livius, Drakenborchii;
Libanii Epistolæ, Wolfii Longinus à Pearce, & Lucanus, Burmanni;
Demosthenes & Lysias, Taylori; Lucianus, Hemsterhusii; Lucretius,
Delphini & Havercampi; Manilius, Bentleii; Martialis, Delphini; Maximus
Tyrius, Marklandi; Orpheus, Gesneri; Ovidius, Burmanni; Plutarchi Opera,
Stephani; Plutarchi Vitæ, Bryani; Plinii Junioris Epistolæ, Longolii;
Sallustius, Gronovii; Sophocles, Johnsoni, Oxon, 1705, in 3 octavo
volumes; Stobæus, Aurel. Allob. 1609, folio; Tacitus, Ernesti; Terentius,
Gronovii & Delphini; Theocritus, Martini; Theocritus, Chr. Porzchbergeri,
Dresdæ, 1744, 12mo.; and Xenophontis Anabasis, &c. Hutchinsoni.
I may here notice the critical labours of Bentley, Theodore Gaza,
Hensius, Meursius, Scaliger, and Gerard Vossius; the Anti-Lucretius
of Card. Melchior de Polignac; Dawes, Miscellanea Critica; Dodwell,
Prælectiones Academicæ; Gatakeri Opera Critica; Stradæ, Prolusiones
Academicæ; Toupii Emendationes in Suidam; and Sulpitii Severi Opera,
Elzeviri, 1643, 12mo.
I have reserved for the close of this cursory review of the Classics,
some account of a little tome upon which I put my hand very unexpectedly
among the Manuscripts in the Record Chamber.
“Then felt I like some watcher of the skies,
When a new planet swims into his ken,
Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific—and all his men
Look’d at each other with a wild surmise,
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.”
These fine lines occurred to John Keats, “on first looking into Chapman’s
Homer,” and surely the enthusiastic Bibliophilist may be allowed to
participate in the feeling they so eloquently pourtray, when he first
beholds Cicero’s Offices, printed upon vellum by Fust and Schoeffer,
those famous typographers. The present volume bears the date of 1466, and
is consequently the second edition printed at Mayence. This small but
precious folio, measures eight inches and three quarters by six inches
and a quarter, and is in calf binding. It contains 87 leaves, of which
the 1st and 58th are much stained.
This volume which appears to have been classed among the Manuscripts
from the resemblance of its type to the handwriting of the middle
ages, derives additional interest from a manuscript notice of Joannes
Temporarius in 1460, respecting the origin of the truly divine Art of
Printing.
“Chronogr. lib. I. ad an. 1460.”
“Typographia donu̅ Dei præstantissimu̅ Quo Deus extremis
temporibꝰ no̅ solum Antichristi potentia̅ evertit, sed et
universu̅ orbem inexcusabilem reddit. Quia jam non ex reru̅
creataru̅ consideratione sed suo ipsius verbo in omnes terrarum
partes, in oe̅s familias, omniumq; populoru̅ linguis transfuso
se patefecit.
“JOAN. TEMPORARIUS.”
I have transcribed this curious entry at the end of the volume, with
literal accuracy, as it shews the high estimation in which the infant
press was held, and the direction sought to be given to its gigantic
power by the learned of that day.
Animated by the same feeling to which I have already alluded, I pursued
my search for the tomes of early time in the archives above, and in the
hall below, with unabated ardour. Great was my satisfaction at finding
the following productions of the legitimate father of the English press.
The Dictes and Sayinges of Philosophers, translated out of
Frenshe, by Antoine Erle of Ryvyers. Westmestre, 1477, folio.
This edition bears Caxton’s large mark on the first page, and has 31
lines in a full page, with signatures. On the recto of the last leaf we
are informed that
“Caxton me fieri fecit.”
The present copy of this rare volume is apparently perfect, and is
preceded by the Book of Good Manners, from the French of Le Grand,
printed the xi of Maye, 1487, in folio, which wants all the leaves
preceding the signature B 1. Three leaves of the book called Cathon have
also been inserted in this volume, which measures ten inches and a half
by seven inches, is bound in calf, and lettered, simply “Caxton.”
The Cronycles of Englond. Westmynstre, 1480, folio.
The present is a sound and perfect copy, measuring ten inches and three
quarters, by eight inches, and bound in calf. It unfortunately wants the
Descripcion of Britayne, which 29 leaves were printed, though now but
seldom found, with the Chronicle of Caxton.[39]
Liber Festivalis, or Directions for keeping Feasts all the
Year. Westmynster, by Wyllyam Caxton, 1483, folio.
The present copy is perfect, having the Quatuor Sermones of 30 leaves
at the end; but the first, and some other leaves are pieced, and much
scribbled over. The volume measures eleven inches and one-eighth by
seven inches and three quarters, and is in calf binding. It is the first
edition of the work.
Gower, John, Confessio Amantis, the Confessyon of the Louer.
Westmestre, by Willyam Caxton, with the date of 1483, for 1493,
folio.
This first edition of one of the most popular works of the middle ages,
is of extreme rarity in a state so perfect and so desirable as the
present. This copy is in fact quite perfect, sound, and clean, measuring
twelve inches by eight inches and a half, and bound in calf.
Speculum Vitæ Christi, or the Myrroure of the blessed Lyf of
Jhesu Christ. Folio, no date.
This singular volume, ornamented with grotesque wood-cuts, commences with
the words—
“Incipit Speculum Vite Cristi.”
concluding with the similar line of
“Explycit Speculum Vite Cristi.”
and having Caxton’s large mark on the reverse of the last leaf.
The present copy is quite perfect and in sound condition. It is also very
large, measuring eleven inches by eight inches and a quarter. It retains
its original boards, covered with stamped calf, affording a beautiful and
unsophisticated example of the Caxtonian press.
While on the subject of early English Literature, I may remark that here
are to be found the Works of Roger Ascham, Boyle, Cowley, Hobbes, Milton,
Locke, Addison, James the First, Dryden, Bacon, Selden; Swift’s Tale of
a Tub; Spenser’s Faery Queen, London, 1611; the Shepherd’s Kalendar,
London, 1556, B. L. 4to.; Barclay’s Argenis; Beaumont’s Psyche, or
Love’s Mystery; Butler’s Hudibras, and Chaucer’s Works of 1542 and 1598,
in folio, both printed in London; Dives et Pauper, London, by Richarde
Pynson, 1493, folio. This compendious exposition of the Commandments is
the first book known to have been printed by Pynson with a date. The
present copy is unfortunately imperfect at the beginning.
In the department of English Literature I noticed some Pieces by
Bolingbroke; Burke’s celebrated Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful;
some Political Tracts, by Jonas Hanway; Hartley on the Millenium;
Home’s Elements of Criticism; Middleton’s Life of Cicero, and other
works; Locke on the Human Understanding, and other works; an Essay on
the Writings of Pope, 1756, 8vo.; Dodsley’s Preceptor; Richardson’s Sir
Charles Grandison; Savage’s Letters of the Ancients, London, 1703, 8vo.;
Shaftesbury’s Characteristicks; Shakespeare, edited by Hanmer, Oxford,
1744, in 6 quarto volumes; Sir Henry Spelman’s Posthumous Works; some
Pieces by Swift, with his Life by Lord Orrery; Thyer’s Remains of Samuel
Butler; Tucker’s Commercial Tracts; Milton’s Paradise Lost, edited by
Newton; Spenser’s Faery Queen, edited by Upton, London, 1758, 4to.;
Sir Henry Wootton’s Remains, 1685; and Sir John Davies’ Poem on the
Immortality of the Soul, 1714, 8vo.