_MS. of English Gesta Romanorum_.
Your work, which has so promising a commencement, may be regarded as, in
one department, a depository of anecdotes of books. Under this head I
should be disposed to place Notes of former possessors of curious or
important volumes: and, as a contribution of this kind, I transmit a
Note on the former possessors of the MS. of the _Gesta Romanorum_ in
English, which was presented to the British Museum in 1832, by the Rev.
W.D. Conybeare, now Dean of Llandaff, and has been printed at the
expense of a member of Roxburgh Club. It is No. 9066 of the MSS. call
Additional.
Looking at it some years ago, when I had some slight intention of
attacking the various MSS. of the _Gesta_ in the Museum, I observed the
names of Gervase Lee and Edward Lee, written on a fly-leaf, in the way
in which persons usually inscribe their names in books belonging to
them; and it immediately occurred to me that these could be no other
Lees than members of the family of Lee of Southwell, in Nottinghamshire,
who claimed to descent from a kinsman of Edward Lee, who was Archbishop
of York in the reign of Henry VIII, and who is so unmercifully handled
by Erasmus. The name of Gervase was much used by this family of Lee, and
as there was in it an Edward Lee who had curious books in the time of
Charles II, about whose reign the names appears to have been written,
there can, I think, be little reasonable doubt that this most curious
MS. formed a part of his library, and of his grandfather or father,
Gervase Lee, before him.
Edward Lee, who seems to have been the last of the name who lived in the
neighbourhood of Southwell, died on the 23rd of April, 1712, aged 76.
That he possessed rare books I collect from this: that the author of
_Grammatica Reformata_, 12mo. 1683, namely John Twells, Master of the
Free School at Newark, says, in his preface, that he owed the
opportunity of perusing _Matthew of Westminster_ "to the kindness of
that learned patron of learning, Edward Lee, of Norwell, Esquire."
And now, having given you a Note, I will add a Query, and ask, Can any
one inform me what became of this library, or who were the
representatives and heirs of Edward Lee, through whom this MS. may have
passed to Mr. Conybeare, or give me any further particulars respecting
this Edward Lee?
A person who asks a question in such a publication as yours ought to
endeavour to answer one. I add therefore that Mr. Thorpe--no mean
authority on such a point--in his _Catalogue_ for 1834, No. 1234, says
the E.F. in the title-page of _The Life of King Edward II_, represents
"E. Falkland:" but he does not tell us who E. Falkland was, and it is
questionable whether there was any person so named living at the time
when the book in question was written. There was no Edward Lord Falkland
before the reign of William III. Also, in answer to Dr. Maitland's Query
respecting the fate of Bindley's copy of _Borde's Dyetary of Health_,
1567, in a priced copy of the Catalogue now before me, the name of Rodd
stands as the purchaser for eleven shillings.