there is still a single tenant, feebly holding his ground and refusing
to be evicted. He wears the form of King Alfred and bears a legend
beneath, telling us boldly that he founded the University[12]. The
clamour of disputation never reaches that silent room, the changes of
centuries have disregarded it, and it remains the one place where a
belief which cast a lustre of royalty over early Oxford, and to this day
gives primacy to one of the oldest colleges, is still maintained without
contradiction. The figure neither utters nor listens to argument: it
asserts and chooses to assert. But the spirit of the age is at the door:
St. Mary’s is swathed in scaffolding: the sounds of trowel and saw
penetrate through the dim glass and the cobwebs and all things become
new. It is probable that the opening years of the twentieth century will
see the age-worn bust of Alfred and the copy of the Oxford Jerome in the
University archives consigned to a common flame as Impostors in an age
of light.
_Copies known._
1. British Museum. Perfect. Given by the Earl of Oxford on 10 Mar.
1729/30 to James West, at whose sale in 1773 it probably passed to
M. C. Tutet: then in the King’s Library, which passed in 1829 to
the British Museum, where it bore the mark 8. D. 5; now 167. b.
26.
2. Bodleian. Wanting e 10, a blank leaf. One page (b 7^r) is printed
askew, in this copy only. Owned in 1582 by William Wright: then
Bp. Juxon’s, who gave it on 31 July 1657 to Bp. Barlow, among
whose books it passed to the Bodleian in 1693: where it has been
successively marked A. 19. 6 Linc., Auct. Q. 1. 5. 18, Auct. Q. 1.
6. 12 and Auct. R. supra 13.
3. All Souls College, Oxford. Wanting a 4, a 5. Given by Benj. Buckler
in 1756: bound in the 18th cent. with the Aretinus (see p. 253).
Marked NN. 10. 1, now LL. 10. 17.
4. Oriel College, Oxford. Perfect. Originally this was bound 4th in a
volume containing Augustinus de dignitate sacerdotum: Meditationes
Bernardi: Exempla Scripturae, Paris, 1478: the Jerome: Comm. Petri
de Osoma in symbolum Quicunque vult, Paris: the Aegidius, Oxf.
1479: Ars bene moriendi: and Hugonis Speculum ecclesiae. Owned by
Edmund Lyster in the 16th cent. The present binding is of the 18th
century: but there are old manuscript signatures throughout the
volume.
5. Oxford University Archives. Perfect. Owned by John Rhodes in 1664:
given by Moses Pit, a London bookseller, 31 Jan. 1679/80. Bound
with the ©Casus breves© of Johannes Andreas (n. d.).
6. Cambridge University Library. Wanting e 10, a blank leaf. This copy
has a painting of St. Jerome, a coloured capital and border, &c.,
and a coat of arms. It bears a George I bookplate dated 1713.
Marked C. 5. 1, and now AB. 5. 18.
7. John Rylands Library, Manchester. Perfect. Bought for the Spencer
Library for £150: bound by C. Lewis: marked 17320, or E. 237:
transferred to Manchester with the whole Spencer Library.