In the library at this island, which formerly belonged to the Knights of
Malta, there is an edition of Walton's Polyglott Bible, which was published
in London in 1657. This work is in a most perfect state of preservation.
On the title-page of the first of the eleven volumes, there is written, in
a bold and perfectly legible manner, the following words:
"Liber Coll. Di Joannis Bapt^a Oxon Ex dono Reverendiss. in Xt^o Patris
Gvil^i Jvxon Archiep. Cantvariensis. A^o D^{ni} 1663."
Just below, but on the right of the above, there is written in a clear hand
as follows:
"Ex Libris domus Abbatialis S. Antonij Viennensis, Catalogo Inscript
an. 1740. No. 11."
That the question which I shall ask at the end of this Note may be the more
easily answered, it will perhaps be necessary for me to state, that in the
year 1777, Rohan, the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, succeeded in
annexing the property belonging to the Order of St. Antonio de Vienna to
that of Malta. In accepting of these estates, which were situated in France
and Savoy, Rohan bound himself to pay the many mortgages and debts with
which they were encumbered; and so large an amount had to be thus defrayed,
that for a hundred years the convent would not be reimbursed for its
advances, and receive the 120,000 livres, at which sum their annual rental
would then be valued. Of the foundation of this Order a recent writer
(Thornton) thus remarks:
"In 1095 some nobles of Dauphiny united for the relief of sufferers
from a kind of leprosy called St. Anthony's fire, which society, in
1218, was erected into a religious body of Hospitallers, having a
grand master for chief. This order, after many changes in its
constitution, having been left the option between extinction and
secularisation, or union with another order, accepted the latter
alternative, and selected that of St. John of Jerusalem."
Among the moveable effects which came to the Knights of Malta by this
arrangement, was a small and well-selected library, and in it this edition
of Walton's Bible.
Without, therefore, writing more at length on this subject, which might
take up too much space in "N. & Q.," I would simply add, that my attention
was called to this work by the Rev. Mr. Howe, chaplain of H.B.M. ship
"Britannia," and for the purpose of asking, At what time, by whom, and in
what manner, were these volumes removed from St. John's College at Oxford,
and transferred to the library of the Order of St. Antonio de Vienna in
France?