Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A.D. 1598-A.D. 1867 Part 15

On Hearne's announcing John Ross's _Historia Angliae_ for publication in this year, W. Whiston forwarded to him a MS. of a Latin historical poem ent.i.tled _Britannica_, written in 1606 by an author of the same names as the forth-coming historian, with the following note inserted:--

'This book was written, as I think, by my great uncle, Mr. John Rosse, rector of Norton-juxta-Twycross in Leicestershire, where I was myself born. If it may be of any use to Mr. Hern at Oxford in his intended edition of this or some other work of the same author now advertis'd, or may be thought worthy of a place in the publick library of that University, it is hereby freely given thereto by

'WILLIAM WHISTON.

'_London, December 12, 1715._'

Hearne adds that (of course) the author was altogether different from the Ross of his editing, and that the poem had been printed at Frankfort in 1607, as he learned from a MS. Catalogue of Mr. Richard Smith's books lent him by Bp. Fleetwood of Ely[190]. The MS. is now numbered, Bodley 573.

A learned tailor of Norwich was in this year recommended by Dr. Tanner, then Chancellor of Norwich Cathedral, for the Janitor's place in the Library should it be vacant. Although but a journeyman tailor of thirty years of age, who had been taught nothing but English in his childhood, Henry Wild had contrived within seven years to master seven languages, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic and Persian, to which Tanner adds, in another letter to Dr. Rawlinson, Samaritan and Ethiopic.

The application appears to have been unsuccessful so far as the holding office in the Library was concerned; but Wild found some employment in the Library for a time in the translating and copying Oriental MSS[191].

He removed to London about 1720, and died in the following year, as we learn from an entry in Hearne's _MS. Diary_, (xcii. 128-9,) under date of Oct. 29, 1721, where we read:--

'About a fortnight since died in London Mr. Henry Wild, commonly called, the _Arabick Taylour_. I have more than once mentioned him formerly. He was by profession a taylour of Norwich, and was a married man. But having a strange inclination to languages, by a prodigious industry he obtain'd a very considerable knowledge in many, without any help or a.s.sistance from others. He understood Arabick perfectly well, and transcrib'd, very fairly, much from Bodley, being patroniz'd by that most eminent physician, Dr. Rich.

Mead. He died of a feaver, aged about 39. He was about a considerable work, viz. a history of the old Arabian physicians, from an Arabick MS. in Bodley. The MS. was wholly transcrib'd by him a year agoe, but what progress he had made for the press I know not.'

Five MSS., including the Leiger Book of Malmesbury Abbey, together with a large number of printed books, were given on May 7, by William Brewster, M.D. of Hereford, a well-known antiquary[192].

A thick quarto volume (1052 pages) containing a Latin treatise by Adam Zernichaus on the controversy between the Eastern and Western Churches, concerning the Procession of the Holy Ghost, was forwarded to the Library through Sir Robert Sutton, amba.s.sador at Constantinople, by Chrysanthus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, nephew and successor of Dositheus, an autograph Greek epistle from whom, occupying seven pages, is prefixed. At the end is a list of eleven German scribes who were employed upon the transcription of the volume, with the payments they severally received. It appears from the Benefaction Register that the volume was not actually received at the Library until 1722; and in 1731, an entry in the catalogue records that the MS. 'was restored to Sir Robert Sutton, by order of the Vice-Chancellor;' but no reason or explanation is given. For more than a century the Patriarch's gift was consequently lost from the place of its destination; but in Dec. 1864, having turned up for sale among the well-known stores of Mr. C. J.

Stewart, it was secured by the Librarian at the cost of 5 15_s._ 6_d._, and is once more to be found in its legitimate quarters, numbered MS.

Addit. Bodl. ii. c. 9. Chrysanthus also gave, in 1725, a copy of Dositheus' History of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which was printed, in Greek, in 1715.

[187] Hearne's _MS. Diary_, liii. 124, 5.

[188] _Life_, 1772, pp. 18-20.

[189] He died on June 10, in that year.

[190] This catalogue was sold at the auction in 1855 of the MSS. of Dr.

Routh, who had bought it at Heber's sale.

[191] _Letters by Eminent Persons_, i. 271, 300. [On p. 270 for _Turner_, read _Tanner_.]

[192] Hearne's _MS. Diary_, liii. 148.

A.D. 1716.

On Aug. 23, a legacy of 100 from Dr. South (who died July 8), for the purchase of modern books, was paid to the Vice-Chancellor[193].

_Arms in the window._ See 1610.

[193] Hearne's _Diary_, lix. 141; _Reliqq. Hearn._ i. 366.

A.D. 1718.

One Mr. Hutton appears to have been employed in the Library during this year. It seems, from a pa.s.sage in a letter of C. Wheatly's, printed in _Letters by Eminent Persons_, ii. 116, that the learned commentator Samuel Parker, son of the Bishop of Oxford, was also at some time employed in the Library; for Wheatly expresses a wish that S. Parker's son, then (1739) an apprentice to Mr. Clements the bookseller, might, if the accounts of his extraordinary proficiency be true, be placed 'in his father's seat, the Bodleian Library.' As Parker was a non-juror, his employment must doubtless have been at some earlier period than this, but his name is not met with in any of the old Account-books or Registers. One Thomas Parker occurs in the Library accounts in 1766 and in 1772.

A.D. 1719.

Dr. Hudson died, on Nov. 27, of dropsy. And at one o'clock on the afternoon of the very next day, Joseph Bowles, M.A., of Oriel College, was elected in his room.

The bitter terms in which Hearne frequently, in the course of his _Diary_, condemns Hudson's management, or rather mismanagement, of the Library, may be supposed to be owing in a considerable degree to personal pique and quarrel[194]. But they meet with very singular and abundant confirmation in the letter of Z. C. Uffenbach, quoted above (p.

130), when the writer expresses, in the following strong language, his opinion of Hudson's neglect and incapacity, and of the general condition of the Library under his management:--

'Perpende, quaeso, mec.u.m, vir eruditissime, quantus thesaurus ex solius Bodleianae Bibliothecae codicibus elici possit, nisi Proto-Bibliothecarii Hudson negligentia ac pertinacia obstaret. Is enim muneri abunde satisfecisse, imo eximie orna.s.se Spartam videri vult, dum tot annis unico scriptori, Thucydidem ejus puto, omni Bibliothecae cura plane abjecta, insudavit, c.u.m hoc, quod supra dixi, potius agendum fuisset. Nefandam hujus insignis Bibliothecae sortem (ignosce justae indignationi) satis deplorare nequeo. Inculta plane jacet, nemo ferme tanto thesauro uti, frui, gest.i.t. Singulis sane diebus per trium mensium spatium illam frequentavi, sed, ita me dii ament, nunquam tot una vice homines in illa vidi quot numero sunt Musae, vel saltem artes liberales. De librorum studiosis loquor; nam puerorum, muliercularum, rusticorum, hinc inde cursitantium, voluminumque mult.i.tudinem per transennas spectantium mirantiumque, ctum excipio.... De Proto-bibliothecarii incuria jam dixi, ejusque stupendam in historia literaria librariaque, inprimis extra Insulam ultraque maria, ignorantiam taceo.'

Of Hearne, however, Uffenbach writes in the following different strain:--

'Hic scholaris, ut hic loqui amant, esse solet, atque etiamnum est, nomine Hearne, qui, prae reliquis, diligentiam suam non modo scriptis, sed in novo etiam Bibliothecae catalogo confitiendo, typis proxime exscribendo, probavit; ast, quod dolendum, ad exemplum prioris, qui satis jejunus, inconcinnus, erroribusque innumeris scatens est.'

Hudson's successor, Bowles, had previously been his a.s.sistant for some years, and as, while Hearne was Under-keeper, he had come into sharp collision with that irascible antiquary (see under 1715), his election now was a matter of sore annoyance to the latter. Hearne dwells upon it in his _Diary_ with great bitterness and at great length: 'Compet.i.tors were Mr. Hall, of Queen's, and that pert conceited c.o.xcomb Mr. Bowles (who is not yet Regent Master) of Oriel College. Bowles carried it by a great majority, having about 160 votes, and Mr. Hall about 77. I think it the most scandalous election that I have yet heard of in Oxford.' Of his supporters he speaks thus:--'Charlett and such rogues, who contrived to bring in that most compleat c.o.xcomb Bowles to be Head-Librarian, to the immortal scandal of all that were concern'd in it[195].' And even, when ten years later he records Bowles' death, he indulges, in forgetfulness of charity to the departed, in the following strain: 'Of this gentleman (a most vile, wicked wretch) frequent mention hath been made in these Memoirs. He took the degree of M.A. Oct. 12, 1719. 'Tis incredible what damage he did to the Bodl. Library, by putting it into disorder and confusion, which before, by the great pains I had taken in it (&c.), was the best regulated library in the world[196].' Bowles'

name never occurs in the _Diary_ without some opprobrious epithet being attached to it, which may be accounted for partly from his having taken the oaths of allegiance after declaring he would never do it (a defection which Hearne never forgave in any one), but chiefly also from his having personally excluded Hearne from the Library, when the latter refused to resign his keys in 1715, by procuring new locks and keys, which he kept in his own custody.

Three or four days after Bowles' election, Mr. Fletcher, the Sub-librarian (disliking, no doubt, the appointment of his junior over his head), resigned his office, to which Bowles appointed the well-known antiquary, Francis Wise. Upon this appointment Hearne comments thus: 'Bowles put in Mr. Wise, A.M., of Trin. Coll. (a pretender to antiquities), tho' he had promised it to one of Oriel Coll., that came in fellow of Oriel when he did, and was very serviceable to him in getting the Head Librarian's place; for which Bowles is strangely scouted and despis'd at Oriel, as a breaker of his word, and a whiffling, silly, unfaithfull, c.o.xcomb.' It must be allowed that the portrait of Bowles in the Library bears out in some degree Hearne's last epithet, by giving him the appearance rather of a fine clerical gentleman than of a student.

Baskett, the printer, presented to the Library a magnificent copy on vellum of the 'Vinegar' Bible, printed by him in 1717. Only three copies were so struck off; the second was placed in the King's Library, and the third was sold to the Duke of Chandos, for five hundred guineas, at whose sale, in 1747, Lord Foley purchased it for 72 9_s._

[194] In one pa.s.sage, Hearne says that such was Hudson's self-esteem that he reckoned himself equal to Erasmus or Sir Thomas More, while all that was curious in his books was gained from Hearne himself or others.

(_MS. Diary_, vol. lviii. p. 158.)

[195] Vol. lx.x.xiv. pp. 59, 60.

[196] Vol. cxxii. p. 158.

A.D. 1720.

About this time, one John Hawkins, a highwayman (who was executed in May, 1722), is said by an accomplice, Ralph Wilson, who published an account of his robberies, to have defaced some pictures in the Library.

The University is said to have offered 100 for discovery, and a poor Whig tailor was taken up on suspicion, and narrowly escaped a whipping.

No particulars, however, of Hawkins' act are given in the pamphlet, and no further notice of it has been found elsewhere.

Joseph Swallow, B.A., who died in this year, is found from the Accounts to have been employed, for some short time, in the Library.

In this year the t.i.tles of all books which were bought out of the Library funds begin to be recorded, together with their prices; they are entered in a Register marked with the letter C.

_Visitors' Fees._ See 1713.

A.D. 1721.

The inscription on the Schools' Tower, beneath the statue of James I, was renewed in this year[197].

Sir G.o.dfrey Kneller presented his own portrait to the Gallery.

[197] Hearne's _Diary_, xci. 196.