(Read in Convocation, Nov. 9, 1611.)

SIR,

About some three years past, I made a motion, here in London, to Mr. Pindar, Consul of the Company of English Merchants at Aleppo (a famous port in the Turk's dominions) that he would use his best means to procure me some books in the Syriac, Arabic, Turkish, and Persian tongues, or in any other language of those Eastern nations: because I make no doubt but, in process of time, by the extraordinary diligence of some one or other student, they may be readily understood, and some special use made of their kind of learning in those parts of the world: and where I had a purpose to reimburse all the charge that might grow thereupon, he sent of late unto me 20 several volumes in the foresaid tongues, and of his liberal disposition hath bestowed them freely on the library. They are manuscripts all (for in those countries they have no kind of printing) and were valued in that place at a very high rate. I will send them, ere be long, praying you the while to notify so much unto the University, and to move them to write a letter of thanks, which I will find means to convey to his hands, being lately departed from London to Constantinople. Whether the letter be indited in Latin or English, it is not much material, but yet, in my conceit, it will do best to him in English."

(The remainder of this letter is devoted to a scheme of building the public schools at Oxford; in which Sir Thomas found a most able and cheerful coadjutor, in one, _Sir Jo.

Benet_; who seems to have had an extensive and powerful connection, and who set the scheme on foot, "like a true affected son to his ANCIENT MOTHER, with a cheerful propension to take the charge upon him without groaning.")

In April 1585, Queen Elizabeth granted Sir Thomas "a passport of safe conveyance to Denmark"; and wrote a letter to the King of Denmark of the same date, within two days.

She wrote, also, a letter to Julius, Duke of Brunswick of the same date: in which the evils that were then besetting the Christian world abroad were said to be rushing suddenly, as "from the Trojan Horse." "These three letters (observes Mr. Baker to his friend Hearne) are only copies, but very fairly wrote, and seem to have been duplicates kept by him that drew the original letters."

We will peruse but two more of these Bodleian epistles, which Hearne very properly adds as an amusing appendix, as well to the foregoing, as to his _Reliquiae Bodleianae_ (1703, 8vo). They are written to men whose names must ever be held in high veneration by all worthy bibliomanacs.

"_Sir Tho. Bodley to Sir Robert Cotton._ (_Ex. Bibl.

Cotton._)

SIR,

I was thrice to have seen you at your house, but had not the hap to find you at home. It was only to know how you hold your old intention for helping to furnish the University Library: where I purpose, God willing, to place all the books that I have hitherto gathered, within these three weeks. And whatsoever any man shall confer for the storing of it, such order is taken for a due memorial of his gift as I am persuaded he cannot any way receive a greater contentment of any thing to the value otherwise bestowed.

Thus much I thought to signify unto you: and to request you to hear how you rest affected.

Yours, to use in any occasion,

THO. BODLEY.

From my house, June 6."

"_Sir Henry Savile to Sir R(obert) C(otton)._

SIR,

I have made Mr. Bodley acquainted with your kind and friendly offer, who accepteth of it in most thankful manner: and if it pleaseth you to appoint to-morrow at afternoon, or upon Monday or Tuesday next, at some hour likewise after dinner, we will not fail to be with you at your house for that purpose. And remember I give you fair warning that if you hold any book so dear as that you would be loth to have him out of your sight, set him aside before hand. For my own part, I will not do that wrong to my judgment as to chuse of the worst, if better be in place: and, beside, you would account me a simple man.

But to leave jesting, we will any of the days come to you, leaving, as great reason is, your own in your own power freely to retain or dispose. True it is that I have raised some expectation of the quality of your gift in Mr. Bodley, whom you shall find a gentleman in all respects worthy of your acquaintance. And so, with my best commendations, I commit you to God. This St. Peter's day.

Your very assured friend,

HENRY SAVILE."

It only remains now to indulge the dutiful sons of ALMA MATER with a fac-simile wood-cut impression of the profile of the venerable founder of the Bodleian Library, taken from a print of a medal in the _Catalogi Librorum Manuscriptorum Angliae, &c._, 1697, fol.; but whether it have any resemblance to the bust of him, "carved to the life by an excellent hand at London, and shortly after placed in a niche in the south wall of the same library," with the subjoined inscription, I cannot at this moment recollect.

[Illustration:

THOMAS SACKVILLUS DORSET, COMES, SUMMUS ANGLIae THESAURAR. ET HUJUS ACAD. CANCELLAR.

THOMae BODLEIO EQUITI AURATO QUI BIBLIOTHECAM HANC INSTITUIT HONORIS CAUSA P.P.]

The library of Sir Thomas Bodley, when completed, formed the figure of a T: it was afterwards resolved, on the books accumulating, and the benefactions increasing, to finish it in the form of an H; in which state it now remains. Sir Kenelm Digby, like a thorough bred bibliomaniac, "gave fifty very good oaks, to purchase a piece of ground of Exeter College, laying on the north west side of the library; on which, and their own ground adjoining, they might erect the future fabric." The laying of the foundation of this erection is thus described by Wood; concluding with a catastrophe, at which I sadly fear the wicked reader will smile. "On the thirteenth of May, being Tuesday, 1634, the Vice-chancellor, Doctors, Heads of Houses, and Proctors, met at St. Mary's church about 8 of the clock in the morning; thence each, having his respective formalities on came to this place, and took their seats that were then erected on the brim of the foundation. Over against them was built a scaffold, where the two proctors, with divers masters, stood. After they were all settled, the University Musicians, who stood upon the leads at the west end of the library, sounded a lesson on their wind music. Which being done, the singing men of Christ-Church, with others, sang a lesson, after which the senior Proctor, Mr. Herbert Pelham, of Magdalen College, made an eloquent oration: that being ended also, the music sounded again, and continued playing till the Vice-Chancellor went to the bottom of the foundation to lay the first stone in one of the south angles. But no sooner had he deposited a piece of gold on the said stone, according to the usual manner in such ceremonies, but the earth fell in from one side of the foundation, and the scaffold that was thereon broke and fell with it; so that all those that were thereon, to the number of a hundred at least, namely, the Proctors, Principals of Halls, Masters, and some Bachelaurs, fell down all together, one upon another, into the foundation; among whom, the under butler of Exeter College had his shoulder broken or put out of joint, and a scholar's arm bruised." "The solemnity being thus concluded with such a sad catastrophe, the breach was soon after made up and the work going chearfully forward, was in four years space finished." _Annals of the University of Oxford_; vol. ii., pt. ii., p. 939. Gutch's edition. We will take leave of SIR THOMAS BODLEY, and of his noble institution, with the subjoined representation of the University's Arms--as painted upon the ceiling of the library, in innumerable compartments; hoping that the period is not very remote when a _History of the Bodleian Library_, more ample and complete than any thing which has preceded it, will appear prefixed to a _Catalogue of the Books_, like unto that which is hinted at p. 74, ante, as "an urgent desideratum."

[Illustration: DOMINVS ILLVMINATIO MEA]]

LIS. Alas, you bring to my mind those precious hours that are gone by, never to be recalled, which I wasted within this glorious palace of Bodley's erection! How I sauntered, and gazed, and sauntered again.--

PHIL. Your case is by no means singular. But you promise, when you revisit the library, not to behave so naughtily again?

LIS. I was not then a convert to the BIBLIOMANIA! Now, I will certainly devote the leisure of six autumnal weeks to examine minutely some of the precious tomes which are contained in it.

LYSAND. Very good. And pray favour us with the result of your profound researches: as one would like to have the most minute account of the treasures contained within those hitherto unnumbered volumes.

PHIL. As every sweet in this world is balanced by its bitter, I wonder that these worthy characters were not lampooned by some sharp-set scribbler--whose only chance of getting perusers for his work, and thereby bread for his larder, was by the novelty and impudence of his attacks. Any thing new and preposterous is sure of drawing attention.

Affirm that you see a man standing upon one leg, on the pinnacle of Saint Paul's[336]--or that the ghost of Inigo Jones had appeared to you, to give you the extraordinary information that Sir Christopher Wren had stolen the whole of the plan of that cathedral from a design of his own--and do you not think that you would have spectators and auditors enough around you?

[Footnote 336: This is now oftentimes practised by some wag, in his "_Walke in Powles_." Whether the same anecdote is recorded in the little slim pamphlet published in 1604, 4to., under the same title--not having the work--(and indeed how should I? vide _Bibl. Reed_, no. 2225, _cum pretiis_!) I cannot take upon me to determine.]

LIS. Yes, verily: and I warrant some half-starved scrivener of the Elizabethan period drew his envenomed dart to endeavour to perforate the cuticle of some worthy bibliomaniacal wight.

LYSAND. You may indulge what conjectures you please; but I know of no anti-bibliomaniacal satirist of this period. STUBBES did what he could, in his "_Anatomy of Abuses_,"[337] to disturb every social and harmless amusement of the age. He was the forerunner of that snarling satirist, Prynne; but I ought not thus to cuff him, for fear of bringing upon me the united indignation of a host of black-letter critics and philologists. A _large and clean_ copy of his sorrily printed work is among the choicest treasures of a Shakspearian virtuoso.

[Footnote 337: "THE ANATOMIE OF ABUSES: _contayning a discoverie, or briefe summarie of such notable vices and imperfections as now raigne in many Christian Countreyes of the Worlde: but (especiallie) in a very famous Ilande called Ailgna_:" &c. Printed by Richard Jones, 1583, small 8vo.

Vide Herbert's _Typographical Antiquities_, vol. iii., p.

1044, for the whole title. Sir John Hawkins, in his _History of Music_, vol iii., 419, calls this "a curious and very scarce book;" and so does my friend, Mr. Utterson; who revels in his morocco-coated copy of it--"_Exemplar olim Farmerianum!_" But let us be candid; and not sacrifice our better judgments to our book-passions. After all, Stubbes's work is a caricatured drawing. It has strong passages, and a few original thoughts; and, is moreover, one of the very few works printed in days of yore which have running titles to the subjects discussed in them. These may be recommendations with the bibliomaniac; but he should be informed that this volume contains a great deal of puritanical cant, and licentious language; that vices are magnified in it in order to be lashed, and virtues diminished that they might not be noticed. Stubbes equals Prynne in his anathemas against "Plays and Interludes:" and in his chapters upon "Dress" and "Dancing" he rakes together every coarse and pungent phrase in order to describe "these horrible sins" with due severity. He is sometimes so indecent that, for the credit of the age, and of a virgin reign, we must hope that every virtuous dame threw the copy of his book, which came into her possession, behind the fire. This may reasonably account for its present rarity. I do not discover it in the catalogues of the libraries of _Pearson_, _Steevens_, or _Brand_; but see _Bibl. Wright_, no. 1390.]

But admitting even that Stubbes had drawn his arrow to the head, and grazed the skin of such men as Bodley and Cotton, the wound inflicted by this weapon must have been speedily closed and healed by the balsamic medicine administered by ANDREW MAUNSELL, in his _Catalogue of English Printed Books_.[338] This little thin folio volume afforded a delicious treat to all honest bibliomaniacs. It revived the drooping spirits of the despondent; and, like the syrup of the renowned Dr.

Brodum, circulated within the system, and put all the generous juices in action. The niggardly collector felt the influence of rivalship; he played a deeper stake at book-gambling; and hastened, by his painfully acquired knowledge of what was curious and rare in books, to anticipate the rustic collector--which latter, putting the best wheels and horses to his carriage, rushed from the country to the metropolis, to seize, at Maunsell's shop, a choice copy of _Cranmer's Bible, or Morley's Canzonets_.[339]

[Footnote 338: This Catalogue, the first publication of the kind ever put forth in this country, is complete in two parts; 1595, folio: first part containing 123 pages, exclusive of three preliminary epistles: the second, 27 pages; exclusive of three similar introductory pieces. The _first part_ is devoted entirely to Divinity: and in the dedicatory epistle to Queen Elizabeth, Maunsell tells her majesty that he thought it "worth his poor labour to collect a catalogue of the divine books, so mightily increased in her reign; whereby her majesty's most faithful and loving subjects may be put in remembrance of the works of so excellent authors," &c. The second part is devoted to a brief account of books in the remaining branches of literature, arts, sciences, &c. Maunsell promised to follow it up by a _third_ part; but a want of due encouragement seems to have damped the bibliographical ardour of the compiler; for this third part never appeared: a circumstance which, in common with the late Mr. Steevens, all bibliomaniacs may "much lament." See the _Athenaeum_, vol i., 155; also Herbert's _Typographical Antiquities_, vol ii., p.

1137. A copy of this volume has found its way into the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh; _Cat. Adv. Libr._, vol ii., p. 99. Ruddiman, who was formerly the librarian of this latter valuable collection, had probably read Hearne's commendation of it:--namely, that it was "a very scarce, and yet a very useful, book." _Bened. Abbat._, vol. i., p. LIV.

Mr. Heber possesses a curious copy of it, which was formerly Herbert's, with the margins filled with his MS. addenda.]

[Footnote 339: "Of the translation appointed to bee read in churches, in Kinge Henry the 8, his daies," printed in the largest volume, 1539. "THO. MORLEY, Bachiler of Musique, and one of her Maiestie's Royal Chappell, _his Conzonets_, or little short songes to three voyces. Prin. by Tho. Est.

1593. 4to." See p. 10., pt. i., p. 17, pt. ii., of _Maunsell's Catalogue_; but let the reader consult p. 248, ante, concerning this "largest volume" of the Holy Scriptures.]

Let us, however, not forget that we have reached the reign of JAMES I.; a monarch who, like Justinian, affected to be "greatly given to study of books;"[340] and who, according to Burton's testimony, wished he had been chained to one of the shelves of the Bodleian library.[341] Of all literary tastes, James had the most strange and sterile. Let us leave him to his _Demonology_; but notice, with the respect that it merits, the more rational and even elegantly cultivated mind of his son PRINCE HENRY;[342] of whose passion for books there are some good evidences upon record. We will next proceed to the mention of a shrewd scholar and bibliomaniac, and ever active voyager, ycleped THOMAS CORYATE, the _Peregrine of Odcombe_. This facetious traveller, who was as quaint and original a writer as old Tom Fuller, appears (when he had time and opportunity) to have taken special notice of libraries; and when he describes to us his "worm eaten" copy of _Josephus's Antiquities_,[343] "written in ancient Longobard characters in parchment," one cannot but indulge a natural wish to know something of the present existence of a MS. which had probably escaped Oberthur, the last laborious editor of Josephus.

[Footnote 340: "Greatly gyuen to study of bokys:" _Rastell's Chronicle, or Pastyme of People_, p. 28, edit. 1811, 4to.]

[Footnote 341: The passage is somewhere in Burton's _Anatomy of Mechanoly_. But I cannot just now, put my finger upon it.]

[Footnote 342: The works of KING JAMES I. (of England) were published in rather a splendid folio volume in the year 1616. Amongst these, his _Demonology_ is the "opus maximum."

Of his son PRINCE HENRY, there is, in this volume, at the top of one of the preliminary pieces, a very pretty half length portrait; when he was quite a boy. A charming whole length portrait of the same accomplished character, when he was a young man, engraved by Paas, may be seen in the first folio edition of Drayton's _Polyolbion_: but this, the reader will tell me, is mere Grangerite information. Proceed we, therefore, to a pithy, but powerful, demonstration of the bibliomaniacal character of the said Prince Henry. "In the paper office, there is a book, No. 24, containing Prince Henry's privy-purse expences, for one year," &c. The whole expense of one year was 1400_l._ Among other charges, the following are remarkable:

_s._ _d._

17th October, paid to a Frenchman, that presented _a book_ 4 10 0

20th October, paid Mr. Holyoak for writing a _Catalogue of the Library_ which the Prince had of Lord Lumley 8 13 4 &c. &c. &c.

_Apology for the Believers in the Shakspeare-Papers_, 1797, 8vo., p. 233.]