Part 12 (1/2)

The Oriental MSS., in number 420, of the famous Edward Poc.o.c.ke, Regius Professor of Hebrew (who had deceased Sept. 10, 1691), were purchased by the University for 600. They are chiefly in Armenian, Hebrew, and Arabic, with three volumes in aethiopic, a Samaritan Pentateuch, and a Persian Evangeliary. A list is given at pp. 274-278 of Bernard's Catalogue. In 1822 the Library became possessed of a portion of Poc.o.c.ke's Collection of printed miscellaneous books, by the bequest of Rev. C. Francis, M.A., of Brasenose College. They are chiefly small volumes in Latin, on historical subjects; and are, for the most part, placed in the shelves marked 8^o Z. Jur. [Arabic version of Isaiah, see p. 81.]

Another large Oriental collection was added in this year by the purchase, from Dr. Robert Huntington, for the sum of 700, of about 600 MSS. These he had procured while holding the post of chaplain to the English merchants at Aleppo[149]. The collection is one of very great value and rarity. No. 1 is a fine and ponderous Syriac volume, containing the works of Gregory Abulpharage. No. 2 is a very fine folio Arabic MS., written in the year of the Hegira 777 (= A.D. 1375), and dedicated to the Sultan Almalek Alashraf Shalian ben Hosain; in it, as Uri says in his Catalogue, 'variae aegypti regiones recensentur, agrorum cujusque regionis mensura definitur, et annui redditus exponuntur.'

Dibdin[150] describes it in his own exaggerated style, as follows:--'One of the grandest books-- ... a sort of Domesday compilation--which can possibly be seen.... The scription is in double columns, with the margins emblazoned only in stars. The t.i.tle, on the reverse of the first leaf, is highly illuminated, in a fine style; not crowded with ornaments, but grand from its simplicity. At the end, we observe that it is (rightly) called _Munus Pretiosum_, and that the author was Sherfiddin Iahia ben Almocar ben Algiaian. The inspection of such a volume, on the coldest possible morning, even when the thermometer stands at _zero_, is sufficient to warm the most torpid system.' No. 80 is a copy of Maimonides' _Yad Hachazaka_, revised by the author, with his autograph signature at the bottom of fol. 165, and a MS. note by him on fol. 1. Of these an engraved facsimile is given in _Treasures of Oxford, containing Poetical Compositions by the ancient Jewish Authors in Spain, and compiled from MSS. in the Bodl. Libr. by H. Edelman and Leop. Dukes; edited and rendered into English by M. H. Bresslau_: part i. 8^o. Lond. 1851. A second part of this work was to have contained prose selections from MSS. in the Huntington, Poc.o.c.ke, Michael, and Oppenheim collections, but no more was published. Among Huntington's books there are also three, of no great antiquity, in the Mendean character, of which Dr. T. Smith narrates in his life of Bernard (1704, p. 21) that two were said to have been given by G.o.d to Adam, and the third to the angels, 330,000 years before Adam. And one volume (No. 598) is in the Ouigour language, a Tartar dialect, of which very few specimens are known to exist. A gentleman (M. Vaḿbery M.

Va?bery), the traveller in Tartary, who is engaged in forming a Chrestomathy of this dialect, came in the last year to England for the purpose of examining this volume, as one of the few on which his work could be based. Three MSS. exist at Paris; but that in the Bodleian is said to be the most beautiful of all as a specimen of writing, as well as the most ancient. It is a version of the _Bakhtiar Nameh_. A description of it, with an engraved facsimile, is given in Davids'

_Turkish Grammar_, 4^o. Lond. 1832, pref. p. x.x.xi.

An exchange of some duplicates was made with the Library of Queen's College, and in 1695 the duplicates of Bishop Barlow's Collection were transferred, in accordance with his will, to the same Library.

[149] He had previously given thirty-five MSS. in the years 1678, 1680, and 1683. He died on Sept. 2, 1701, only twelve days after his consecration as Bishop of Raphoe.

[150] _Bibliogr. Decam._ iii. 472.

A.D. 1694.

A Mr. Clarke was employed in this year in making a catalogue of Poc.o.c.ke's and Huntington's MSS., for which he altogether received between 13 and 14.

A.D. 1695.

Books were bought from Mr. Bobart, and at the auction of the library of Sir Charles Scarborough, M.D.

_Stationers' Company._ See 1610.

_MSS. from Wood._ See 1658.

A.D. 1696.

From this year until 1700, Humphrey Wanley was an a.s.sistant in the Library, at an annual salary of 12. He had also 10 at the end of this year 'extraordinary, for his paines already past,' and 15, at the beginning of 1700, 'for his pains about Dr. Bernard's books.' Possibly this grant may have been in consequence of the interposition of Bishop Lloyd of Worcester, who, in a letter to Wanley of Jan. 6, in that year, promises to speak to the Bishop of Oxford to see whether he can get his place in the Library made better for him[151]. Wanley was no favourite with Hearne. The following pa.s.sage from the _MS. Diary_ of the latter[152] is a specimen of the censure which he on several occasions pa.s.ses on him: 'Humphrey Wanley appears from several pa.s.sages to be a very illiterate silly fellow. He committed strange and almost incredible blunders when he was employed by Dr. Charlett and some others in printing the catalogue of the MSS. of England and Ireland, which work was committed first to the care of Dr. Bernard; but he being then very weak and otherwise employed, he could not take so much pains about it as he would, had he not been thus hindered.' The very accurate index, however, to this Catalogue was Bernard's own work, made from the proof-sheets, and written with his own hand, 'uti ab illo accepi,' says Dr. T. Smith in his Life (1704, p. 48). He prepared also another index, which included besides the contents of eight of the great foreign libraries, but not the Royal Library at Paris, the catalogue of which he was unable to obtain.

[151] Walker's _Letters by Eminent Persons_, i. 102. It is pleasant to find that Wanley in more prosperous days evinced his grat.i.tude for the help he had received in the Library, by giving, in the year 1721, 7 7_s._, together with a MS. Latin Bible.

[152] 1714, vol. li. p. 193.

A.D. 1697.

On the death of Edward Bernard, D.D., the Savilian Professor of Astronomy (which occurred on Jan. 12), the University became the purchaser from his widow of the greater part of his library. A selection from his printed books, made on behalf of the Library by H. Wanley, comprising many rare Aldines and specimens of the 15th century, were bought for 140, and his MSS., many of which were valuable copies of cla.s.sical authors, together with collated printed texts and his own _Adversaria_, for 200. Of 218 of the latter, Bernard has given a very brief list in his own invaluable _Catalogus Ma.n.u.scriptorum Angliae_, which appeared posthumously, in the year of his death. (Vol. ii. pp.

226-8.) The bulk of his books are dispersed through various divisions of the Library; but about thirty volumes of his own _Adversaria_ are kept together under his name. A very full account, by H. Wanley, of the purchase of the collection is printed by Dr. Bliss in his notes to the _Ath. Oxon._ (iv. 709), who adds that this addition 'contained many of the most valuable books, both printed and MSS., now in the Library.'

In the discharge of his duty of selection, Wanley came into sharp collision with his chief, Dr. Hyde, as is shown by a curious paper, in Wanley's handwriting, which was transcribed by Dr. Rawlinson from the original in Dr. Charlett's possession[153]. The paper gives a list of books for the not securing which, together with others, out of Dr.

Bernard's collection, blame had been thrown upon Wanley, and which Hyde had said must by all means be bought at the auction which was to be held in October, 1697. To the t.i.tle of each book so specified, Wanley appends some caustic remarks, exposing Dr. Hyde's little acquaintance with the Library or with the books themselves; and sums up thus at the close:--'This is what I have to say to these 13 books, one whereof I look upon as imperfect, two more I was charged not to meddle with, and the other ten are in the Library already. I shall wave all unmannerly reflections, as whether this be not in you _insignis insufficientia_, for which you are liable to be turned out of your place; or [whether,]

if you had been employed to bring in a list of Dr. Bernard's books wanting in the Library, and took the same method as now, the University would not have bought a fair parcel of duplicates, and such like; but I pa.s.s them by. Tho' it must be owned that the University being willing to lay out but 140 pounds, some different editions of the Bible, Fathers, Cla.s.sicks, &c., were preferr'd to some books not at all in the Library, but they were at the same time judged to be of less moment, and likely to be given to it by future benefactors.'

The quarrel, however, soon ceased; for, in the following year, Hyde was anxious to see Wanley appointed as his successor. The latter, in a letter to Dr. Charlett, dated Oct. 10, 1698[154], repeats a conversation held with Hyde on the previous evening, in which the Librarian said 'that he is heartily weary of the place of Library-keeper; that he must use more exercise in riding out, &c., if he intends to preserve his health; which will of necessity hinder his attendance there. He had rather I succeeded him than anybody else, which I cannot do untill I am a graduate; that, if I have any friends amongst the heads of houses, they cann't do better for me than in procuring for me the degree of Batch.e.l.lor of Law, that I may be in a condition to stand for his place with others, which he will resign as soon as I have obtain'd the said degree, and (for my sake) will communicate his intentions to n.o.body else in the mean time. He presses me to get this degree as soon as possible, urging that he does not care how soon he is rid of his place.' Wanley asks for Charlett's advice; what that was does not appear, but, at any rate, he did not obtain the degree which he desired, and consequently did not become eligible as Hyde's successor.

Sixteen MS. treatises on Mathematics, Astronomy, and Ancient History, by Thomas Lydiat, were given by Will. Coward, M.D. They are placed amongst the Bodl. MSS., chiefly between Nos. 658-671.

[153] Rawlinson's copy is now in MS. Rawl. Misc. 937. For the knowledge of this paper the writer is indebted to Rev. W. H. Bliss.