Part 24 (1/2)
Hearne, to whom it had been given by Charles Eyston, Esq., of East Hendred, Berks. (Hearne's pref. to Camden's _Annales Eliz._ 1. xxvii.) This Hereford volume is described, together with many of Gough's books, in a book by Ed. Frere, ent.i.tled _Des Livres de Liturgie des Eglises d'Angleterre imprimes a Rouen dans les_ xv. _et_ xvi. _Siecles_, 8^o Rouen, 1867.
[281] See _Gent. Magaz._ for 1860, p. 406.
[282] So in the Library Register of accounts. Nichols (_Lit. Hist._ vol.
v. p. 559) says 100.
[283] In his MS. _Collectanea_, in the possession of Rev. H. O. c.o.xe.
A.D. 1810.
In March, the Prince Regent forwarded to the University four rolls of papyrus, brought from Herculaneum, burned to a state resembling charcoal, together with engravings of rolls. .h.i.therto deciphered, and many facsimile copies, in pencil, of inedited rolls. A committee was appointed from the Curators of the Library and the Delegates of the Press, at the beginning of the year 1811, to have the charge of this gift, and 500 were granted towards publication. Two volumes of lithographed facsimiles were in consequence published at the Clarendon Press, in 1824-5. Some further selections from these papers have recently been published by a German scholar, Dr. Th. Gompertz.
On Nov. 15, it was resolved in Convocation to restore to the Chancery at Durham, on the application of the Bishop of Durham, the MS. Register of Richard Kellow, Bishop of Durham, 1310-16, containing also a portion of the Register of Rich. Bury, 1338-42, which had come to the Library among Rawlinson's collections, and was the only volume wanting at Durham in an unbroken series of Episcopal Registers, of which this was the first. It was borrowed in 1639/40, as it appeared, by an agent of the Marquis of Newcastle, for the purpose of production in some law-suit affecting his property; remained through the Civil War in his hands; fell subsequently into those of the Earl of Oxford, and was bought by Rawlinson from Osborne the bookseller, in whose sale-catalogue of the Harleian Library in 1743 it was numbered 20734.
In this year Dr. Philip Bliss, the editor of Wood's _Athenae_, appears to have entered the Library as an a.s.sistant, the entries in the register of books received from Stationers' Hall being partly made by him, in his very clear and neat hand. In 1812 he drew up short catalogues of the St.
Amand MSS. and of a portion of the Rawlinson collection (the _Poetry_, the _Letters_, and the commencement of the _Miscell._) for which a payment was made to him of 21. He afterwards quitted the Library for the British Museum, but returned in 1822, as Sub-librarian, for a short time.
His life-long friend, Dr. Bandinel, entered the Library also in this year. To him, for a list of a further portion of the Rawlinson MSS., 26 5_s._ were paid in 1812.
A.D. 1811.
Only eighteen books were purchased in this year! The list, scantly filling one page, is consequently the _minimum_ in the series of annual catalogues.
A.D. 1813.
The Rev. John Price, B.D., the Librarian, died on Aug. 11, aged seventy-nine, after forty-five years of office. A short biographical notice is given in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for Oct., 1813, p. 400, and a fuller account, together with many letters, and an engraved portrait, with facsimile signature, (from a sketch taken in 1798, by Rev. H. H. Baber), in vols. v. and vi. of Nichols' _Ill.u.s.trations of the Lit. Hist. of the 18th Century_. The following character of him with regard to his discharge of his official duties is there given (vi. 471), which in some respects forms a strong contrast to the representation of Prof. Beddoes in the year 1787 (_see_ p. 197). 'In the faithful discharge of his public duties in the University, he acquitted himself with the highest credit, and deservedly conciliated the esteem of others by his readiness to communicate information from the rich literary stores over which he presided, and of which he was a most jealous and watchful guardian. He was, from long habit, so completely attached to the Library, that he considered every acquisition made to its contents as a personal favour conferred upon himself.' It was chiefly owing to his a.s.siduous attention to Mr. Gough and his frequent correspondence with him, that the Library was enriched with the bequest of the latter's splendid topographical collections. But there is not much existing to tell of personal work in the Library during his long tenure of office, and the fact that nothing was done till near the close of that period towards arranging and cataloguing the Rawlinson MSS., seems to prove that there was no great activity in the Library under his management.
This is corroborated also by the wonderful difference which is immediately seen in the annual catalogue of purchases; the Catalogue for 1813 grows at once from the two folio pages of the preceding year to seventeen, while the sum expended becomes 725 in the place of 261[284]. And the list of books forwarded from Stationers' Hall, and hitherto received only twice yearly, at Lady-day and Michaelmas, becomes in 1815 largely increased, while in the year 1822 the number of yearly parcels is increased to eight. At the present time, as for a long time past, books are received monthly.
The Rev. Bulkeley Bandinel, M.A. (D.D. in 1823), of New College, was elected Librarian by Convocation on Aug. 25. He had been appointed Sub-librarian in 1810, by Mr. Price, who was his G.o.dfather; and for a short time previously had been a Chaplain in the Royal Navy, having served with Adm. Sir James Saumarez on board the 'Victory,' in the Baltic, in 1808.
The appointment of a new Librarian was followed by the enacting of a new Statute, pa.s.sed by Convocation on Dec. 2, which provided for the increase of the Librarian's stipend to 400, exclusive of his share of fees from degrees; for the appointment of two Sub-librarians, instead of one, and these not under the degree of M.A., with salaries of 150; of two a.s.sistants, Bachelors of Arts or undergraduates, with salaries of 50; and of the Janitor, with a salary of 20. An additional annual grant, calculated at 680, equal to that which resulted from the provision made by the Statute of 1780, and to be paid, like that, out of the yearly fees of graduates whose names are on the books, was sanctioned, with the triple object of providing for this enlarged staff, for the commencement of a new Catalogue, and for repairs. .h.i.therto defrayed out of the general University funds. The state of the roof and ceiling were said to be such as to justify an apprehension that they must at no distant period be entirely constructed anew; happily this reconstruction was only carried out with respect to the Picture Gallery, and the roof of the Library remains as a precious relic still.
The hours at which the Library should be open, were fixed to be from 9 to 4 in the summer half-year, and 10 to 3 in the winter; the only change since made has been the enacting, in 1867, that nine o'clock shall be the invariable hour of opening on all ordinary days[285].
The junior a.s.sistants in the Library in this year were Mr. Francis Thurland, of New College (B.A. 1812, M.A. 1814), and Mr. Sam. Slack, of Ch. Ch. (B.A. 1813, M.A. 1816).
[284] Among the purchases is a set of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ to the year 1810 for 52 10_s._
[285] This alteration of hours had been previously proposed in a Statute which was to have been submitted to Convocation on Dec. 11, 1812, but which appears to have been withdrawn ere the day came, probably because this larger measure of revision of the old Statutes was already in contemplation. A blank is left in the Convocation Book under that date, by the then Registrar, Mr. Gutch; and his successor, Dr. Bliss, has added a pencil-note to the effect that he supposes from the blank not being filled up, that the proposal was previously abandoned. The Statute of 1769 had required that the Library should be open in summer from 8 to 2 and from 3 to 5, but it was stated in some remarks which accompanied the proposed enactment that these injunctions had 'long been disregarded in practice,' and that the Library had been open throughout the year from nine to three o'clock. But it was added that 'experience' had 'shewn that there is no occasion for requiring the attendance of the Librarians before ten in the winter season.'
A.D. 1814.
The nomination of the Rev. Henry Cotton, M.A., then Student of Ch. Ch., now the venerable Archdeacon of Cashel, as Sub-librarian, was approved in Convocation on March 9. Of the interest which he took in his work, of his qualifications for it, and of the advantages which the bibliographical world has derived from it, his _Typographical Gazetteer_ and _List of Editions of the English Bible_, afford abundant testimony[286]. He remained in the Library eight years, quitting it when his friend Dr. Laurence, on his appointment to the Archbishopric of Cashel, carried him with himself to Ireland.
During his continuance in the Library, a descriptive Catalogue of the _Editiones principes_ and _Incunabula_ was projected by him and Dr.
Bandinel; but only one specimen page in octavo was printed, of which a copy has been preserved by Dr. Bliss, with his set of the annual catalogues.
Alex. Nicoll, M.A., of Balliol College (a native of Aberdeen), was appointed Sub-librarian at the early age of twenty-one; the nomination was approved in Convocation on April 27. He at once devoted himself to the study of Oriental languages, and became a proficient in Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Syriac, aethiopic, and Sanscrit. His facility in acquiring languages must have been truly marvellous, for, in addition to these Eastern tongues, and although his death occurred at the early age of thirty-six, it is said that 'he spoke and wrote with ease and accuracy, French, Italian, German, Danish, Swedish, and Romaic.' In 1822 he was, much to his own surprise, appointed, at the age of twenty-nine, to the Regius Professors.h.i.+p of Hebrew, by Lord Liverpool, on the recommendation of Dr. Laurence, who vacated that post in consequence of his appointment to the see of Cashel. Nicoll held the Professors.h.i.+p for only seven years, dying on Sept. 24, 1828. The records of his labours in the Bodleian are found in the Catalogue of Clarke's Oriental MSS.