CONTENTS OF THE LIBRARY.
The Library having been established primarily but not exclusively for the clergy, by whom it was chiefly used, its contents were designed to facilitate their studies, and pre-eminence was given to theological works, and other works of particular interest or value to them. Regarding the contents of the Library in 1706, when the first printed catalogue was published, the Rev. Joseph Brett said in the preface: “It may be more proper to observe, that upon the first Foundation of this Library many and great Benefactions, (by which alone it was first raised, and still encreases) were given by the Magistrates, Gentlemen and Tradesmen of this City, by which means, here is no inconsiderable Collection of Divinity Book, [sic] for that time especially. But considering the great Advance of Learning, in the last Century, the fine Editions of many of the Fathers, and the many learned Books that were then published, it must be owned, that this Library is now very deficient, even in Divinity itself. Besides here are very few Humanity Books, few or none of Law, Physick, Mathematicks, or indeed of any science but Divinity.” Large donations from the Rev. Thomas Nelson, John Kirkpatrick, and others greatly increased the usefulness of the Library, and accordingly Mackerell, in his preface to the 1732 Catalogue, considered that “this Library is far from being meanly provided with Books (I wish I could say in all Faculties).”
While time has caused many of the works to decrease in value and practical interest, it has greatly enhanced the value of the few manuscripts and the considerable number of early printed books in the Library. The following are the most interesting and valuable manuscripts, some of which are on loan at the Castle Museum for exhibition. Dr. Montague Rhodes James, the Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, one of the greatest authorities on early manuscripts, has kindly examined and dated four of them, and he has also supplied detailed descriptions which it is hoped will be published on another occasion.
MANUSCRIPTS.
Anon. In Apocalypsin. XIIIth century.
Vellum, 10¼ x 7½ inches, ff. 5 + 74 + 28, double columns, the number of lines varies. Bound in wooden boards. Presented to the Library in 1618 by Thomas Atkins, merchant, Norwich.
Contains: 1. Anonymous comment on the Apocalypse, with a few very rough pictures, coloured.
2. The Summa of Richard de Wethersett, Chancellor of Cambridge, called Qui bene praesunt.
Biblia Hieronymi, or Bible of St. Jerome. XIIIth Century.
Vellum, 9 2/10 x 7 1/10 inches, double columns of 52-53 lines. The illuminated initial letters are unfinished. Brown leather binding.
Presented to the Library in 1614 by Bassingbourne Throckmorton.
Contains: Genesis—2 Chron. (imperfect), Proverbs—Ecclus. Then the prologue to Wisdom and a small piece of the text of Wisdom repeated. Matthew, 1 leaf of Mark. Philippians, Col. 1, 2 Thess. Laodiceans (apocryphal) 1, 2 Tim. Tit. Phil. Heb. Apoc.
Medica. XIIIth century.
Vellum, 7½ x 5½ inches, ff. 62, double columns of 40 lines, in a small clear hand which Dr. James thinks may be South French. Initials in green and red and blue. There is no binding; the first page is much soiled.
Contains thirteen items: medical tracts, list of materia medica, etc.
Manuale. XVth century.
Vellum, 9 7/8 x 7¼ inches, ff. 1 + 62 + 1, double columns of 27 lines, early XVth century, well written.
Original binding, white skin with circuit edge over wooden boards bevelled at the edges; remains of two strap and pin fastenings.
On the fly-leaf: John Kirkpatrick, Sept. 12, 1704. An old pressmark: 4to K 147. An illegible (not early) note of price.
The covers are lined with four half-leaves of a folio XVth century Missal in double columns, with parts of the Offices for St. Thomas of Canterbury and Sundays after Epiphany. At the end are bound in 7 smaller leaves of paper on which Kirkpatrick (?) has carefully facsimiled alphabets and abbreviations, and arranged the latter in alphabetical order.
Contents: The occasional offices to be used by a priest, according to Sarum use. The first page has a rather rough border in gold, red, and blue, and an initial of the same. Other like initials head the principal offices.
Bible: Genesis to Psalms. Wycliffe’s Translation. XVth century.
Vellum, 17 2/10 x 12 inches, ff. 208 + 1, double columns of 59 lines.
Original sides of brown leather have been laid down on modern binding; ornamented in blind with rectangular panel formed
by two roll stamps, enclosing another panel formed by the same stamps. Illuminated page at beginning of each book.
It belonged to Sir James Boleyn of Blickling Hall, who died in 1561, and was presented to the Library in 1692 by Richard Ireland.
Astrological Tractates. XVth century.
Paper, 5 3/4 x 4½ inches, ff. 120, 32 lines to a page. In three hands; clearly written.
Original binding, wrapper of skin lined with linen. Contains thirteen items: astrological treatises, tables, etc.
Precedentia Tempore Regni Hen. VIII. Circa 1500.
Vellum, 11½ x 8½ inches, ff. 124 (imperfect, commences at f. 10), 37 lines to a page. Rough calf binding.
Book of Precedents of Royal Writs.
Search Boke For Lynn, Swaffham, Walsyngham, and Fakenham. XVIIth century.
Paper, 11 x 7½ inches, ff. 81. Vellum binding.
Alphabetical index of offenders at various sessions courts held at Fakenham, Walsingham, Lynn and Swaffham, from 1651 to 1669.
The early printed books in the Library include no less than twenty-eight incunabula, four of these being from English presses, and two, the 1483 “Scriptum super logica,” printed at St. Albans, and the 1497 “Expositio Hymnorum et Sequentiarum,” printed by Pynson, are of great rarity. Several of the incunabula are imperfect, but Mr. Alfred W. Pollard, M.A., the Hon. Secretary of the Bibliographical Society and an eminent authority on early printed books, very kindly identified them, and he also undertook to edit the list of incunabula. To Mr. Pollard the writer’s thanks are tendered for the following annotated list, arranged chronologically, and giving the place of printing and the name of the printer:—
WORKS REFERRED TO.
B.M. = Catalogue of Books printed in the XVth century now in the British Museum. Parts 1-111. 1908-1913.
Campbell. = Annales de la typographie néerlandaise au XVe siecle. Par M. F. A. G. Campbell. 1874.
Copinger. = Supplement to Hain’s Repertorium Bibliographicum. By W. A. Copinger. 1895-1902.
Hain. = Repertorium bibliographicum in quo libri omnes ab arte typographica inventa usque ad annum MD typis expressi ordine alphabetico vel simpliciter enumerantur vel adcuratius recensentur. Opera Ludovici Hain. 1826-1838.
Proctor. = An Index to the Early Printed Books in the British Museum from the invention of printing to the year MD. By Robert Proctor. 1898.
INCUNABULA.
In addition to the foregoing early printed books the Library includes examples from the English presses of Wynkyn de Worde, Julian Notary, Peter Treveris, Thomas Berthelet, Richard Grafton, John Day, Richard Tottell, Christopher Barker, Robert Barker, John Norton (celebrated for his magnificent edition of St. Chrysostom’s Works in 8 vols., printed at Eton, 1610-1612—a copy of which is in the Library—which T. B. Reed described as “one of the most splendid examples of Greek printing in this country”), Thomas Roycroft, etc. Continental typography is also represented by specimens from many presses, including those of Jean du Pré, Jodocus Badius Ascensius (Josse Bade of Asch), the Estiennes, the Elzevirs, Christopher Plantin, John Koberger, H. Petrus, Peter Perna, etc.
Coming to early Norwich printed books there are unfortunately no examples of the rare works from the first Norwich press set up about 1566 by Anthony de Solemne or Solempne, whose first extant printed work is dated 1570, and whose last is dated 1579. The Library, however, possesses an example from the press established by Francis Burges, who in 1701 styled himself “the first printer in Norwich.” It is a copy of Erasmus Warren’s “A Rule for Shewing Mercy,” printed by F. Burges, and “sold by the widow Oliver, Bookseller in Norwich, 1706.” When Burges died in 1706 his business was carried on by his widow, and the 1706 catalogue of the City Library (see page 47) “Printed by Eliz. Burges, near the Red-Well,” is a specimen from her establishment. The press of Freeman Collins is represented by Dean Prideaux’s “The Original and Right of Tithes,” printed in 1710. The second catalogue of the City Library, printed in 1732, (see page 48) was printed by “William Chase, in the Cockey Lane,” who founded the Norwich Mercury.
A perusal of the 1883 catalogue will shew that the Library
had indeed “no inconsiderable Collection of Divinity Book, for that time especially,” as was said by Brett in his Catalogue of 1706, and repeated by Mackerell. There are sixteen printed Bibles and five New Testaments in the Library, including the second and fourth of the great Polyglots, the Plantin edition (1572) and Brian Walton’s (1655-57), and the following English versions: Matthew’s Bible (1549), The Great Bible (1553), and the first edition of the Geneva version (1560). It is curious that there should be no copy of any edition of the Bishops’ Bible.
Most of the principal Fathers are represented by some of their writings. Of the ante-Nicene Fathers there are writings by Justin Martyr, Irenæus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen and Cyprian, and of the post-Nicene Fathers there are writings by Eusebius of Cæsarea, Hilary of Poitiers, Athanasius, Basil, Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Augustine, Cyril of Alexandria, Gregory the Great, and John of Damascus.
The literature of the theological controversies which raged in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the writings of the principal theologians of those centuries are fairly well represented in the Library.
Belonging to the period of the Revival of Learning are Hugh Latimer’s “Frutefull Sermons” (1575) Cranmer’s “Defence of the True and Catholike doctrine of the sacrament of the body and bloud of our Savior Christ” (London: R. Wolfe, 1550), Thomas Becon’s Works (London: various dates), and others. The theological literature of the Elizabethan period is represented by such works as the “Ecclesiastical Polity” (London, 1622) by Richard Hooker—that great champion of Anglicanism—and some of the published writings of the famous controversy between Bishop Jewel and the Roman Catholic Thomas Harding.
The works of Dutch scholars of the first half of the seventeenth century, when Dutch scholarship was the ripest in Europe, are represented by five works of G. J. Vossius (a German by birth), including his valuable “Historia Pelagiana” (Leyden, 1618), three works of Daniel Heinsius, and five works of Hugo Grotius, the great Dutch jurist and theologian. The latter include an
edition of “De Jure Belli ac Pads” (Amsterdam, 1667), which was translated into the principal European languages, and “De veritate religionis Christiana” (Paris, 1640), a popular treatise which became for a time the classical manual of apologetics in Protestant colleges.
The “Annales Ecclesiastici” of the Italian Cardinal, Cæsar Baronius—of which the Library has an edition in twelve volumes, (Cologne, 1609)—a work characterized by great learning and research, greatly stimulated Protestant study no less than it provoked criticism. Its most important critic was Isaac Casaubon, who issued a fragment of the massive criticism which he contemplated, “Exercitationes in Baronium.” The Library has a copy of the edition printed in Frankfort, 1615.
The Jacobean period was “The Golden Age of the English Pulpit,” the period when sermons were extremely popular, and discharged, with the playhouse, some of the functions of the modern newspaper. At this time Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, who was eminent in the capacities of prelate, preacher, and writer, was generally regarded as the very “stella prædicantium.” Of his published sermons the Library now possesses “XCVI Sermons,” 3rd ed. (London, 1635), and “Nineteen Sermons concerning Prayer” (Cambridge, 1641). The most erudite of theologians in this erudite time was James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, described by Selden as “learned to a miracle.” Of his works the Library contains eight, including his “Annales Veteris et Novi Testamenti” (London, 1650), which is regarded as his most important production, and his “Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates” (London, 1687).
Joseph Hall, Bishop and satirist, who took an active part in the Arminian and Calvinistic controversy in the English Church, is of particular interest to Norwich, of which he became Bishop in 1641. In the Library are his “Works” (London, 1647), “Resolutions and Decisions of Cases of Divers Practicall Cases of Conscience” (London, 1649) and “Remaining Works” (London, 1660). Just before he came to Norwich he wrote “An Humble Remonstrance to the High Court of Parliament” (1640), in which he skilfully vindicated liturgies and episcopacy. This provoked an answer by “Smectymnuus,” the pseudonym of five puritan divines, the initials of whose names made up
the word. This “Answer” (2nd ed., London, 1654), a subsequent “Vindication” in reply to the Bishop’s “Defence” (London, 1641), and Milton’s “Apology for Smectymnuus” (London, 1642) are all in the Library.
An important theologian in the Caroline period was Jeremy Taylor, whose works are only represented by “The Great Exemplar of Sanctity” (London, 1667), “Ductor Dubitantium” (London, 1696), which is still the chief English treatise on casuistry, and “A Collection of Polemical and Moral Discourses” (London, 1657). The Library contains two editions of the works (1683 and 1716) of Isaac Barrow, whom Charles II. described as “the best scholar in England.” Other eminent writers of this period represented in the Library are Thomas Fuller, Richard Baxter, William Chillingworth, Henry Hammond, who has been called “the Father of English Biblical Criticism,” Robert Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln, John Gauden, Bishop of Worcester, and Bishop Pearson, a Norfolk man, whose famous “Exposition of the Creed” (the Library has a copy of the 3rd edition, 1669), is a masterpiece of the doctrinal exposition of the time.
The theological writers of the Augustan age are also fairly represented in the Library. For example, there are three works by Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, including a copy of his “Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles” (London, 1700), which was for more than a century as famous as Pearson’s “Exposition of the Creed,” and his “History of the Reformation,” 2 vols. (London, 1681-83); the works (6 volumes, London, 1710) of Edward Stillingfleet, called because of his personal beauty and piety “the beauty of holiness”; the works (6th edition, London, 1710) and “Sermons” of John Tillotson, who rose to be Archbishop of Canterbury as much through the pulpit as through politics; the “Opera Omnia” of George Bull (London, 1703), and others.
Works of history, antiquities and travel form the class which is next in importance and extent to the theological works. In proportion to the size and character of the Library, the selection in this class is moderately good. Most of the chief or popular English historians from Matthew Paris to Strype and Dugdale are represented by some of their works. There
are, for example, Fabyan’s Chronicle (London, 1559), Hall’s “Union of the . . . famelies of Lancastre and Yorke” (London, 1550), Grafton’s Chronicle (1569), Holinshed’s Chronicles, first and second editions (1577 and 1587), Stow’s “Annales” (1615), Speed’s “Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine” (1611), Camden’s “Remains concerning Britain” (1657), “History of Queen Elizabeth” (in “A Complete History of England,” London, 1706), “Annals of King James I.”, and “Britannia”, (1695), Sir Thomas Smith’s “Commonwealth of England” (1633), Foxe’s “Ecclesiasticall Historie” (1597), Sir Walter Raleigh’s “History of the World” (1676), [35] Rushworth’s “Historical Collections” (1659), Bacon’s “Life of Henry VII.” (in “A Complete History of England,” London, 1706), Herbert’s “King Henry VIII.” (in “A Complete History of England,” London, 1706), Heylyn’s “Cosmographie” (1669), Clarendon’s “History of the Rebellion” (odd vols. of the 1706 edition), Bulstrode Whitelocke’s “Memorials of the English affairs” (1682), Burnet’s “History of the Reformation” (1681-83), Strype’s “Annals of the Reformation” (1709), Dugdale’s “Monasticon Anglicanum” (odd vols.), and his “Antiquities of Warwickshire” (1730), and Anthony à Wood’s “Athenæ Oxonienses” (1691-92).
Other historical and geographical works are Munster’s “Cosmographiae Universalis” (Basel, 1559), the first detailed, scientific and popular description of the world; Foresti’s “Supplementum Supplementi Chronicarum” (Venice, 1506), a universal history written by an Italian monk and historian; Lonicerus’ “Chronicorum Turcicorum in quibus Turcorum origo” etc. (Frankfort, 1578); and Braun and Hogenberg’s “Civitates Orbis Terrarum” (Cologne, 1577-88), containing the earliest general collection of topographical views of the chief cities of the world, including one of Norwich.
The Rev. Joseph Brett in 1706 pointed out that the Library possessed “very few Humanity Books, few or none of Law, Physick, Mathematicks, or indeed of any science but Divinity,” and it never became strong in these subjects. It is weak in
the ancient classics, but the following are some of the authors represented: Aristotle, Cicero, Cornelius Nepos, Diogenes Laertius, Euclid, Eutropius, Juvenal, Livy, Lucan, Plato, Pliny, Plutarch, Seneca, Suetonius, and Tacitus. In English belles-lettres the chief works are Chaucer’s Works (London, 1721), Abraham Cowley’s Works (1668), Michael Drayton’s “Poly-Olbion” (1613), Gower’s “Confessio Amantis” (London, 1554), and George Herbert’s “The Temple and other Sacred Poems” (1633).
The outstanding scientific works are Sir Isaac Newton’s “Opticks” (1704), Burnet’s “Theory of the Earth” (1691), The Grete Herball (London: Peter Treveris, 1526), Walter Charleton’s “Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana” (London, 1654) and his “Œconomia Animalis” (London, 1659), J. B. Duhamel’s “Elementa astronomica” (Cambridge, 1665), Galileo’s “Systeme of the World,” transl. by T. Salusbury (London, 1661), Gassendi’s “Institutio astronomica” (London, 1653), Johannes de Sacro Bosco’s “Opus sphericum” (Cologne, 1508), Munster’s “Rudimenta mathematica” (Basel, 1551), “Hortus Sanitatis” (Mainz, 1491), vol. 3 of John Ray’s “Historia Plantarum” (London, 1704), and Thomas Willis’ “Cerebri anatome” (London, 1664).
The bias of local patriotism is declared by Mr. Havelock Ellis in his “Study of British Genius” to be “an unfailing sign of intellectual ill-breeding,” notwithstanding which no apology is herein made for drawing special attention to the fact that the Library includes some of the writings of more than a score of authors—most of whom achieved some eminence—who are connected with Norfolk or Norwich, either by birth or residence. Taking the names in alphabetical order, the first of the Norfolk men whose writings are represented is Thomas Becon or Beacon, who took orders in 1538, and preached in Norfolk and Suffolk. The edition of his “Works,” is that printed by John Day [? 1560-64], containing a tract on “The Common-places of Holy Scripture,” dedicated “To my deare countrymen and faythfull Ministers of Iesu Christ watching and attending upon the Lordes flocke in the Parishes of Norfolke and Suffolke,” dated 1562. Francis Blomefield’s “History of the Ancient City and Burgh of Thetford,” printed at the author’s residence
at Fersfield in 1739, contains a book-plate, apparently printed by the author, stating that the book was presented to the City Library. Samuel Clarke, who was born at Norwich in 1675, became chaplain to Bishop Moore of Norwich, and afterwards rector of Drayton, is represented by his “Scripture-Doctrine of the Trinity,” 1712, and his Boyle lectures of 1704 and 1705, viz., “Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God,” 1705, and “Discourse concerning the unchangeable obligations of Natural Religion,” 1706. Of the works of the great Sir Edward Coke, judge and law writer, who came of an old Norfolk family, there are the “First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England,” 1629, and “Les Reports de Edward Coke . . . donnes . . . per les judges, et sages de la ley,” 11 vols. The “Scholastic History of the Canon of the Holy Scripture” (London, 1684) is the only volume of the works of John Cosin, Bishop of Durham, who was born at Norwich in 1594. In the preparation of this, his most elaborate and important work, he injured his eyesight. Thornhagh Gurdon, a receiver-general for Norfolk, who is included in Mr. Walter Rye’s “Norfolk Families,” and who resided mostly at Norwich, presented a copy of the first edition of his “History of the High Court of Parliament” (London, 1731). The only work of Hamon Le Strange, a Norfolk historian and theologian, is “The Alliance of Divine Offices” (London, 1690), in the preface of which he speaks of having undergone an eight years’ sequestration, apparently between 1643-1651. John Pearson, Bishop of Chester, whose “Exposition of the Creed” has already been referred to, was born at Great Snoring on 28th Feb., 1612/3.
Again taking the names in alphabetical order, the first author who is connected with the county by residence is Edward Boys, who became rector of Mautby in 1639, where he died in 1667. Of his publications the Library contains “Sixteen Sermons preached upon several occasions” (London, 1672). William Bridge, whose “Works” (London, 1649) are in the Library, was born at Cambridge, became rector of St. Peter Hungate, Norwich, in 1636, and afterwards settled at Yarmouth. John Collinges, a Presbyterian, who came to Norwich in 1646, published controversial and devotional tracts and sermons. He is only represented by “A Short Discourse against Transubstantiation”
(London, 1675), and “On the Intercourse of Divine Love” (1676), but the Local Collection of the Public Library contains many of his writings. “The Notion of Schism” (London, 1676) is the work of another parson who came to Norfolk, Robert Connould, rector of Bergh Apton. John Graile, rector of Blickling, whom Blomefield referred to as “This learned and pious pastor,” presented to the Library his “Youth’s Grand Concern” (London, 1711) and “Sacra Privata” (London, 1699). Reference has already been made to the works of Bishop Hall (see p. 33). There are two volumes, “The Open Door for Man’s approach to God” (London, 1650) and “A Consideration of Infant Baptism” (London, 1653), by John Horne, who was beneficed at All Hallows, King’s Lynn. John Jeffery, who was elected to the living of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, in 1678, and became Archdeacon of Norwich in 1694, is represented by “Select Discourses” (London, 1710), “Complete Collection of Sermons and Tracts,” 2 vols. (London, 1753), and “Forms of Prayer” (1706). Dr. Peter de Laune, a minister of the French Church in Norwich during the early years of the seventeenth century, presented to the Library a copy of his translation of the English Prayer Book into French, entitled “La Liturgie Angloise; ou, le livre des prieres publiques” (London: John Bill, 1616). His name is not printed in the book, but the copy in the Library bears on the title-page the following inscription which was probably written by him: “Liber bibliothecæ publicæ Nordouicensis ex dono doctoris Petri Launæi quo authore Anglicanæ hæc ecclesiæ liturgia facta est Gallicana.” [38] This book is the first French edition of the English Prayer Book entered in the Catalogue of the British Museum. Francis Mason’s “Vindiciæ Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ,” is the work of an Archdeacon of Norfolk, who is remembered for his vigorous defence of the authority of the church, which earned for him the title of “Vindex Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ.” Another preacher with the memorable title “Apostle of Norwich,” procured by a great reputation, was John More, minister of St. Andrew’s Church, Norwich, whose posthumous work “Table
from the Beginning of the World to this Day” (Cambridge, 1593) is in the Library. “An Explanation of the Epistle of St. Jude” (London, 1633) is a series of sermons preached in the parish church of North Walsham by Samuel Otes, rector of South Repps, Norfolk, who was chaplain to the Lord Chief Justice Hobart. Reference has already been made to the works of Humphrey Prideaux, Dean of Norwich. Anthony Sparrow, Bishop of Norwich, who was born in Suffolk, published “Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer” (London, 1661), which was often reprinted and is still of some value, and a companion volume “Collection of Articles, Canons,” etc. (London, 1684). Last but not least to be mentioned is the “Increpatio Barjesu” (London, 1660) of Matthew Wren, who was successively Bishop of Hereford, Norwich and Ely. It is a volume of polemical interpretations of Scripture, in reply to the Racovian catechism—a copy of which was in the Library—written during the author’s imprisonment in the Tower, and edited by his son Matthew.
Many of the books have autographs of their former owners, and some have inscriptions and annotations. Edward Lhuyd’s “Archæologica Britannica” contains some notes made by George Borrow, who also wrote an English translation of some Arabic in Thomas Erpenius’ “Grammatica Arabica.” The second folio of the “Golden Legend” (1503) bears the signature of Thomas Kirkpatrick, and the first fly-leaf has the following inscription: “This book was given to the Publick Library of the City of Norwich, A.D. 1728, by Mr. Thomas Kirkpatrick, merchant there, and was bound at the expence of Isaac Preston, Esq., 1742, that it might the better be preserv’d being an Authentick & antient Evidence of the extravagant Foppery and Superstition of the Church of Rome, & of the necessity of the Reformation. Vide the Commandments page ye 20th in the life of Moses.”
An interesting request from Archbishop Wake for the loan of a Prayer Book, which was not returned, is recorded in the Minute Book under date February 2nd, 1718/9: “This day a Book wch has for some years been lodged in ye Library of ye City entituled—The Book of Common-prayer & Administration of ye Sacraments & other Rights & Ceremonies of the Church
of England, printed at London by Robert Barker, 1632—Wherein are several Marginal Notes in Writing done by ye order of King Charles ye first was delivered to Mr Brand of this city Clerke to be by Him transmitted to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury He having requested the said Book might be sent to Him.” A memorandum against this entry reads: “The order of the Court dated Jan. 28, 1718, and enter’d in this book was alter’d May ye ninth 1719, and ye Common prayer book there nam’d deliver’d by Mr. Mott yn Mayor to Dr. John Clark to be by Him sent to ye A: Bp: of Canterbury.” The Dean of Christ Church, Oxford (the Very Rev. Thomas B. Strong, D.D.), after receiving a copy of the foregoing quotation, examined the Prayer Books in the Wake Collection at Christ Church, and found one which answers to the description. He has kindly consented to the publication of the following quotation from his correspondence thereon: “I took the book to the Bodleian Library yesterday; and Dr. Craster (the Sub-Librarian), who is an expert in these matters, has verified the facts for me. The book is a quarto book, ‘printed by Robert Barker, Printer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty and by the assignees of John Bull, 1632.’ There are no marks of any kind in the book except the mark K11 (I suppose a shelf-mark [40]) on the inside of the cover. It is bound in limp vellum. A blank sheet of paper has been cut out in front of the title-page. On the page opposite the beginning of the Morning Prayer, and under the Ornaments Rubric, there is the signature of Charles I. Under the signature is the following note, in a clear and formal hand, which Dr. Craster has proved to be the handwriting of Archbishop Laud’s secretary:—
‘I gave the Arcbbp. of Canterburye comand to make the Alterations expressed in this Booke, and to fitt a Liturgy for the Church of Scotland. And whersoever they shall differ from another Booke signed by Us at Hampt. Court September 28, 1634, Our pleasure is to have these followed rather than the former, unless the Archbp. of St. Andrews, and his Brethren who are upon the place, shall see apparent reason to the contrary. At Whitehall Apr. 19, 1636.’
The same hand has made various alterations in the book; and has written the collect for Easter Even, which appeared first in the Scottish Prayer-Book of 1637, in its place. The remaining
notes and alterations are in the hand of Archbishop Laud. The 1637 edition of the Scottish Prayer-Book follows exactly, as far as I have been able to verify them, all the notes in the book. One note is perhaps worth mentioning. In the Quicunque, the verse, ‘He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity,’ is altered as follows: ‘He therefore that would be saved, let him thus think’; and this alteration appears in the 1637 book.”
A fair number of the books are still in their original bindings or have been so rebound that their original covers have been preserved. Of these most are ornamented in “blind,” i.e., impressed with tools or panel stamps without being gilt or coloured, but a few have centre-pieces in gold. A few examples may be noted. In the early Tudor period panel stamps with heraldic or pictorial designs were frequently used by English and foreign binders practising their craft in England. A number of English binders adorned their books with a pair of large heraldic panel stamps, the different binders making slight variations in the designs. A fairly good example of a binding stamped with two such panels is that of a copy of “Anticella cum quamplurimis tractatibus superadditis,” (Venice, 1507) in the Library, which has had its original covers repaired and laid down again. The lower cover shows the arms of Henry VIII. (France and England) supported by two angels; the upper cover has a large Tudor rose surrounded by two ribbons, supported by two angels, and bearing the distich:
Hec rosa virtutis de celo missa sereno
Eternum Florens regia sceptra feret
which has been rendered:
Virtue’s a rose, which born of heaven’s clear ray
Shall ever flourish and bear kingly sway.
In the upper left-hand corner of the panel is the cross of St. George on an escutcheon, and in the right-hand corner the arms of the city of London, indicating that the binder was a citizen. Underneath the rose is the mark of the London binder, G.G., who was one of the noteworthy binders to use these panel stamps at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
Several of the bindings are adorned with rectangular panels
formed by fillets and bands, the enclosed space being divided, after the German system, into lozenge-shaped compartments. Two such examples are the following. The first is the binding of “Cathena aurea super Psalmos ex dictis sanctorum” (Paris: Jehan Petit, 1520). The rectangular frame is formed by vertical and horizontal three-line fillets, and adorned with a roll-stamp representing a hound, a falcon, and a bee, amid sprays of foliage and flowers. Above the hound is the binder’s mark composed of the letters I.R, i.e., John Reynes, a notable London binder of the earlier part of the 16th century. The enclosed panel is divided by three-line fillets, forming four lozenge-shaped and eight triangular compartments stamped with a foliated ornament. The second example is the binding of an edition in Latin of Plato’s Works, printed by Jodocus Badius Ascensius in 1518. The rectangular frame is formed by parallel vertical and horizontal fillets intersecting each other at right-angles, and adorned with a roll-stamp representing a portcullis, a pomegranate, a griffin, a Tudor rose, a hound, and a crown. The enclosed panel is divided by diagonal three-line fillets forming four lozenge-shaped and eight triangular compartments, stamped with foliated ornaments. The Library now contains about 2,000 volumes.