Sir Robert Cotton’s Library.
It is essentially necessary, before going further into the discussion of the manuscript of the Church Grith law, to give a sketch of the origin of the Cottonian Library.
Sir Robert Cotton, about A.D. 1588, commenced and continued for about 40 years to collect old charters, laws, seals, coins, etc., etc., which after the dissolution of the monasteries were dispersed through the country from their invaluable libraries. Many of them were secured by the nobility and gentry, but a considerable number fell into the hands of peasants, mechanics, and other persons who were ignorant of their important value and totally careless of their preservation. Valuable books of parchments were sold to grocers, soap-sellers, etc., who used them as they do old newspapers now. Others were sent out of the country in shiploads to foreign booksellers; the servants used them for scouring candlesticks and rubbing boots. Two noble libraries were sold for forty shillings. Sir Robert found no difficulty in purchasing these valuable documents wherever he could find them. Many of them were loose skins, small tracts or thin volumes. Sir Robert had several of them bound up in one cover. He also obtained by legacy and purchase some of the most valuable manuscripts collected out of the scattered remains of monastic libraries by Josseline, Noel, Allen, Lambarde, Bowyer, Camden and others.
It was a timely and excellent opportunity for Cotton, Bodley, and Archbishop Parker. Sir Robert formed his library in one of the best rooms of his London residence called “Cotton House,” near the House of Parliament. He permitted persons to consult and copy the manuscripts. It was in that library John Selden obtained his wonderful stock of ancient lore, which made his name immortal. Sir Henry Spelman drank deeply from the same fountain. Other antiquarians were equally indebted to Sir Robert Cotton. As I have already stated, he had many manuscripts bound up in separate volumes, and others he arranged in small parcels. Each volume and parcel contained several parts which were written at different times. He had a list on the first page of the headings of the manuscripts bound up in each volume. It is very important to note that fact, because in the present volume Nero, A. 1, there is the original list made in Sir Robert’s time, in which ten headings of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts appear, but none of Church Mund and Church Grith laws, because they were not bound up in that volume, and I shall presently prove that these manuscripts were not in the library during the lives of Sir Robert and his son, but were put there towards the end of his grandson’s life. Therefore Selden and Spelman, and other antiquarians who consulted Sir Robert’s library, did not and could not see the Church Mund and Church Grith laws of King Ethelred II. in the Worcester volume, as it is called, and where they are now bound up. Were they in any other parcel or volume in the library? They were not. Here is the proof. In 1629 the Privy Council ordered the library to be locked up, and a catalogue to be taken of the whole contents of the library in order to find out whether any of the King’s books were in it. In 1631 Sir Robert died; and in 1632 an engrossed official catalogue was made out by order of the Privy Council. That catalogue is now in the Cottonian Library, in the British Museum, marked “Add. MSS. 8926.” I have carefully examined the roll; it has three seals attached to it; the titles of the manuscripts and books are arranged under thirty-five headings, beginning with “Libri Historici.” But there are no press marks such as Nero, A. 1, Claudius, B. 3. Another heading is, “Libri Saxonici,” under which every Anglo Saxon manuscript in the library in 1632 was placed; but the Church Mund and Church Grith manuscripts do not appear under this heading. Then when were they placed in the library and in this volume Nero, A. 1? Sir Robert’s son and grandson added considerably to the library. Sir John, the grandson, had given permission to Dr. Thomas Smith to make a catalogue of the contents of the fourteen presses. In 1696 Dr. Smith published the first printed catalogue in which the Worcester volume, Nero, A. 1, contains only the same ten Anglo-Saxon headings which appear in the list of 1632. I conclude that the Church Mund and Church Grith laws were not in the Worcester volume in 1695, when Dr. Smith penned his Preface.
An Act of Parliament was passed in 1700 vesting the Library, after the death of Sir John, in trustees, who were Matthew Hutton, John Anstis, and Humphrey Wanley. Sir John died in 1702. The library then passed at once into the custody of the three trustees. The first thing done was to make out a catalogue of the contents of the library on the death of Sir John, when the trustees took possession. In 1705, Wanley, one of the trustees, published his “Antiquæ Literaturæ Septentrionalis Liber, etc.” His preface is dated 28th August, 1704. For the first time the Church Mund and Church Grith laws appear in Wanley’s Catalogue. He was the first who named the volume Nero A. 1 as the “Worcester” volume, and Platna copied Wanley. From these facts I conclude that the above laws were purchased or otherwise obtained by Sir John Cotton, and were put into the “Worcester” volume between 1695 and 1702. I am aware that Dr. Smith’s catalogue was very imperfect, and these laws might have been in the library when he issued his imperfect catalogue. But this is a pure conjecture on my part. My conclusions are based on facts, and not on conjectures. There is not the slightest doubt about the correctness and completeness of the official catalogue of 1632. They were not then in the library.
I have considered these details as vitally essential in the important discussion which is here to follow.