Old Picture Books, With Other Essays on Bookish Subjects - Alfred W. Pollard

The excellence of Durie's treatise on library-management speaks for itself, but it seems not altogether unlikely that it was composed for the special purpose of the author's advancement. It is prefaced by a short letter by Samuel Hartlib, the friend of Milton, and Durie, as we shall see, shortly afterwards was employed to translate Milton's 'Eiconoclastes' into French. On August 5, 1650 (the year in which the 'Reformed Librarie-Keeper' was published), Durie had been granted liberty by the Council of State, to which Milton was Latin Secretary, to abide in the Commonwealth, and on August 21 this grant was confirmed by warrant 'granting license to Mr. Durie to stay in England till further order, on security for good behaviour.' Now some weeks before this the Council of State had taken into consideration what should be done with the Royal Collections of books, manuscripts, and medals, and had resolved to appoint Whitelocke their keeper, and to allow him the services of an Assistant. If Durie's 'Reformed Librarie-Keeper' was written at this juncture, at the suggestion of Milton and Hartlib in order to forward his claims to the Assistant-ship, it was certainly very well timed, and it is not unlikely that this was actually the case. Whitelocke's account of the matter, under date July 30, 1650, is as follows:

'July 30. Referred to the Council of State to preserve the books and medals at St. James's from imbezzlement.

'After this Order past, the Council propounded it to me, whether I would take upon me the Charge and Care of these precious Medals and Books, and to be the Library-Keeper, and to appoint whom I thought fit to look to them under me.

'I knew the greatness of the charge, and considered the prejudice that might fall out, by being responsible for those rich jewels, the imbezzlement whereof would be attempted by many, and my other occupations would not permit me to give much personal attendance on this business, nor to enjoy much of the delight of perusing them.

'Yet I, being informed of a design in some to have them sold and transported beyond sea, which I thought would be a dishonour and a damage to our nation, and to all scholars therein, and fearing that in other hands they might be more subject to imbezzleing, and being willing to preserve them for publick use, I did accept of the trouble of being Library-Keeper at St. James's and therein was encouraged and much persuaded to it by Mr. Selden, who swore that if I did not undertake the charge of them—all those rare Monuments of Antiquity, those choice Books and Manuscripts would be lost, and there were not the like to them, except only in the Vatican, in any other Library in Christendom.

'The Council made an order for me to be Library-Keeper of St. James's and to have lodgings in the house belonging to the place, and recommended to me Mr. Duery, a German by birth, a good scholar, and a great traveller and friend to the Parliament, to be my Deputy in that place, but at my liking.

'I was willing to have a Deputy by their recommendation, being thereby I should be the less answerable, and I appointed Mr. Duery to have the keys, to go to Mr. Patrick Young the former Library-Keeper to the late King, to inquire for an inventory of the Books and Medals, and to see an exact one made forthwith of all of them.'—'Whitelocke's Memorials,' p. 416.

Whitelocke's narrative, though under date July 30, of course embraces also the events of the subsequent months. As the following entries from the Calendar of State Papers for 1560 will show, Durie did not receive his appointment till the following October:

'Oct. 28.—24. John Durie appointed Library-Keeper of the books at St. James's, as also of the medals, and to have the lodgings belonging to that place, and to make an inventory of the books, medals and MSS., and present it to Council.

'Oct. 29.—1. Mr. Dury to be Library-Keeper at St. James's House, and Col. Berkstead to appoint convenient lodgings for him.

'Nov. 7.—2. The new chapel of St. James's to be used as a library, and Mr. Durie to take care that the books and medals be removed there as soon as it is finished.

'Nov. 21.—12. Lord Commissioner Lisle, Sir Hen. Vane, and Mr. Challoner added to the Committee formerly appointed for the library—viz., Lord Commissioner Whitelock, Visct. Lisle, and Sir Gilbert Pickering; Mr. Dury, the Library-Keeper, is to apply to them upon all emergencies, and receive instructions for the safe preservation of the library and medals, and to prepare directions to be given to the surveyor of the works for fitting the new chapel for the use of a library.'

We hear no more of Durie till May 20th, 1651, when the Council of State ordered him 'to proceed in translating Mr. Milton's book, written in answer to the King's book, and Mr. Frost to give him such fit reward for his pains as he shall think fit.' In the following October we have this interesting entry, which shows that he was by no means neglectful of his duties:

'Oct. [6?]—56. John Dury, Library-Keeper at St. James's, to the Council of State. The books and manuscripts will be utterly spoiled if not immediately looked after, as they lie upon the floor in confused heaps, so that not only the rain and dust, but the rats, mice, and other vermin can easily get at them, and none of these inconveniences can be prevented, unless you order the trustees for sale of the late King's goods to deliver me the keys.

'The trustees long since made a catalogue of the books, and an inventory of the medals, so that there is nothing more left for them to do, and they might therefore be also desired to deliver up such catalogues and inventory; if there should be anything to complete, I am willing to assist them therein, so that the work may not linger, and the library be utterly spoiled, and remain useless to the public.' [One page.]

This is the last entry we have concerning Durie as a librarian. His translation (published in 1652) of 'Mr. Milton's book written in answer to the late King's book,' i.e. 'Eiconoclastes,' was brought to a completion, and there is an Order in Council that no custom duty should be charged upon its export. Then we have Durie's petition for his fee for the translation, and then he goes off to Sweden with Whitelocke, his rooms at St. James's are assigned to another, and our interest in him sensibly wanes.

The supplement to the Reformed School comes first, and our tract is preceded by a false title of its own:—'The | Reformed | Librarie-Keeper. | By | John Durie | [Device of Fleur-de-Lys.] London | Printed by William Du-Gard, | Anno Dom. 1650.' The two letters are preceded by Hartlib's preface, and followed by the two appendices mentioned on the title-page, neither of which, in all likelihood, is by Durie himself. Of the two letters only the first is here reprinted, the second being a mere feeble repetition of it clothed in religious phraseology. The one here given is to some extent marred by Durie's riding to death of the metaphor of 'trading' for exchange of information. Despite this fault, it is full of excellent sense, and shows throughout a lofty sense of the functions of a librarian. I reprint it here as it stands, with a careful retention of the original spelling and punctuation:—

the
REFORMED LIBRARIE-KEEPER:
or

Two Copies of Letters concerning the Place and Office of a
Librarie-Keeper.

the first letter.

'The Librarie-Keeper's place and office, in most countries (as most other Places and Offices both in Churches and Universities) are lookt upon, as Places of profit and gain, and so accordingly sought after and valued in that regard; and not in regard of the service, which is to bee don by them unto the Common-wealth of Israël, for the advancement of Pietie and Learning; for the most part men look after the maintenance, and livelihood settled upon their Places, more then upon the end and usefulness of their emploiments; they seek themselves and not the Publick therein, and so they subordinate all the advantages of their places, to purchase mainly two things thereby viz. an easie subsistence; and som credit in comparison of others; nor is the last much regarded, if the first may bee had; except it bee in cases of strife and debate, wherein men are over-heated: for then indeed som will stand upon the point of Honor, to the hazard of their temporal profits; but to speak in particular of Librarie-Keepers, in most Universities that I know; nay indeed in all, their places are but Mercenarie, and their emploiment of little or no use further, then to look to the books committed to their custodie, that they may not bee lost or embezeled by those that use them, and this is all. I have been informed that in Oxford (where the most famous Librarie now extant amongst the Protestant Christians is kept), the settled maintenance of the Librarie-Keeper is not above fiftie or sixtie pound per annum; but that it is accidentally, viis et modis sometimes worth an hundred pound: what the accidents are, and the waies by which they com, I have not been curious to search after; but I have thought, that if the proper emploiments of Librarie-Keepers were taken into consideration as they are, or may bee made useful to the advancement of Learning; and were ordered and mainteined proportionally to the ends, which ought to bee intended thereby; they would bee of exceeding great use to all sorts of Scholars, and have an universal influence upon all the parts of Learning, to produce and propagate the same unto perfection. For if Librarie-Keepers did understand themselves in the nature of their work, and would make themselves, as they ought to bee, useful in their places in a publick waie; they ought to becom Agents for the advancement of universal Learning: and to this effect I could wish, that their places might not bee made, as eueriewhere they are, Mercenarie, but rather Honorarie; and that with the competent allowance of two hundred pounds a year, som emploiments should bee put upon them further then a bare keeping of the books. It is true that a fair Librarie, is not onely an ornament and credit to the place where it is; but an useful commoditie by itself to the publick; yet in effect it is no more then a dead Bodie as now it is constituted, in comparison of what it might bee, if it were animated with a publick spirit to keep and use it, and ordered as it might bee for public service. For if such an allowance were settled upon the emploiment as might maintain a man of parts and generous thoughts, then a condition might bee annexed to the bestowing of the Place; that none should be called thereunto but such as had approved themselves zealous and profitable in som publick waies of Learning to advance the same, or that should bee bound to certain tasks to bee prosecuted towards that end, whereof a List might bee made, and the waie to trie their abilities in prosecuting the same should be described, least in after times, unprofitable men creep into the place, to frustrate the publick of the benefit intended by the Doners towards posteritie. The proper charge then of the Honorarie Librarie-Keeper in an Universitie should bee thought upon, and the end of that Imploiment, in my conception, is to keep the publick stock of Learning, which is in Books and Manuscripts, to increas it, and to propose it to others in the waie which may bee most useful unto all; his work then is to bee a Factor and Trader for helps to Learning, and a Treasurer to keep them, and a dispenser to applie them to use, or to see them well used, or at least not abused; and to do all this, first a Catalogue, of the Treasurie committed unto his charge is to bee made, that is all the Books and Manuscripts, according to the Titles whereunto they belong, are to bee ranked in an order most easie and obvious to bee found, which I think is that of Sciences and Languages; when first all the Books are divided into their subjectam materiam whereof they Treat, and then everie kinde of matter subdivided into their several Languages; and as the Catalogue should bee so made, that it may alwaies bee augmented as the stock doth increas; so the place in the Librarie must bee left open for the increas of the number of Books in their proper Seats, and in the Printed Catalogue, a Reference is to bee made to the place where the Books are to bee found in their Shelvs or repository. When the stock is thus known and fitted to bee exposed to the view of the Learned World, then the waie of Trading with it, both at home and abroad, is to bee laid to heart both for the increas of the stock, and for the improvement of it to use. For the increas of the stock both at home and abroad, correspondencie should bee held with those that are eminent in everie Science, to Trade with them for their profit, that what they want and wee have, they may receiv upon condition, that what they have and wee want, they should impart in that facultie wherein their eminence doth lie; as for such as are at home eminent in anie kinde, becaus they may com by Native right to have use of the Librarie-Treasure, they are to be Traded withal in another waie, viz. that the things which are gained from abroad, which as yet are not made common, and put to publick use should bee promised and imparted to them for the increas of their private stock of knowledge, to the end that what they have peculiar, may also bee given in for a requital, so that the particularities of gifts at home and abroad, are to meet as in a Center in the hand of the Librarie-Keeper, and hee is to Trade with the one by the other, to caus them to multiplie the publick stock, whereof hee is a Treasurer and Factor.

'Thus hee should Trade with those that are at home and abroad out of the Universitie, and with those that are within the Universitie, hee should have acquaintance to know all that are of anie parts, and how their view of Learning doth lie, to supplie helps unto them in their faculties from without and from within the Nation, to put them upon the keeping of correspondencie with men of their own strain, for the beating out of matters not yet elaborated in Sciences; so that they may bee as his Assistants and subordinate Factors in his Trade and in their own for gaining of knowledg: Now because in all publick Agencies, it is fit that som inspection should bee had over those that are intrusted therewith, therefore in this Factorie and Trade for the increas of Learning, som tie should bee upon those Librarie-Keepers to oblige them to carefulness.

'I would then upon this account have an Order made that once in the year the Librarie-Keeper should bee bound to give an Account of his Trading, and of his Profit in his Trade (as in all humane Trades Factors ought, and use to do to their principals at least once a year), and to this effect I would have it ordered, that the chief Doctors of each facultie of the Universitie should meet at a Convenient time in a week of the year to receive the Accounts of his Trading, that hee may shew them wherein the stock of Learning hath been increased for that year's space; and then he is to produce the particulars which he hath gained from abroad, and laie them before them all, that everie one in his own facultie may declare in the presence of others that which hee thinketh fit to bee added to the publick stock, and made common by the Catalogue of Additionals, which everie year within the Universities is to be published in writing within the Librarie itself, and everie three years (or sooner as the number of Additionals may bee great, or later, if it bee smal) to be put in Print and made common to those that are abroad. And at this giving up of the accounts, as the Doctors are to declare what they think worthie to bee added to the common stock of Learning, each in their Facultie; so I would have them see what the Charges and Pains are whereat the Librarie Keeper hath been, that for his encouragement the extraordinarie expences in correspondencies and transcriptions for the publick good may bee allowed him out of some Revenues, which should be set apart to that effect, and disposed of according to their joint consent and judgment in that matter. Here then hee should bee bound to shew them the Lists of his correspondents, the Letters from them in Answer to his, and the reckoning of his extraordinarie expence should bee allowed him in that which hee is indebted, or hath freely laid out to procure Rarities into the stock of Learning. And becaus I understand that all the Book-Printers or Stationers of the Common-wealth are bound of everie Book which is Printed to send a Copie into the Universitie Librarie; and it is impossible for one man to read all the Books in all Faculties, to judg of them what worth there is in them; nor hath everie one Abilitie to judg of all kinde of Sciences what everie Author doth handle, and how sufficiently; therefore I would have at this time of giving accounts the Librarie-Keeper also bound to produce the Catalogue of all the Books sent unto the Universitie's Librarie by the Stationers that Printed them; to the end that everie one of the Doctors in their own Faculties should declare, whether or no they should bee added, and where they should bee placed in the Catalogue of Additionals; for I do not think that all Books and Treatises, which in this age are Printed in all kindes, should bee inserted into the Catalogue, and added to the stock of the Librarie, discretion must be used and confusion avoided, and a cours taken to distinguish that which is profitable from that which is useless, and according to the verdict of that Societie, the usefulness of Books for the publick is to bee determined; yet because there is seldom anie Books wherein there is not somthing useful, and Books freely given are not to bee cast away, but may bee kept; therefore I would have a peculiar place appointed for such Books as shall bee laid aside to keep them in, and a Catalogue of their Titles made Alphabetically in reference to the Author's name with a note of distinction to shew the Science to which they are to bee referred. These thoughts com thus suddenly into my head, which in due time may bee more fully described, if need bee, chiefly if, upon the ground of this account, som competencie should bee found out and allowed to maintein such charges as will bee requisite towards the advancement of the Publick good of Learning after this manner.'