CHAPTER III
THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY, 1613-1860
The scale of the present work will not allow of more than a sketch of the development of the Library for the long period included in the chapter heading above. The chief treasures, more in detail, will be mentioned in [Chapter V].
Early Fears.
There was an ebb-tide in the Library affairs for some years after Bodley’s death on January 28, 1613—a kind of reaction. James was getting old (though he did not resign till 1620), and a set-back was experienced from the defalcations of Sir John Bennet, one of Bodley’s executors, who defrauded the nascent institution of at least £450. It must have been to some extent a doubtful time. The good ship had been well built, launched and equipped, but would it stand the open sea, when its designer and builder was no longer at hand and its capacity of enduring stress was as yet untried? Looking back on the development of the Bodleian, we can now see that the memory of Bodley’s personality, and the results of his practical wisdom as displayed in the Statutes, did carry on the Library tradition until the gathering clouds of the Civil War; that then it secured its position by being perhaps the only safe repository for literary collections during the Civil War and Commonwealth troubles; that throughout the ensuing century and a half it attracted immense donations; so that in fact until about 1850 it remained the premier library in the kingdom, though the British Museum had been founded in 1753. Since 1850 the great National Library has assumed clear pre-eminence, having the support of public funds and being acknowledged by all to be the chief library of the Empire.
The Second Catalogue.
In 1620 a new catalogue of the Library was published by Bodley’s Librarian, Dr. Thomas James, which is in the form to which we are all accustomed—that is to say it is an Author-catalogue, arranged by authors’ names in alphabetical order. English literature is still quite a subordinate feature in it, owing to the Founder’s principles; and under Shakespeare’s name no single entry is to be found. Another curious feature is that no English translations of Latin or Greek or even French or Italian books are allowed to appear. Those who knew no Greek or Latin, and needed “cribs” were not welcomed. James resigned his office in this year and was succeeded by John Rouse,[8] the friend of Milton. His puritanical tendencies undoubtedly helped him to save the Library from damage during the sieges of Oxford in the great war.
New Accessions.
At last, in 1629, began the flow of Collections towards the Library, soon after Laud had become Bishop of London. In that year arrived “that famous library of Giacomo Barocci” (as Ussher calls it), consisting of 242 Greek MSS. The donor was the Chancellor of the University, the Earl of Pembroke, and twenty-four MSS. which were omitted came in 1654 through Oliver Cromwell. Sir Thomas Roe, the English ambassador to Turkey, also sent twenty-eight Greek MSS. The original manuscript of Leland’s Itinerary and Collectanea came in 1632 from William Burton, the historian of Leicestershire. They contain topographical and literary notes of the earliest survey of England (with the partial exception of William of Worcester, whose journeyings were chiefly in Somerset, including Bristol, and Norfolk), and with some later transcripts form the whole of the sources of the text. In 1634 came 238 MSS. forming the Digby collection, which is of special value for the early history of science in England, containing for instance the earliest meteorological observations known, by William de Merle, Fellow of Merton, taken from 1337 to 1344. Thirty-six more (Oriental) MSS. came from Sir Kenelm Digby among the Laudian MSS. in 1639.
Laud’s Gifts.