The Nineteenth Century, and Dr. Bandinel. Gough and Douce.
The Wight Musical MSS., bequeathed in 1801, were the foundation of the musical collection, and were rich in English music between the Restoration and 1800. Not till 1885 was the old University collection, founded by Dr. William Heather in 1626, and kept in the Music School, transferred to the Bodleian. Four considerable classical collections of MSS. were purchased at this period, the D’Orville (1804), E. D. Clarke (1809), Canonici (1817) and Meerman (1824). The Canonici MSS. were amassed by a Venetian Jesuit and abound in liturgical and Italian MSS. as well as in classics. They number 2047, and were purchased for £5444. These were accompanied by two very large mixed collections of MSS. and printed books, both bequeathed—the Gough British Topographical collection in 1809, and the Douce collection, in 1834. About 3700 volumes came in the former, including a vast series of topographical prints and maps. Among the latter are some large fragments of tapestry maps of England from the first English loom, established by Sheldon in Elizabeth’s reign. Richard Gough (d. 1809) had been for many years Director of the Society of Antiquaries, and possessed almost every book on British Topography. Francis Douce’s interests lay in illuminated and other MSS. and in English literature, and he bequeathed about five hundred of the former class and seventeen thousand printed books, with charters and coins. These two great gifts greatly enhanced the value of the Bodleian in their different kinds.
An incident on Saturday, April 19, 1806, occasioned a singularly apt quotation, and shows that modern smartness had not at that time penetrated the Bodleian. A would-be reader came that morning soon after 8 a.m., the hour of opening (8-2 and 3-5 were the hours enjoined since 1769), and found no one there, and the door still locked. Before departing he affixed a paper (still preserved) bearing the Greek of the following passage (Luke xi. 52), “Woe unto you, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves and them that were entering in ye hindered.”
Shakespeare and Malone.
The Shakespearean Folios and Quartos in the Library were comparatively few until the year 1821. The number of entries under the name were in the 1605 catalogue, 0; in 1620, 0; in 1635, 1; in 1674, 3; in 1738, 6. Fortunately the great and famous dramatic collections of Edmund Malone brought in the above year a complete set of the Folios and some fifty early Quartos or Poems, including the only copy of the first edition of Shakespeare’s first publication, the Venus and Adonis of 1593. Thanks to these and other accessions the Bodleian now possesses 70 out of the 101 Quartos issued before 1700, and more than five thousand volumes of Shakespearean literature.
Not till about 1818 was it recognized that a temperature of 25°-30° Fahrenheit was inimical to the comfort of readers, and not till 1821 were two pipes for introducing hot air inserted, and it is recorded that even this was “wholly ineffectual.” In 1845 steam warming was attempted, but that too “did not give satisfaction.” In 1861 the hot-water system was introduced, which with various improvements is still in use.
Oriental MSS.
In view of the trend of Oxford studies in the past, it is not surprising that Classical MSS. and printed books, whether texts or commentaries, are a feature of the University library, and it probably contains in addition more academical dissertations than are to be found elsewhere. Each dissertation, it should be remembered, has its particular justification for the degree gained by it, however minute the point discussed may be.[19] The foundation of this department was laid in 1827 when about 43,400 foreign dissertations were purchased at Altona, and large additions were made in 1828, 1836-7 and 1846, as well as by systematic exchange in more recent years. In 1828 the Hebrew MSS., which had hitherto been inferior in value and number to the Arabic, received a great augmentation by the purchase en bloc of the Oppenheimer Collection of both manuscript and printed Hebrew literature. It is noticeable how large donations tend to produce further accessions in the same line. The Uri Catalogue of Oriental MSS. with its Second Part, noticed above, and the purchase of the Oppenheimer library seem to have called attention to this department, and from 1837 on a stream of minor donations and purchases set in. These were the Hodgson Sanskrit MSS. (1837), Wilson Sanskrit (1842, bought), Bruce Arabic and Ethiopic (1843, bought), Ouseley Persian (1844, bought), Walker (1847), Michael Hebrew (1848, bought), Mill Sanskrit (1849, bought), Elliott Persian (1859).
The Fifth and last Catalogue.
The period closes with the last of the printed Catalogues of the Printed Books. This was a great undertaking, but had its reward in being the largest presentation of printed literature which had ever been issued. It is contained in four folio volumes, issued between 1843 and 1851, the last recording the accessions of 1835-47. At the same time the Quarto Series of detailed Catalogues of Manuscripts was started (in 1845), which has now extended to some twenty volumes. The gaps left in this monumental series are filled up by the shorter but not inadequate descriptions of the Summary Catalogue in octavo form, which was instituted in 1890, and fulfils a useful purpose.