Bede’s Acts of the Apostles.
The chief ancient Biblical MS. possessed by the Library is a Græco-Latin uncial Acts, probably written in the sixth century, given by Archbishop Laud and known as Codex E of the Acts. The Latin closely follows the Greek text, and is not the Vulgate version. In the seventh century the MS. was in Sardinia, and much interest attaches to it from the fact that the Venerable Bede (d. 735) used it, and probably owned it; for about seventy readings which are stated to occur in his Retractatio in Actus are all found, and often solely, in this codex. It also has affinities with the great Cambridge MS., the Codex Bezæ, a manuscript which has in the last few years established some claim to represent the oldest tradition of the text.
Saint Margaret’s Gospel-book.
A small volume in brown calf binding was sold at Sotheby’s on July 26, 1887, described as “Evangelia iv. ... Manuscript on vellum ... illuminated in gold and colours ... saec. xiv,” and was bought for a very moderate sum by the Bodleian. It turned out to be a Gospel-book (containing the portions of the Gospels which occur in the Mass) written in England about A.D. 1000, and bearing four full-page miniatures of the Evangelists with other illumination. On the second leaf is a Latin poem of the eleventh century, telling a strange tale, that a miracle had been worked on this volume. It had been taken to a trysting-place in order that by its sanctity it might bind the parties to an agreement, but on its way dropped unnoticed into a river out of the folds of the priest’s dress who was carrying it. When its absence was noted, the party slowly retraced its steps, and at last saw it in the river. A soldier plunged in head first and rescued it, and it was found to be miraculously unhurt “except two leaves which you see at each end, in which from the water some crinkling is apparent.” The poem specially records that the silken sheets which protected the illuminations were washed out of the book by the stream, and ends “May the King and noble Queen find everlasting salvation, whose book was recently saved from the waves.” The clue to this was found in the Life of St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland, whose chapel is still a venerated shrine in Edinburgh Castle. She was a sister of Edgar Ætheling, fled to the North, and in 1070 married Malcolm Canmore, King of Scotland. Her mild and civilizing influence on the Scottish Court and country till her death in 1093 led to canonization in 1251. The Life of her, probably by her confessor Turgot, contains the whole story in similar terms in prose, and establishes beyond a doubt that this volume was her especial treasure and constant companion. She must often have used it both in Dunfermline Abbey, which she founded, and in her chapel in the Castle at Edinburgh. Even the “crinkling” mentioned is still visible, but as to the miracle, the clear water of a Scotch stream would do little harm even to an illuminated volume. It is, however, an undoubted relic, valuable alike for its liturgical contents, its romantic history and its associations.
The Turbutt Shakespeare.
A worn and tattered copy of the First Folio of Shakespeare (1623), plainly bound in contemporary calf, was brought up to the Library on January 23, 1905, from a Mr. Turbutt’s library at Ogston Hall, Derbyshire, for advice about repairs to the binding. Fortunately Mr. Strickland Gibson, a Senior Assistant, who studies Oxford bindings, had not neglected, as so many do, the poorer and mediocre covers, such as the one described; and he soon recognized on it the peculiarities of Oxford binders, and was able after a little investigation to establish the fact that the long-lost original First Folio, sent in sheets from the publisher in 1623 under Sir Thomas Bodley’s Agreement (see p. [20]), had revisited its old home in the guise of a dubious stranger, but wearing still its ancient coat, much out at elbows. The identification is complete, and there is no doubt that the book had been sold after the Restoration as superseded. The special interest of the volume is two-fold—first, it is the only copy which went straight from the publisher to a public institution, and is therefore in some respects the only standard copy in existence; secondly, that the wear and tear of the book when it was chained in Bodley as S. 2.17 Art. (which can be proved to have been occasioned in the Library, and not at a later period) indicates, as nothing else can, which plays were most to the taste of the Bachelors of Arts before the Civil War. An estimate has been made from the comparative deterioration of each leaf, and the result is the following list of preferences: Romeo and Juliet; Julius Cæsar; The Tempest. Next: Henry IV, part i; Macbeth and Cymbeline equal. The Tragedies were most read, and the Histories least; the Comedies being intermediate.
Milton and Rouse.
John Rouse, who steered the Bodleian through the stormy waters of the Civil War, was a personal friend of Milton, and wrote to him to complain that no copy of his (Milton’s) Poems, London, 1645, was to be found in the Library. Milton sent a copy, and inserted in it a long Latin poem “ad Joannem Rousium ... de libro poematum ... Ode Joannis Miltonij.” Milton at this time was only Cromwell’s Latin Secretary, so the book was allowed to go up in the ordinary course, as 8ᵒ M. 168 Art., to one of the Galleries of the Arts End. After about a hundred and fifty years, it was rediscovered as a valuable autograph of the great poet, and is now exhibited in the glass cases.
The smallest MS.