On June 18, the Rev. Robert Payne Smith, M.A., of Pembroke College, was appointed an Assistant Sub-librarian for the Oriental department, in consequence of the increasing infirmities of the aged senior Sub-librarian, Mr. Reay.
[353] For the most part, they consist of mediæval sermons and theological treatises by writers of no great fame, together with some of the works of Aquinas.
A.D. 1858.
On Oct. 30, an offer made by the Trustees of the Ashmolean Museum for the transfer of the printed books, coins, and MSS. there contained to the Bodleian, in order to facilitate the devotion of a part of the building to the purposes of an Examination School, was accepted by the Curators; but a similar offer with regard to the antiquities was declined. The latter consequently remain in their old repository, but the collections in Natural History were transferred to the New Museum. It was not, however, until 1860, that the books were actually received into the Library, where they now
fill one small room. Altogether they amount to upwards of 3700 volumes, forming five different series. First are those of Elias Ashmole himself, numbering originally 2175, but reduced by losses before the transfer to 2136, of which about 850 are MSS[354]. This collection is extremely rich in heraldic and genealogical matter, together with an abundance of astrology. The printed books are chiefly scientific and historical; these, with the books in the following collections, are now in process of incorporation into the new General Catalogue of the Library. A list of the MSS. is given in Bernard's catalogue, A.D. 1697; but a very elaborate and minute account, forming a thick quarto volume, was drawn up by Mr. W. H. Black, the well-known antiquary, and published in 1845. As this, however, was destitute of an index, it remained comparatively useless until 1866, when a full Index, edited by the writer of this volume, was published under the direction of the Delegates of the University Press.
The next collection is that of Anthony à Wood, containing about 130 MSS. and 970 printed volumes[355], which were bequeathed to the Museum by the owner on his death in Nov. 1695. The former are of extreme value for the history of Oxford and the neighbourhood; among the latter are most curious sets of the pamphlets of the time, with the ballads, fly-sheets, chap-books, almanacks, &c. just such 'unconsidered trifles' as most men suffer to perish in the using, but a few, like Wood, lay by for the amusement and information of future generations. There are also seven volumes of his own correspondence, including letters from Dugdale, Evelyn, &c. Of the MSS. a list is to be found in the old Catalogue of 1697; a fuller and better one, compiled by
William Huddesford, M.A., the Keeper of the Museum, was printed in a thin octavo volume, in 1761, which was reprinted by Sir Thomas Phillips, at Middlehill, Worcestershire, in 1824. There are also bundles of charters and deeds, chiefly monastic, but nearly all more or less mutilated or injured by damp and dirt, so as to be partially useless.
The third collection is that of Dr. Martin Lister, physician to Queen Anne, who died Feb. 2, 1711/2. Besides his books, he was the donor of various other gifts to the Museum, in return for which he was created M.D. of Oxford, in 1683. The books are chiefly medical and scientific, and number in a written catalogue 1451 volumes (including thirty-two MSS.), but thirty-five of these were missing when the transfer from the Museum was made.
The collections of Sir William Dugdale, which form a fourth series, number forty-eight volumes. A list of these is in the old Catalogue of 1697.
In the fifth place there are the MSS. of the well-known antiquary, John Aubrey. These are about twenty in number, of which fifteen are in his own hand, and are described in Britton's Life of him, printed for the Wilts Topographical Society, pp. 88-123. Collections for the history of Wiltshire, entitled Hypomnemata Antiquaria, form one of Aubrey's own works[356], but unfortunately the second volume (marked with the letter B) is missing. It was borrowed from the Museum, in 1703, by William Aubrey, the author's brother, and was never returned. A paper on the subject was inserted by Rev. J. E. Jackson, in 1860, in vol. vii. of the Wiltshire Archæological Magazine, and a reward for information as to the present locale of the missing volume was subsequently publicly offered, but to no purpose, by the same gentleman. A