[357] A very valuable Index of notes and references on all kinds of biographical, historical, and antiquarian matters, contained in forty small covers, which had been the growth of the many years of Dr. Bliss's literary researches, was bequeathed by him to Rev. H. O. Coxe, by whom it is kept in the Library for the use of readers. Several references are made to this Index in the earlier part of the volume.
[358] In Burn's High Commission Court, 1865, it is said (from the Reports of proceedings in the Court) that the fine inflicted on Barker was £200 and on Lucas £100. 'With some part of this fine Laud causeth a fair Greek character to be provided, for publishing such manuscripts as time and industry should make ready for the publick view; of which sort were the Catena and Theophylact set out by Lyndsell.' Heylin's Cyprianus Anglicus, p. 228.
A.D. 1859.
Numerous MSS., chiefly classical, patristic, or Italian, were purchased at the sale of M. Libri's collection in London, in March. Amongst them was a Sacramentary, of the commencement of the ninth century, which was obtained for £43; and a copy of S. Cyprian's Epistles, also of the ninth century, for £84. Four volumes of the correspondence of Scholars at home and abroad with E. H. Barker, of Thetford, were also added to the Library from the sale of Mr. Dawson Turner's library. They are now numbered Bodl. MSS. 1003-1006. And the munificent gift of a very valuable collection of 422 volumes of Arabic and Persian MSS. was received from J. B. Elliott, Esq., of Calcutta. These chiefly consist of the MSS. which Sir Gore Ouseley (who died Nov. 18, 1844,) obtained during his diplomatic service in the East, commencing his collection when stationed at Lucknow, and
completing it while ambassador in Persia; of which Mr. Elliott had been the purchaser. A small remaining part had previously been bought by the Library, as noted under 1858. In 1860, Mr. Elliott added to his former gift a series of Eastern coins, and various handsome specimens of Eastern weapons; the latter are now exhibited in a case in the Picture Gallery. Five Sanscrit MSS. were received from Fitz-Edward Hall, Esq., of Saugur, who, at the same time, expressed his munificent intention of presenting hereafter the whole of his large collection.
In this year, after considerable enquiry had been made respecting different modes of cataloguing, and Mr. Coxe had reported on the arrangements adopted in the great libraries at home and some of those abroad, it was resolved by the Curators, upon that gentleman's recommendation, that the plan in use in the British Museum should be immediately introduced, for the purpose of commencing a new General Catalogue of all the printed books (excepting the Hebrew, of which a separate catalogue had been made) in the whole Library. By this plan, three or five copies, according as the case may be that of a single or double entry, are written simultaneously on prepared paper, as with a manifold-copier, the transcribers writing out in this way the entries of titles previously examined and corrected by the cataloguers. The separate titles are then mounted, arranged in alphabetical order, and bound in volumes. By this plan two copies of the Catalogue are at once written with the labour of one, while surplus slips are also provided for the formation hereafter of a classified catalogue as well. The use of the Catalogue, however, is thus confined to the Library itself; and the literary world in general must still refer to the printed Catalogues of 1843 and 1851. A commencement of the new undertaking was made in this year; but it was not until 1862 that the present staff (as to numbers) of assistants was employed, and the work completely
organized. At present the letters A-E, G-H are catalogued; and the extent to which the whole Catalogue will run may be estimated from the fact that the letters B, C, and G fill sixty, sixty-five, and thirty-four volumes respectively. All the books are seen and examined separately; anonymous authors are, if possible, traced out; many errors in previous catalogues are corrected, and the number of entries is very largely increased.
A.D. 1860.
The resignation of the Librarianship by Dr. Bandinel, after forty-seven years of office in the capacity of Head, and a total of fifty of work in the Library, forms a leading feature in the Bodley Annals of this year. At the age of seventy-nine the natural infirmities of age were felt by himself to be incapacitating him for the duties which he had so long and so regularly discharged, while at the same time the continually increasing pressure of work and enlargement of the Library, made those duties much more onerous than they had been even a quarter of a century before. And so he resolved to withdraw at Michaelmas from the place to which he had been so heartily and entirely devoted, and which under his headship had been doubled in contents. The parting was not without a great struggle; it was the abandoning what had been the cherished occupation of his life, and with the ceasing of that occupation he felt a too-certain foreboding (which he expressed to the writer of these pages) that the life would soon cease as well. A well-merited tribute was paid to him by Convocation in June, in both increasing the amount of his statutable pension, so that he retired on a full stipend, and in specially enrolling him among the Curators of the Library. But he was seldom seen in the old place after his resignation; on two or three occasions only did he again mount the long flight of stairs which had of late tried both his strength
and breath severely; and then, when only seven months had elapsed, on Feb. 6, 1861, he passed away. And little more than a fortnight previously, on January 20, his old colleague, Professor Reay, departed this life, at the age of seventy-eight. He also had retired on his pension at Michaelmas, 1860, and had been succeeded as Oriental Sub-librarian by Rev. R. Payne Smith (Assistant-librarian in the same department since 1857), whose appointment was confirmed by Convocation on Nov. 22. Memoirs of Dr. Bandinel and Mr. Reay are given in the Gentleman's Magazine, (1861, pp. 463-6), which do justice, in the case of the former, to his watchful solicitude for the Library and his thorough acquaintance with it; and in the case of the latter (evidently from intimate personal acquaintance), to his great kindliness of heart, and simplicity and gentleness of character.