There is not much to notice under this year, save that the Vulgaria quedam abs Terencio in Anglicam linguam traducta, printed at Oxford before 1483, was obtained, in a volume containing also two tracts printed by J. de Westphalia, at the sale of the library of Mr. Thomas Thomson, of Edinburgh, for £36. Although complete in itself, it appears to have formed a part of a larger work, as the signatures run from n. to q., in eights.
A.D. 1867.
The closing year of these memorials is distinguished by the acquisition of a volume described by Archdeacon Cotton, in his Typographical Gazetteer, as being 'of the very highest rarity.' It is a fine copy of the Breviarium Illerdense, printed at Lerida, in Spain, in 1479, by Henry Botel. Besides being remarkable from its rarity, there is special interest attaching to the volume from the fact that it was printed at the sole expense of the bell-ringer of the cathedral! The colophon states that 'Antonius Palares, campanarum ejusdem ecclesiæ pulsator, propriis
expensis fieri fecit.' The volume was bought from Mr. Boone for £36.
A somewhat imperfect copy of the rare Bible printed at Edinburgh by Arbuthnot and Bassandyne in 1579, being the first edition printed in Scotland, was another purchase of the year; as were also two thick volumes of recent transcripts of the Stuart correspondence, preserved in the Imperial Library at Paris.
Within the last few years considerable attention has been paid by the Librarian to the formation of a series of editions of the English Bible. The number now collected is very large, and approaches very nearly to a complete gathering of every edition before 1800, which has any claim to regard either from date, imprint, variety of size, correctness, or incorrectness. Early Quaker tracts have also been largely collected, together with editions of Cotton Mather's works and those of John Bunyan.
A portrait of the Prince of Wales, in academic dress, painted by Sir J. Watson Gordon, was presented towards the close of the year to the University by the Prince, in memory of his academic days, and now hangs conspicuously at the entrance of the Picture Gallery, to which it forms the latest addition.
Prof. Max Müller having resigned his Sub-librarianship on account of health, the Rev. J. W. Nutt, M.A., Fellow of All Souls' College, was approved by Convocation, on June 25, as his successor in the charge of the Oriental department.
The number of printed volumes at present in the Library may be estimated at nearly 350,000. It was returned to Parliament, in 1848, as about 220,000; and with a view to this return a calculation as nearly accurate as possible was then made. An estimate has now been made of the additions received since that date; and from this it appears that some 79,500 volumes have been placed in the old Library and 45,000 in the Camera Radcliviana, making a total for
the whole collection of about 345,000 volumes. Within the same period about 5000 additional manuscripts have been obtained, making a total of nearly 25,000. The number was returned in 1848 as being about 21,000, but this appears to have been somewhat in excess of the fact. The proportion was singularly overestimated in 1819, for Clarke, in his Repertorium Bibliographicum published in that year (p. 68), states that the Library contains upwards of 160,000 volumes, of which 30,000 are manuscripts! The annual rate of ordinary increase of printed books at present, apart, of course, from the accession of any entire collection or special purchase, may be reckoned at about 3000 volumes, exclusive of magazines, of which two-thirds come from Stationers' Hall under the provisions of the Copyright Act.