[386] Catalogue of the South Kensington Exhibition, 1862, p. 672.
[387] Another specimen of Mr. Rassam's caligraphic skill is to be seen in the Common Room of Magdalene College (in which College he was entertained for some time), where the College arms are represented in the same manner.
[388] Besides some restorations from the Randolph Gallery of portraits formerly removed thither.
[389] An engraving of a roundel (then, with others, in the possession of John Fenton of Fishguard) of which the exact counterpart is found in one of these sets, is given in the Gent. Magaz. for 1799, p. 465. As it is not known how long the Library has been in possession of its present collection, it is possible that Mr. Fenton's series may now be included in it. A description of a set of the time of James I may be found in vol. xxxiv of the Archæologia, pp. 225-230; and a notice of the Bodleian trenchers in Notes and Queries, 1866, p. 472, and other communications on the subject in the first volume for 1867.
APPENDIX E.
Numismatic Collection.
The collection of Coins and Medals was commenced by the gift from Archbishop Laud of five cabinets of coins, in 1636[390], to which he subsequently made some additions. These were accompanied by a very full MS. catalogue, which is now preserved among Laud's MSS., No. 554. In 1657 a large addition was made by Mr. Ralph Freke (see p. [88]), and numerous small gifts came from many donors in
following years. A catalogue, upon which Francis Wise had been engaged for a long period, was published by him in a folio volume, in 1750, entitled, Nummorum antiquorum scriniis Bodleianis reconditorum catalogus, cum commentario, tabulis æneis et appendice. Wise remarks in his Preface, that no donation, however trifling, was rejected, and that, consequently, there was (as there is still) a very large quantity of Middle and Third brass coins of little or no value. From Rawlinson there came, in 1755, besides coins, a collection of Italian medals (Popes, Medici family, &c.), and numerous matrices of seals, chiefly foreign. Browne Willis contributed the most valuable portion of the whole collection, in his series of gold and silver English coins[391].
Subsequent benefactors have been C. Godwyn, in 1770; Douce, whose collection included those of Calder, Moore, and Keate, and from whom came a series of Tradesmen's Tokens; Dr. Ingram, in 1850, whose bequest included some British specimens; the Queen, who gave, in 1841, a portion of the treasure found at Cuerdale (see p. [264]); Mackie, Roberts, Elliott, whose valuable series of Indo-Bactrian coins was presented in 1860 (see p. [291]), and Dr. Caulfield of Cork, who presented in 1866 a large collection of the Gun-money struck by James II in Ireland. The Ashmole coins were transferred from the Museum, together with Ashmole's library, in 1861. There is also a cabinet of Napoleon medals.