[78] Barlow's MS. Arg. against lending books out of the Library; see post, sub anno [1659].
A.D. 1627.
Andrew James, of Newport, Isle of Wight, is recorded to have given 'duas capsulas in quibus asservantur scripta vetustissima, exotici et ignoti characteris, alia stylo, calamo alia, in corticibus exarata, ex orientalis Indiæ partibus allata[79].' An East India merchant, John Jourdain, gave four Arabic MSS., and Bacon's Works were presented by Peter Ince, a bookseller at Chester. It appears from the Register that Joseph Barnes, the Oxford printer and publisher, died in this year, as he bequeathed a legacy of £5.
[79] At the end of the Barocci collection (numbered 245, 246, in the Catalogue of 1697) are two Javanese MSS., written on palm-leaves: the one written with a reed in the sacred or Pali character, preserved in a box; the other written with a style in the common character, and having the leaves tied together in the usual manner between two boards. As there does not seem to be any evidence for supposing that Barocci's collection included any Oriental MSS., it is possible that these were the writings 'ignotis characteris' given two years previously by Andr. James.
A.D. 1628.
Twenty-nine MSS., all of which, except three, are Greek, were given by Sir Thomas Roe, who had previously been ambassador in Turkey, and who afterwards sat, at the commencement of the Long Parliament, as Burgess for the University, in company with Selden. One of the three exceptions is an original copy of the
Synodal Epistles of the Council of Basle, with the leaden seal attached; and another, a valuable Arabic MS. of the Apostolic Canons, &c., which is noticed at length by Selden in the second book of his treatise, De Synedriis Hebræorum. Roe proposed that his books should be permitted to be lent out for purposes of printing, on proper security being given; a proposition which was accepted by Convocation[80]. Special licence of borrowing Lord Pembroke's (the Barocci) and Roe's MSS. was granted by the donors themselves to Dr. Lindsell (afterwards Bishop of Peterborough and Hereford) and Patrick Young, the keeper of the King's Library at St. James's. The latter is found, from the Register of Readers, to have used his privilege as late as Feb. and March, 1647-8, various volumes of Pembroke's MSS. being then lent to him, together with some marked 'Archbp.', which were doubtless Laud's[81].
The copy of Bacon's Essays (1625) which was presented by the author to the Duke of Buckingham, was given to the Library by Lewis Roberts, a merchant of London. It is now exhibited among the curiosities in the first glass case, as a specimen of binding, being clad in green velvet, embroidered with gold and silver thread, with the head of the duke worked in silk. The same donor also presented the copy of Bishop Williams' Funeral Sermon on James I, which had been given to the same duke by the author. Several other specimens of embroidered bindings are preserved in the Library, which are all, it is believed, comprehended in the following list[82]:—
1. A part of L. Tomson's version of the New Test., printed by Barker, in 16o (in 1578?), now marked MS. e Musæo, 242. This belonged to Queen Elizabeth, and is bound in a covering worked by herself, with various mottos, e.g. 'Celum patria,' 'Scopus vitæ Xpũs,' &c. And on a fly-leaf occurs this note in her handwriting: 'August[ine?]. I walke manie times into the pleasant fieldes of the Holye Scriptures, where I plucke up the goodlie greene herbes of sentences by pruning, eate them by reading, chawe them by musing, and laie them up at length in the hie seate of memorie by gathering them together; that so hauing tasted thy sweetenes I may the lesse perceave the bitternes of this miserable life[83].'