[98] Reg. Conv. R. 24. 156b. 169b. The agreements with one Thomas Richardson for the work are found there.
[99] Reg. Conv. R. 24b, 182b.
[100] Four volumes of the miscellaneous collection on Irish affairs made by Sir G. Carew, afterwards Earl of Totness, are also to be found here. A list of their contents, as of those of the other volumes preserved at Lambeth and in University College, is printed in Mr. T. Duffus Hardy's Report to the Master of the Rolls on the Carte and Carew Papers, 8o, Lond. 1864.
A.D. 1637.
A Bachelor of Arts and Fellow of St. John's College, one Abraham Wright, published the results of his lighter reading in the Bodleian in a little volume printed by Leonard Lichfield, which he entitled, Delitiæ Delitiarum, sive Epigrammatum ex optimis quibusque hujus et novissimi seculi Poetis in amplissima illa Bibliotheca Bodleiana, et pene omnino alibi extantibus, [a]ανθολογια].
A.D. 1640.
On Jan. 25, 1639-40, died Robert Burton, of Ch. Ch., 'Democritus junior,' and bequeathed out of his large library whatever
he possessed which was wanting in the Bodleian. A list of the Latin books thus acquired is given in the Benefaction Book, followed by this sentence: 'Porro [d. d.] comœdiarum, tragediarum, et schediasmatum ludicrorum (præsertim idiomate vernaculo) aliquot centurias, quas propter multitudinem non adjecimus.' These latter were just the classes of books the admission of which the Founder had almost prohibited, viz., 'almanacks, plays, and an infinite number that are daily printed.' Even if 'some little profit might be reaped (which God knows is very little) out of some of our play-books, the benefit thereof,' said he, 'will nothing near countervail the harm that the scandal will bring upon the Library, when it shall be given out that we stuffed it full of baggage books[101].' In consequence of this well-meant but mistaken resolution, the Library was bare of just those books which Burton's collection could afford, and which now form some of its rarest and most curious divisions. In his own address 'To the Reader' of his Anatomy of Melancholy he very fully describes the nature of his own gatherings. 'I hear new news every day; and those ordinary rumours of war, plagues, fires, inundations, thefts, murders, massacres, meteors, comets, spectrums, prodigies, apparitions, of towns taken, cities besieged in France, Germany, Turkey, Persia, Poland, &c. * * * * are daily brought to our ears; new books every day, pamphlets, currantoes, stories (&c.). Now come tidings of weddings, maskings, mummeries, entertainments, jubilees, embassies, tilts and tournaments, trophies, triumphs, revels, sports, plays; then again, as in a new shifted scene, treasons, cheating tricks, robberies, enormous villainies, in all kinds, funerals, burials, death of princes, new discoveries, expeditions; now comical, then tragical matters.' His books are chiefly to be found in the classes marked 4o Art. (particularly under letter L), Theol., and Art. BS. Amongst his smaller books is one of the only two known copies of
the edition of Venus and Adonis in 1602. He is specially mentioned also in the preface to Verneuil's Nomenclator, 1642, as being (together with Mr. Kilby of Linc. Coll., Mr. Prestwich, of All Souls', and Mr. Francis Wright, of Merton) a donor of Commentaries and Sermons. Besides his books, he bequeathed £100, with which an annual payment of £5 was obtained. For some time, however, this payment was subsequently lost; for in Barlow's Accounts for 1655, after mentioning the receipt of £40 paid by one Mr. Thomas Smith, occurs this 'Memorandum:—that the £40 above mentioned amongst the Recepta is a part of an £100 given to the Library by Mr. Rob. Burton of Ch. Ch. It was first lent to Mr. Thomas Smith, and he (by bond) was to pay to the Library £5 per annum. He breaking, or very much decay'd in his estate, and deade, this £40 was payd in by his executors, £50 more is to be payd us by University Coll. (it was owinge to Mr. Smith, and his executors assigned it over to us), and Dr. Langbaine hath in his keepinge a bond of one Spencer for £10 more.' The latter was paid in 1658, as appears from an entry, 'Recept. a Dno. Spicer (sic) et Hopkins, ex syngrapha;' but the former was still unpaid in 1660.
[101] Reliquiæ Bodl. p. 278.