'The Bishop,'
he says, 'had a prodigious collection of books, written as well as
printed on vellum, some very ancient, others finely illuminated. He had a
Capgrave's Chronicle, books of the first printing at Maintz and other
places abroad, as also at Oxford, St. Alban's, Westminster, etc.' There
was some talk of uniting it with Harley's collection; but in 1715 it was
bought by George I. for 6000 guineas, and was presented to the Public
Library at Cambridge.
The University had possessed a library from very early times. It owed
much to the liberality of several successive Bishops of Durham. Theodore
Beza and Lord Bacon were afterwards among its most distinguished
benefactors. Bishop Hacket made a donation of nearly fifteen hundred
volumes: and in 1647 a large collection of Eastern MSS., brought home
from Italy by George Thomason, was added by an ordinance of the
Commonwealth. But, until the royal gift of the Bishop of Ely's books, the
University received no such extraordinary favour of fortune as came to
the sister institution through the splendid beneficence of Bodley.
CHAPTER XI.
BODLEY--DIGBY--LAUD--SELDEN--ASHMOLE.
The University of Oxford still offers public thanks for Bodley's
generosity upon his calendar-day. The ancient library of Duke Humphrey
and his pious predecessors had, as we have seen, been plundered and
devastated. But Sir Thomas Bodley, when retiring from office in 1597,
conceived the idea of restoring it to prosperity again; 'and in a few
years so richly endowed it with books, revenues, and buildings, that it
became one of the most famous in the world.
Pages:
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125