This work, he had begun in 1597, by the desire of Merton College; 38 volumes of singular good books in folio, &c. &c. Mr. Philip Scudamor; 50 volumes, greatest part in folio. Mr. Lawrence Bodley; 37 very fair and new-bought books, in folio, beside money-donations. A second list, in a letter of the following year (1602) addressed to Dr. Ravis, contains the names of Sir John Fortescue, Knt.; Mr. Jo. Crooke, Recorder of the City of London; Mr. Henry Savile; Mr. William Gent, of Gloucester-Hall; Mr. Thomas Allen, of ditto; Mr. William Camden by his office Clarentius, and Mr. Thomas James, &c. Letters likewise of Bodley's dated in 1608, 1609, and 1611 furnish proofs of his indefatigable activity in availing himself of every species of convenient conveyance for his literary treasures, in soliciting farther subscriptions from his wealthy acquaintance, in procuring foreign libraries to be ransacked for the completion of his own, and even in examining the timbers intended for the rising edifice. In one of them he modestly observes, that the public honours, entertainments, letters, gifts, and other graces conferred upon him have far exceeded the compass of his merits;' and adds, "albeit, among a number of natural imperfections, I have least of all offended in the humour of ambition, yet now so it is, that I do somewhat repent me of my too much niceness that way; not as carried with an appetite to make more riches to myself (wherein, God is my witness, my content is complete), but only in respect of my greedy desire to make a livelier demonstration of the same that I bear to my COMMON MOTHer, than I have hitherto attained sufficient ability to put in execution." "After his death (adds the Editor of 'Oxoniana') the Earl of Pembroke, by the persuasion of Archbishop Laud, gave to the library almost all the collection of Greek manuscripts, which Francis Baroccio the Venetian had collected with great pains and cost, and which is thought to be the most valuable that ever came into England at one time. The Earl reserved twenty-two of them for his own use: but these were afterward bought, and Lord Burghley, who supplied him with much valuable presented to the library, by Oliver Cromwell; and to these Sir Thomas Roe, our Embassador to Constantinople, added another choice collection of Greek manuscripts. Sir Kenelm Digby, having sent into the East to purchase Oriental manuscripts, and into Germany to buy curious books, presented a large collection to the library, among which were upward of two hundred manuscripts." At Laud's desire, likewise, the University erected a room over the new Convocation-House, which brought the library into the shape of a Roman H, it's present form. In this part the Archbishop's excellent collection, and that of the learned John Selden, acquired by negociation with his executors, are placed. Selden had originally intended to leave his books to the Bodleian; but upon being refused the loan of some manuscripts (which could not statutably be carried out of the library) he altered his design, and left them to the society of the Inner Temple, on condition that they with the students of the Middle Temple should erect a building suitable for their reception, in failure of which his executors were at liberty to bestow them upon any public body. One of the terms of their arrangement with Oxford was, that "the books be for ever hereafter kept together in one distinct pile and body under the name of 'Mr. Selden's Library." It was upon visiting this celebrated collection in 1605, that James I. (as we are informed by Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy")" in imitation of Alexander, at his departure broke out into that noble speech; If I were not a King, I would be an University-man. And if it were so that I must be a prisoner, if I might have my wish, I would desire to have no other prison than that library, and to be chained together with so many good authors et mortuis magistris."" Other principal benefactors were General Fairfax, Dr. Marshall Rector of Lincoln College, Bishops Barlow and Tanner, Drs. Godwin and Rawlinson, Browne Willis (the two latter to a great amount in coins, seals, &c.) Antony Wood, &c. These donations, with several collections purchased by the University from Drs. Huntington and Pocock, Mr. Greaves, &c. have made it one of the largest libraries in Europe. information. But on the death of that minister he In consequence of the inadequacy of the apartment to so' many generous and magnificent accumulations, Sir Thomas Bodley (for he had received from King James, upon his accession, the doubtful honour of knighthood) offered to make considerable additions to it; and on the nineteenth of July, 1610, he laid the first stone of the new foundation. He did not, indeed, live to see the structure completed; but he had the satisfaction to learn, that it was intended immediately afterward to enlarge the plan of the whole edifice, and in the end to form a regular quadrangle: and as he knew that his own fortune was inadequate to this great work, he engaged several persons of rank and fortune to forward it by large presents to the University, beside bequeathing to it his whole estate. He, likewise, drew up some excellent statutes for the regulation of the library, which seems to have been the last act of his life. He died January 28, 1612-13, and was buried in the chapel of Merton College, where a handsome monument was erected to his memory: a bust likewise," carved to the life by an excellent hand at London," was placed in a niche in the south wall of the library, at the expense of the Earl of Dorset Chancellor of the University, with the following inscription; THOMAS SACKVILLUS DORSET. COMES SUMMUS ANGLIÆ THESAURAR. ET And a speech is still annually delivered, at Oxford, in his praise. In 1613 also a 'Luctus, or collection of Funereal Verses, was consecrated to his honour under the title of Justa Funebria Ptolemai Oxoniensis, Thoma Bodleit Equitis Aurati, celebrata in Academia Oxoniensi, Mensis Martii 29, 1613, 4to.' Of these, one was composed by Laud, afterward Archbishop of Canterbury; three came from the pen of Burton, author of the Anatomy of Melancholy;' and a fifth in Greek, by Isaac Casaubon, laid it aside, till he had finished his favourite work the 'Britannia;' after which, receiving fresh materials from his friend Sir Thomas Bodley, he in 1615 with a great accession of reputation published the Annals as far as he had proceeded. In 1617, he had brought them down, in a second part, to the death of Elizabeth; but apprehending that there were some passages in this continuation, which might not be well was written in the very library founded by his illustrious subject. The insertion of the first may gratify the classical reader. Si sint vivaces hominum monumenta libelli, Quàm fama, Bodleie, tuæ monumenta supersunt Ergo mortalis quod vitæ fata negârunt, Quam dignus fueras non potuisse mori. GUIL, LAUD, Sac. Theol. Doct. et Coll. Johan. Præses. IMITATED. If, Bodley, 'tis by books lost talents live, Nor fits it, thou in common dust should'st fade, And many a race yet future shall relate, How worthy Thou to' have 'scaped the universal fate. F. W. received by the court, he would not suffer it to appear so long as he lived.* Being now grown old and infirm, he resolved to devote part of his fortune to the encouragement of that branch of literature, by which he himself had attained distinction and opulence. With this view, in 1622 he founded a professorship of history † in the University of Oxford with a salary of 1401. per ann., arising out of his manor of Bexley in Kent; and having nominated Mr. Degory Wheare, who had distinguished himself by his historical knowledge, to be his first Professor, it seemed as if the business of his life had been completed: for on the eighteenth of August 1623, as he was sitting in his study, he suddenly lost the use of his hands and feet, and fell upon the floor. From this accident, however, he received no apparent hurt; he even recovered the use of his limbs: but the disorder terminated in a fever, of which he died, November 9, at his house at Chislehurst. * The first edition of the supplementary matter was published at Leyden, in 8vo., in 1625: and the first edition of the Annals complete, in folio, at London in 1627. It has been republished by Hearne, with many useful additions, and is one of the best historical productions of the moderns. The lecturer, as we learn from a MS. of his in the Bodleian Library, was to "read a civil history, and therein make such observations as might be most useful and profitable for the younger students in the University; to direct and instruct them in the knowledge and use of history, antiquity, and times past -not intermeddling with the history of the church, or controversies, farther than shall give light into those times which he shall then unfold, or that author which he then shall read, and that very briefly, &c." |