The death, early in 1643, of his friend and constant employer, David Melvill the bookseller, must have been a severe blow to Raban, and for the remaining years of his life his productions decreased rapidly in number. During these fifteen years he only printed some twenty books, in fact at the end of 1649 he gave up his office, and in January 1650 the town appointed James Brown as his successor. Raban must even then have been an old man, but he lived on for another nine years, dying at the end of 1658, and on 6 December he was buried in St. Nicholas Churchyard, at the West Dyke'. Whether Raban left any family is not known. Perhaps new discoveries may throw light on this and many other points. But there is one person of his name that is certainly deserving of mention, the Edward Raban who printed in France in the second half of the seventeenth century.

In 1656, two years before the Aberdeen printer's death, a little octavo book of twenty-four pages entitled Les Antiquitez de la ville et cité d'Orange was issued at Orange. In the Council book of that city under the date 30 January 1656 is a note setting forth that the Council has granted the sum of 36 livres to the Sieur Raban, printer of that town, as a recompense for a little book which he has printed about the antiquities of the said town, and which he has dedicated to the members of the town council, and has also presented certain copies to be deposited in the archives and given one to each town councillor.

Beyond this book I have so far found no mention of any other by this printer. He printed two editions of it at Nîmes in 1660 and 1662, and returning to Orange issued other editions in 1673. 1674, 1676, 1678, and 1681.

The British Museum has copies of three editions, the first, published at Orange in 1656, one published at Nîmes in 1660, and the third at Orange again in 1673.

Brunet in his description of the first edition enters it under

'Raban (Edouard) Ecossais', and I have always been anxious to know whether he derived Ecossais' from the title of the book or added it himself under the impression that this printer was identical with the Aberdeen one. The British Museum copy of this first edition unfortunately wants the title, so that we are still left in doubt. There is, however, no reference to Ecossais' either in the dedication or in any other part of the book, nor is it upon the title-page of the later editions. On the whole, therefore, it seems probable that it is an addition by Brunet, though he makes no mention of printing in Aberdeen which one would have expected.

The Christian name Edward was at that time a very uncommon one on the Continent, though common in England. Altogether it looks as though this printer might have some connexion with his namesake. There appears to have been a French family of Raban, for I possess a book with the autograph inscription Ex libris Petri Raban Veromandui, acolythi suessionensis', showing that this Peter Raban then resident at Soissons was a native of St. Quentin on the Somme.

WORCESTER CATHEDRAL LIBRARY

FROM THE REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN

CANON J. M. WILSON

TO THE DEAN AND CHAPTER, 19 Nov. 1921

AM disposed, in this which may well be my last Librarian's Report, to give a somewhat fuller account than usual of the opportunities for research which this Cathedral Library offers. I hope that it I hope that it may interest both present and future members of our Cathedral body. Our library possesses four documents or groups of documents, almost unique, and of the highest interest to students of history.

I. The Early Worcester Manuscripts. These are preserved in one of our showcases. They have been magnificently edited by Professor C. H. Turner at the cost of the University of Oxford. His preface at least should be read. These 'MS. fragments', he writes, are of an antiquity so remote 'that perhaps no other Cathedral Library, save only Durham, 'could produce their match.' They furnish almost the only surviving proof of the learning in the Church of England in pre-Danish days of which King Alfred speaks. Professor Turner's Introduction and Appendices show their value in other ways. His work is a splendid illustration of the intimate connexion between paleography and history'.

II. F. 24, Vacarii Commentarius in Justiniani Codicem. This is a manuscript of extreme rarity. Vacarius lectured at Oxford on Roman law about the year 1149' (Lib. Cat. by Floyer & Hamilton). He was silenced by King Stephen, and his works were destroyed as far as possible. This book, F. 24, has been lent since 26 November 1912 to Professor F. de Zulueta, Fellow of New College, and placed in the Bodleian

for his use. On 2 October 1921 Professor Zulueta asks for a further extension. He writes: "I have in the last few 'months made very considerable progress, and I really think 'I shall have completed it in a year from now. At least I hope so. I had an Avranches MS. of the same work lent 'for a few months last year. This delayed me a good deal, 'but also threw a good deal of light on the matter. I hope to 'send you my article in a few weeks. . . . It is my chief work 'outside my official duties; and I think it is one which for 'the credit of English Scholarship should be done. There is a curious verse at the end of the work.

"Qui hunc literam scripsit a domino sit benedictus Baldwinus, talis nunquam vidi ego nec equalis." 'I suppose two worse hexameters were never penned. 'We date the MS. about 1200.'

The importance of this work may be learned from Vinogradoff's Roman Law in Mediaeval Europe (see p. 52). I have placed in the library this volume presented to me by the author (4.8.13). The doctrinal influence of Vacarius left a deep trace in Oxford where students of law came to be styled pauperista, because their principal text book was his 'Liber Pauperum', a compilation arranged for students who had not the means to acquire costly books.

III. F. 160, the Antiphonale Monasticum Wigorniense. This is now likely soon to be published in facsimile by the Abbey of Solesme, with an Introduction by Dame Laurentia Maclachlan of Stanbrook Abbey. I quote here from the announcement of the publication. This MS. is of unique 'interest not only from the fact that it is the only complete English Benedictine Antiphonar now known, and contains ' a rich mine of hitherto inaccessible material for the history ' of the Monastic Office and its accompanying chant, but 'also on account of its deriving from the Worcester Com'munity. At the Norman Conquest, as is well known, con

siderable ritual changes were made in the English Cathedrals ' and greater Abbey Churches, with a view to bringing their practice into accord with the observances with which the conquerors had been familiar on the Continent. Such changes were extended also to the Chant, and the diffi'culties at Glastonbury on this score are well known. Now, "while almost all the English Churches fell into the hands of Bishops and Abbots of, Norman extraction, Worcester 'formed a singular exception. The Community there seems ' also to have remained almost entirely English, and although a Norman (Sampson, a Canon of Bayeux) succeeded 'St. Wulstan, he seems, from a Pontifical used by him, and now preserved at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, to 'have followed the English observances as practised before the Conquest. . . . It may be added that the rubrics of the Antiphonar embody a Customary which is of exceptional 'interest as representing the rites and manners of a Cathedral Monastery.' The manuscript was compiled soon after

A. D. 1218.

IV. The Liber Albus, the letter book of the Priors of Worcester from 1301 to 1446, of which the first third has been prepared for publication by myself in two forms:_(1) the volume for 1919 of the Worcester Historical Society Transactions, and (2) in a volume of selections published by the S.P.C.K. I do not attempt to describe the work here. But I have placed in the Library (Add. MSS. 142) such reviews of the latter work as have been sent me, and they will show the value which antiquaries and historians attach to this record. I will quote a few words from the Literary Supplement of The Times, July 1920: The Liber Albus as now placed before us proves to be a rich treasure house of 'mediaeval monastic lore.' The Guardian writes: 'Now 'that the character of the collection, hitherto misrepresented, 'has been made clear, it is probable that many students of