teenth-century, are volumes which the veriest tyro would know if he by chance should come across them in his rambles. Nobody, for instance, would have any doubt concerning the value of a copy of the first edition of Defoe's 'Robinson Crusoe,' issued in 1719. Some years ago a well-known collector picked up a copy of the famous first edition. He only paid thirteen guineas for it, but when it came under the hammer in 1902 the auctioneer had no difficulty in finding a bidder who was willing to pay £206 for it. (a.) The 1488 edition of Homer's works has realised over £200, but the copy in the British Museum was picked up by its whilom owner for seven shillings; and a copy of Burns's poems, sold in 1898 for 545 guineas, cost £8 in 1870. A copy of that rare little work Watt's 'Divine Songs,' published in 1715, picked up in 1901 for £1, immediately re-sold for £25, and when sent to Sotheby's auction rooms in the following year realised £155. (b.) This copy is now in Mr. Pierpont Morgan's library. One of Charles Lamb's works is of exceptional rarity. It is a small sixteen-page illustrated pamphlet, entitled 'The King and Queen of Hearts,' and was issued in 1809. It cost 1s. plain; 1s. 6d. coloured. An astute collector discovered a copy in a parcel of worthless books at a London auction, which he acquired for 15s. A year later he sold the precious little pamphlet for £222. (c.) Which books to look for is the question to which most would-be collectors require an answer. Most of the first editions of the nineteenth-century poets, especially Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth and Byron, are now much sought after, and may be said to be literally worth many times their weight in gold. Shelley's first work, ' Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire,' published anonymously in 1810, has realised as much as £600 (d.), and large sums have been paid for the first editions of the same author's Queen Mab,' Zastrozzi,' Alastor,' and 'Laon and Cythna.' Keats' 'Endymion,' 1818, is worth over £130, and his Poems,' 1817, are worth even more, a copy having sold for £177 in 1902. (e.) Browning and Tennyson, too, are among the poets whose early works are of great value. £300 has been realised for the former's Pauline,' published anonymously in 1833; and Tennyson's Poems by Two Brothers,' a work the famous Poet Laureate wrote in collaboration with his brother Charles, is exceedingly valuable, owing to its limited issue. Other books you should not hesitate to pick up are Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress,' a copy of which brought £1,475 a few years ago (f); Walton's 'Complete Angler" the Fisherman's Classic (it is worth £200); the first edition of Gulliver's Travels'; Fitzgerald's famous translation of Omar Khayyam, 1859; Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair,' 1848, and Scott's Waverley,' 1814, if in the state of issue, will always realise large sums. J. H.Y. (a) Col. Hibbert's sale, at Sotheby's, April 9, 1902. Lot 234 Lot 736 (d) See B.A.R. vol. 1, Part 2, page 394 (e) See B.A.R. vol. 1, Part 1, page 221. It was, however, a presentation copy from Keats to B. R. Haydon (f) At Sotheby's, May 6, 1901. Lot 900 Since the above article has been in type a more recent instance of the extraordinary good fortune which at times falls into the lap of the book-hunter has presented itself. On page 393 of this volume is the record of a copy of the first edition of Dickens's 'Christmas Carol' which had been presented by the author to Sergeant Talfourd (to whom Pickwick was dedicated), and it sold at Hodgson's on May 29th for £71. It is within my knowledge that the owner, a few months ago, picked it up on a stall for twopence. During the production of volume 9 the articles upon libraries will be suspended in consequence of the inclusion of an article entitled Bibliotheca Imperfecta, by Mr. A. R. Corns, Librarian of the Lincoln Public Library. The article is of such length that it will appear in sections, occupying the preliminary pages of the four Parts of the volume. The author says "I think the list will be useful for reference, for it deals with a subject that has not been dealt with before," while Mr. Strickland Gibson, of the Bodleian Library, is of opinion that it should be "a valuable addition to bibliography." With volume 10 the articles respecting libraries will be resumed. I have once or twice been told that a book has appeared in B.A.R. under different headings. This is bound to occur occasionally, since no editor of such a publication can be omniscient. It is only one who has to select 15,000 records each year that can understand the impossibility of preventing such lapses. If there could be an Academy of Auction-Cataloguing which would lay down hard-andfast rules the variations would not occur, but until that Academy exists variations are sure to be from time to time perpetuated in these pages. An instance is passing through my hands as I write. In vol. VI. (page 373) is an entry of a set of plates entitled 'Matrimonial Ladder," by M. Egerton. Further, in the plates M. Egerton is disguised under the initials M.E. I rightly placed the set under the artist's full name. On April 5th, 1911, another set appears in a catalogue, under the heading "Coloured Plates," with no reference of any kind to the artist. So I have to try to remember that his name was Egerton. Another case in point is that of the Life of Cellini, translated by J. A. Symonds. As it is a translation the only right heading is "Cellini," but in nearly every case it appears in the salecatalogues under 'Symonds." Yet another case is that of the Dramas of Calderon, translated by Fitzgerald. This, also, is invariably catalogued under the name of "Fitzgerald," the reason being undoubtedly that both Symonds and Fitzgerald are "good sellers." In such cases the only safe course is to refer to both the name of the author and that of the translator when searching the Index. B.A.R. continues to make gratifying progress both in increase of circulation in far-off places and in appreciation of its usefulness, one subscriber in Australia writing that the publication had been "a veritable gold mine to him." F. K. BY STRICKLAND GIBSON BODLEIAN LIBRARY "What a place to be in is an old library! It seems as though XFORD, nestling as she does among the green hills of the Thames Valley, impresses most of her pilgrims by the beauty of her situation. And as from afar spires, pinnacles, and towers mingle with green fields and woods, so within do her libraries with her gardens. Bodley's Library is surrounded on its southern and western sides by the lawns of Exeter College, St. John's Library overlooks one of the most charming of Oxford flower-gardens, trees of every kind hedge about the Library of Wadham, Trinity College Library adjoins an ancient orchard, and the large window of Magdalen Library faces the deer-park and the walks which have become so intimately connected with the name of Addison. No turmoil surrounds the libraries of Oxford: the centuries have cast a spell of peace upon them. The visitor, however, will not find all the present repositories of books coeval with the collections they contain, and the historian of Oxford libraries has often to write of buildings and, alas! of books long since swept away. The history of Exeter Library does not begin with the building erected by Sir Gilbert Scott in 1855, but with a small thatched house built five hundred years earlier. The annals of the Bodleian begin not with Sir Thomas Bodley in 1598, but with Bishop Cobham, who bequeathed his books to the University nearly three hundred years before: one hundred and fifty years later those books were transferred to Duke Humfrey's Library, which, after having been despoiled, was restored and re-furnished by the munificent benefactor whose name the University Library bears to-day. In those Colleges which have built new libraries, the old library will oftentimes be found converted to domestic uses, as, occasionally in France, churches are transformed into shops and warehouses. The beautiful original library of All Souls is now a lecture-room, the 17th century library of University College has been converted into rooms for undergraduates, and that of Lincoln is now tenanted by a College official. Some, on the other hand, have been entirely demolished as were the original libraries of Queen's and Jesus. Others, while retaining their chief original characteristics, have been re-furnished, as those of Balliol and Magdalen. It should be remembered that the University of Oxford was originally an ecclesiastical body. The terminology of its early statutes and legal procedure is not of secular but of canon law. The University was from the beginning of the 13th century until the middle of the fourteenth, that is during the most important years of its development, immediately under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Lincoln, and its Chancellor was always a cleric. In these circumstances it is not surprising to find that the first books possessed by the University were housed in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin. Early in the 13th century Roger de Insula, dean of York, gave a copy of the Bible in four parts; not for church purposes, however, but with the express design that scholars might borrow it on sufficient security and correct their texts by it. As late as 1413 a copy of Nicholaus de Lyra's Commentary on the Bible was chained in the chancel of the Church, and the Chancellor and Proctors were deputed to inspect it yearly. The Church of St. Mary was in fact a kind of University Hall, and its sacred character did not prevent a Chancellor from summoning the taverners there, and compelling them to swear with their hands on the Holy Gospels that they would, in so far as their ability and human frailty allowed them, brew for the scholars good and wholesome beer. Probably no revolution resulting from the introduction of machinery has had so far-reaching an effect on the history of the world as that caused by the printingpress, which opened the gates of knowledge to all but the poorest. It is difficult for us to realize the value that attached to books in early times. Access to them was the privilege of the few. No Oxford student, for instance, was admitted to the first University Library who had not spent eight years in studying philosophy, which means that the books possessed by the University were reserved exclusively for its senior members-in short for the masters who were bound by statute to lecture to their juniors. Books were by no means essential to the younger students, who sometimes were no more than twelve years of age when they entered the University. They received instruction orally, and many had no more intimate acquaintance with books than might be obtained by carrying those of their teachers backwards and forwards to the lecture-rooms. The earliest University library about which we have any information is that connected with the name of Thomas Cobham, bishop of Worcester, who began, in 1320, to build a Convocation House adjoining St. Mary's Church. To this building he proposed to add an upper room, and to found a library for the use of the University at large. The good bishop died in 1327, leaving to the University the sum of 350 marks and an extensive collection of MSS. He also left such heavy debts that his executors had to pawn the books for a few pounds in order to pay his funeral expenses. The executors then approached Adam de Brome, in whose hands the Bishop had placed the superintendence of his building, and offered him the MSS. if he would redeem them. Adam de Brome, who had just founded his Hall of the Blessed Mary, now called Oriel College, gladly enough accepted their offer, and for the moderate sum of £50 he was enabled to fill the shelves of the library of his foundation, The University probably had to acquiesce for the moment, but their resentment smouldered, and at last broke into fierce flame under the Chancellorship of Robert de Stretford when the Regent Masters marched on Oriel Library, broke the lock from the door, and heaping opprobrious words on the Fellows, carried off the MSS. and placed them in the room which had been built to receive them twenty years before. Thirty years later we catch another glimpse of Cobham's library. The original agreement between the executors and the University had apparently been lying, more or less unknown to members of the University, in the New Chest. Congregation now decreed that the document should be copied into the registers of the Chancellor and Proctors. From it we find that the books were to be chained in the upper room, and that scholars should be allowed free access to them. Some of the MSS. were of more than ordinary value, and as the University by the agreement were compelled to provide a chaplain to take charge of the books, and to say masses for the soul of the pious donor, it had been arranged that a certain number of these more precious volumes should be sold for £40 from which an income of £3 a year might accrue to the chaplain. No details respecting the administration of the first University Library are recorded until 1412, when an elaborate code of statutes was promulgated. They provided that the Librarian, who was to be in holy orders, should once a year hand over to the Chancellor and Proctors the keys of the Library: if after visitation he was found to be fit in morals, fidelity, and ability he received them back. Should he desire to resign his office a month's notice was required. His salary was fixed at £5 a year, for which modest sum he not only took charge of the Library, but said masses for the souls of benefactors. He was, however, permitted to claim a robe from every beneficed scholar at graduation. There is a special clause stating that the Proctors should be bound to pay the Librarian's salary half-yearly for the curious, but very excellent reason, that if his pay was in arrears his care and efficiency might slacken. No one was admitted to read who had not studied in the schools for eight years, and bachelors had to attend in academical dress. Moreover, every reader had to subscribe to the following oath. "You shall swear when you enter the Library of the University, to treat in a reasonable and quiet manner all the books contained therein, and to injure no book maliciously, by erasing, or by detaching sections and leaves." The Library was to be open from 9 till 11 and from 2 till 4, except on Sundays and Saints' days; and lest too close attention to his duties might affect his health, the Librarian was to be allowed a month's holiday in the Long Vacation. Should a distinguished person visit the Library the hours of opening and closing might be extended from sunrise to sunset-a clause which might have made the Librarian's life intolerable if applied at Midsummer. Lastly, a board was to be suspended in the Library on which were to be recorded in a fair and elegant hand the names of the books with their donors' names, and all the books were to be closed at night and the windows fastened. These were the rules of the University Library 500 years ago, and some still survive. The University Librarian is still visited annually by the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors, undergraduates are required to wear academical dress in the Library, and the declaration made on admission is still couched in similar phraseology. The hours of opening are extended from four hours to six or eight according to the season, but the Library still opens at 9 a.m., an hour earlier than most large libraries; and Sir Thomas Bodley's Donation Registers, a board being inadequate, are to this day exhibited in the most public part of the Library to the end that posterity may be spurred, by the hint of examples, to the emulation of deeds so illustrious." And lastly, all books and windows are closed at night. About twenty-five years after the first statutes of the University Library had been promulgated, the princely and picturesque figure of Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, enters University history. In him was found a patron of such munificence that he ranks with Sir Thomas Bodley and Archbishop Laud among Oxford benefactors. His first great donation consisting of 129 MSS., valued at over a thousand pounds, was recevied in 1439. The University's letter of thanks, which in florid language compared the donor with Caesar, ended with a promise to celebrate a mass for the Duke's soul "tam in vita quam in morte." In saying that his gift would be a monument, not mortal or transitory, but eternal, the University endowed its rhetoric with more than usual truth, for although but half a dozen of his books remain in Oxford to-day, Duke Humfrey's name is for ever attached to the building, which at a later date housed his books, and which is still called his Library. And although the University can no longer, the Church having become the handmaid of the State, fulfil its obligation in praying for the Duke's soul, the name of Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, stands first in the bidding-prayer recited every term in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin. In 1444 a still larger donation of MSS. was received. The very titles of the books show that the darkness of the Middle Ages was dispersing before the sun of the Renaissance, which had arisen in all its splendour in Italy. Inscribed in the list are the names of Plato, Aristotle, Ovid, Livy, Cicero, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. The Greek authors were, however, in Latin translations, and the Italian authors only represented in their Latin works. One book, "Verba greca, et interpretaciones lingue latine," shows that the study of Greek was not then far off. But with the increase of books Cobham's Library became too small. Moreover, its situation, right in the heart of the University and within a few yards of the town's busiest thoroughfare, was none too peaceful. So the University, while thanking the Duke for his books, suggested that he should assist them to build a library above the Theological School, then approaching completion. As far back as 1423 the University had been collecting money to build this School, which proved more costly than had been anticipated. It remains to-day the finest room possessed by the University, and is chiefly remarkable for its extremely beautiful carved stone roof. The building, as originally designed,was to have been superlatively elaborate, but the execution involving too great an expenditure instructions were given to the stone-mason, Thomas Elkyn, to retrench on the undue elaboration of fillets, casements, and on "frivolis curiositatibus." To this beautiful building Duke Humfrey was invited to add another story, the University promising to call it by his name. The Duke responded liberally to the appeal, and in a letter of thanks sent by the University in 1447 is recorded what had been done to commemorate his benefactions. A fortnight later the Duke died. Thereupon follows a period of penury, and if Thomas Kempe, bishop of London, had not given a donation of a thousand marks it seems possible that the building of the Theological School and its upper room might have been indefinitely delayed. At length in 1489 the new library was finished, and after the books had been removed |