this, he made an agreement with the Stationers' Company in London to give one copy to the library of every book which they should print from thenceforward; which agreement they very well observed till about the year 1640. And lastly, by his will he left a considerable estate to the University, in land and money, for salaries to the officers for keeping his fabrick in repair, and buying new books: but this is now fallen miserably short; for by the fraud of his executor, by the loan of a great sum of money to Charles the First in his distress, and by the fire of London, the estate will do little more than pay the officers their old salary, though their trouble is much increased; which salary is too scanty and narrow for a man of eminent learning, as the present librarian is, and all who succeed him in that office ought to be.

Sir Thomas Bodley died January 28, 1612, after he had made fit statutes for the government of the place, and they had been confirmed in convocation; and he declared by the University to be the founder of the library; but with him the genius of the place did not seem to fall, since there are now more than double or treble the number of books in it than were there at the time of his death.

"For soon after, the Earl of Pembroke (through the persuasion of Archbishop Laud)

bought,

bought, and gave almost all that collection of Greek manuscripts which Francisco Baroccio, a Venetian gentleman, had with great costs and pains gathered together, esteemed the most valuable collection that ever came into England at one time: those which that peer kept for his own use, being about 22 in number, Oliver Cromwell afterwards bought, and gave. Sir Thomas Roe also, who was the English ambassador at Constantinople, at his return home, presented a choice parcel of Greek manuscripts which he bought in Turkey.

6

Sir Kenelm Digby also presented a great parcel of manuscripts newly bound, which he had from Mr. Allen above-mentioned, or otherwise procured in his travels. And all this while, Archbishop Laud had sent into the East to buy up Oriental manuscripts; as also into Germany; from whence many excellent manuscripts were gotten from the Swedish soldiers, who had ravaged the libraries there. And at his instigation the University built another room, contiguous to the end of Duke Humphrey's library, which makes it in the shape of a Roman H. This end of the library is truly a noble room, as well for the goodness of the wooden work as for the value of books it is furnished with. They are placed thus: on the gallery on the right hand are the Boroccian manuscripts, Digby's, Roe's, Cromwell's, and

up

those

those which were before dispersed over the library, but now gathered together, and marked N. E. In the gallery on the left hand are the manuscripts given by Archbishop Laud, at four or five donations: they are above 1300 in number, and written in above twenty languages; all these well bound, except those he gave at his last donation, which was in haste, by reason of the great troubles of those times. The remaining part of that new side of the library is mostly taken up with the excellent study of the learned John Selden, Esq. late of the Inner-Temple, London: though it is to be lamented that his whole library was not given by his executors according to his intention once; for the fire of the Temple destroyed in one of their chambers eight chests full of the registers of abbeys, and other manuscripts relating to the history of England; though most of his law books are still safe in Lincoln's-Inn.'

"It will be too tedious here to reckon up all the great benefactors to this place, though one more I will not pass by: Sir Thomas Fairfax, afterwards Lord Fairfax, the general to the parliament's forces, who, amongst other manuscripts, presented 160, written by the hand of Mr. Roger Dodsworth, and relating to our English history, as may be guessed by the first volume of the 'Monasticon, which was chiefly taken from them. These books stand in one of the new galleries

lately

lately set up in the middle part of the library; next to them on the right hand stands that noble parcel of Oriental manuscripts bought by the University of the late Dr. Huntington, who collected them in the East; and on the left hand stand the manuscripts of the Lord Hatton, and those which the University bought of Mr. Greaves; in the other gallery stand the Oriental manuscripts brought from the East by Dr. Pocock, and purchased by the University; together with two other parcels of books, written and printed, those of Dr. Marshall, late rector of Lincoln College, and those of Dr. Thomas Barlow, late Lord Bishop of Lincoln, who bequeathed to the library all such books of theirs, after their death, which were not in this library before. This method of giving to the library, since it is now become so large, is approved by many wise men; and there are some now living who have taken the same course.

"The world has had several printed catalogues of the books in the Bodleian library; that of the printed books, published by Dr. Hyde, was in the year 1674. Since which time there have come in so many thousands more, that a new catalogue is now composing by the learned Dr. Hudson, the present library-keeper, which will give the world full satisfaction in this point; and that as soon as may be. As to the manuscripts, an account of them was also published above twenty

years

years ago. Since which time, the University has bought all the manuscripts of the deceased Dr. Edward Bernard, with such of his printed books as were fit for their library.

Upon the whole, this library is much larger than that of any University in Europe; nay, it exceeds those of all the sovereigns in Europe, except the Emperor's and the French King's, which are both of them older by almost an hundred years. These, as the Vatican in Rome, the Medicean at Florence, and Bessarion's at Venice, exceed the Bodleian in Greek manuscripts, which yet outdoes them all in Oriental ones; and for printed books, no Italian library is so celebrated as the Ambrosian at Milan, though it is much inferior to the Bodleian, as is that likewise at Wolfenbuttle, both in manuscripts and printed books, though we should even allow the account given of it by Conringius. Besides the Bodleian, there be some others vested in the University, as the Savilian by the Geometry school, and Ashmolean by the Museum; both which are replenished with manuscripts proper to their places.

"The studious scholar has not only the advan tage of the above-mentioned libraries, but also the inspection of two collections of coins and medals; the one in the Museum, and the other in the galleries of the Bodleian library, which is the most considerable, and whereof great part was