A.D. 1818
A return was made to the House of Commons of such books received since 1814, in pursuance of the Copyright Act, from Stationers’ Hall, as it had not been deemed necessary to place in the Library. The list is but a trifling one, consisting chiefly of school-books and anonymous novels, with music; but, nevertheless, it is sufficient to show the great need of caution in rejecting any books excepting such as are of the simplest elementary character, and the advantage of erring rather on the side of inclusiveness than exclusiveness. Miss Edgeworth’s Parents’ Assistant, Mrs. H. More’s Sacred Dramas, Mrs. Opie’s Simple Tales, and an edition of Ossian, were all consigned to the limbo of ‘rubbish.’ But the Cambridge Return (which is much more detailed than that from Oxford299) shows a recklessness of rejection which speaks little for the judgment of the Librarians for the time being. Besides school-books and music, a large number of pamphlets figure in the list, including some by Chalmers and Cobbett; the Theology includes Owen’s History of the Bible Society; the History includes Memoirs of Oliver Cromwell and his Children; the Poetry, Byron’s Siege of Corinth, L. Hunt’s Story of Rimini, and Wordsworth’s Thanksgiving Ode; and the Novels, [Peacock’s] Headlong Hall, one by Mrs. Opie, and—The Antiquary! The far wiser plan is now carried out in the Bodleian of rejecting nothing; even the elementary works that do not need entering in the Catalogue, are so kept that access can be had to them at all times and examination made; and the music is from time to time sorted and bound. And this plan was commenced in the year of which we are writing; for, (in consequence, of course, of this return being called for by the House of Commons,) the Curators ordered, on May 27, that all publications sent from Stationers’ Hall should in future be entered and preserved.
A very valuable and curious series of original editions of Latin and German tracts, issued by the German Reformers between 1518 and 1550, in eighty-four volumes, was bought for £95 15s. Additions have been made to this collection at various times subsequently, so that now it probably comprises as complete a gathering of these controversial publications, so easily lost or destroyed from their small extent and often ephemeral character, as can anywhere be found. A kindred collection (although not of like value or interest) was obtained through the gift by Mr. A. Müller, a well-known bookseller at Amsterdam, of a series of tracts, in sixty-two volumes, and chiefly in the Dutch language, on the controversy with the Remonstrants in 1618-19. A MS. Catalogue, by Mr. Müller, dated March 3, is kept in the Librarian’s study. Besides the books, Mr. Müller gave a few coins, including one struck on leather during the siege of Leyden in 1574, and some natural curiosities, which latter are now preserved in the New Museum. A black negro baby, preserved in spirits (!) has, however, unaccountably disappeared; let us hope it was decently buried. Seventeen panes of painted glass, probably by disciples of Crabeth, who painted the windows in the Church of Gouda, also formed part of this very miscellaneous donation; these, most probably, are included among the curious fragments which decorate some of the Library windows.
Six Persian MSS. were given by the late venerable Principal of Magdalen Hall, and Lord Almoner’s Reader in Arabic, Dr. Macbride. The signature of this gentleman, who has only been removed by death while these sheets have been passing through the press, occurs in the Admission-book of the last century, as having been admitted to read in the Library, while still an undergraduate of Exeter College, on May 10, 1797.
Alderman Fletcher’s illustrated copy of Gulch’s Wood. See under 1610.
Mr. John Walker, Queen’s College (B.A. 1820; Chaplain of New College, M.A., 1823), succeeded Mr. Fenton as minister in July.
Notes
299 The minuteness of specification is such that ‘Turner’s Real Japan Blacking, a Label’ is duly entered.