A.D. 1633
A singular motto stamped upon the binding of two books, and it may be of more, within a border of cornucopiæ, &c., attracts the attention of the reader. The books are, vols. i. ii. of Du Chesne’s Historiæ Francorum Scriptores, 1636 (A. 2. 9. 10. Jur.), and Halloix’s Ecclesiæ Orientalis Scriptores, 1633 (G. 2. 3. Th.); the motto is, ‘Coronasti annum bonitatis Tuæ, Ps. 65. Annuo reditu quinque librarum Margaretæ Brooke.’ An explanation is found in an entry in the Benefaction-Register under the year 1632 or 1633, where we read as follows: ‘D. Margareta Brooke, vidua, quondam uxor Ducis Brooke, de Temple-Combe in comitatu Somerset, armigeri defuncti, donavit centum libras, quibus perquisitus est annuus reditus quinque librarum ad coemendos libros in usum bibliothecæ in perpetuum.’ Probably the books thus stamped were the first that were bought after the final settlement of the gift. The rent arises from land at Wick-Risington, in Gloucestershire, and the sum duly appears to this day in the annual accounts of the Library. In 1655, the then Librarian, Barlow, makes a memorandum in his accounts that the University had not paid over this rent for several years; in consequence of his calling attention to this neglect, the arrears were paid up in 1658. At the same time the rents of the houses in Distaff Lane were heavily in arrear.
A (second) gift from Sir Henry Wotton consisted of the copy of Tycho Brahe’s Astronomiæ instaurandæ mechanica, 1598, which the author gave to Grimani, Doge of Venice, containing several additional pages in MS. with two autograph epigrams; and also of a MS. of the Acta Concilii Constantiensis, which had formerly belonged to Card. Bembi, now numbered e Musæo, 25.