A.D. 1602
The largest pecuniary donor of this year was Blount, Lord Mountjoy (afterwards Earl of Devon), who forwarded £100 to Sir T. Bodley from Waterford; which were expended upon books in most classes of literature, including music. Among various gifts of MSS. were some Russian volumes from Lancelot Browne, M.D., and (together with Persian, Finnish, &c.) from Sir Rich. Lee, ambassador in Muscovy. Lord Cobham gave £50 in money, with the promise of ‘divers MSS. out of St. Augustin’s library in Canterbury35.’ ‘Biblia Latina pulcherrima,’ 2 vols. fol. was given by George Rives, Warden of New College. This is probably a huge and magnificent specimen of twelfth-century work, now numbered Auctarium, E. infra, 1, 236. But the year was specially marked by the donation of 47 MSS. (including some early English volumes) from Walter (afterwards Sir Walter) Cope; and above all, by the gift, from the Dean and Chapter of Exeter to their fellow-countryman Bodley, of 81 Latin MSS. from their Chapter Library. By what right they thus alienated their corporate property no one probably cared to enquire; but, from the tokens of neglect still visible upon the books, we may conclude that only by this alienation were they in all likelihood saved from ultimate destruction: for they nearly all bear more or less sign of having been exposed to great damp, which in several instances has well-nigh destroyed the initial and final leaves. Most of them are beautiful specimens of early penmanship, ranging chiefly from the eleventh century to the thirteenth; and amongst them is that precious relic of English Church offices, the Service-book given to Exeter Cathedral by Bishop Leofric in the reign of Edward Conf., described in the ‘Registrum Benefactorum’ simply as ‘Missale antiquissimum.’ This is happily perfect; in size a small and thick quarto volume, written on very stout vellum, and containing 377 leaves. Four other volumes (possibly more) were also gifts of Leofric to his Church; they are now numbered Auct. D. II. 16 (the four Gospels), Auct. F. I. 15 (Boethius and Persius), Auct. F. III. 6 (Prudentius), and Bodley MS. 708 (Gregory’s Pastorale.) They each contain an inscription in Latin and Anglo-Saxon, varying in expression, but all to the following effect (as in the last-mentioned volume): ‘Hunc librum dat Leofricus episcopus ecclesiæ Sancti Petri Apostoli in Exonia ad sedem suam episcopalem, pro remedio animæ suæ, ad utilitatem successorum suorum. Siquis autem illum inde abstulerit, perpetuæ maledictioni subjaceat. Fiat. Ðas boc gef leofric ƀ. into Scē petres minstre on exancestre þær his biscopstol is. his æfterfiligendū to nittweorðnisse. [&] gif hig hwa ut ætbrede hæbbe he ece geniðerunge mid eallū deoflum. Ām̄.’ To the MS. of the Gospels are prefixed very curious lists in Anglo-Saxon of the lands, vestments, books, &c., given by Leofric to his Church, and of relics given by King Athelstan (of which another copy is preserved in the Missal); these lists are printed in the Monasticon, and the titles of the books are given in Wanley’s Catalogue (p. 80).
The Library being now supplied with upwards of 2000 volumes, it was solemnly opened on Nov. 8 (the day appointed for the annual visitation,) by the Vice-Chancellor, with a procession of doctors and delegates. Meeting them at the door of the room, the Librarian hastily extemporized a short speech in honour of the occasion, ‘in qua,’ as the University Register records, ‘tribus ferme versibus amplexus est omnia.’
Notes
35 Reliquiæ Bodl. p. 92.
36 See ibid. pp. 137 and 219.