A.D. 1662
A legacy of £50 was paid which had been bequeathed some time previously by Alex. Ross, now-a-days best known as the Ross of Hudibrastic memory. It is singular that a copy of the old printed quarto catalogue of the Library was amongst the books purchased with this gift; which shows that, within forty years after publication, it had become scarce even in the Library itself.
Five Arabic and eight Chinese MSS. were given by William Thurston, a London merchant. By a mistaken arrangement of various other small gifts, Thurston now passes as the donor of forty Arabic, Persian, and Syriac MSS., instead of five. Several of these, at present all numbered alike as Thurston MSS., were given in 1684 by Jos. Taylor, LL.D., of St. John’s College, one by Crewe, Bishop of Durham, in 1680, one by Benj. Polsted, a London African merchant, in 1678, one by Charles Robson, B.D., Queen’s College, about 1630, and one is an Armenian poem of thanks for benefits received from the University, presented by the author, Jac. de Gregoriis, an Armenian priest, in 1674. One other volume (a mathematical MS. bought at Constantinople, by Const. Ravius, in 1641) was at one time, as it appears, abstracted from the Library, and was restored by means of Dr. Marshall, who, after the words ‘Liber Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ Oxon.’ has added the following note: ‘quem ex Ratelbandi cujusdam bibliopolæ officina libraria, prope novum templum Amstelodami, redimendum pretio persoluto curavit Tho. Mareschallus, e Collegio Lincolniensi apud Oxonienses.’
The first statutory obligation upon the Stationers’ Company to deliver a copy of each book printed by them to this Library, together with that of Cambridge and the Royal Library, was imposed by the act of 14 Chas. II. c. 33, for two years, which was renewed from time to time until the passing of the Copyright Act of 8 Q. Anne.