A.D. 1686
Fell, Bishop of Oxford, who died July 10, bequeathed a few MSS. They consist of an early and curious collection of Vitæ Sanctorum in four folio volumes, of a transcript (in nine folio volumes) of a Glossarium Septentrionale by Francis Junius, Dionysius Syrus in Latin by Dudley Loftus, and two Greek MSS., Damascius and Euthymius Zigabenus, described at the end (col. 907) of Mr. Coxe’s Catalogue of the Greek MSS. One other MS. has somehow been incorporated in this collection (now numbered 21-23) which does not belong to it. It is a Clavis Linguæ Sanctæ, or explanation of all the Hebrew, and some Chaldee, roots, found in the Old Testament, by Nicholas Trott, in three folio volumes, written with great care and neatness. This, of which the first part had been printed at Oxford in 1719, was sent to the Library in 1746, as appears from the following letter, preserved (without address) in a parcel of papers relating to the Library, now in the Librarian’s study:—
‘My Lord,
‘My wife’s grandfather Judge Trott, cheif justice of South Carolina, desired on his death bed that his forty years’ labour relating to the Hebrew root might be sent as a present to the Publick Library at Oxford. I proposed to have carried it, but my time has allways been taken up at a disagreable series of Court Martials, and now I am again going to the West Indies. That I must beg your Lordship will order or give it a conveyance to the University, and I am, with great respect, my Lord,
‘Your Lordship’s most humble servant,
‘THOS. FRANKLAND.
‘23 Nov., 1746.
It appears, however, from the accounts, &c., that the MS. was not actually delivered until 1748 or 1749, when it was received through Dr. Hunt.
A few of Bishop Fell’s MSS. came subsequently to the Library among those of Rev. Henry Jones144, who succeeded Fell in his rectory of Sunningwell, Berks, in the church of which parish the Bishop’s wife was buried.
At the Visitation on Nov. 8, it was ordered that notice be given that ‘Nullus in posterum quemlibet librum aut volumen extra Bibliothecam asportet,’ and that monition be sent to every College and Hall for the return of any books taken out within three days. Several books appear to have been reported in previous years as missing; hence, doubtless, the issue of this order.
Notes
144 Hearne’s pref. to John Ross, p. 1.