A.D. 1690
Thirty pounds were paid in this year to Antony à Wood for twenty-five MSS. out of his library146. These are volumes of great value, including Chartularies of the Abbeys of Glastonbury and Malmesbury, and of the Preceptory of Sandford, Oxon, copies of Papal bulls relating to England, a register of lands in Leicestershire temp. Hen. VI, &c.
The rest of Wood’s MSS., and printed books, came to the Library, together with the other collections preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, in 1860.
It is said that Wood in this year estimated the number of MSS. in the Library at 10,141. This must have been the number of separate books, not volumes, as in 1697 the latter appear from Bernard’s Catalogue to have been about 6700.
Notes
146 In Bernard’s Catalogue the purchase is said to have been made in 1692, but this is an error, as it is entered in the accounts of 1690.