Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A.D. 1598-A.D. 1867: With a Preliminary Notice of the earlier Library founded in the Fourteenth CenturyMacray, William Dunn
History
Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A.D. 1598-A.D. 1867: With a Preliminary Notice of the earlier Library founded in the Fourteenth Century
Macray, William Dunn
Bodleian Library
The collection is accompanied by a handsomely printed Catalogue,
compiled by Mrs. Sutherland, and published in 1837 in three volumes
quarto, two containing the portraits, and one the topography[334]. A
Supplement to this was printed in the following year, in the preface to
which Mrs. Sutherland records her transfer of the collection. She adds
that 'the University of Oxford, by the manner in which it has received
the collection, has afforded her the high gratification of witnessing
the fulfilment, in their utmost extent, of the wishes of its founder;
and in the liberal step which its future conservators have taken, to
insure a direct and easy means of reference to the prints, she finds
proof of their intention to comply with her own earnest desire, that the
books should be as freely open to those really interested in them as may
be consistent with their safe preservation. Under the superintendence of
the compiler, but at the expense of the University, a copy of the
Catalogue has been prepared, in which every print is marked with the
page which it respectively fills in the volumes; by means of this, every
difficulty of reference, and every doubt as to the print intended to be
described, is obviated, and the manuscript indices will be preserved
from the injury of constant use. In order to prevent the possibility of
disappointment in referring from this marked catalogue, every print
(with four exceptions only) of which the page has not been ascertained,
has been struck out, although probably several of the portraits not at
present found are still in the volumes.' The following letter of thanks
was addressed by Convocation to the donor[335]:--
'To Mrs. Sutherland, of Merrow, in the County of Surrey.
'MADAM,--We, the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University
of Oxford, feel ourselves called upon to acknowledge, in a public
and formal manner, the splendid donation recently made by you to our
Bodleian Library.
'It is doubtless a source of much gratification to us that our
University should have been selected by you as the fittest
depository of so valuable a collection; but we are not, on that
account, less disposed to appreciate and admire the feeling which
has led you to make so considerable a sacrifice, and to relinquish
the possession of what has been to you, for many years, an object of
constant interest and occupation.
'We shall prize the matchless volumes about to be committed to our
care, not merely as being embellished with the richest specimens of
the graphic art, but as possessing a real historical character; as
enhancing, in no slight degree, the value of works which we have
long been accustomed to regard as most important contributions to
the annals and literature of our Country.
'Given at our House of Convocation, under our Common Seal, this
first day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and thirty-seven[336].'
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