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
Six volumes of Archbishop Usher's _Collectanea_, with two or three other
MSS. which had belonged to him, were given to the Library by James
Tyrrell, the historian, who was the archbishop's grandson. He had placed
them previously in the hands of Dr. Mill, for use by him in his edition
of the Greek Test., and it was about a week before Mill's death, June
21, 1707, that they were transferred, together with a gift from Mill of
various printed books, to the Library[167]. They are now placed among
the Rawlinson Miscellaneous MSS., 1065-1074, and one volume containing
various readings in the Gr. Test., is numbered Auct. T. v. 30. Other
volumes of his MSS. Collections in the Library are Barlow, 10 and 13; _e
Musæo_, 46 and 47; Rawl. Misc. 225, 280; Rawl. Letters, 89, and
Rawlinson C. 849, 850, which last were given to Hearne by Tyrrell.
Hearne has printed some extracts at the end of _Gul. Neubrig._ iii. 804.
Six Samaritan and other MSS. which belonged to Usher are now in the
class called _Bodl. Orient._
By the bequest of Dr. Humphrey Hody the Library acquired some 400 or 500
volumes, being all those in his own collection which were wanting here,
together with his MSS. _Collectanea_. These last, amounting to
twenty-three volumes, are now numbered Bodl. Addit. 1. D. 1-4, 2. B.
1-16, 2. C. 1-3.
Thomas, Archbishop of Gocthan, in Armenia, visited England on an errand
which seems to have justly excited great sympathy and attention.
Sensible of the low condition of his fellow-countrymen, through their
want of means of instruction, and being earnestly anxious to do
something towards their elevation, he had spent some forty years in
travels through Europe and Asia for the purpose of procuring books,
establishing printing-presses, educating young men, and obtaining help
for the furtherance of his Christian and patriotic projects. His first
printing establishment, at Marseilles, was ruined by the mismanagement
and fraud of those to whom it was entrusted. He then, for ten years,
carried on a press at Amsterdam, where he printed, in Armenian, the New
Testament, the Prayers and Hymns of the Church, a translation of Thomas
à Kempis, and several other theological works, together with some in
geography, history, and science. But troubles and trials again overtook
him; disputes and law-suits involved him in debt; one hundred books,
which he shipped for Armenia in 1698, were taken at sea, and so never
reached their destination. And so, poor and sorrowful, in extreme old
age, the Archbishop came to England to seek for help, recommended by Dr.
John Cockburn, the English Minister at Amsterdam. He was well received
by the Archbishops, and Sharp, of York, procured him an interview with
the Queen, who gave him some assistance. Then, recommended by Bishop
Compton[168], of London, he came to Oxford. What he received in the way
of the help which he most of all needed, deponent sayeth not; let us
hope it was not small. What he received in the way of honour, and what
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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