Falconer Madan

“ We may remember too that in the infancy of printing it was common to detect errors as the book went through the press, and often the printer himself corrected an error with his pen, as in the colophon of the Aegidius (see p. 1) . Or a reader would do the same. But it is believed that in no copy of the Jerome is there any attempt to correct or even throw suspicion on the date. There is the date, plain and detailed, and it is allowable to wait for scientific proof before it is abandoned. A priori considerations have force, but they are liable to sudden overthrow. ”

“ He was buried in Peterborough Cathedal, and his tomb bears the well-known lines:
In sacred sleep the pious bishop lies:
Say not in death—a good man never dies.
Madan was distinguished from his Cambridge days to the end of his life by simple and even austere habits. It was his custom to rise early and light his own fire, in order to pursue the study of the Scriptures in the original Hebrew and Greek, before the general work of the day began. ”

“ Every characteristic of a living person or nation, the stock of ideas and ideals by which they live, their very habits and daily life, all have roots deep in the past. If this truth is grasped—and it is not less true because it can be clearly and shortly stated—libraries are seen at once to be a necessary adjunct to all education and all civilization. Carlyle saw this when he wrote with characteristic exaggeration that the Modern University is a Library of Books. ”

“ In 1620 a new catalogue of the Library was published by Bodley’s Librarian, Dr. Thomas James, which is in the form to which we are all accustomed—that is to say it is an Author-catalogue, arranged by authors’ names in alphabetical order. English literature is still quite a subordinate feature in it, owing to the Founder’s principles; and under Shakespeare’s name no single entry is to be found. Another curious feature is that no English translations of Latin or Greek or even French or Italian books are allowed to appear. Those who knew no Greek or Latin, and needed “cribs” were not welcomed. ”

“ Though it is true that money was advanced in 1585 by the Earl of Leicester, Chancellor of the University, to set up Joseph Barnes with a new press, and that the charter of privileges in 1632 gave the University direct control of the printing, there are as yet few signs of actual academical patronage or interference, and the failures and successes of the printers and publishers, which can be traced in detail in Appendixes C viiand F, are the ordinary fluctuations of trade. Nor can the Oxford press at this time claim much connexion with the greater world of the English Court or Church. ”

“ These two kinds are typical, and fall apart, as will be seen, by the application of a simple test.
The first public literary need of a district is a library of the latter type, one in which it is more important that the books should be in general use by lending and by free access to the shelves, than that they should be invested with a fictitious importance and too jealously guarded. This is the way to fan the faint sparks of literary instinct, and is still the common condition of most villages and even towns. ”

“ Owing to his new methodist views he had difficulty in obtaining ordination, but Lady Huntingdon's personal efforts on his behalf were successful. Some curiosity was aroused in London to hear the ‘lawyer turned divine,’ even at his first sermon, preached at Allhallows, Lombard Street, 1750; and when appointed chaplain to the Lock Hospital, near Hyde Park Corner, his preaching, which at first took place in the parlour of the institution, rapidly acquired such reputation that a new chapel was built for him in the hospital, and opened on 28 March 1762. ”

“ It is peculiar that whereas theology claimed a fair proportion of the first press, it is entirely absent from the second; grammar, logic, arithmetic, natural science, and the Ethics of Aristotle being alone represented, except that one broadside consists of a Prognostication, which Dorne’s lists in 1520 show to have been a popular form of literature in Oxford at that time. ”

“ The Library was open on all weekdays from 8 to 11 a.m., except when there was a University Sermon or other service, and in the afternoons from 2-5 from Easter to Michaelmas, or 1-4 from Michaelmas to Easter. All Doctors, Masters and Bachelors could claim the right of reading, except that Bachelors of Arts must be of two years standing. All others had to take an oath at entry, and if not benefactors or highborn, and especially if foreigners, had to obtain a decree in their favour in Congregation. Lending out books was absolutely forbidden. ”

“ On the contrary, the first three Oxford books are printed with the same type, with similar signatures, with the same sized page and the same number of lines in a column. “In fact,” says Blades in the Antiquary, vol. iii, no. 13, Jan. 1881, in an article on The First Printing Press at Oxford, “if a leaf of one was extracted and inserted in another it would, typographically, excite no remark.” Natura nihil facit per saltum, and we are accustomed to apply the idea of evolution and development to every art and trade. ”

“ Classical students are at no loss for guides, [28] and it is open to all others simply to take a book or edition of repute, and study its methods, the enumeration of MSS., the grouping of them, and the principles of text-construction and criticism. But at every step they need a large library, and the Bodleian combines the advantages usually only found in a great city with the amenity and surroundings of a country town. ”

“ So that at Oxford Printing was first set up in England, which was before there was any Printing-Press, or Printer, in France, Spain, Italy, or Germany, (except the City of Mentz) which claimes Seniority, as to Printing, even of Harlein it self, calling her City, Urbem Maguntinam Artis Tipographicæ Inventricem primam, though ’tis known to be otherwise, that City gaining that Art by the Brother of one of the Workmen of Harlein, who had learnt it at Home of his Brother, and after set up for himself at Mentz. ”

“ But wherever literature has taken a long and firm hold there is a desire for a public library of another kind. By this time private libraries abound, and every serious student surrounds himself with the ordinary books on his special subject. And the public library shares in this general elevation of the personal standard; it [11] becomes a necessary complement to individual effort. ”

“ See 1638 R. This is a curious example of three parts of a volume being entirely independent of each other, there being no general titlepage, but yet being indissolubly welded together by the signatures, so that no part could be issued separately. The first edition seems to have been issued in 1587, the 4th at London in 1619. The plan of the work is to assign a motto to every emperor, and then to discuss the motto and character of the person together: so that in effect the book is largely a discussion of proverbs of the nature of Erasmus’s Adagia. ”

“ They were like the Egyptians in the Red Sea. As none escaped, the whole train must have been on the sands; the ghastly scene of turmoil and death in the quicksands and swiftly rising waters must be left to the imagination ”

“ Only some plain facts, therefore, will be stated with respect to their occurrence in the early Oxford books.
If we take the first group (the Jerome, Aretinus and Aegidius) , we find no less than 26, out of a total of 50. The Rufinus has seven (two shared with the others, one shared with the Aretinus only, one shared with the Latteburius, and three peculiar to itself) . The Aretinus has 22, most of which are found in the later groups, but eight are peculiar to itself. The Aegidius has two only, common to the group. ”

“ Readers who have followed the history outlined in preceding chapters will understand that the very cradle of the whole Library lies in the part marked on the plan “Old Reading Room.” That is Sir Thomas Bodley’s own first room, which had been superposed on the Divinity School in the latter part of the fifteenth century, finished in 1480, and taken over in a derelict condition by the Founder. No one can enter the room without a feeling of veneration for its antiquity and associations. ”

“ Before the second century B.C. the contents of Greek and Roman libraries were not books in the form to which we are accustomed, but rolls of papyrus, and the fittings of libraries were accordingly shelves with vertical divisions forming pigeon-holes, into which a roll or rolls were thrust. ”

“ There are a great many booksellers in Oxford, who are not sworn to the University; the consequence of which is, that books of great value are sold and carried away from Oxford, the owners of them are cheated, and the sworn stationers are deprived of their lawful business ”

“ The Extra Staff is apparently a class peculiar to the Bodleian, instituted by Nicholson. They are to a large extent former Junior Assistants, retained for a time on the Staff under conditions which allow them to carry on their own studies (as, for instance, for a University Degree) . It is found that their experience of the Library in the past makes their services of special value, while on the other hand they are allowed to choose a normal scheme of hours and take what holidays they please, being paid by the hour (from 6d. to 2s.) ”

“ Poems by members of the University congratulating the King on his return from Scotland in Aug. 1633. The perigee of the sun or a planet is when it is nearest to the earth. Most of the poems are Latin, but six are Greek, sixteen at the end English, and one French. Three chronograms occur. One English poem is by John Lichfield the printer. There are some signs of an arrangement of the poems, those by great persons coming first, and the English last. ”

“ But when in his last days he erected an additional room (the Arts End) his choice fell on the newer idea that a wide space should be left in the middle of the room, and the books be all placed against the walls (1613) . The lower books (folios) were still chained, and could only be used at the desks attached; such was the case, for instance, with the First Folio of Shakespeare, marked S. 2.17 Art. (see p. 46) . The Gallery books were quartos and octavos, not chained, and given out to readers below by one of the officers of the Library. ”

“ The aim of the British Museum to possess the largest French library outside France, and so with other foreign departments, and to store all local newspapers, is beyond praise.
Within the second class of libraries the manifold and various needs of modern students have resulted in a large number of kinds, which have been so seldom and so incompletely methodized that the following first attempt at their classification may be allowed, though cross-divisions cannot be entirely avoided. ”

“ There are several departments of study in which the Library [58] is able to furnish ample manuscript materials for original research. Among them may be mentioned especially Theology, Classics, English history and English literature, the local history of the British Isles (especially of Oxford and its neighbourhood) , and Oriental literature (especially Hebrew, Sanskrit, Arabic and Chinese) . To these may be added Music, old Irish literature and Liturgies without exhausting the list of specialities. ”

“ Yet in the Arts section, which includes Literature and History, there are only thirty-six books in the English language. The Library was intended for scholars and students, and it is to be feared that Bodley included nearly all English books among the “Baggage Books” and “Riff Raff” which were excluded. So keen, however, was Bodley that nothing should escape him which was worth having, that he wrote in 1607, “You shall never see that any good Books shall be lost for want of buying, though I find no Contributors: albeit you need not doubt, but I shall always find sufficient money.” ”

“ As soon as Writing occurs in a portable form, whether as cylinders of baked clay in Assyria, or as tablets of bark, wood or wax, or as sheets of parchment or paper, there is a volume, and there is the possibility of a collection of books which forms a Library. ”

“ The field of Oxford history is so plentiful and so untilled that it can be found by any one without trouble, and it is therefore here [63] passed over. Any one inspired to cultivate it will find a wealth of material, both antiquarian, topical and literary. The following jottings are divided under a few general headings, but are otherwise in no order and could be indefinitely extended. The Bodleian statute requires that the leave of the Librarian or Curators be obtained before any manuscript is copied with a view to publication. ”