Harleian Manuscripts

“ Through all his many political troubles, Harley continued the collection of manuscripts, which was his dearest hobby. He brought together many of the most famous collections, among them those of Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Symonds D'Ewes, and the Earl of Stamford. In the Harleian Library were about six thousand volumes of manuscripts, as well as about fifteen thousand separate rolls and charters, and this collection was largely added to by the second Earl. The entire collection was purchased by Parliament in 1753, and is now in the British Museum. ”

“ The capitalization and punctuation of the manuscripts have not been followed, and the division into paragraphs does not appear in the originals. The variants are noted, not only from B and C, but also from the later editions of the document. D is an edition in manuscript found among the collections made by Sir Simonds D'Ewes between 1623 and 1650. [19] It now occupies folios 95 and 96 of the manuscript in the Harleian collection numbered 311. ”

“ Ray the naturalist informs us that he first wrote his name Wray, but afterwards omitted the W. Dr. Whitby, in books published by himself, writes his name sometimes Whiteby. And among the Harleian Manuscripts there is a large collection of letters, to which I have often referred, written between 1620 and 1630, by Joseph Mead; and yet in all his printed letters, and his works, even within that period, it is spelt Mede; by which signature we recognise the name of a learned man better known to us: it was long before I discovered the letter-writer to have been this scholar. ”

“ If the Sir Robert Cotton you mention be of the Post Office, I believe I can find a way of applying to him,—I am your faithful friend and servant, Wanley's ardent desire was not destined to be satisfied, but a still more honourable position was in store for the distinguished scholar and man of letters, for he not only became ultimately custodian of the Harleian manuscripts, but as we shall presently see, he deserved by his zeal, learning, and discrimination to be considered together with Lord Oxford, the joint-founder of the Harleian library. ”

“ Men at first acquired at random what happened to fall in their way; booksellers there were few or (except at London or in the Universities) next to none; and auctions were long unknown. Except for topography and the classics, there was, down to the middle of the eighteenth century, no active competition. The bulk of the Harleian Library was probably obtained without extravagant outlay, though not without labour and time; not those divisions which we should now prize would be the most expensive, unless we include the manuscripts for which Lord Oxford had even then to pay a price. ”

“ But choice and variety are infinite, and to the devout lover of these things, the Royal library resembles a goldmine with nuggets of immense value lying in profusion wherever his adventurous footsteps lead him. If his object be delight he will find that every step leads him there.
VI. THE HARLEIAN COLLECTION OF MANUSCRIPTS When Robert Harley laid the foundation of his magnificent library in t 7o5, so many collectors were already in the field that the prospect of getting together any large number of choice manuscripts did not seem promising. ”

“ Harley welcomed the overture thus made to him, and Wanley, on his behalf, entered upon a negotiation which ended in the eventual acquisition of the whole of the D’Ewes Manuscripts for the Harleian Collection. Soon afterwards, Wanley became its librarian.
In the course of this employment he watched diligently for other opportunities of a like sort; established an active correspondence with booksellers, both at home and abroad; and induced Lord Oxford to send agents to the Continent to search for manuscripts. ”

“ Seven verses are transcribed in these manuscripts which Herrick afterwards saw fit to omit, and almost every verse contains variants of importance. It is impossible to convey the effect of the earlier version by a mere collation, and I therefore transcribe it in full, despite its length. As before, variants and additions are printed in italics. The numbers in brackets are those of the later version, as given in Hesperides. The marginal readings are variants of Add. 25, 303, from the Harleian manuscript.
1 [1] .
"What's that we see from far? ”

“ In 1795 he was appointed assistant librarian in the department of manuscripts at the British Museum, and in 1799 was promoted to be keeper of manuscripts. The third volume of the ‘Catalogue of the Harleian MSS.’ was published under his editorship. ”

“ The paintings of the four evangelists are extremely interesting, and the title-pages are stained purple. This codex is described by Sir Edward Maunde Thompson as French, of the time of Charlemagne, and we may add that its position in the Harleian may be compared to that of the Durham or Lindisfarne Gospels in the Cottonian library.
The manuscripts numbered 2820 and 2821 are further examples of partially purple-stained vellum, in imitation of earlier work. They are of German workmanship of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. ”

“ It includes a poor drawing of the map of Scotland, with the itinerary in prose. Copies (resembling the Harleian MS. in main points, although differing in many details, largely by way of omissions) are in the Brit. Mus. Egerton MS. 1992 (imperfect) and the Bodleian (Selden MS. B. 26 and Ashmol. MS. 34) . A sixth manuscript resembling that in the Ashmolean collection belonged to Francis Douce.
From some manuscripts no longer extant, but obviously differing in many points from any of those noticed above, Richard Grafton [q. v.] printed two editions of Hardyng's 'Chronicle' in January 1543. ”

“ Harley, his library was bequeathed to the University of Oxford. To such men we owe a debt of gratitude for the improvement of the art and for introducing a style of finishing that still remains the admiration of the connoisseur.
"The books in the Harleian Collection are principally bound in red morocco, well sewed on raised bands, tight backs, (as were all the books of that period,) Dutch marble end-papers, and gilt edges." ”

“ Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, made a great purchase in 1705, and spent the next twenty years in building on that foundation. His son, Earl Edward, threw himself with zeal into the undertaking, and left at his death about 50,000 books, besides a huge body of manuscripts and an incredible number of pamphlets. We shall quote from the sketch by Oldys, who shared with Dr. Johnson the task of compiling the catalogue. ”

“ Hallam, the Historian of the Middle Ages, says: "Since the invention of printing the absolute extinction of any considerable work seems a danger too improbable for apprehension. The press pours forth in a few days a thousand volumes, which, scattered like seeds in the air over the Republic of Europe, could hardly be destroyed without the extirpation of its inhabitants." And, concerning the exposure to which the manuscript production of all previous history was subjected, he says: "In the times of antiquity manuscripts were copied with cost, labor, and delay ”

“ It was not, however, until the eighteenth century that we made in this country any real advance in bookbinding. Robert Harley, the first Earl of Oxford (1661-1724) , had established a library, and this had not only been added to by his son, but bound in a most expensive manner, by two workmen named Elliott and Chapman, who seem to have attained a certain amount of proficiency, and whose efforts gave rise to a new style of ornamentation known as the "Harleian". ”

“ Harley's MSS. Mr. Wanley has the greatest collection of English Bibles, Psalters, &c., that ever any one man had. They cost him above 50l., and he has been above twenty years in collecting them. He would part with them, I believe, but I know not at what price." Masters's Life of Baker, p. 27. Consult also the preface to the Catalogue of the Harleian MSS., 1808, 3 vols., folio, p. 6.
A softer noise succeeds; and the group becomes calm and attentive, as if some grand personage were advancing. See, 'tis Harley, Earl of Oxford! ”

“ As he was to be off again next morning, there was no time to have it copied, at least by one hand: so the manuscript was cut up and distributed among a number of scribes, and in the space of a night the desired copy was ready. Subsequently Wimpfeling heard of the incident from one of the brethren in the monastery, and obtained the original manuscript to publish. When such things could happen, no wonder that some manuscripts are imperfect and others have disappeared. ”

“ Even the jurists, who more required an accurate knowledge of the language, were hardly less barbarous. Roger Bacon, who is not a good writer, stands at the head in this century. [172] Fortunately, as has been said, the transcribing ancient authors had become a mechanical habit in some monasteries. But it was done in an ignorant and slovenly manner. The manuscripts of these latter ages, before the invention of printing, are by far the most numerous, but they are also the most incorrect, and generally of little value in the eyes of critics. ”

“ The easiest way to bring order into the chaos of desirable books, is, doubtless, to begin historically with manuscripts. Almost every age that has left any literary remains, has bequeathed to us relics which are cherished by collectors. We may leave the clay books of the Chaldeans out of the account. These tomes resemble nothing so much as sticks of chocolate, and, however useful they may be to the student, the clay MSS. of Assurbanipal are not coveted by the collector. He finds his earliest objects of desire in illuminated manuscripts. The art of decorating manuscripts is as old as Egypt ”

“ These common manuscript Horae are monotonous in form and detail; they nearly always have the same set of miniatures, which are {142}often coarse in detail and harsh in colour; and the illuminated borders, with which they are lavishly though cheaply decorated, have the same forms of foliage and fruit repeated again and again in dozens of manuscripts, which all look as if they had come out of the same workshop. ”

“ That manuscript had a curious history and certainly deserves a place in a Museum. I heard lately that Gabriel Wells, [Pg 75] the American collector, has got hold of it. J. C. had made alterations in black ink, the magazine editor had gashed it horribly in red; and when the book publisher came to restore the mangled corpus he could do so, intelligibly for the printer, only by an extravagant use of green ink. You see, there was no duplicate copy of the original. Always make duplicates. If you don’t, and if you are a writer of J. C.’s size, your manuscripts may some day be priceless. ”

“ The codices of the Strategemata [1] are of two classes. Of the better class, three manuscripts survive; of the second, inferior class, there are many representatives.
The three manuscripts of the first class are the codex Harleianus 2666 (H) , which contains the entire work, but is very carelessly written; the codex Gothanus I. 101 (G) , and the codex Cusanus C. 14 (C) , each of which contains excerpts only. ”

“ A new impulse was added in collecting and copying books by the personal favor of the Emperor—he himself, ordering from Eusebius, the church historian of the time, fifty copies of the Scriptures to be written on "artificially wrought skins by skillful calligraphists" for the use of the churches in and about Constantinople. And it is deemed possible and even not improbable148 that the Sinaitic manuscript—one of the oldest and best of existing Greek manuscripts—may be a survivor of this number. ”

“ If, for instance, a well authenticated copy of Augustine’s City of God was held in the scriptorium of Fulda, and another copy, perhaps equally famous, belonged to that of St. Gall, each monastery could prohibit the copying of its own parchment, and could in this manner control the “copyright” of its own particular text. It is to be borne in mind that no two manuscripts could be in exact accord and that a particular character or authority frequently attached to the text or version presented in a particular parchment. ”

“ The noble manuscript library founded by Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, and greatly enriched by his son Edward, who inherited his father’s love of science, claims a distinguished place in every account which may be given of 104the literary treasures of antiquity in general, and of this country in particular. ”

“ In others, where a score of monks, or even fewer, have slumbered away their term of years, they have yet retained a vague traditionary belief in the value of the manuscripts which they knew to lie, in heaps, in some cell or vault, never visited, by themselves. In some cases the books, which had been huddled away from the library in a moment of danger, when an enemy was under the walls, have remained—safe and forgotten, in their concealment—perhaps for centuries. ”

“ Nor do I regret it, for my object was not only to secure good manuscripts for myself, but also to raise the public estimation of them, so that their value might be more generally known, and consequently more manuscripts preserved. For nothing tends to the preservation of anything so much as making it bear a high price. The examples I always kept in view were Sir Robert Cotton and Sir Robert Harley.'
Sir Thomas Phillipps's collection was not confined to European manuscripts. It contained several hundred Oriental ones, and he also acquired those relating to Mexico belonging to Lord Kingsborough. ”