[27] Savile's benefactions were continued in the years 1609 and 1614, and in 1620 he sent a large number of Greek and Latin MSS.
[28] In the year 1604 he appears again as the donor of some printed books. A notice of one of his MSS. (now Bodl. 198), which once belonged to Bishop Grosteste, was by him given to the Friars Minor at Oxford, and by them, about 1433, to Gascoigne, who presented it to Durham College, is to be found in Warton's Life of Sir T. Pope, 1772, pp. 392–3. The volume contains MS. notes by both Grosteste and Gascoigne.
[29] Another relic of Dunstan is preserved among the Hatton MSS. No. 30 of that collection. 'Expositio Augustini in Apocalypsin,' written in Anglo-Saxon characters, has the following inscription in large letters on the last leaf: 'Dunstan abbas hunc libellum scribere jussit.'
[30] These glosses, together with an 'Alphabetum Nemnivi' in Runic characters, (of which a facsimile is given in Hickes' Thesaurus, p. 168), and some Welsh and Latin notes on weights and measures, are printed, with copious notes, by Zeuss in his Grammatica Celtica, 8vo. Leipz. 1853, vol. ii. pp. 1076–96. The MS. is described also in Wanley's Catalogue, p. 63, and the latest account of it, together with a facsimile from the tract by Eutychius, is to be found in Villemarqué's Notice des principaux MSS. des anciens Bretons, 8vo. Par. 1856. And the Alphabet of Nemnivus, together with another, and somewhat later, Runic Alphabet (of the 'winged' form), found in Bodl. MS. 572, is printed at pp. 10–12 of the Ancient Welsh Grammar of Edeyrn, edited for the Welsh MSS. Soc. in 1856 by Rev. John Williams, ab Ithel.
[31] This reading was pointed out to the author by Rev. A. W. Haddan, B.D.
[32] Afterwards Sir Josias, a younger brother of Sir Thomas, and Governor of Duncannon in Ireland, author of a humorous Latin tour in Lecale (a barony in the county of Down), which, although not unfrequently met with in MS, has never yet been printed.
[33] Reliquiæ Bodl. p. 162. See also p. 183.
[34] Diary, vol. lviii. p. 157.
A.D. 1602.
The largest pecuniary donor of this year was Blount, Lord Mountjoy (afterwards Earl of Devon), who forwarded £100 to Sir T. Bodley from Waterford; which were expended upon books in most classes of literature, including music. Among various gifts of MSS. were some Russian volumes from Lancelot Browne, M.D., and (together with Persian, Finnish, &c.) from Sir Rich. Lee, ambassador in Muscovy. Lord Cobham gave £50 in money, with the promise of 'divers MSS. out of St. Augustin's library in Canterbury[35].' 'Biblia Latina pulcherrima,' 2 vols. fol. was given by George Rives, Warden of New College. This is probably a huge and magnificent specimen of twelfth-century work, now numbered Auctarium, E. infra, 1, 2[36]. But the year was specially marked by the donation of 47 MSS. (including some early English volumes) from Walter (afterwards Sir Walter) Cope; and above all, by the gift, from the Dean and Chapter of Exeter to their fellow-countryman Bodley, of 81 Latin MSS. from their Chapter Library. By what right they thus alienated their corporate property no one probably cared to enquire; but, from the tokens of neglect still visible upon the books, we may conclude that only by this alienation were they in all likelihood saved from ultimate destruction: for they nearly all bear more or less sign of having been exposed to great damp, which in several instances has well-nigh destroyed the initial and final leaves. Most of them are beautiful specimens of early penmanship, ranging chiefly from the eleventh century to the thirteenth; and amongst them is that precious relic of English Church offices, the Service-book given to Exeter Cathedral by Bishop Leofric in the reign of Edward Conf., described in the 'Registrum Benefactorum' simply as 'Missale antiquissimum.' This is happily perfect; in size a small and thick quarto volume, written on very stout vellum, and containing 377 leaves. Four other volumes (possibly more) were also gifts of Leofric to his Church; they are now numbered Auct. D. II. 16 (the four Gospels), Auct. F. I. 15 (Boethius and Persius), Auct. F. III. 6 (Prudentius), and Bodley MS. 708 (Gregory's Pastorale.) They each contain an inscription in Latin and Anglo-Saxon, varying in expression, but all to the following effect (as in the last-mentioned volume): 'Hunc librum dat Leofricus episcopus ecclesiæ Sancti Petri Apostoli in Exonia ad sedem suam episcopalem, pro remedio animæ suæ, ad utilitatem successorum suorum. Siquis autem illum inde abstulerit, perpetuæ maledictioni subjaceat. Fiat. Ðas boc gef leofric ƀ. into Scē petres minstre on exancestre þær his biscopstol is. his æfterfiligendū to nittweorðnisse. [&] gif hig hwa ut ætbrede hæbbe he ece geniðerunge mid eallū deoflum. Ām̄.' To the MS. of the Gospels are prefixed very curious lists in Anglo-Saxon of the lands, vestments, books, &c., given by Leofric to his Church, and of relics given by King Athelstan (of which another copy is preserved in the Missal); these lists are printed in the Monasticon, and the titles of the books are given in Wanley's Catalogue (p. 80).
The Library being now supplied with upwards of 2000 volumes, it was solemnly opened on Nov. 8 (the day appointed for the annual visitation,) by the Vice-Chancellor, with a procession of doctors and delegates. Meeting them at the door of the room, the Librarian hastily extemporized a short speech in honour of the occasion, 'in qua,' as the University Register records, 'tribus ferme versibus amplexus est omnia.'
[35] Reliquiæ Bodl. p. 92.
[36] See ibid. pp. 137 and 219.
A.D. 1603.
Sir Walter Raleigh appears in this year as a donor of £50. He is sometimes said to have procured for Oxford the library of Hieron. Osorius, which was carried off from Faro in Portugal (of which place Osorius had been bishop), when that town was captured by the English fleet under the Earl of Essex in 1598. Raleigh was a captain in the squadron, and probably influenced the disposal of the books; but no direct mention has been found of his name in relation to them. Sir William Monson, in the account of the expedition given in his Naval Tracts, only says that the library 'was brought into England by us, and many of the books bestowed upon the new erected library of Oxford.' Eleven MSS. were given by Sir Rob. Cotton, of which the list in the Register is printed in Sir H. Ellis' Letters of Eminent Literary Men, issued by the Camden Society in 1843 (p. 103). One of these (Auct. D. II. 14) is the MS. of the Gospels, traditionally believed to be one of those two copies of the old Italic version sent by St. Gregory to St. Augustine in Britain, which were preserved in St. Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury[37]; of which the other now exists among Archbp. Parker's MSS. in Corp. Chr. Coll. Cambr., No. 286. They are both written in quarto, in uncial letters