The History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Churches of England have been so often described, and so profusely illustrated that little remains to be accomplished in that direction. But these descriptions are in many instances ancillary to the illustrations, and while the minutest details are given of the Church itself, little or no mention occurs of the literary treasures contained within its precincts. The reason of this is obvious. The Antiquarian would naturally dwell with complacency on those stately fabrics which, thanks to the piety of earlier years, still adorn the cities of our land. The Historian will recount with satisfaction those venerable foundations by which the light of knowledge and the blessings of religion were diffused in a less enlightened age than that in which we have the happiness to live. Moreover these Collections, though belonging to public bodies, are, strictly speaking, of a private character, being of limited accessibility and restricted use.

The Library of the Dean and Chapter is chiefly available for the use of the Clergy of the Cathedral Church, and under proper regulations becomes a convenient place of study for the clerical student or the lettered divine. The Libraries thus preserved have, as might be expected, great similarity of character. They often combine in a peculiar manner the learning of the middle ages, with the literature of a later date. Chiefly embracing theological subjects, they contain no small amount of classical lore, and a large proportion of historical research. Among much that is obsolete there is more that is valuable, and amid much that is trifling there is more that is important.

The contents of these Libraries have hitherto been known only to those who have had access to their shelves, but thanks to the courtesy of those entrusted with their custody, I have in every instance carefully perused the Catalogue, and minutely examined every volume which I have ventured to describe. This I have done at various times and different intervals, occasionally revisiting the same Collection whenever the opportunity of doing so occurred, but often hurried in my examination from unwillingness to encroach upon the time or avocations of those to whose kindness I have been indebted for the prosecution of these enquiries. No one can be more sensible than myself of the imperfections and omissions of a work compiled under such circumstances, and I shall feel deeply indebted to any one who will undertake to correct the one or to supply the other. None but those who have been accustomed to exact the most scrupulous accuracy from themselves can rightly estimate the difficulty of its attainment by others. Just as those who are most sensible of their own deficiencies most readily make allowance for the failings of others.

“There is a philosophy in the aridity of Bibliography which few bibliographers have discovered; there is a chronology of ideas as well as facts, and the date of an opinion is far more interesting than any on the Colophons.”[1]

This may be safely admitted, provided the date can be ascertained with sufficient accuracy to render permanent the interest it may inspire. But this it must be conceded is a point of no small difficulty, since “opinions and feelings are long silently propagated before they can assume the lasting form of published works.”

“Those revolutions in public opinion which are silently operating, without yet manifesting any overt acts, can only be detected in those histories of mankind which are furnished by themselves—Books! These are the precursors or the recorders of whatever is passing in Europe.”[2]

Those who laudably endeavour to resuscitate the defunct literature of a past age may best defend their pursuit in the language of the ingenious and lamented Leyden. “However injudicious our ancient authors may be reckoned in the selection of their materials, and the arrangement of their topics; however defective in the arts of composition or polish of style, they can never divest themselves of the manners and habits of thinking familiar to the age in which they lived. It is this circumstance which stamps a real value on the rudest compositions of an early period; a value which continually increases with their antiquity.”

If the true test of the value of a book be, where can you learn what it will teach you? and if the answer be nowhere, then we may safely concede both merit and value. Such I am far from presuming to be the characteristic of the present work; but assuredly no where else can be found any collected account of the Ecclesiastical Libraries, attached to the Cathedrals of England, and forming not the least interesting portion of their several Capitular possessions.

The Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in possession of the Dean and Chapter of Rochester, Exeter, Wells, Lichfield, Durham, Worcester, Westminster, are enumerated in the third volume of Hickes’ Thesaurus, entitled Antiquæ Litteraturæ Septentrionalis liber alter, seu Humphredi Wanleii Librorum Vett. Septentrionalium, qui in Angliæ Bibliothecis extant, necnon multorum Vett. Codd. Septentrionalium alibi extantium Catalogus Historico-Criticus, Oxonii, 1705, folio.

In the same author’s Catalogi Librorum Manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ in unum collecti, &c. Oxoniæ, 1698, folio, we find Catalogues of the Manuscripts preserved in the Chapter Houses of York, Durham, Carlisle, Worcester, Salisbury, Westminster, Winchester, Lichfield, Hereford, Exeter, and Canterbury, affording abundant evidence of the diligence and accuracy of Humphrey Wanley.

In Clarke’s Repertorium Bibliographicum there is some account of the most celebrated British Libraries, London, 1819, 8vo. including Notices of the Archiepiscopal Library, Lambeth Palace, the Cathedral Library of Canterbury, the Christ Church Library at Oxford, and the Manuscripts in the Chapter House at Westminster.

I have purposely omitted from this Work all mention of the Parochial Libraries of England, such as those of Wimborne Minster in Dorsetshire; Halifax in Yorkshire; Castleton in Derbyshire; Langley in Buckinghamshire; Tong and Whitchurch in Shropshire. The latter in particular is a beautiful Library, purchased by a former Countess of Bridgewater from one of the Prestons, and left as an heirloom to the living. The late Francis Henry, Earl of Bridgewater, left all his books in augmentation of this Library, and also bequeathed several sums of money for founding other Libraries of a similar kind at Middle, Ellesmere, and other places. I have reluctantly excluded the Library at Bamborough Castle, in Northumberland, so interesting as containing a vellum copy of the Book of Troy, by Pynson; as well as the Libraries of Sion College; Archbishop Tenison’s; the Dissenters, in Red Cross Street; and the Baptist Museum, at Bristol. To go beyond these would be to describe the Libraries of the British Museum; the London and Royal Institutions, the London Library, and those of the different learned and Scientific Societies, and of the Clubs of London. All these are foreign to my purpose, which embraces only Libraries of a strictly ecclesiastical character. I have introduced the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth as belonging to the Primate, and the Library of the Dean and Chapter of St. George’s, at Windsor, as appertaining to the Sovereign Head of the English Church.

I have chosen to designate these Collections as Cathedral Libraries, because with the above exception, the only Capitular Library described in this volume which is not at present in connection with a See, is the venerable foundation of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. This from its connection with the ancient Palace of Westminster must always be regarded as classic ground in the History and Antiquities of England.

I have added no index to this book, because the work itself is little more than an index to the contents of the Collections which it professes to describe, and a mere repetition of proper names would have added to the bulk without increasing the utility of the volume. Hasty as these notes may have been, and confessedly imperfect as they are, they may yet serve to excite if not to satisfy the awakened interest in the Curiosities of English Literature.

“Without doubt,” says Richard de Bury in his Philobiblon, translated by Inglis, quoting Seneca in his Epistles, “Leisure without letters is death, and the Sepulture of the living man;” so we justly conclude from a converse meaning, “that to be employed with Literature and Books is life.”

_Norton Hall_, 5 March, 1849.

Page

Library of Bristol 1

Library of Canterbury 5

Library of Carlisle 49

Library of Chester 55

Library of Chichester 74

Library of Durham 89

Library of Ely 124

Library of Exeter 132

Library of Gloucester 159

Library of Hereford 172

Library of Lambeth Palace 189

Library of Lichfield 259

Library of Lincoln 268

Library of London 297

Library of Manchester 328

Library of Norwich 330

Library of Christ Church, Oxford 348

Library of Peterborough 369

Library of Ripon Minster 384

Library of Rochester 390

Library of Salisbury 405

Library of Wells 417

Library of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster 430

Library of Winchester 465

Library of Windsor 484

Library of Worcester 491

Library of York Minster 502

CORRIGENDA.

Transcriber’s Note: These corrections have been applied to the text.

P. 3, l. 14, _for_ militare, _read_ militari. 12, 6, _for_ obtineti, _read_ obtinet. 43, 17, _for_ Attica, _read_ Attici. 58, 28, _for_ coronis, _read_ corona. 60, 21, _for_ Barrow; _read_ Barrow’s. 62, 19, _for_ Mircæ, _read_ Mireæ. 63, 10, _for_ Periphis, _read_ Periplus. 19, _for_ Liveliæ’s, _read_ Livelie’s. 64, 29, _for_ Aristidii, _read_ Aristidis. 32, _for_ Commeline, _read_ Commelini. 128, 23, _for_ Horologia, _read_ Heröologia. 138, 1, _for_ polist, _read_ philist. 263, 8, _after_ whereof, _insert_ the. 286, 1, _omit_ and. 286, 13, _after_ Church, _insert_ are. 317, 27, _after_ man’s _insert_ Villare. 319, 10, _for_ Anglia, _read_ Anglica. 322, 8, _for_ rum, _read_ rus. 324, 13, _for_ heorici, _read_ heroici. 352, ult. _for_ Rhetoris, _read_ Rhetores. 354, ult. _for_ Zonoras, _read_ Zonaras. 356, 7, _for_ du, _read_ des. 357, 11, _for_ Anglianæ, _read_ Anglicanæ. 360, 15, _for_ Varillais’, _read_ Varillas’. 361, 17, _for_ rum, _read_ rus. 380, 25, _for_ there formed, _read_ the reformed. 400, ult. _omit_ the.

NOTES UPON THE CATHEDRAL LIBRARIES OF ENGLAND.

Bristol.

Had these unpretending memorials of the literary treasures of our Cathedral Churches been written earlier, they might have given some idea of the loss sustained by that of Bristol in the memorable riots of the 31st of October, 1831.

The Chapter-house, so much admired for the beauty of its Saxon architecture, was at that time the receptacle of about six or seven thousand volumes, constituting the Library of the Dean and Chapter.

The lawless ruffians, who fired the adjoining Palace, threw the greater number of these volumes into the flames, and the Catalogue, of which, unfortunately, no duplicate was kept, shared a similar fate.

The mob appeared most anxious to destroy the larger volumes, under the idea that they were Bibles, “but,” added my informant, who visited the delinquents in prison, “I found many of them reading the sacred volume, which, in their madness, they would fain have extirpated.”

Other books of this Library were thrown into the river Avon, many into ditches, and almost all were more or less dirtied and torn, having been thrown about the streets, and otherwise defaced. Of these, however, about eleven hundred were recovered from old clothes mops, and dealers in “Marine stores,” that convenient designation, under which another person’s property is so frequently misappropriated; and this wreck of the Library, which is now deposited in the Vestry, must form the subject of the present notice.

As the Chapter-house was completely cleared of every book before the populace quitted the place, the volumes which have been recovered all present the most deplorable signs of the rude treatment they received.

So complete was the work of destruction, that only a calf-bound copy of Walton’s Polyglott, and a set of Doddridge’s Expositor were preserved entire; together with a copy of Harris’s Voyages.

So that of all the sets of books which once adorned the Library, single volumes alone remain to testify that such works as Rapin’s History of England; Camden’s Britannia; the Commentaries of Patrick, Whitby, and Nicolas de Lyra; the Works of S. Cyril, Eusebius, Bellarmine, Thomas Aquinas, Cave, Puffendorf, and Gerard; with Newton’s Prophecies; Calmet’s Dictionary; Conybeare’s Sermons; Whiston’s Sacred History; Hudson’s Josephus; Spencer de Legibus Hebræorum; Leydekker de Statu Reipublicæ Hebræorum; and some tracts against Popery, were once contained within its walls.

Alas! it is not for the Bibliographer to imitate the genius of Cuvier, and from the disjointed members of any body to discover what in its integrity it must have been, and bid those dry bones live. From the relics of a Library it is not possible to collect what it must have been in its perfect state; and here we must drop the metaphor, “ex ungue leonem.”

It may be interesting, however, to enumerate some of those single volumes which have been recovered from the wreck, and we may begin with the well-known Breeches Bible, bound in old calf, being that printed at London by Christopher Barker, in 1599, in 4to. The Bible printed at Oxford, in 1807, folio; Bacon’s Thesaurus, Butler’s Analogy, Pitt’s Virgil, Ogilby’s Homer, Cary’s Account of Ancient Time, folio; Corpus Juris Civilis Gothofredi, folio; Vegetius de Re Militari, Parisiis, 1535, folio, in a vellum wrapper; Crellii Opera; Livii Opera Parisiis, 1552, folio; Blackmore’s Prince Arthur, a Poem; and Camden’s Annals.

In closing this necessarily imperfect account of what remains of the Bristol Cathedral Library, I am happy to say, that the beautiful Chapter-house was not involved in the ruin of the adjacent Palace, but, having suffered only trifling injury, has been subsequently restored to its pristine appearance.

The books will henceforth be deposited in a small room adjoining the Chapter-house, which is now building for their reception, in the hope that their number may be increased by some future benefaction or bequest.

It is well known that the Library of the present Dean of Bristol, Dr. Beke, who has now nearly reached the span of human life, is most valuable and extensive, and were such a collection to be appropriated to the Cathedral, then would the Bristol Cathedral Library rise again, Phœnix-like, from the flames; and the venerable donor of so munificent a bequest, would, by all true Bibliopolists, be in their flowing cups freshly “remembered.”

I cannot shut the door of the Bristol Cathedral without noticing, truncated though it be, the symmetry of its Gothic Architecture, and feeling more than ordinary sensations of melancholy within its precincts.

For the mailed Barons of Berkeley, who here lie in grim repose, one has little sympathy; but for the beautiful, the young, cut off in the springtide of early enjoyment by that insidious and fatal malady, Consumption, it is for these, whose monuments, thick as leaves in Val’ombrosa, are strewed around, that the heart of an Englishman must ever heave the sigh of unavailing regret; nor can the current of his thoughts find a purer channel than that afforded by Mason’s beautiful memorial of his “dear departed saint.”

“Take, holy Earth! all that my soul holds dear: Take that blest gift which Heaven so lately gave: To Bristol’s fount I bore with trembling care Her faded form; she bowed to taste the wave, And died. Does youth, does beauty read the line? Does sympathetic fear their breasts alarm? Speak, dead Maria! breathe a strain divine: E’en from the grave thou shalt have power to charm. Bid them be chaste, be virtuous like thee; Bid them in duty’s sphere as meekly move, And if so fair, from vanity as free, As firm in friendship, and as fond in love. Tell them, though ’tis an awful thing to die, ’Twas e’en to thee; yet the dread path once trod, Heaven lifts its everlasting portals high, And bids the pure in heart behold their God.”

Library of Canterbury.

The Library of the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury is kept in a long and lofty room adjoining the Cloisters, which in olden time was the Chapel of the Prior. The books are arranged in classes upon open shelves, in projecting cases, which are distinguished by letters of the alphabet, and occupy the spaces between the windows; the end of the apartment nearest the Baptistery, containing the manuscripts in closed cases; and the other end of the room, having a light gallery, with open shelves above and below for the reception of printed books.

The Dean and Chapter have it in contemplation to alter this arrangement entirely, by placing the folios and quartos upon open shelves all round the room, with a light gallery for the octavos above, and to light the apartment by a skylight in the roof, instead of the present windows; and to remove the damp, which at present pervades the Library to a very injurious extent, by the addition of suitable fire-places.

This alteration, the expense of which is estimated at nearly £1000, though tending to impair the venerable appearance of this “antique oratory,” cannot fail to be beneficial to the books, many of which have been recently rebound by Mr. Gough of London, and some of the older volumes having been repaired and gilt. The whole collection has a freshened aspect.

The books are chiefly bound in calf, and are generally in very good condition, though only warmed occasionally by a stove. From a small fund possessed by the Dean and Chapter, they are enabled to employ from five to six hundred a year in the purchase and reparation of books. Their Library is also continually augmented by the customary donation of each Prebend upon his installation; and by a gift of forty pounds from the Archbishop of Canterbury, who once in every four years holds a visitation in his Cathedral, being sumptuously entertained at the Deanery, and leaves that sum, according to ancient usage, for the use of the Library.

It is creditable to the Curators of this Library that two Catalogues of its contents have already been printed, once in 1743, and again in 1802, and that another is in contemplation: so that I trust the Rev. John Stratton, the present Librarian, upon whom the task devolves ex officio, will render this new Catalogue more complete than either of its precursors.

The Catalogue at present in use in the Library is that printed in 1802, inlaid and interleaved in two volumes quarto, and bound in rough calf. There is also a register kept, of books borrowed from the Library.

The Catalogue which was printed for the use of the members of the Church in 1802, is an octavo volume of two hundred and thirty-nine pages, entitled a “Catalogue of the Books, both Manuscript and Printed, which are preserved in the Library of Christ Church, Canterbury, 1802.” It is divided into two parts, of which the first is an alphabetical index of the books both manuscript and printed, with reference to the shelves upon which they were placed when the Catalogue was compiled. The second part contains the Catalogue of the printed books only, being the contents of the Cases from A I. to LL IV. specifying the titles, imprints, and dates of each work. But as the present Librarian has entirely changed the arrangement of the books in these cases, they having been formerly arranged according to their size, but now according to their subjects, the utility of this Catalogue, as affording facility of reference, is entirely gone. The third portion of this Catalogue contains an enumeration of the manuscripts in the order in which they occur in the closed cases, A to E, in which they are kept.

I shall be excused for transcribing the introductory remarks to this Catalogue, since the book itself is solely circulated among the members of the establishment, and the matter is most pertinent to the subject of the present notice; so here it is:—

“Of this Library, a Catalogue, as it was called, appeared in 1743; but it is merely an alphabetical list of printed books only, without any statements of the place or year in which the books are printed, and without any guide to the shelves on which they had been placed. The present Catalogue, by its two-fold arrangement, is intended to inform the reader of most particulars relating to the books, to point out to him their situation in the Library, and at the same time to preserve them in their respective classes.

“The Dean and Chapter, desirous to promote the utility of their Library, lately caused it to be carefully examined, as well as considerably enlarged; and in consequence of the examination, several manuscripts were found concealed under a heap of rubbish in a private closet. These Manuscripts, having been investigated by some of the members of the Church, are now deposited, (as the subjects of them required,) partly in the Chapter-room, and partly in the Library. To the presses in the latter an addition is thus made of twelve volumes since the publication of a Catalogue of the Manuscripts in this Library, by a member of the Church, in 1793. Other Manuscripts also, since that period, have been presented to the Dean and Chapter. This Library, it may be observed, is rich in Manuscript materials relating to the Civil and Ecclesiastical History of the country, and to Saxon literature in general; as the articles under Records, Registers, and Somner, will evince.”

I may add, that this Library suffered severely from fire in former ages, and was despoiled of some of its fairest treasures during the Cromwellian Usurpation. It cannot consequently boast of many tomes of the olden time, but it contains many valuable and useful works, which will more plainly appear when we come to analyze its contents. The books are marked by the armorial bearings of the Dean and Chapter of “Christ Church Canterbury,” engraved and pasted within the covers. This precaution, however, proved ineffectual against the carelessness of so many persons to whom books had been lent some years ago, that the Reverend Guardians of this collection have of late years exercised draconic vigilance in the preservation of their literary treasures.

Many indeed of the clergy of Canterbury, who are unusually numerous, would gladly avail themselves of access to this Library; an indulgence which methinks might be granted under such regulations as should ensure the integrity, while extending the usefulness of the collection.

It is matter of great congratulation to the Dean and Chapter, that so many valuable Manuscripts relating to Saxon literature in general, and the County of Kent in particular, should be contained within the walls of this Library. Whoever wishes rightly to estimate the labours of the indefatigable Somner, should examine this collection, where will be found two copies of his excellent Dictionarium Saxonico-Latinum, from one of which, as appears by the signatures of the Compositors, his valuable work was printed in 1659. The Title, Recommendatory Verses, Dedication, Preface, List of Subscribers, and Errata, are here carefully preserved. Here also are kept with equal care, his “Treatise of the Roman Ports and Forts in Kent,” folio, a work which was published in 1693, his remarks upon the Goodwin Sands, and a life of the Author, by White Kennet, afterwards Bishop of Peterborough. Somner’s “Discourse of Portus Iccius, wherein the late conceipts of Chiffletius in his topographicall discourse thereof are examined and refuted; the judgment of Cluverius concerning the same port asserted and embraced; and the true site thereof more clearly ascertained.” This work was translated into Latin, and published at Oxford, in 1694, by Dr. Edmund Gibson, afterwards Bishop of London. Somner argues for Boulogne, Chifflet for Mardyke. His “Littus Saxonicum per Britanniam,” the design of which treatise was, to overthrow the opinion of Selden in his Mare Clausum, and to vindicate the opinions of Camden, Cluverius, Merula, and Ortelius, concerning this shore. His emendation of the Concilium Berghamstedense, A.D. 697, as given by Spelman, vol. 1, p. 194, exhibiting at one view the textus Roffensis, ejusdem exemplaris correctio, D. H. Spelmanni versio et versio nova. A specimen of the attentive correction which Somner was accustomed to bestow; and of which his manuscript notes in several of the printed books in this Library afford additional proof. His “observations upon the Commissary of Canterbury’s Patent,” which Mr. Battely in his Preface to “the Antiquities of Canterbury,” where a great part of this discourse is printed, supposes to have been the first fruits of those labours which Somner devoted to the study of Antiquity. To which I may add, his “Scholia et Animadversiones in Leges Henrici Primi,” folio. “In Dni Henrici Spelmanni Eq: Aurat. Glossarium Adversaria; Item, in Watsii Glossarium; et in eximii viri Gerardi Johannis Vossii de vitiis sermonis et Tractatum Adversaria.” and his Miscellanies; consisting chiefly of Letters relating to the affairs of the Cathedral, and the Diocese of Canterbury; and containing some curious remarks upon the characters, residences, &c. of many Incumbents in the Diocese.

To the unwearied pen of Somner we are indebted for the transcription of the following Works.

“Orosius, Saxonicè;” transcriptus è pervetusto Libro illo MS. Bibl. Cottonianâ, in quo Chronologia Saxonica invenitur exarata.

“Cædmonis Paraphrasis Saxonica.” Transcriptus è pervetusto Libro MS. in Bibl. Deuvesianâ charactere Saxonico exarato.

“Medicinalis Anglicus Saxonicè.” Transcriptus è pervetusto Libro MS. in Bibliothecâ Regiâ apud S. Jacobum.

“Pentateuchus et Liber Josuæ Saxonicè.” Folio. Transcriptus è pervetusto Libro MS. in Bibliothecâ Cottonianâ.

“Statuta Eccl. Christi Cantuar. ab Henrico octavo fundatore.”

“Chartæ Odonis Prioris, Eccl. Chr. Cant. anno 1167.”

“Chronica Gervasii de combustione et reparatione Eccl. Cantuar. 1174.” This Chronicle was published in the Decem Scriptores, the joint labour of Twysden and Somner, in 1652, and was translated into English, and published in the Historical Description of Canterbury Cathedral in 1783.

But, besides the entire transcription of the above-mentioned Works, which are carefully preserved in this Library, the diligence of Somner has made copious extracts, which are also kept here:—“Ex Chronicis Will. Thorne.”—Fol. “Ex Gotcelini libro de translatione S. Augustini Anglor: Apost: et Sociorum ejus in Bibliothecâ Deuvesianâ.”[3] “Ex Registro Manuscripto S. Augustini Monast: collect: à Thom: Thaneto.” “Ex veteri Libro MS. olim Ecclesiæ Christi Cant: modo in Bibliothecâ Comitis Arundell. cui titulus, ‘Registrum sive Martyrologium Ecclesiæ Christi Cant:’”—“Ex veteri Libro MS. sc. Registro (ut inscribitur) temporalium Ecclesiæ et Episcopatus Roffensis abbreviatio, et circa tempora (1319) Haimonis de Slethe, 46. ejusdem Sedis Episc: (ut opinor) qui in Episcoporum ibi memoratorum catalogo ultimum locum obtinet.” “Ex libro Roffensi in 4to.”—& “E pervetusto libro MS. in Bibliothecâ Cottonianâ, Orosii historiam continente, manu Saxonicâ, cui titulus, ‘Chronica Saxonica Abingdoniæ ad annum 1066.’” Folio.

If to the above we add some Papers concerning Christ Church Yard, and an Account of what was laid out on the Church from 1660 to 1662, together with several Transcripts from ancient records, chronicles, and registers, relating to Canterbury, Kent, and Saxon literature, we shall have gathered a very fair idea of the contributions of Somner to the literature of his country, and be disposed to assign the Cantian Antiquary a place in the same temple with Dugdale and with Hearne.

I have already mentioned that Manuscripts in this Library relating to the Cathedral and City of Canterbury are very numerous; so voluminous indeed that I must request the reader to accept the following account rather as exemplary than descriptive.

First then, among the Manuscripts relating to the county of Kent, we have a Table or playne Particular of the whole Shyre; the Customs of Sandwich and Lydd; some Particulars respecting the Monastery and Town of Faversham; the Rentals of Godmersham and Chertham; the Rents of Assize at Marden, and Milton; an Index to the Ledger-book of the Priory of Dover, &c. De Monasterio et Prioribus S. Martini de Dovor. An Account of Lands in the Manor of Wingham paying rents, &c. to the Archbishop of Canterbury; and of the Lands of the Bishoprick of Rochester. To which I may add the Registrum Monasterii S. Augustini, a large quarto volume, upon vellum. This curious Manuscript was purchased by the late Dr. Farmer, formerly a Prebend of Canterbury, at a book-stall in London, and by him presented to the Cathedral Library, which contains also the “Registrum Domini Willim̅ Sellyng, Præcentoris, a decimosexto die Aprilis Anno Dn̅i millesimo quingentesimo vicesimo primo, tempore Thomæ Hampton abbatis hujus loci, necnon anno regni regis Henrici octavi duo decimo.” 4to. This Manuscript, which is partly on vellum and partly on paper, was the Register of St. Austin’s Monastery, and is believed to be the last; the establishment having been dissolved 30 Henr. VIII. Its ancient Library of course shared the fate of the Monastery, and was dispersed. Some few, however, of its manuscript volumes were transferred to the adjacent Cathedral, where are now preserved,

“S. Augustini Sermones de Verbis Domini, cum Indice præfixo,” folio, inscripti super membranis.

“Evangelium Sancti Matthæi, Latinè, cum largâ expositione cujusdam Anonymi,” folio, optime conservatum.

“Vetus Logica; Liber de Articulis Fidei; Priscianus de Constructionibus; Liber de Accentibus; Donati Barbarismus,” folio, in membranis; and a volume containing

“Correctorium totius Bibliæ Roberti Grosthead Episc: Lincoln.” “Tabula secundùm ordinem alphabeti, in lib. exemplorum Sacræ Scripturæ.” “Liber Exemplorum S. Scripturæ Fratris Nicol de Hanapis;” & “De orbis situ.”

All of which originally formed a part of the library of the Monastery of St. Augustine, the ruins of which still arrest the attention of the passing stranger.

Those who feel an interest in what once composed Monastic Libraries, will rejoice to peruse, in the account-book of some officer of the Monastery, the “Reparationes circa Libros in Librariâ super Capellam Domini Priori,” and to be informed that a list of books formerly in this Library is given by Dart in the Appendix to his History of the Church of Canterbury.

To return from this digression to the Manuscripts relating to the Church, See, and City of Canterbury; I may enumerate

1. Redditus Eccl: Christi Cantuar: in membranis.

2. Relevia recepta anno secundo et sequentibus post reversionem Conventûs ab exilio, 1215, in membranis.[4]

3. Nomina Monachorum Eccl. Christi Cant: a tempore exilii eorum 1207, ad annum 1533.

4. Obituarium Monachorum Eccl. Chr. Cant. ab 1286 ad 1507.

5. Gablum de diversis terris.

6. A Receiver’s Book of Church Rents in the time of the Monastery. Liber Redituum Locabilium Prioris Ecclesiæ Cant. Episcoporum in Provinciâ Cant. Decimæ.

7. Spiritualium et Temporalium secundùm Registrum Papæ et Regis.

An account of certain Manors taken into Queen Elizabeth’s hands, from the Archbishop of Canterbury, and what recompense she made out of Lands, of Abbies, Rectories, impropriate Rents, Tithes, &c.

8. Part of a Register of the Archbishop’s Manors.

9. De Prærogativis Archiep. Cantuar. written upon vellum about 1334.

10. A list of Authors, with references to their Works, who have written concerning the Archbishops of Canterbury; first, of those who have treated of the Archbishops generally, and secondly, of those who have composed single or particular lives; by the late learned and celebrated antiquary, Dr. Samuel Pegge. 4to.

These valuable papers were in the possession of John Nichols, Esq. F.A.S. by whom they were given to the Rev. Mr. Todd, and by Mr. Todd have been presented to this Library. To these may be added the

“Statuta Curiæ Cantuar. editæ per Rob. Winchelsea, Archiep. Cant.” and the “Fasti Cantuarienses; or the History of the renowned Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ in Canterbury; a Poem in five Books; by John Boys of Hode Court.” Folio, 104 pages.

This Poem appears by the Preface to have been intended for the press. It is dedicated to Gilbert (Sheldon) Abp. of Canterbury. The Author, it seems, was the intimate friend of Somner. At the end is a printed “Panegyrick to his Sacred Majesty” Charles II. in verse, by the same author, dated 1662. Other publications by Mr. Boys are there also noticed. This volume was purchased at the sale of the late Dr. Osmund Beauvoir, Master of the King’s School, Canterbury, by Thomas Park, Esq. F.A.S.; by whom it was presented through the Rev. Mr. Todd to this Library. Lastly, as relating to the City of Canterbury, I may add to the Manuscripts already mentioned, the Charter of King Edward IV. granted to the City of Canterbury in 1460. Nomina 161 Majorum Civitatis Cantuariæ ab anno 1449. Fundatio et Statuta Hospitalis Sancti Laurentii juxta Cantuariam, et Registrum Chartarum de terris ejusdem; folio, in membranis; and the Answers to the Articles of Enquiry, made by the Commissioners of Henry VIII. concerning the estates, goods, revenues, &c. of certain Hospitals in and near Canterbury; the first and last of these documents forming part of the valuable collections of Somner.

Of Manuscripts relating to the History and Antiquities of England, I noticed a Catalogue of the Religious Houses within the realms of England and Wales, with their orders, founders, and values; both such as were suppressed by King Henry VIII. and such as were left standing, or have been since erected. Several grants of Henry IV. V. and VI. and Edward IV. to several monasteries, abbies, &c. Constitutiones Othonis et Othoboni cum Glossâ Johanni de Acton. folio, in membranis. A Volume of Letters concerning State Affairs in the time of Queen Elizabeth, from 1569 to 1596. A curious volume in folio, containing:—

1. “The Names and Armes (emblazoned) of the Principall Captains as well of Noblemen as of Knights that were with the victorious Prince, King Edward the Third, at the Siege of Callys. 1346.”

2. “An Account of how many Ships and Mariners every Port sent throughout England to that Siege. Also the supply of Ships and Mariners from Bayon, Spayne, Ireland, Flaunders, and Gelderland.”

3. “An Account of all the Princes and Noblemen, Foreigners, that served at that Siege, with their pay, and of the whole charge of that Siege.”

4. “The Titles and Armes (emblazoned) of all the Noblemen that flourished in each King and Queen’s Reign from William the Conqueror to Queen Elizabeth.”

5. “An Account of the Precedency of the Nobility in several Processions of Queen Elizabeth and King James.”

6. “The Order of Precedency of the Nobles, both Men and Women, by Jasper, Duke of Bedford, (Uncle to Henry VII. and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland) at the appointment of Henry VII.” “The Armes and Names of all the Nobilitie, Privi-Councelers, and Chiefe Officers of England in 1588.” Certain Disputations in point of Law concerning the Kings of England’s right to their Succession in the Kingdom of France; from an ancient MS. copied by Sir Peter Manwood in 1615, folio.[5] Fragmentum Historiæ Saxonicæ manu recenti, 4to. which formerly belonged to Somner, who has written on the first page “Florentius Wigorn. optimus hujus histor. interpres. W. S.” Canuti Regis Leges Saxonicæ, 4to. Veterum Statutorum Regni Collectio, cum Indice præfixo, 8vo.

To the above may be added Erdeswick’s Antiquities of Staffordshire, folio, 84 pages; and a Rentall of all the lands, rents, and pencions in the Cytie of Worcestre, and suburbes of the same, belongyng to the Cathedrall Churche of Worcestre, &c. folio.

I come now to the mention of a very interesting Work, being no less than “Isaaci Casauboni Ephemerides,” folio. This is the Diary of the Life of that eminent scholar and critic, Isaac Casaubon, Prebendary of this Church, written in Latin with his own hand, commencing in the 39th year of his age and in the year of our Lord 1597. He died in 1614.

The curious and learned reader will be highly gratified by several circumstances recorded in this volume respecting classical authors, in the illustration of whom Casaubon had been engaged. Bentley, it has been said, was indulged with the use of this volume. It was probably the gift of Meric Casaubon, son of Isaac, and also a Prebendary of this Church. From a passage in this Diary we learn that Isaac Casaubon, being a layman, received the royal dispensation to hold this Prebend.

Of Classic Authors I may notice a beautifully written Manuscript of M. T. Ciceronis Epistolæ, in folio, presented to the Library by Dr. Kingsley, Archdeacon and Prebendary, in 1663. At the beginning of this MS. is the following note:—“This Booke I Edmund Witherpoll found in the Lybrary off owre Ladye’s Churche in Bulleyn the xxv day of Sept. Anno Domini 1544.” Edmund Witherpoll probably accompanied Henry the Eighth in his expedition against Boulogne, and brought away this literary treasure with him.

Of Theological Manuscripts I must content myself with enumerating the

Biblia Latina Thomæ de Banchester, cui præfigitur Tractatus Moralium super Genesin, qui dicitur Solatium fidelis animæ, folio, in membranis.

Stephani (Langton) Archiep. Cant. Moralia in Isaiam, Jeremiam, et Ezechielem Prophetas, folio, in membranis.

Ejusdem Moralia in libros Josuæ, Judicum, Ruth, in quatuor libros Regum, in Tobiam, Hester, Esdram, et duos libros Maccabæorum, folio, in membranis.

Ejusdem Moralia in XII Prophetas Minores, folio, in membranis.

Joannis Duns Scoti Questiones Theologicæ, folio, in membranis.

Ejusdem, in quartum lib. Sententiarum, folio, in membranis.

Expositio sive Glossa Regulæ S. Beati Benedicti, 4to.

Ephrem Syri Preces, Græcè, 12mo. most beautifully written.

Testamenta duodecim Patriarcharum.

Narratio e libro qui Græcè vocatur Suda.[6]

Meditationes beati Bernardi, 8vo, in membranis. A Volume which formerly belonged to the Monastery of St. Mary Overy, Southwark.

I may conclude this notice of the Canterbury Manuscripts with the mention of the Chronicon ab origine Mundi, cui præfigitur Tabula subsequentis operis secundùm ordinem Alphabeti, folio, which ends in 1338; and a Chronographye of the most notable things from the beginning of the world to the year 1592, by John Nettleton, gent. my Master, and writ by me Wm. Byrche; together with the Stimulus Conscientiæ, or Pricke of Conscience, an English Poem, by Richard Hampole,[7] an eremite of the order of St. Augustine, who flourished in 1349, 4to.; and another curious Volume of English Poetry in 4to., entitled Epigramma Satiron; or “The times whistle, or a newe daunce of seven Satires, whereunto are annexed divers other poems comprising things naturall, morall, and theologicall, compiled by ______ gent.”

“Septem compacta cicutis Fistula.”

The name of the compiler is in this first title erased. He announces the design of those Seven Satires in a long Introduction.

“From the Rhamnusian goddesse am I sent, On Sinne t’inflict deserved punishment: All-seeing Sunne, lend me thy searching eye, That I may finde, and scourge impietie;” &c. &c. &c.

To these Satires are added “Certaine Poems, comprising things naturall, morall, and theologicall. Written by R. C. gent.”[8]

In proceeding to give some account of the printed books contained in the Library of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury, I will first notice the impressions of the Holy Scriptures which are contained therein, namely, the

Biblia Maxima, Joannis de la Haye. Lutet. Paris. 1660, in 19 vols. folio.

Biblia Polyglotta per Ariam Montanum. Antverpiæ, 1569, in 8 vols. folio.

Biblia Polyglotta per Brianum Waltonum. Londini, 1657, in 6 vols. folio, cui Castelli Lexicon Heptaglotton, Londini, 1669, accedit.

Biblia Hebraica cum Commentariis Rabbinicis, per Danielem Bombergum. Venetiis, 1515, in 4 vols. folio.

Biblia Hebraica, per Kennicott. Oxonii, 1776, in 2 vols. folio.

Biblia Sacra, cum Glossa ordinaria, Parisiis, 1590, in 6 vols. folio.

Biblia Sacra Vulgatæ Editionis. Romæ, 1592, folio. Basileæ, 1591, 8vo. Lugduni, 1618, 8vo. and Antverpiæ, 1629, in 5 vols. 16mo.

Biblia Latina Tremellii et Junii. Hanoviæ, 1602, in 2 vols. 4to.—Hanoviæ, 1603, folio, and Genevæ, 1617, in 4 vols. folio.

Biblia Septuaginta, Romæ, 1587, folio; Londini, 1653, in 2 vols. 12mo.; et edita per Grabe, Oxonii, 1707, dupl. edit. in 2 vols. folio, and in 8 vols. 8vo.

Biblia Belgica. Leydæ, 1596, 4to.

Biblia Española. Amst. 1661, 8vo.

La Biblia Traslatata in lingua Italiana da Giov. Diodati, 1607, 4to.

The Great English Bible, published by order of Henry VIII. London, November, 1540, folio.

English Bible. London, 1551, folio.

The Holy Bible of 1585, the Bishops’ Version, in fol.

The Bible printed at Doway in 1609, in 3 vols. 4to.

The Bible printed by Barker at London, in 1640, folio; by Baskett at Oxford, in 1717, folio; and by Baskerville at Cambridge, in 1763, folio.

To which I may add the Bible edited by D’Oyley and Mant, and the Welch Bible printed at London in 1630, 8vo.

I may here notice the Psalter edited by Baber, and the Liturgia Anglicana Octoglotta, printed by Bagster.

Of editions of the New Testament separately published, we find

The Nov. Test. Polyglottum Eliæ Hutteri. Norimbergæ, 1599, in 2 vols. folio.

The Nov. Test. Græcum, Rob. Stephani. Lutet. Paris. 1550, folio.

The Nov. Test. Græcum, Joannis Gregorii. Oxonii, 1703, folio.

The Nov. Test. Græcum, Joannis Millii. Oxonii, 1707, folio.

The Nov. Test. Græcum, Joannis Leusden. Amst. 1698, 12mo.

The Nov. Test. Græcum, J. J. Wetstenii. Amstel. 1751, in 2 vols. folio.

The Nov. Test. Græcum, Griesbachii. Oxonii, 8vo.

The Nov. Test. Arabicum. Londini, 1727, 4to.

The Nov. Test. Copticum a Dav. Wilkins. Oxonii, 1716, 4to.

The Nov. Test. Gallicum. Genevæ, 1618, 12mo.

The Rhemish New Testament. Rheims, 1582, 4to.

The Doway New Testament. Antwerp, 1600, 4to.

Evangelia Gothica et Anglo-Saxonica. Franc. Junii. Dordrechti, 1665, 4to.

The Saxon Gospels, by John Foxe. London, 1571, 4to. To this I may add the

Psalterium Latino-Saxonicum Vetus Johannis Spelmanni. Londini, 1640, 4to. and

“The whole Psalter translated into English Metre, which contayneth an hundredth and fifty Psalmes. Imprinted at London by John Daye, dwelling over Aldersgate, beneath S. Martyns.”

“Cum Gratia et Privilegio Regiæ Majestatis per Decennium.”

4to. with the device of the Printers, whose Colophon I have transcribed above, as it seems to militate against the supposition entertained by Warton,[9] that the Work was never published, but that the Archbishop permitted his wife to present the Book to some of the nobility.

“This copy, very curiously bound, was probably given by her to the Church of Canterbury,” says the compiler of the Catalogue of its Library; but I know not on what grounds beyond mere conjecture; and I regret to add that the ancient binding has been replaced by a modern suit of morocco, the colour of which has been so much impaired by damp that I could scarcely believe it had once been purple.

These Psalms, translated into English Metre by Archbishop Parker, were finished in 1557, and a few years afterwards printed. The Book is extremely scarce, excepting in public libraries. Strype, the ecclesiastical historian, relates that he could never obtain a sight of it. At the sale of the Books belonging to the late Dr. Farmer in 1798, a copy of this Work was sold for three pounds six shillings; and in Mr. Bright’s sale, in 1845, for forty pounds ten shillings.

Of Works of Divinity in this Library, the number is so considerable that I must content myself with noticing the

Magna Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum et antiq. Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum per Margarinum de la Bigné et alior. Colon. Agrip. 1618-22, in 16 vols. folio.

Bibliothecæ Græcorum Patrum Auctarium per Franc. Combesis. Paris. 1672, in 3 vols. folio.

SS. Patrum Barnabæ, Hermæ, Clementis, Ignatii, et Polycarpi Opera, per Jo. Bapt. Cotelerium. Lutet. Paris. 1672, in 2 vols. folio.

SS. Patrum Opera, Gregorii Neocæsariensis, Macarii Ægyptii, et Basilii Seleuciæ Epistolæ, folio. Parisiis, 1622.

SS. Patrum Opera, Amphilochii Iconiensis, Methodii Patavensis, et Andreæ Cretensis. Parisiis, 1644, folio.

Ambrosii Opera. Paris. 1586, in 2 vols. folio.

Athanasii Opera, Gr. et Lat., edita à Petro Nannio, 2 vols. folio.

Augustini Opera. Basileæ, 1569, in 7 vols. folio; and Paris. 1679, in 8 vols. folio.

Basilii Opera. Parisiis, 1618, in 3 vols. folio.

Bernardi Opera. Basil. 1566, folio.

Bellarmini Opera. Colon. Agrip. 1620, in 5 vols. folio: et Disputationes, Lutet. Paris. 1620, in 4 vols. folio.

Bonaventuræ Opera. Moguntiæ, 1609, in 4 vols. fol.

Calvini Opera. Genevæ, 1583, in 11 vols. folio.

Chamieri Panstratia Catholica. Genevæ, 1626, in 4 vols. folio.

Chrysostomi Opera, Gr. et Lat. Ducæi. Parisiis, 1636, in 11 vols. folio: and Græcè, per Henricum Savilium, Etonæ, 1613, in 8 vols. folio.

Clementis Alexandrini Opera; Sylburgii. Lutet. 1629, folio.

Cypriani Opera, per Fell. Oxonii, 1682, folio.

Cyrilli Alexandrini Opera. Paris. 1638, in 7 vols. fol.

Cyrilli Hierosolymitani et Synesii Cyrenensis Opera. Lutet. Paris. 1640, folio.

Two 8vo. editions of the Rationale of Durandus of 1580 and 1592.

Epiphanii Opera per Petavium. Parisiis, 1622, in 2 vols. folio.

Episcopii Opera. Amstel. 1650, in 2 vols. folio.

Erasmi Opera. Lugd. Bat. 1703, in 11 vols. folio.

Eusebii Præparatio et Demonstratio Evangelica. Paris. 1628, folio.

Gregorii Nazianzeni Opera. Lutet. Paris. 1609, in 2 vols. folio.

Gregorii Nysseni Opera. Paris. 1638, in 3 vols. fol.

Hieronymi Opera. Paris. 1609, in 3 vols., and Francos. 1684, in 4 vols. folio.

Hilarii Opera. Paris. 1652.

Hospinianus de origine ac progressu Monachatûs. Tiguri, 1588, folio, and his other works.

Ignatii et Polycarpi Epistolæ, Jac. Usserii. Oxonii, 1644, 4to.

Ignatii et Barnabæ Epistolæ. Isa. Vossii. Amstel. 1646, 4to.

Ignatii Epistolæ, per Tho. Smith. Oxonii, 1709, 4to.

Irenæi Opera. Parisiis, 1710, folio.

Isidori Epistolæ. Lutet. 1638, folio.

Isidori Hispalensis Opera. Colon. Agrip. 1617, fol.

Justini Martyris Opera. Paris. 1551 and 1636, fol.

Lactantii Opera. Basileæ, 1563, folio, and Oxonii, 1684, 8vo.

Lanfranci, Archiep. Cantuar. Opera et Vita. Lutet. Paris. 1648, folio.

Lutheri Opera. Witebergæ, 1582, in 7 vols. folio.

Melancthonis Opera. Basileæ, 1541, in 2 vols. fol.

Many pieces of Du Moulin’s.

Œcumenii Comment. Lut. Par. 1630, 2 vols. folio.

Origenis Commentaria. Rothom, 1668, in 2 vols. folio.

Petavii Dogmata Theologica. Lutet. Paris. 1644, in 5 vols. folio; with his Doctrina Temporum, and other Works.

Philonis Judæi Opera, Basileæ, 1526, Paris. 1640, and Londini, 1742, à Mangey.

Procopii et Riberæ Commentaria.

Suarez Opuscula Theologica. Lugd. 1600, 4to.

Tertulliani Opera. Paris. 1634, folio.

Theodoreti Opera Sirmondi. Lutet. Paris. 1642, in 4 vols. folio.

Theophylacti Opera Varia.

Tostati Opera. Col. Agrip. 1613, in 12 vols. folio.

Vincentii Sermones. Antv. 1572, 3 vols. 8vo.

Whitakeri Opera Theologica. Genevæ, 1610, 2 vols. folio.

Zanchii Opera. Hanoviæ, 1507, in 2 vols. 4to.

To which I may add the Critici Sacri. Londini, 1660, in 9 vols. folio.

Poli Synopsis. Londini, 1669, in 5 vols. folio.

Bibliotheca Polonorum Fratrum. 1656, in 8 vols. folio; and

Walchii Bibliotheca Theologica and Suiceri Thesaurus Ecclesiasticus.

Those who have persevered in perusing this long Catalogue of early Divinity, will have obtained a very good idea of the nucleus around which most of our Cathedral Libraries have been formed, and may figure to themselves a long array of ponderous folios, attired in the dusky calf of the seventeenth century. Of the more recent theological writers, the list being less copious, may also prove less fatiguing; including numerous Sermons by Blair, Horne, Sherlock, Secker, South, and other writers; the Hulsean Lectures, and the Works of Andrews, Barrow, Benson, Bull, Beveridge, Bingham, Chillingworth, Samuel Clarke, Cosins, Hall, Hammond, Hooper, Horsley, Jackson, Jones, Jewel, Lardner, Lightfoot, Leslie, Lowth, Newcome, Paley, Pococke, Potter, Prideaux, Skelton, Shuckford, Stanhope, Stillingfleet, Jeremy Taylor, Tillotson, Usher, Warburton, and Waterland.

This department also embraces Butler’s Analogy; Campbell on the Gospels; Sale’s Koran; Chappelow on Job; Daubeny’s Guide to the Church; Dwight’s Theology; Faber on Pagan Idolatry; Hey’s Theological Lectures; Kett on Prophecy; Horne’s Introduction to the Study of the Scriptures; Macknight on the Epistles; Marsh’s Michaelis; Pearson on the Creed; Porteus’s Lectures; and Stackhouse’s History of the Bible. To which I may add, Calmet’s Dictionary of the Bible; the Commentaries of Arnald, Grotius, Hammond, Lowth, Patrick, Taylor, Wetstein, and Whitby; with the Concordances of Buxtorf, Cruden, Kircher, Newman, Stephens, &c.

In Ecclesiastical History this collection is particularly rich; both as relates to the affairs of the Church in general, and to the Ecclesiastical History of England in particular. In proof of this assertion I may adduce

Echard and Collier’s Ecclesiastical History.

Conciliorum Collectio Maxima, per Labbeum et Cossartium. Lutet. Paris. 1672, in 18 vols. folio.

Concilia per Binium. Col. Agr. 1606, in 5 vols. and Lut. Par. 1636, in 10 vols. folio.

Concilia Galliæ Narbonensis. Paris. 1668, 8vo. and Spelmanni Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ. Londini, 1639-64, 2 vols. folio.

Wilkins’s Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ. Londini, 1737, in 4 vols. folio.

Le Cointe Annales Ecclesiastica Francorum. Paris. 1665, 8 vols. folio; and his Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain.

Broughton’s Dictionary of all Religions. London, 1737, in 2 vols. folio.

Picart’s Religious Ceremonies of all Nations. London, 1733, in 6 vols. folio.

The Acta Sanctorum, per Dacherium et Mabillonium. Lutet. Paris. 1668-77, in 6 vols. folio.

Anastasii Hist. Eccl. et Vitæ Paparum. 1602, 4to. and 1649, folio.

Balei Acta Romanor. Pontificum. Basileæ, 1558, 8vo.

Baronii Annales Ecclesiastici. Antv. 1612-29, in 12 vols. folio.

Bower’s History of the Popes. London, 1748, 5 vols. 4to.[10]

I. Casauboni Exercitationes ad Baronii Annales. Genevæ, 1654, 4to.

Pagi Critica in Annales Baronii. Lut. Par. 1689, fol.

Cave’s Scriptorum Eccles. Hist. Lit. London, 1688, in 2 vols. folio.

Cave’s Antiquitates Apostolicæ. Lond. 1677, in 2 vols. folio; and Primitive Christianity. Lond. 1675, 8vo.

Historia Ecclesiastica Centuriatorum Magdeburgensium. Basileæ, 1624, in 3 vols. folio.

Codex Theodosianus, 1665, 4 vols. folio.

Gibson’s Codex, in 2 vols. folio.

Corpus Juris Canonici. Taurini, 1620, 3 vols. folio.

Durandi Speculum Juris. Francof. 1592, folio.

Ecton’s Thesaurus. 1766, 4to.

Howell’s Synopsis Canonum.

Geddes’s Church History of Æthiopia and Malabar.

Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity.

The Legenda Aurea. Coloniæ, 1485, folio.

Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History.

Osiandri Epitome Hist. Eccles. Tubingæ, 1607, in 4 vols. 4to.

Spondani Annales Sacri. Lut. Par. 1660, 5 vols. fol.

Tornielli Annales Sacri. Antv. 1620, in 2 vols. folio.

Usserii Annales. Lond. 1650-54, 2 vols. folio.

Waddingi Annales Minorum. Lugd. 1625, in 4 vols. folio.

Warner’s Ecclesiastical History. London, 1756, 2 vols. folio.

The Annals of Scottish Episcopacy.

Alfordi Annales Eccles. Britan. Leodii, 1663, in 4 vols. folio.

Bedæ, Historia Anglicana Ecclesiastica. Lovanii, 1566, 12mo. Cantabrigiæ, 1644, folio.

Burnet’s History of the Reformation. London, 1679, in 3 vols. folio.

Concertatio Ecclesiæ Catholicæ in Angliâ. Aug. Trev. 1588, 4to.

Cosins’ Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ Politeia. Oxonii, 1634, 4to.

Churton’s Life of Dean Nowell.

Fiddes’ Life of Wolsey.

Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum. Lond. 1655, &c. 3 vols. folio.

Fox’s Acts and Monuments of the Church. London, 1632, in 3 vols. folio.

Godwin, de Præsulibus Angliæ. Cantabrigiæ, 1743, folio.

Gough, Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ Threnodia. Londini, 1661, 8vo.

Harpsfeld, Historia Anglicana Ecclesiastica. Duaci, 1622, folio.

Heylin’s History of the Reformation. London, 1661, folio.

Inett’s Origines Anglicanæ.

Lyndewode, Provinciale. Antv. 1525, and Oxon. 1679, folio.

Mac Crie’s Life of Knox.

Parker De Antiquitate Britannicæ Ecclesiæ. Hanoviæ, 1605, folio.

Parker De Archiep. Cantuar. Londini, 1729, folio.

Reyner’s Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Angliâ. Duaci, 1626, folio.

Skinner’s Ecclesiastical History of Scotland.

Spotiswode’s History of the Church of Scotland. London, 1668, folio.

Southey’s Life of Wesley, and Vindiciæ Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ.

Stillingfleet’s Origines Britannicæ. Lond. 1685, fol.

Strype’s Annals of the Reformation. London, 1709, 4 vols. folio.

Strype’s Ecclesiastical Memorials. London, 1721, 3 vols. folio.

Tanner’s Notitia Monastica. Londini, 1744, folio.

Usserii Eccles. Britan. Antiquitates. Eblanæ, 1639, 4to.

Walker’s History of Independency. London, 1661, 4to.

Whartoni Anglia Sacra. Londini, 1691, in 2 vols. fol.

Wordsworth’s Ecclesiastical Biography.

Of Foreign History in general this Library possesses few works of any importance; the principal works being Bayle’s Dictionary; Banduri Imperium Orientale; Brabantiæ Monumenta Sepulchralia; Historiæ Byzantinæ Scriptores per Phil. Labbeum, Parisiis, 1648-50, in 21 vols. folio; Cluverii Italia, Sicilia, et Germania Antiqua; Freheri Rerum Germanicarum Scriptores, Francos. 1600, folio; Grimstone’s History of the Netherlands; Du Halde’s History of China; Guicciardini, Belgicæ Descriptio; Gyllii Constantinopoleos Topographia; Herreræ, Descriptio Indiæ Occidentalis; Heylin’s Cosmography; The Universal History, in 7 vols. folio; Laurenbergii Græcia Antiqua; Grævii Antiquitates; Montfaucon’s Antiquities, and other Works; Marsden’s Sumatra; Maurice’s Indian Antiquities; Mitford’s History of Greece; Pocockii Specimen Historiæ Arabum; Pontani Bohemia pia; Purchas’ Pilgrimes, London, 1625, in 5 vols. folio, a very fine clean copy, bound in calf; Robertson’s History of America, and Charles V.; Watson’s Philip II.; Hallam’s Middle Ages; Robinsoni Annales Mundi; Rycaut’s Ottoman Empire; Sandys’ Travels, and Europæ Speculum; Stuart’s Athens, incomplete; The Ionian Antiquities, and Wood’s Ruins of Palmyra; Six volumes of De Bry’s Voyages; Simsoni Chronicon Catholicum, & Wormii Monumenta Danica.

To the above may be added, Churchill’s collection of Voyages and Travels in 6 vols. folio. Bruce’s Travels. Pinkerton’s, and other works of Geography, and the Chronological researches of Beverigius, Bucherius, Carion, Cary, Calvisius, Fulcius, Helvicus, Isaacson, Marsham, Petavius, Pezron, Newton, Perizonius, Paludinus, Robinson, Scaliger, Simson, Strauchius and Ussher; with Hale’s Analysis of Ancient Chronology; all of them very material “helps to history.” To which I may add Chalmers’ Biographical Dictionary, and Brady’s Clavis Calendaria.

Of Works relating to the History and Antiquities of Great Britain, I have much pleasure in being enabled to afford the reader a pretty copious selection; commencing with the Records of the Kingdom published under the authority of the Parliamentary Commission; and the Histories of England by Brady, Echard, Hume, Macauley, and Rapin. To these may be added,

Polydori Vergilii Historia Anglicana. Basileæ, 1555, folio.

Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedam præcipui: edente Savile. 1596, folio.

Matthæi Westmonasteriensis Flores Historiarum. Francof. 1601, folio; & Londini, 1570, folio.

Florentii Wigorniensis Chronicon. Francof. 1601, folio.

Anglica, Normannica, Hibernica, &c. à veteribus scripta, è Bibliothecâ Gulielmi Camdeni. Francof. 1603, folio.

Eadmeri Historia Novorum. Londini, 1623, folio.

Matthæi Paris Historia Anglicana per Wats. Lond. 1640, folio.

Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores Decem per Rogerum Twysden. Londini, 1652, folio.

Rerum Britannicarum Scriptores Vetustiores. Heidelb. 1587, folio.

Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores Veteres, à Fell. Oxonii, 1684, folio.

Historiæ Britannicæ Scriptores XX, à Tho. Gale. Oxonii, 1698, in two vols. folio.

Buchanani Rerum Scoticarum Historia. Edinb. 1582, folio.

Camdeni Annales. Londini, 1615, folio.

Baker’s Chronicle of the Kings of England. London, 1674, folio.

Bates, Elenchus Motuum in Angliâ. Londini, 1663, 8vo.

Brand on Popular Antiquities. 2 vols. 4to.

Burnet’s History of his own Times. London, 1724, in 2 vols. folio.

Burton’s Commentary on Antoninus’s Itinerary. London, 1658, folio.

Camdeni Britannia, 1586 and 1607, with his Remains.

Campbell’s Survey of Great Britain. London, 1774, 2 vols. 4to.

Carte’s Life of Ormond. London, 1736, in 3 vols. folio.

Clarendon’s History of the Great Rebellion. Oxford, 1702, 4 vols. folio.

Coxe’s Life of Sir Robert Walpole. London, 1798, 3 vols. 4to.

Coxe’s Memoir of Marlborough.

De Lolme on the English Constitution. London, 1790, 8vo.

Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica. Dublin, 1772, in 2 vols. 8vo.

Drayton’s Polyolbion. London, 1622, folio.

Du Chesne’s Historiæ Normannorum Scriptores. Paris. 1619, folio.

Du Chesne’s Histoire d’Angleterre, &c. Paris. 1634, folio.

Dugdale’s Origines Judiciales. London, 1666, fol.

Dugdale’s History of the Troubles in England. Oxford, 1681, folio.

Dugdale’s History of Imbanking, &c. London, 1662, folio.

Evelyn’s Memoirs.

Enderbie’s Cambria triumphans. London, 1661, folio.

Franklin’s Annals of James I. and Charles I. Lond. 1681, folio.

Granger’s Biographical History of England. Lond. 1769, 5 vols. 4to.

Gifford’s Life of Pitt.

Hardyng’s Chronicle. London, 1543, 4to.

Heylin’s Life of Laud. London, 1668, folio.

Holinshed’s Chronicles of England. London, no date, folio.

Ingram’s Saxon Chronicle. Oxford, 4to.

Kennett’s Register and Chronicle. London, 1728, folio.

Biographia Britannica. Lond. 1747, in 7 vols. fol.

Laud’s History of his Troubles. London, 1695, fol.

Atkyns’ History of Gloucestershire. London, 1712, folio.

Battely’s Antiquities of Canterbury. London, 1703, folio.

Bentham’s History of the Church of Ely. Cambridge, 1771, 4to.

Boys’ History of Sandwich. Canterbury, 1792, 4to.

Burton’s Leicestershire. London, 1622, folio.

Caius, de Antiquitate Acad. Cantabr. Lond. 1574, 4to.

Chiffletius de Portu Iccio. Antverpiæ, 1627, 4to.

Dart’s Church of Canterbury. London, 1726, fol.

Description of York and Canterbury Cathedrals. London, 1755, folio.

Dugdale’s Warwickshire. London, 1656, folio.

Dugdale’s History of St. Paul’s. London, 1716, fol.

Fowler’s Mosaic Pavements.

Gostling’s Walks about Canterbury. Canterbury, 1777, 8vo.

Gough’s Sepulchral Monuments. London, 1786, &c. 5 vols. folio.

Gutch’s Collectanea Curiosa.

Halfpenny’s Fragmenta Vetusta.

Harris’s History of Kent. London, 1719, folio, with some manuscript notes by M. Norris, formerly Auditor of this Church.

Hasted’s History of Kent. Canterbury, 1778, &c. in 4 vols. folio.

Horsley’s Britannia Romana. London, 1732, folio.

Jacob’s History of Feversham. London, 1774, 8vo.

Kennett’s Parochial Antiquities. 4to.

Kilburne’s Survey of Kent. London, 1659, 4to.

Kilburne’s Brief Survey of Kent. London, 1657.

King’s Vale Royal. London, 1656, folio.

Lewis’s History of the Isle of Tenet. London, 1723, 4to.

Lewis’s History of Faversham, &c. London, 1727, 4to.

Loggan’s Oxonia et Cantabrigia illustrata, folio.

Magna Britannia. Lond. 1720, in 6 vols. 4to.

Maitland’s History of London. 1772, in 2 vols. fol.

Leland’s History of Ireland. London, 1773, in 3 vols. 4to.

Lloyd’s History of Wales, by Powell. London, 1584, 4to.

Lhuyd, Britannicæ Descriptionis Fragmentum. Col. Agr. 1572, 8vo.

Mc Crie’s Life of Knox.

Madox’s Firma Burgi. Lond. 1726, folio.

Madox’s History of the Exchequer. London, 1711, in 2 vols. folio.

Nalson’s Collections. London, 1682, in 2 vols. fol.

Neubrigensis, Guil. Rerum Anglicarum Libri V. Antv. 1567, 8vo.

Nicholl’s Original Letters addressed to Oliver Cromwell. London, 1743, folio.

North’s Life of the Lord Keeper North. London, 1742, 4to.

North’s Life of Sir Dudley North. Lond. 1744, 4to.

North’s Enquiry into Kennett’s History. London, 1740, 4to.

Parker, De Rebus sui Temporis. London, 1726, 8vo.

Pepys’ Memoirs, edited by Lord Braybrooke. 2 vols. 4to.

Robertson’s History of Scotland. Lond. 1762, 2 vols. 4to.

Ruding’s Annals of the Coinage. 3 vols. 4to.

Rushworth’s Historical Collections. London, 1682, &c. 8 vols. folio.

Rymer’s Fœdera. Lond. 1727, in 20 vols. folio.

Sidney State Papers. London, 1746, 2 vols. folio.

Slayter’s Palæ-Albion. London, 1619, folio.

Somner’s Treatise of Gavelkind. London, 1726, 4to.

Speed’s History of Great Britain. London, 1623, folio.

Spelman’s Vita Ælfredi. Oxon. 1678, folio.

Spencer’s Life of Archbishop Chichele. London, 1783.

Strype’s Lives, Annals of the Reformation and Memorials.

Stuart’s History of Scotland.

Thurloe’s State Papers. London, 1742, in 7 vols. folio.

Twinus de Rebus Albionicis. Londini, 1590, 8vo.

Manning and Bray’s History of Surrey.

Miller’s Account of Ely Cathedral. 8vo.

Morton’s Northamptonshire. London, 1712, folio.

Newcourt’s Repertorium Londinense. Lond. 1728, in 2 vols. folio.

Packe’s Dissertation on his Chart of East Kent. London, 1737. The Chart itself being also in the possession of the Dean and Chapter. It is both curious and important.

Peck’s Desiderata Curiosa. Londini, 1732, in 2 vols. folio.

Peck’s Annals of Stamford. London, 1727, folio.

Philipot’s Villare Cantianum. Lond. 1659, folio.

Plot’s Nat. Hist. of Oxfordshire. Oxford, 1667, fol.

Somner’s Portus Iccius Cæsaris, per Edm. Gibson. Oxon. 1694, 8vo.

Somner’s Antiquities of Canterbury. London, 1640, 4to. This copy contains the manuscript additions of Somner himself, which Battely afterwards incorporated with his Antiquities of Canterbury, published in 1703.

Speed’s Prospect of the most famous places in Great Britain. London, 1631, folio.

Spelman’s Villare Anglicanum. London, 1656, 4to.

Stow’s Survey of London. London, 1633, folio.

Stukeley’s Itinerarium Curiosum. Lond. 1724, fol.

Tanner’s Notitia Monastica. London, 1744, folio.

Thorpe’s Registrum Roffensis. Lond. 1769, folio.

Turner’s History of the Anglo-Saxons.

Twinus de Antiquitate Academiæ Oxoniensis. Oxon. 1608, 4to.

Wright’s History of Rutland. London, 1684, fol.

Verstegan’s Restitution of decayed Intelligence. Antwerp, 1605, 4to.

Wallis’s History of Northumberland.

Weever’s Funeral Monuments. London, 1631, fol.

Wood’s Athenæ & Antiquitates Oxonienses. London. 1721, 2 vols. folio.

Wild’s Description of Canterbury Cathedral.

Willement’s Heraldic Notices of Canterbury Cathedral.

White’s Natural History of Selborne.

Wilson’s History of Merchant Taylor’s School.

Walker’s History of Independency. London, 1661, 4to.

Viti Basinstochii Historia Britanniæ. 1602, 8vo.

Wilkins’s Leges Anglo-Saxonicæ. London, 1721, folio, and

Wood’s Institutes of the Laws of England. London, 1724, folio.

How tedious soever may be this long series of Works upon British History and Antiquities to the general reader, the Bibliographical Antiquary will thank me for the enumeration of many rare and valuable Illustrations of English history, as well as for keeping as distinct as possible the Historical and Topographical departments.

I forbear to mention the Tracts and other obsolete Works chiefly polemical, which remain on the shelves of this Library; neither are the Works on Natural History or Science deserving of a separate enumeration; unless we may except the Aldine Galen of 1525, in 5 vols. folio; the Abridgment of the Philosophical Transactions; Palladio’s Architecture; the History of Plants, by Theophrastus, Gerard, and Ray; and Shaw’s Zoology, in 17 volumes.

In English Literature and Poetry it will be sufficient to mention the names of Addison, Burke, Bacon, Ben. Jonson, Boyle, Cowley, Chaucer, Dryden, Locke, Milton, Newton, Sterne, Selden, Spenser, Shakespeare, and Swift, to shew the general character of this department of the Library. But, as usual in all Cathedral Libraries, the great mass of English works are of a sacred character.

There is indeed a strong resemblance between the Collections which, dating from the earliest dawn of literature in England, have been augmented by successive additions, and now form the Libraries annexed to the Ecclesiastical Establishments of our own time and country.

In addition to the voluminous and important works of the Fathers of the Church, and of the earlier Divines of this country and of the Continent, which have been already enumerated in their proper place, this Library embraces other Theological Works of English writers, among whom it may be sufficient to mention the names of Bramhall, Gisborne, Horne, Jortin, Perkins and Wake. To these may be added Pierce on the Epistles; Prideaux and Shuckford’s Connection; and Cudworth’s Intellectual System.

But the true character of these Collections will, in every case, be most correctly understood by a particular enumeration of their several contents.

In Classical Literature this Collection comprehends many of the principal Authors, but few of the most important editions. In illustration of this remark, I may adduce many works which have no other claim to a place in this notice; such as

Æliani Variæ Historiæ. Lugd. Bat. 1701, in 2 vols. 8vo.

Æneæ Sylvii Opera. Basil. 1571, folio.

Æschylus Tragœdiæ, per Henr. Stephanum. 1557, 4to.

Sophocles Tragœdiæ, per Henr. Stephanum. 1568, 4to.

Euripides, Barnesii, Cantabr. 1694, et Canteri. 1602, 2 vols. 4to.

Euripides, Glasguæ, 1821, in 9 vols. 8vo. in green morocco.

Apollonii Argonautica, per H. Stephanum, 1574, 4to.

Arrianus de Expeditione Alexandri, per H. Stephanum. 1575, folio.

Sidonii Apollinaris Opera. Paris. 1652 & 1609.

Ammianus Marcellinus, Du Vall. Paris. 1681, fol.

Aristotelis Opera. Paris. 1654, 4 vols. folio, & Venetiis, 1562, 10 vols. 8vo.

Archimedis Opera, Gr. et Lat. Basileæ, 1544, folio.

Aristophanes. Genevæ, 1607, folio, et Lugd. Bat. 1625, 12mo.

Aristophanes Kusteri. Amst. 1710, folio, in red morocco.

Athenæi Deipnosophistæ. Lugduni, 1612, folio.

Arrianus de Venatione, per Holstenium. Paris. 1644.

Aulus Gellius. Amstel. 1665, 12mo.

Cæsaris Commentarii per S. Clarke. Lond. 1712, folio.

Catullus, Tibullus, et Propertius. Lutet. 1604, fol.

Celsus de Medicinâ. Lugd. Bat. 1665, 12mo.

Ciceronis Opera, Lambini. Paris. 1566, 4 vols. folio, & Gronovii, Lugd. Bat. 1692, 11 vols. 8vo.

Demosthenis et Æschinis Opera. Francof. 1640, folio.

Dio Cassius. Leunclavii. Hanov. 1606, folio.

Diodorus Siculus. Rhodomani. Hanoviæ, 1604, folio.

Dionysius Halicarnasseus. Sylburgii. Francof. 1586, folio.

Diogenes Laertius. Londini, 1664, folio.

Dionis Chrysostomi Orationes. Lutet. 1604, folio.

Epictetus. Cantabr. 1655, & Amst. 1683, with Carter’s translation.

Horatius, edited by Bond, Baxter, and Bentley.

Homeri Ilias. 1689, 4to. et Odyssea, 1567, 12mo. cum.

Eustathii Commentariis. Basileæ, 1559, 3 vols. folio.

Herodotus, Francofurti, 1608, folio.

Herodotus Wesselingii. Amst. 1763, folio, Ch. max., in vellum.

Justini Historia. Lond. 1609, 12mo. & 1701, 8vo.

Juvenalis Lubini. Hanoviæ. 1603, 4to.

Livius, Gronovii. Lugd. Bat. 1634, 32mo. Clerici. Amst. 1710, 10 vols. 8vo. Coloniæ, 1525, folio, & Francof. 1628, folio.

Luciani Opera. Lutet. Paris. 1615, folio.

Luciani Opera. Hemsterhusii. Amst. 1743, 4 vols. 4to.

Livius Drakenborchii. Ludg. Bat. 1738-46, in 7 vols. 4to.

Longinus, à Pearce. Lond. 1624, et à Langbaine. Oxford, 1636.

Lucanus Oudendorpii. Ludg. Bat. 1728, 4to.

Lucretius Wakefieldii. Lond. 1796, 3 vols. folio.

Lycophron, Potteri. Oxonii, 1697, folio.

Martialis. Amst. 1670, & Genev. 1623.

Oratores Attici, Bekkeri. Berol. 1823, 5 vols. 8vo.

Ovidius, Burmanni. Amst. 1727, in 4 vols. 4to.

Persius Casauboni. 1647, 8vo. & Hanov. 1603, 4to.

Pindar, edited by Potter and Stephens.

Platonis Opera, Serrani. 1578, 3 vols. folio.

Platonis Opera, Bekkeri. Berol. 1815, 8 vols. 8vo.

Plautus, Lambini. Aurel. Allobr. 1605, 4to.

Plinii Historia Naturalis. Venet. 1571, Francof. 1599, &c.

Plinii Junioris Epistolæ. Genevæ, 1625.

Poetæ Græci Principes, Stephani. Paris. 1566, folio.

Plutarchi Opera. Stephani. Paris. 1572, 6 vols. 8vo.

Plutarchi Opera. Rualdi. Paris. 1624, 2 vols. folio.

Pausanias, Xylandri. Hanoviæ. 1613, folio.

Polybius Casauboni. Paris. 1609, folio.

Polybius Schweighaeuseri. Lipsiæ, 1789-95, 8 vols. in 8vo.

Ptolemæi Geographia. Basileæ, 1545, folio.

Quintiliani Opera. Coloniæ, 1521, folio.

Sallustius, à Wasse. Cantabr. 1710, 4to. Havercamp’s excellent edition.

Seneca. Paris. 1626, folio. Lugd. Bat. 1640, 4 vols. 12mo.

Strabonis Geographia, Casauboni. 1587, folio.

Suetonius, Pitisci. Leovardiæ. 1714, 4to. 2 tom.

Suetonius. Paris. 1610, folio, Lugd. Bat. 1647, 8vo.

Tacitus Variorum. Paris. 1608, folio.

Terentius Variorum. Lugd. Bat. 1675, 8vo. & Bentleii. Cant. 1726, 4to.

Theocritus, Heinsii. 1604, 4to. Hudsoni.

Thucydides. Francof. 1694, & Oxonii, 1696, folio, et Dukeri, Amst. 1731, folio.

Valerius Maximus. Lutet. 1517, folio.

Vegetius de Re Militari. Lugd. Bat. 1592, 8vo.

Virgilius, Servii. Paris. 1600, folio. Variorum. L. Bat. 1680, 3 vols. 8vo. with Heyne’s excellent edition.

Vitruvius de Architecturâ. Amstel. 1649, folio, and Xenophon Leunclavii. Francof. 1596, folio. Oxonii, 1703, 5 vols. 8vo.

This Library is also endowed with various Works upon Etymology, deserving of some mention in this place. Among which, the valuable addition of the Saxon Tongue in Somner’s own handwriting, induces me to mention firstly,

Minsheu’s Guide into Tongues. London, 1627, folio; and next,

Somneri Dictionarium Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum. Oxon. 1659, folio.

Spelmanni Glossarium Archaiologicum. Lond. 1664, folio.

Skinner, Etymologicum Linguæ Anglicanæ. Lond. 1671, folio.

Hickes’ Thesaurus Septentrionalis. Oxon. 1705, 2 vols. folio.

Davies’ Dictionarium Britannico-Latinum. Lond. 1632, folio.

Cotgrave’s French and English Dictionary. Lond. 1611, folio, and

C. Kiliani Dufflæi Etymologicum Teutonicæ Linguæ. Antv. 1599, 4to.

To which may be added the Greek and Latin Glossaries of Du Fresne, the Lexica of Scapula, and Suidas. Stephani Thesaurus Linguæ Græcæ et Latinæ, with Valpy’s recent edition of the former. Calepini Dictionarium octolingue. Hoogeveen Doctrina Particularum. Vossii Etymologicum Linguæ Latinæ. Sylburgii Etymologicum Magnum. Vigerus de Idiotismis Græcis; with French, Italian, Spanish, English, Hebrew, and Æthiopic Dictionaries; Hebrew, Greek, Samaritan, Æthiopic, Saxon, and Italian Grammars; from which a very fair estimate may be formed of this important portion of the Library.

In conclusion, I have ventured to enumerate some of the Works on Bibliography, chiefly of an early date, which are found in this Library, giving precedence to the Bibliotheca Græca, Hamburgi, 1705, 14 vols. 4to. and Latina, Hamburgi, 1708-12; with the Bibliographia Antiquaria of Fabricius, Hamb. 1713, 4to.; to which I may add the following:

Balei Scriptorum Britanniæ Catalogus. Basil. 1559, folio.

Beughem, Bibliographia Critico-Curiosa. Amstel. 1689, 2 vols. 8vo.

Beughem, Bibliographia Historica, Chronologica et Geographica. Amst. 1685, 8vo.

Beughem, Incunabula Typographiæ. Amst. 1688, 8vo.

Le Long, Bibliotheca Sacra. Paris. 1723, 2 vols. folio.

Joh. Lomeierus de Bibliothecis. Ultrajecti. 1680, 8vo.

Gabr. Naudæi Bibliographia Militaris. Jenæ. 1683, 8vo.

Nouvelle Bibliothèque choisie. Amst. 1714, 2 vols. 8vo.

Bibliothèque Curieuse et Instructive. Trevoux, 1704, 12mo.

List of the various Editions of the Bible. Lond. 1778, 8vo.

Frisii Bibliotheca Philosophorum Chronologica. Tiguri, 1592, 4to.?

Gesneri Bibliotheca. Tiguri, 1574, folio.

Marrier’s Bibliotheca Cluniacensis. Lutet. Paris. 1614, folio.

Photii Bibliotheca, curâ Hœschelii. Rothomagi. 1653, folio.

Pitseus, de Scriptoribus Angliæ. Paris. 1619, 4to.

Reading’s Catalogue of Sion College Library. London, 1724, folio.

Tanner’s Bibliotheca Britannico Hibernica. Lond. 1748, folio.

Wormii Literatura Danica. Hasniæ, 1636, 4to.

Histoire de l’Imprimerie, et de la Librairie. Paris. 1689, 4to.

Bibliothèque des Auteurs de l’Histoire de France. Paris. 1618, 12mo.

The Catalogues of various Libraries come next in order. First, let us take those of Manuscripts, among which we find

James’s Catalogus Librorum MSS. Oxon. et Cantabr. Lond. 1600, 4to.

Catalogus MSS. Angliæ, et Hiberniæ. Oxon. 1697, folio.

Catalogus Librorum MSS. à Matthæo Parker, Collegio C.C.C. legatorum. Lond. 1722.

Catalogue des MSS. de la Bibliotheque du Sequier. Paris. 1686, 12mo.

Among the several Catalogues of printed books we find

James’s Catalogus Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ. Oxon. 1620, 4to.

Hyde’s Catalogus Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ. Oxon. 1674, folio.

Bibliothecæ Cordesianæ Catalogus. Paris. 1643, 4to.

Bibliothecæ Scarburghianæ Catalogus. 8vo. sine loco aut anno.

Bibliothecæ Colbertinæ Catalogus. Paris. 1708, 8vo.

Bibliothecæ Thuanæ Catalogus. Paris. 1679, 2 vols. 8vo.

Bibliothecæ Sequierianæ Catalogus. Paris, 1685, 8vo.

Bibliothecæ Bultellianæ Catalogus. Paris. 1711, 2 vols. 8vo.

Bibliothecæ Chethamensis Catalogus, à Radcliffe, 2 vols. 8vo.

Bibliotheca Telleriana. Paris. 1693, folio.

Bibliotheca Heinsiana. Lugd. Bat. 1682, 12mo.

Catalogus Librorum Joannis Giraud. Paris. 1707, 8vo.

Catalogus Librorum Joannis Galloys. Paris. 1710, 8vo.

Catalogue of Charles Bernard’s Library. Lond. 1710, 12mo.

Catalogus Librorum Bibliothecæ Joach. Faultrier. Paris. 1709. 8vo.

Roberti Scott Catalogus Librorum. Lond. 1674, 4to.

Dibdin’s Typographical Antiquities, in 4 vols. 4to.

Works of Bibliography are not abundant in the Cathedral Libraries of England, and it is because in this collection they are unusually numerous that I have mentioned many books now but seldom met with, and some deservedly forgotten.

If to any of my readers this account appear unnecessarily prolix, I must remind them that my object is to give them such full information as to the contents of each Cathedral Library, as may enable them to judge for themselves of its character.

If again this object can only be effected by a dry catalogue of books, the enthusiasm of the genuine bibliographer will carry him through the task, and in the present instance, it is hoped, may render him more intimately acquainted with the literary treasures of the METROPOLITAN Library contained within the walls of Christ Church, Canterbury.

Library of Carlisle.

The Library of the Dean and Chapter of this Cathedral is placed in a small room immediately adjoining the Chapter-house, which stands in the quiet close contiguous to the Cathedral.

The books are all arranged upon open shelves, and labelled at the back in accordance with the several Manuscript Catalogues which have from time to time been made of this collection.

Of these the first is a small folio, in the handwriting of one person, entitled “Catalogus Librorum in Bibliothecâ Carliolensi repositorum ordine alphabetico digestus. Georgius Fleming, _LL.D._ Decanus Carliol.” The next consists of two larger folios, whereof the first is entitled, “Catalogus Librorum in Bibliothecâ Carliol. ordine alphabetico digestus;” and the second “Catalogus Librorum secundum Classes (Literis Capitalibus signatas, numeris ordinalibus notatas) dispositorum.” The last Catalogue, compiled in 1821, is also in folio, and arranged in alphabetical order, the references to the books being copied from the preceding Catalogues; but the imprints and dates of the books are not given in this last enumeration of their titles.

The principal feature of this Library is theological, ponderous folios of obsolete divinity in dark, unlettered calf, and smaller controversial treatises, now deservedly forgotten, occupying a large space upon these dusty shelves.

In all this mass of Divinity the works of St. Anselm, St. Chrysostom, Tertullian, St. Athanasius, Justin, Origen, Lactantius, the Gregories, and Theophylact, with Eusebii Præparatio and Demonstratio Evangelica, printed at Paris in 1628, in 2 volumes folio, and other Fathers of the Church, form prominent features. But perhaps the most correct idea of this department may be formed by a cursory survey of its component parts:—the Polyglott Bible of Walton, with a defective copy of Castell’s Lexicon. Biblia Latina Castalionis, printed at Basle, in folio. Coverdale’s English Bible of the date of 1553. (G. III. 1.) and the Catalogue mentions another “old English Bible, temp. Henry VIII.” which I could not find, though numbered A. VI. 18. a Spanish and an Italian, and a small quarto Hebrew Bible. Bagster’s Latin Bible of 1824, in 12mo. calf. Novum Testamentum Gr: Millii. Oxonii, 1707, in 2 vols. fol. Geddes’ Translation of the Scriptures, printed at London, in 2 vols. 4to. in 1792. Poli Synopsis and the Critici Sacri. Canones et Decreta Concilia Tridentini. Concilia Generalia et Provincialia. Parisiis, 1636, in folio. Quick’s Synodicon in Gallia Reformatâ. Bishop Overall’s Convocation Book. London, 1690, in 4to.; and Grabe’s Septuaginta Interpretum. Oxonii, 1707, in 2 vols. folio.

Turning from Chamieri Controversiæ, Genevæ, 1526, in four thick folios, to Lutheri Opera, Jenæ, 1612, also in folio; and from the works of Cardinal Bellarmine, and of Calvin, to the works of Grotius, Melancthon, and Erasmus, it is refreshing to find the works of Jeremy Taylor, Barrow, Hammond, and Tillotson, of Hooker, Mede, Hall, and Prideaux, preserved on the same shelves with Lardner’s Testimonies, in 4 vols. 8vo. and his Gospel History, the latter in 17 volumes 8vo.; Jewel’s Apology, Pearson on the Creed, Campbell on the Gospels, Paley’s Moral Philosophy, and Watson’s Theological Tracts, in 6 vols. 8vo.

To the above may be added, the Homilies of the Venerable Bede, the Works of Andrews and Baxter, with the Preservative against Popery, and other treatises of like nature, too insignificant for detail.

As connected with Ecclesiastical affairs, I may here notice, Usher’s Antiquitates Ecclesiæ Britannicæ, Stillingfleet’s Origines Britannicæ, and Inett’s Origines Anglicanæ, Spotswood’s History of the Church of Scotland, and Bower’s History of the Popes, in 7 volumes 4to.

In Ecclesiastical History, we also find Wilkins’s Concilia, Ecton’s Thesaurus, Spelman’s Concilia, Dugdale’s Monasticon, and Burton’s Monasticon Eboracense.

In British History, we have the pleasure of recording:—Daniel’s History of England; Kennett’s Register, or History of England; Buchanan’s History of Scotland; Sanderson’s History of Mary Queen of Scots; a complete set of Rymer’s Fœdera, 20 volumes, folio, in old calf, gilt; Matthæi Westmonasteriensis Flores Historiarum; Gulielmi Neubrigensis Historia Rerum Anglicanarum; Langhorne’s Chronica Regum Angliæ; Madox’s Formulare Anglicanum, Firma Burgi, and Baronia Anglicana; Gwillim’s Heraldry, 1638; Dugdale’s Baronage, and antient usage of bearing Arms; Mackenzie’s Royal Line of Scotland; Rerum Anglicarum Annales; Jones’s History of the Stuarts; Bates’ Elenchus Motuum nuperorum in Angliâ; Rushworth’s Historical Collections; Hacket’s Scrinia Referata, or Defence of Archbishop Williams; Laud’s Troubles, the Mercurius Rusticus, and a large collection of Tracts relating to the troublesome times of the great civil war, when the adjacent Cathedral suffered so severely.

As the best companion to the above Works, I may add a very nice Copy in calf, in 4 vols. 8vo. of Bishop Nicolson’s English, Scotch, and Irish Historical Libraries, printed at London, in 1696-7, &c.

I may add too, that this Library, like all others attached to Cathedral foundations, possesses a complete set of the records, and other documents published by authority of the Parliamentary Commissioners.

In British Topography, I remarked Camden’s Britannia, Annales, and Remains; Somner’s History of Canterbury, of the Portus Iccius, and of the Ports in Kent, with his Treatise on Gavelkind; Wood’s Athenæ Oxonienses, in folio; Willis’s Cathedrals, in 2 vols. Ridpath’s Border History; Burn’s Westmoreland; Leigh’s Lancashire and Cheshire; Dugdale’s History of St. Paul’s, and of Warwickshire, and his Treatise on Imbanking and Draining the Fens; Loggan’s Oxonia illustrata; Weever’s Funeral Monuments; and Stowe’s London. To which may be added, Boate’s Natural History of Ireland.

As a corollary to the History of England, Wilkins’ Leges Anglo-Saxonicæ Ecclesiasticæ et Civiles, the Statutes at large, and several Law Reports, including those of Vaughan and Noy, claim to be considered equally with Kippis’s Biographia Britannica.

In Etymology, I am enabled to record, Cotgrave’s French Dictionary; Spelman’s Glossary; Somner’s Dictionarium Saxonicum; Lluyd’s Archæologia; Skinner’s Etymologicon Anglicanum; Hickes’ Thesaurus Septentrionalis; Buxtorf’s Hebrew Lexicon, and Scapulæ et Schrevelii Lexica Græca.

As tending to elucidate the dark passages of antiquity, I may add Astle on the Origin and Progress of Writing, and two important Works in very fine condition, bound in old calf. Andersoni Diplomatum et Numismatum Scotiæ Thesaurus, Edinburgi, 1739, folio, and I. L. Waltheri Lexicon Diplomaticum. Ulmæ, 1756, also in folio.

In Geography, I noticed Bochart’s Geographia Sacra, Nicolson’s English Atlas, in 2 large folio volumes, printed at Oxford in 1681, and Pitt’s Atlas, of equal bulk.

In Foreign History, I only noticed, Davila’s Civil Wars of France, the book which Hampden and Charles I. are both said to have studied. Thuani Historia sui Temporis. Rycaut’s History of the Turks, &c. &c. Josephus Hudsoni. Oxonii, 1720, 2 vols. folio.

Of Classic Authors, the editions which this Library contains are of little or no consequence, though it cannot be deemed entirely deficient in this class, possessing various editions of the works of Livy, Martial, Lucan, Lucian, Æsop, Velleius Paterculus, and Aulus Gellius; with the Variæ Historiæ of Ælian, Aristotelis Opera, Du Valli, Parisiis, 1654, in 4 vols. folio; Farnaby’s Ovid; Hudson’s Thucydides; and Hobbes’ Translation of the latter author; and Dryden’s Virgil.

To these I may add Photii Bibliotheca, Rothomagi, 1653, and Galeni Opera, Basileæ, 1533, both in folio.

In Natural History, I may mention Grews’ Anatomy of Plants, and the Theatrum Insectorum of Wotton, Gesner, and Penn, printed at London in 1634, in folio.

I may class at once under the same category, Ralegh’s History of the World; Heylin’s Cosmography; Grews’ Cosmologia Sacra; and Burnet’s Theory of the Earth: and as connected with Science, 37 vols. of the Philosophical Transactions, recently bound in calf.

In English Literature, we have the Works of the two Royal Authors, the unhappy Charles, and the pedantic James, as originally published in a collective form; and of the two great philosophers, Bacon and Boyle, as originally published in detached pieces, or separate volumes. The Works of Chaucer and of Hobbes, Brown’s Vulgar Errors, Stuart’s Political Economy, and the Legend of St. Cuthbert, may also serve to afford some idea of the miscellaneous contents of this ancient Library.

It only remains to notice, in Bibliography, the Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, and Hyde’s Catalogue of the Bodleian Library.

I may add, that in this Library, which is under the care of the Treasurer of the Cathedral, a very salutary regulation exists, by which all borrowers of books guarantee the safe return of all volumes lent to themselves “in good plight and order;” and several declarations to this effect, properly subscribed and attested, may be seen in the old Register, commencing on November 23rd, 1703, which is still kept for that purpose.

Library of Chester.

The Library of the Dean and Chapter of Chester is kept in the Chapter-house annexed to the Cathedral. This apartment is entered from the cloisters, through an outer door and inner screen, over which, on each side the doorway, hang the flags of the 22nd Regiment, raised in Cheshire, presented to the Cathedral by General Finch. The sides of the room are ornamented by elegant and slender pillars, rising between the tall and narrow windows, up to the vaulted roof of stone.

The books are contained in oak presses with solid doors, which occupy three sides of the Chapter-house, with the exception of the space occupied by the two fire-places. The screen fills the fourth side entirely.

In a thin folio volume of 53 leaves, entitled “A Catalogue of certain Books belonging to Christ Church, at Chester. Folio. MDCCLXVIII.” we find this satisfactory assurance:—“In the month of June, MDCCLXII. every volume mentioned in this Catalogue, appeared to be in the Library, except those volumes only which were duly entered in the note book as borrowed books.

“T. C.”

The same authority proceeds to inform us that “There is a large folio Bible (not mentioned in the Catalogue) printed by Baskerville, presented to the Governors of the Cathedral, by the Rev. Mr. Henchman, Sacrist of Chester Cathedral, and Vicar of St. Oswald’s, within the same.

“In the Chapter Library,” it is added, “the folios are ranged on the lowest shelves in the several presses, the quartos on the shelves just above them, the smaller sized books extend from the quartos to the top of the press. Every press which contains books hath the letter initial of the title, together with the size of every volume therein, written on the inner side of the folding doors; moreover every letter is singly pasted on each shelf where it begins. The back of every single book, and of the first volume in every set, is marked with the letter, and number of that letter to which it belongs. Blue paper is used for marks, not through affectation of singularity, but because when it grows dusty through time it has a less sordid appearance than white.” Then follows an explanation of these marks, very useful to all frequenters of the Library, so long as the excellent order above described was preserved. That is however no longer the case, the labels having been removed from the books, and the lists taken off from the doors.

The books nevertheless are readily to be found, as new lettering pieces have been added to all which required such reparation. They still retain the dark calf in which they were originally bound, and are described in the Catalogue according to their sizes, from the folio downwards.

Under these heads the order is alphabetical, and titles are given with sufficient fulness, and the names, places, and dates of each work satisfactorily recorded in this Catalogue.

The books themselves are not numerous; in fact, I shall proceed to notice all except a few of the most obscure.

I will first dispose of the few manuscripts which, having been preserved from the wreck of the Monastic Library, are thus recorded:

“_Libri MSS._”

1. Cestria Sacra, etc.

2. De Cestriæ rebus antiquis.

These two volumes are bound in parchment in small 4to.

3. Prisca et Catholica Fides de reali presentiâ Christi in Sacramento Eucharistiæ, unà cum refutatione Transubstantiationis, 1655, per Dr. J. C. Dm. P——, large 4to. sewed.

“Fr: Cholmondely ex dono Autoris.”

4. Four folio Books of writing paper, written in some parts, of which two only now remain.

5. A short Account in the Latin language of a certain Roman Altar, lately found by digging a cellar in the house of one Tyrer, in Chester.

This interesting piece of antiquity is preserved in the cases of the Library which are not filled by books, where I also observed a Roman stone of the 20th legion, a stone inscribed with

+-------------+ |COHI ◇ OCRAII| |MAXIMI Ω IMP | +-------------+

Here is also most appropriately deposited the headstone of the coffin of Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester.

I now turn to the printed books, which form this ancient collection, and in so doing cannot but remark the absence of Walton’s Polyglott Bible. The other editions of the sacred volume which I noticed were the

Biblia Græca. Francofurti, 1598, folio.

Montani Biblia Interlineari. Antverpiæ, 1584, folio.

The Bible in French, printed at London, 1688, 4to.

Biblia formâ minori, i. e. textus Hebraicus Veteris Testamenti fine punctis Masoreticis, et Novum Testamentum Græcum versibus in margine notatis, capitalibus autem literis Græcis notatis.

This small Hebrew Bible is bound up with an imperfect Greek Testament in 8vo. and Septuagint, according to the Vatican copy, Cambridge, 1665, 8vo.

Of the New Testament, printed separately, I noticed the Novum Testamentum Bezæ, 1598, folio. Nov. Test. Græcum, Oxonii, 1700, 8vo.; and the Nov. Test. Latinè et Italicè, printed at Lyons in 1558, 8vo.

I may here notice a recent addition to the collection, in the shape of Waltoni Prolegomena, in Biblia Polyglotta, edente Wrangham, Cantabrigiæ, 1828, in 2 8vo. volumes, with this inscription:

“Bibliothecæ Eccles. Cathedr. Cestriens. hunc librum cui quasi inter mœnia ejus corona est imposita, eâ quâ par est observantiâ humillimè offert.” “Franciscus Wrangham, Ebor. Orient. Archdiaconus.”

“Kal. Jan. 1829.”

Of Commentators I observed Ainsworth’s Annotations on the Pentateuch, in folio; Erasmi Paraphrasis Novi Testamenti, 1541, folio; Hodius in Bibl. S. S. Oxon. 1705, folio; Hammond on the New Testament, in folio; Mayer’s Commentaries on the Bible, in folio; Whitby on the New Testament, in folio; Le Clerc on the N. T. 4to.; Heinsius on Nov. Test. 4to.; Fell on St. Paul, in 8vo.; Knatchbull on the New Testament; Patrick on the Psalms, and Slade’s Annotations on the Epistles and Gospels, in 8vo. and Usserii de LXX Gr. in 4to.

Of the Fathers of the Church this Library contains,

Augustini Opera. Parisiis, 1635, in 9 folio volumes.

Chrysostomi Opera. Græcè, Etonæ, 1612, in 8 vols. folio.

Cypriani Opera. Pamelii, 1593, folio.

The Works of Clement of Alexandria and S. Cyril, both in folio.

Epiphanii Opera, Petavii. Parisiis, 1622, folio.

Hieronymi Opera, Erasmi. Basileæ, in 9 folio volumes, much injured by damp.

The Works of Irenæus, edited by Grabe, in folio.

Justinii Martyris Opera. Parisiis, 1615, folio.

Lactantii Opera, Sparke. Oxonii, 1684, 8vo.

Synesii Opera Petavii. Paris. 1631, in folio.

Theodoreti Opera, Sirmondi et Garnerii. Parisiis, 1642, in 5 folio volumes.

Tertulliani Opera, Rigaltii. Parisiis, 1675, folio.

The Works of Origen, Gregory Nazianzen, and Theophylact, some Tracts of S. Chrysostom, Philo Judæus, the Epistles of Ignatius, edited by Vossius in 1680, and by Smith in 1709: both in 4to.

To these may be added Cotelerii Patres Apostolici, Amstelod. 1724, folio, and Grabe, Spicilegium Veterum Patrum. Oxon. 1700, in two 8vo. vols.

Of Concordances there is one in Latin printed at Hanover in 1618, and another in English printed at Cambridge in 1672: both in folio.

I also noticed the Alcoran and a Life of Mahomet (not Sale’s) of the date of 1688, in folio; Reeves’s Translations of the Apologies of the Primitive Fathers, 1709, in 2 volumes 8vo.; Calmet’s Dictionary of the Bible; Poli Synopsis; Limborch Theologia Christiana; Polani Syntagma Theologiæ; and Willet’s Synopsis Papismi; all in folio, are found on these shelves.

Among the various writers on Theology I may mention a few pieces by Erasmus and Grotius, the works of Thomas Aquinas, Col. Agr. 1604, in folio, Dallæus de Cultibus, in 4to.; the Works of Pope Gregory, in 4to.; Outram de Sacrificiis, in 4to.; Arnobius adversus Gentes, Antverpiæ, 1582, 8vo.; Dodwell in Irenæum, and Joannes Sarisburiensis Policraticus, sive de nugis Curialium. Lugd. Bat. 1595, 8vo.

The collection of English Divinity is very respectable, including Barrow’s Works edited by Tillotson in 1683, in 2 folio volumes; Chillingworth’s Religion of Protestants, and Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity, both in folio; Bishop Hall’s Works, London, 1628, folio; Mede’s Works; Nicholls on the Common Prayer, 1613, and Pearson on the Creed, all in folio, with the Posthumous Works of the latter in 4to.; Perkins’s Exposition, London, 1728, folio; Sherlock on the Trinity, on Death, and other Works; Stillingfleet’s Origines, on the Protestant Religion, on the Trinity, and the Antiquity of the British Churches; Tenison on Idolatry; Thorndike on Religion; Waterland on the Creed; Wollaston’s Religion of Nature delineated, and Wall on Infant Baptism: all in 4to.

Bennet on Schism; Bastwick’s Controversial Tracts; Barrow on the Trinity; Clarke on the Attributes; Cockburn on the Christian Faith; Derham’s Physico-Theology; Ditton on the Resurrection; Edwards on Providence, London, 1696, 8vo.; Ellis on the XXXIX. Articles; Hartcliffe on Virtue; Howel on the Pontificate; Jenkin on the Christian Religion; Kenn on the Catechism; Lloyd on Church Government; Maurice on Episcopacy; Nicholls on Contempt of the World; Prideaux’s Connection; Turner on the Messiah; Thorndike on Religious Assemblies; Wake on Swearing; Whitby on Election and Reprobation, and on the New Testament; A Vindication of Miracles against Woolston by the Bishop of Lichfield, London, 1731, in 2 vols. 8vo.; and a Defence of Christianity from the Prophecies, by Edward, Bishop of Lichfield, London, 1725; an imperfect copy of Tillotson’s Works; Kenn’s Crown of Glory; Kettlewell’s Discourses; Calamy’s Sermons; Bishop Cleaver’s Sermons, Oxford, 1808, presented to the Library by Dr. Trevor; and several Miscellaneous Sermons and Tracts, mostly in 4to. including the Funeral Sermon of Margaret, mother of Henry VII. and Foundress of Christ’s and St. John’s Colleges at Cambridge, 1768; Bingham’s Scholastical History; Dupin’s Ecclesiastical History; Brent’s History of the Council of Trent, 1676, folio.

The Works relating to Ecclesiastical affairs in this Collection are not numerous. They include, Eusebii Historia Ecclesiastica, et Ecclesiasticæ Historiæ Auctores à Froben. Basileæ, 1544, folio; Howel’s Synopsis Canonum Rituale Græcar. Eccles. Orient. Paris. 1647, folio; Spencer de Legibus Hebræorum, Cantab. 1685, folio; Usserii Annales, 1650, folio; Platina’s Vitæ Pontificum, Col. Agr. 1610, 4to.; Reformatio Legum Eccles. Regis Phil. Nat. Elzevir, 1661, 4to.; Cunæus de Republicâ Hebræorum, Durandi Rationale divinorum officiorum, 1592, 8vo.; The Rights of the English Convocation, 1700, 8vo.; Rycaut on the Greek and Armenian Churches, 1679, 8vo.; Richerii Historia Concil. General. Col. 1683, in 3 8vo. volumes; and Lewis’s Hebrew Antiquities, London, 1724, in 2 vols. 8vo.

The Historical department of this Library embraces Bayle’s Historical Dictionary, printed at Rotterdam in 1697, in 4 folio volumes; Cary’s Palæologia Chronica; Collier’s Historical Dictionary, in folio; the Chronicle of Eusebius, Europæ Speculum, Lond. 1637, 4to.; Josephus’s History of the Jews, printed by Froben at Basle in 1540, folio, a copy which is defective in the title; and the works of that author published at Geneva in 1635, folio; Daniel and Larrey’s Histories of France; Mireæ Chronica multorum Auctorum, Antv. 1608, folio; Montfaucon’s Antiquities, translated by Humphreys, in 7 folio volumes; Thuani Historia sui Temporis, curâ Buckleii, Lond. 1733, in 7 folio volumes; Seldeni Marmora Arundeliana, Lond. 1728, 4to.; Bossuet Histoire Universelle; Fleetwood’s Inscriptiones Antiquæ, Græcia Vetus illustrata à Frisio, Lugd. Bat. 1626, 8vo.; Manutii Antiquitates Romanæ, Col. Agr. 1570, 8vo.; Memoires du Duc de Rohan et de Duc de Guise; Malalæ his. Chron. Chilmead, Oxon. 1691, 8vo.; Onuphrii Rep. Rom. Comm. Venet. 1558, 8vo.; Roma Sacra antica, e moderna, figuratà, Romæ, 1687, 8vo.; Tursellini Epitome Hist. Col. Agr. 1629, 8vo.; and Zozimi Historia, Gr. and Lat. Oxon. 1679, 8vo.

I also noticed Doleman’s celebrated Conference with respect to the Succession to the Crown of England, 1681, 8vo.; Burton’s Commentary upon the Itinerary of Antoninus, 1658, folio; Camdeni Annales Elizabethæ, &c. Lond. 1615, in two folio volumes, and his Epistles, London, 1691, 8vo.; and Temple’s Introduction to the History of England, 1695, 8vo.

The Geographical Works in these Presses comprehend the Geographiæ Veterii Scriptores Minores. Oxonii, 1698, in 2 vols. 8vo.; Ortelii Thesaurus Geographicus et Sylacis Periplus Caryandensis, Vossii, 1639, 4to.; Vareni Descriptio Japoniæ et Siam. Cant. 1673, and his Vet. Geographia generalis, 8vo,; Well’s Geography, Oxford, 1701, 8vo.; and Wright’s Travels, London, 1730, 4to.—“a present from the Author to the Library.”

The Chronological series includes Browne’s Fasciculus Temporum, Lond. 1690, folio; Beveregii Institutiones Chronologicæ; Dodwell de Vet. Cyclis, Oxon. 1701, 4to.; Livelie’s Chronology, London, 1597, 8vo.; Shickardi Horologium Hebraicum, Lond. 1639, 8vo.; Strauchius Chronology in English, 1699, 8vo.; Scaliger de Emendatione temporum, in folio; and Whiston’s Chronology of the Bible, in 4to.

I now approach the most copious and interesting department of this Library, and proceed to enumerate the editions of the Greek and Roman classics, commencing with

A large paper copy of Æsopus, Alsopii. Oxon. 1698, 8vo.

Andronicus Rhodius, Heinsii. Lugd. Bat. 1617, 8vo.

Apollonius Rhodius, Elzevir. Lugd. Bat. 1641, 8vo.

Æschylus, Tragœdiæ, Ed. Pr. Aldi. Venet. 1518, 8vo. a clean and perfect copy, bound up with Oppiani Halieuticon, Phil. Junta. Florentiæ, 1515, 8vo. Dionysii Orbis Descriptio, Arati Astronomicon, and Procli Sphæra, cum Scholii Ceporini. Basileæ, apud Joannem Bebelium, 1523, 8vo.; measuring six inches and three-eights by four inches, in old calf binding. There is another edition of Æschylus printed at Paris, in 1552, 8vo.

Æschinis et Demosthenis Orationes à Foulkes. Oxon. 1696, 8vo.

Ælianus Fabri. 1668, 8vo.

Anacreon, à Barnes. Cantab. 1705; and Faher, 1660, 8vo.

Aristophanis Comœdiæ. Aurel., 1607, in folio, and Lugd. Bat. 1625, 8vo.

Aristotelis Opera Sylburgis. Francof. Wechel, 1584-7, in 4 4to. volumes.

Aristotelis Ethica, Victorii, 1584; Rhetorica, Gr. & Lat. Lond. 1619; Physica, Francof. 1596; De Historiâ Animalium, 1585; Rhetorica & De Arte Poeticâ, 1584, all in 4to.; and another edition of the latter Treatise, printed at Cambridge in 1696, 8vo.; Athenæus Dalecampii, Lugd. Bat. 1612, in folio; and Arrianus Stephani, 1575, folio.

Appiani Historia, Gr. & Lat. Tollii. Amstel. 1670, 8vo.

Aurelius Victor. Lugd. Bat. 1670, 8vo.; and

Aulus Gellius, Gronovii. Lugd. Bat. 1687, 8vo.

Aristidis Orationes. Canteri. 1604, 12mo.

Aristæneti Epistolæ. Paris. 1639, 8vo.

Ausonii Opera, 1608, 8vo.

Apollodori Bibliotheca Commelini. 1599, 8vo.

Athenagoras, edited by Humphreys. 1714, 8vo.

Arati et Eratosthenis quædam, cum Dionysii Hymnis. Oxon. 1672, 8vo.

Antoninus, edited by Gataker, Dacier, and Stanhope, in 1697, folio, and the Edition printed at Oxford, 1680, 12mo.

Cæsar. Amst. 1650, 8vo.

Ciceronis Opera, Lugd. Bat. 1642, in 8 volumes 8vo.; Ciceronis Epistolæ, 1549, and Paris, 1557, both in folio; Cicero de Oratore, Aldi, Venetiis, 1564, 8vo., a cropt copy, in the original calf measuring five inches and three quarters by three inches and five-eighths, with “10. R. A.” stamped on the sides; Orationes, Delphini, Cant. 1692, 8vo.; Quintus Calaber, Hanoviæ, 1604, 8vo., and Quintus Curtius, Wetstein. Amstel. 1687, 8vo.

Callimachus; Stephani, in folio.

Catullus, Vossii. Brunsvig. 1658, 8vo.

Diogenes Laertius. Stephani, 1570, 8vo., and Kuhnii. Amst. 1692, in two 4to. volumes.

Dionysius Halicarnasseus. Oxonii, 1704, in 2 vols. fol.

Dion Cassius, Leunclavii. Hanoviæ, 1606, folio.

Dionis Chrysostomi Orationes. Lutetiæ, 1604, fol.

Dionysii Alexandrini et Pomponii Melæ, Orbis Descriptio, 1557, folio.

Demosthenis et Æschines Orationes, Wolfii. Francof. 1604, folio, and by Foulkes. Oxonii, 1696, 8vo.

Ennii Fragmenta, Hesselii. Amst. 1707, 4to.

Euripidis Tragœdiæ à Barnes. Cantab. 1694, folio, & Canteri. Amstel. 1571, 8vo.

Euclidis Elementa à Barrow. Lond. 1659, 8vo.

Epictetus & Cebes. Cantab. 1655, 8vo.

Eustathius de Ismenie Amoribus. Paris. 1618, 8vo.

Eutropius. Basileæ, 1546, 8vo.

Eratosthenes. 1590, 8vo.

Falisci Cynegeticon, Johnson. Lond. 1679, 8vo.

Florus. Amstel. 1664, 8vo.

Frontini Opera. Amstel. 1661, 8vo.

Galeni Opera. Basileæ, 1538, in 3 folio volumes, and the fifth part only of the Aldine edition of 1525, in folio.

Herodotus, Aldi. Venet. 1502, folio. This copy of the first edition of this History is much defaced by scribbling, and has been cropt by the binder, measuring only eleven and a quarter by seven and a half inches. There is another edition printed at Frankfort in 1608, folio.

Herodiani Historia, Stephani. 1581, folio.

Hesiodus, Grævii. Amst. 1667, 8vo., and another edition of 1537, in 4to.

Hippocrates Opera. Basileæ, 1538, folio.

Horatius, Schrevelii. Lugd. Bat. 1663.

Homerus. Basileæ, 1535, Castalionis, 1567, and Lugd. Bat. 1656, all in folio.

Heliodorus. Francof. 1631, 8vo.

Hierocles. Lond. 1654, in two 8vo. volumes.

Historiæ Augustæ Scriptores, Casauboni. Paris. 1620, folio.

Historiæ Poeticæ Scriptores Antiqui, Gr. & Lat. Paris. 1675, 8vo. in old red morocco with gilt leaves.

Iamblichus, Commelini, 1598, and Kusteri, 1707, both in 4to. and by Gale 1678, in folio.

Isocrates, Wolfii. Basileæ, 1570, in folio.

Justinus Variorum. 1659, 8vo.

Juvenal, Hennini. Ultraj. 1685, 4to. and Schrevelii, Lugd. Bat. 1664, & Hanoviæ, 1619, both in 8vo.

Livii Historia. Francofurti, 1552, 8vo.

Longinus, Faber. Sal. 1663, 8vo.

Lucian, Vossii. Amst. 1687, in two 8vo. volumes.

Lycophron, Meursii. Lugd. Bat. 1599, 8vo. and Canteri, 1601, in 4to.

Manilius, Scaligeri. 1600, 4to.

Ammianus Marcellinus, Valesii. Paris. 1636, 4to.

Musæus, Moschus and Bion. Whitford. Lond. 1655, 4to.

Menandri et Philemonis Reliquiæ. Cantab. 1713, 8vo.

Macrobii Opera, in 8vo.

Martial. Lond. 1615, 8vo.

Nicander. Coloniæ, 1530, 4to.

Cornelius Nepos. Amst. 1665, 8vo.

Oppianus, Ritterhusii. Lugd. Bat. 1597, 8vo.

Ovidii Opera. Lond. 1656, 8vo.

Panegyrici Veteres. Antv. 1599, 8vo.

Persius, Casauboni. Lond. 1647, 8vo.

Pausanias, Xylandri. Hanoviæ, 1613, folio.

Platonis Opera Ficini. Francof. 1602, in 3 folio vols.

Plutarchi Opera. Francof. 1620, folio.

Plotini Opera. Basileæ, 1580, folio.

Phædrus, Forbes. Salmur. 1657, 4to.

Pompeius Festus, Dacier. 1699, 4to.

Petronius Arbiter. Lond. 1693, Paris. 1618, & Lipsiæ, 1666, all in 8vo.

Plautus, Gronovii. Lugd. Bat. 1664.

Plinii Historia Naturalis, Gronovii. Lugd. Bat. 1669, in 3 8vo. volumes.

Plinii Junioris Epistolæ et Panegyricus. Oxon. 1703, 8vo.

Porphyrius de Vitâ Pythagoræ. Romæ, 1630, 8vo.

Phalaris Epistolæ. 1614, 8vo.

Velleius Paterculus. Oxon. 1693, 8vo.

A Copy of the first Edition of Pindarus, Aldi, Venet. 1513, 8vo. with Callimachi Hymni, Dionysii Periegetes, and Lycophronis Alexandra, in one volume, interleaved throughout, measuring six inches by three inches and five-eighths, and bound in old calf. There is also the Oxford edition of Pindar, 1697, in folio.

Quintilian. Francof. 1629, 8vo. and by Gibson, Oxon. 1693, 4to.

Rhetores selecti Græci et Latini, à Gale. Oxon. 1676, 8vo.

Senecarum Opera. Amst. 1659, 8vo.

Senecæ Tragœdiæ. Lugd. Bat. 1611, 8vo.

Sophoclis Tragœdiæ, Camerarii. Steph. 1603, 4to. & Lugd. Bat. 1593, 8vo.

Suetonius, Casauboni, Argent. 1497, 4to. and Erasmi. Paris. 1527, 8vo.

Stobæi Sententiæ. Aur. All. 1609, folio.

Stephanus de Urbibus. Basil. 1568, folio.

Strabonis Geographia, Casauboni. Paris. 1620, fol.

Suidæ Lexicon. Froben. Basil. 1545, folio.

Sallust, by Maittaire. Lond. 1713, 8vo.

Symmachi Epistolæ. Neapoli, 1617, 8vo.

Sidonii Apollinarii Opera, Plantin. Par. 1599, 8vo.

Tacitus & Paterculus. Lipsii, Amst. 1668, folio.

Tacitus. Amst. 1664, 8vo.

Terentius. Lugd. Bat. 1669, & Amst. 1641, both in 8vo. and by Hare, Lond. 1724, 4to.

Thucydides. Francof. 1594, folio.

Themistoclis Epistolæ. Romæ, 1628, 4to.

Themistii Orationes, Petavii. Paris. 1618, 4to.

Themistii Opera, Aldus. Venet. 1534, folio; a clean and perfect copy, measuring twelve and a quarter by eight and a half inches, in half binding; the title mended.

Theocritus. Oxon. 1699, 8vo.

Theophrasti Characteres, Casauboni, 1631, and by Needham, 1712, both in 8vo.

Theonis Mathematica. Paris. 1644, 4to.

Valerius Maximus. Delphini, 1679, 4to.

Virgilius, Servii. Paris. 1532, folio.

Xenophon, Leunclavii. Paris. 1625, folio.

I have been thus minute in detailing the editions of the Classics in this Library, as of like nature are most of those works of antiquity which I have in other collections omitted to notice. This tedious detail may therefore have its use in shewing of what the great mass of classical literature deposited in our Cathedrals consists, and saving needless repetition of titles which have not sufficient interest to invite perusal.

I may here take occasion to notice

French Versions of Cæsar and Tacitus, by D’Ablancourt.

A Translation of Tacitus into English, by Richard Greenway. London, 1622, folio, in calf.

Creech’s Translation of Lucretius, in 8vo.

Salmasii Exercitationes Plinianæ, in folio.

Artemidori et Achmetis Oneirocritica Rigaltii. Lutet. 1603, 4to.

Duport’s Homeri Gnomologia. Cantab. 1660, 4to.

Machiavelli’s Discorsi di sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio.

Maximi Tyrii Dissertationes. Oxon. 1667, 8vo.

Politiani Opera. Ant. 1565, 8vo.

Vossius de Sybillinis Oraculis.

Manuelis Moschopuli de ratione examinandæ Orationes libellus. Lutetiæ, Stephanus, 1545, 4to. a fine clean copy, in old calf binding.

The Etymological Works in this Collection embrace

Bellarmine’s Hebr. Gram. Antv. 1686, 8vo.

Beveregii Linguar. Orient. Gram. 1658, 8vo.

Bythneri Hebr. Gram. Lond. 1675, 8vo.

Buxtorf’s Lexicon Hebr. and Chald. Bas. 1615, 8vo.

Fauchon’s French Grammar.

Harpocrationis Dict. Maussæi. Par. 1614, 4to.

Hesychii Lexicon. Lugd. Bat. 1668, 4to. interleaved with manuscript annotations.

Julii Pollucis Onomasticon. Francof. 1608, fol. & Basil. 1536, 8vo.

Linacre, de Emendatâ Structurâ Latini Sermonis. Lips. 1573, 8vo.

Miege’s French Dictionary, 1677, 4to.

Porti Dict. Doricum. Francof. 1603, 8vo.

Putschii Auctores Grammatici. Hanoviæ, 1695, 4to.

Phavorini Dict. Gr. Basil. 1538, folio.

Scapulæ Lexicon. Lond. 1652, folio.

Sylburgii Etymologicon. Commelini, 1594, folio.

Stephani Lexicon Ciceronianum, 1557, 8vo.

Torriano’s Italian Grammar, 1673, 8vo.

Vigerus de Idiotismis. Lond. 1678, 8vo.

I must here notice a monument of literary diligence of very rare occurrence, which exists in a copy of Hesychii Lexicon, Aldi, Venetiis, 1524, folio, which is quite perfect, but defaced by writing on the first leaf, among which I found this curious memorandum by an unknown hand:

“Hesychii integru̅ primo̅ perlegi. MDCLV. Oct. xv.” “Iterum MDCLXVII. Mart. xxvi.”

The present copy measures twelve inches by eight and one-eighth, and is in old calf binding.

The Works relating to Literary History and Bibliography in this Library include

Bellarmine de Scriptor. Eccles. Col. Agr. 1631, fol.

Cave, Script. Eccles. Lond. 1688, folio.

Fabricii Bibliotheca Græca. Hamburg, 1705, 4to. & Bibliotheca Latina. Lond. 1703, 8vo.

Jonson’s Script. Hist. Philos. Francof. 1659, 4to.

Labbe de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis. Paris. 1660, 8vo.

Photii Bibliotheca. Genev. 1611, folio.

Raynaudus de bonis et malis libris. Lugd. 1653, 4to.

Vossius de Historicis Græcis, Philosophis, &c. and other Works in 4to.

The Latin Miscellanies on the Shelves comprehend

Aschami Epistolæ. Oxon. 1703, 8vo.

Helvici Theatrum. Oxon. 1651, folio.

Juliani Imperatoris Opera, folio.

Dicta Septem Sapientium. 8vo.

Hemelarii Romanorum Imperatorum Numismata Aurea. Ant. 1627, 4to.

Dictionarium Medicum. 1564, 8vo.

Heinsii Orationes. Lugd. Bat. 1615, 8vo.

Meursii Elegantiæ. Lugd. Bat. 1628, 8vo.

Petrarcha de remediis Fortunæ. Gen. 1628, 8vo.

Miltoni Defensio pro Populo Anglicano.

Salmasii Responsio ad Miltonum.

Scioppii Gram. Philos. Amst. 1659, 8vo.

Sennerti Epistolæ Scient. Nat. Oxon. 1664, 8vo.

Sulpicii Severi Opera, Elzevir. Amst. 1665, 8vo.

Some Tracts by Casaubon.

Of Mathematical Works I only observed

Oughtred, Clavis Mathematica, in 8vo.

Galbruchii Mathematica. Cant. 1668, 8vo.

Of Law Books I noticed

Dalton’s Justice. Lond. 1677, folio.

Keble’s Statutes at large. Lond. 1676, in 2 folio vols.

Ridley on Civil Law, in 4to.

In English Literature this Collection is poor indeed. I only remarked

An incomplete Copy of Collier’s Essays, in 8vo.

Hobbes’s Leviathan. London, 1651, folio.

The Natural History of Animals. London, 1702, fol.

Bacon’s Essays.

The Poll for Yorkshire in 1807, 8vo.

Pemberton’s View of the Newtonian Philosophy. London, 1728, 4to.

The French and Italian Works include those of Boileau, Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, Venet. 1566, 8vo. Boccaccio’s Decameron, 1552, 8vo. Dante, 1551, 8vo. Tasso’s Gierusalem liberata, Ferrara, 1580, 8vo.

The Publications of the Record Commissioners are presented to the Chapter Library as they appear, and are therein deposited with the Reports of the Commissioners; the Acts of the Parliament of Scotland; the Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum; and the Population Returns.

There is a Copy of the Common Prayer in the Castilian language, in this Collection, and a small 4to. volume, containing, “A Register of Books borrowed from the Chapter Library, 1826,” is constantly kept there for the use of those who frequent it.

These are not numerous, for the place wears the aspect of neglect, and a beggarly account of empty cases disappoints the ardent enquirer for intellectual food: he seeks for Books, and in some Presses finds only a stone.

Bishop Keene, it appears, pitying the forlorn condition of the Chapter Library, and having some tomes too ponderous for removal, upon his own translation from Chester to Ely gave the following volumes to the Dean and Chapter of Chester.

_Folio._

Brent’s Conc. Trent, 1676.

Bayle’s Dictionary. 4 vols.

Ciceronis Epistolæ. Par. 1557.

Life of the Duc d’Espernon. Par. 1655.

Homer, Castalionis. Bas. 1567.

Montfaucon, by Humphrys. Lond. 1721.

Poli Synopsis, 5 tom. Lond. 1673.

Cæsar, in French, by D’Ablancourt. Par. 1658.

Daniel, Hist. de la Milicie Française. Par. 1728.

Felibien’s Principles of Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting, in French. Par. 1697.

_Quarto._

The History of France to the death of Louis XIVth, in French. Par. 1749.

Leger’s Country House, in French. Amst. 1701, 2 tom. in 1 vol.

Miege’s French Dictionary. Lond. 1677.

Tacitus, in French, by D’Ablancourt. Par. 1665.

Wicquefort’s Ambassadour, in French. Col. 1715, 2 tom.

_In Formâ Minori._

Boileau’s Works in French. Amst. 1735, 4 tom.

Batteux, Les Beaux Arts. Par. 1747.

Daniel’s History of France, Fr. Par. 1724, 9 tom.

Fauchon’s French Grammar. Cam. 1751.

Larrey’s History of Lewis XIV. Rotter. 1718, 9 tom.

“Aprilis Mense, 1771, Libros hos Reverendus admodùm Edmundus Keene, S.T.P. Episcopus Cestriensis Nunc Eliensis D. D.”

Library of Chichester.

The Library of the Dean and Chapter of Chichester is preserved in the Chapter House, which forms the Eastern termination of the Cathedral.

This room, of very fair proportions, is lighted by several large windows, and adorned with Portraits of George I. and the Dukes of Richmond and Newcastle over the fire-place at the east end, and of William and Mary, in one picture, over the doorway at the other.

Upon the desk lie some Episcopal relics which have been of late years found in the Cathedral, and which have been engraved in one large plate for the benefit of the curious.

The Books are placed upon open shelves in tall cases of stained wood, with cornices, standing against the wall, three marked R. T. Y. being on one side, and three marked S. W. Z. on the other side of the room.

The contents of these cases are alphabetically enumerated in a thin folio volume in an old hand, the sizes of the Books being omitted, but reference being made to their position on the shelves, whereby the eye may be made to supply this deficiency. To this Catalogue, which bears the title of “Librorum in Bibliothecâ Ecclesiæ Cicestrensis Catalogus Alphabeticus,” interfoliary additions have from time to time been made.

In another Book are entered the Books which may be borrowed from the Library.

This Collection is very respectably attired, being chiefly bound in old calf, occasionally gilt, and consists chiefly of Theological and Historical Works, in tolerably good preservation.

The impressions of the Sacred Volume comprehend

The Biblia Polyglotta Waltoni, 1657, with Castell’s Lexicon.

Biblia LXX, per Holmes & Parsons. Oxonii, v. a. 6 v. folio.

Biblia Græca, Basil. 1545, Sacra Biblia, Junii, 1593.

Biblia Latina Vulgata. Parisiis, 1691.

Biblia Latina. Hanoviæ, 1605, & Basileæ, 1579, 2 vols. folio.

Biblia Hebraica, per Kennicott. Oxon. 1776, 2 v. fol.

Biblia Hebraica & Chaldaica, per Buxtorf. Basileæ, 1618, 2 vols. folio.

Biblia LXX, per Grabe. Oxonii, 1707, in 4 v. fol.

Biblia LXX, per Bos. Francof. 1719, 2 vols. folio.

The Bible in English by Field. Cambridge, 1669.

The Bible in English, by Baskett. Oxford, 1715.

The Novum Testamentum Syriace, et Græce, apud Stephanum.

The Codex Bezæ. Cantab. 1793.

Evangelium Matthæi, per Barrett. Dublin, 1801, 4to. in blue morocco.

The New Testament by Griesbach, Wetstein; and by Kuster, Lipsiæ, 1723; Millii, Oxon. 1707, 2 vols. folio, Vratislaviæ, 1782.

In Divinity, the Works of S. Basil, Bernard, Bingham, Bochart, Bramhall, Chrysostom, Clemens Alexandrinus, Le Clerc, S. Cyprian, S. Cyril, Cudworth, Epiphanius, Episcopius, Gregory, Nyssen, and Nazianzen, S. Hilary, Hospinianus, Horne, Jackson, Jewel, Justin Martyr, S. Isidore, Justinian, Lightfoot, Limborch, More, Patrick, Pearse, Philo Judæus, Paley, Pococke, Porteus, Stillingfleet, Sherlock, Tertullian, Theophylact, Jeremy Taylor, Wake, Whitby, Wells, may be seen in conjunction with

Ambrosii Opera. Basileæ, 1567, 3 vols. folio.

Anselmi Opera. Colon. Agrip. 1612.

Athanasii Opera, Colon. 1686, 2 vols. folio.

Augustini Opera. Parisiis, 1555, in 7 vols. folio.

Beverigii Pandectæ Canonum.

Boyle’s Theological Works.

Bulli Opera Theologica. Londini, 1703, folio.

Burkitt on the New Testament.

Burnet on the XXXIX Articles.

Calvini Opera. Genevæ, 1589, 10 vols. folio.

Calvin’s Institutes.

Cassiodori Opera. Venetiis, 1729.

Chamieri Controversiæ.

Chillingworth’s Works, 1684.

Here I may remark that in the Cloisters of this Cathedral, according to a plain mural tablet,

“Hic reducem expectat animam GULIELMUS CHILLINGWORTH, A.M. Coll. Trin. Oxon. Socius, &c. omni literarum genere celeberrimus, Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ adversus Romanam Propugnator invictissimus.”

To return, however, to the department immediately under review, I may proceed to notice

Cave’s Primitive Christianity & Lives of the Fathers.

Calmet’s Dictionary of the Bible.

Several Concordances, by various hands.

The Works of Samuel Clarke, in 4 vols. folio.

Collyer’s Sacred Interpreter.

Cotelerii Patres Apostolici. 1724.

Critici Sacri & Pole’s Synopsis.

Du Pin’s History of the Canon of the Old and New Testament.

Erasmus in Nov. Test. Basil. 1522, and other Works, with his Life by Jortin.

Eusebii Præparatio et Demonstratio Evangelica.

Fabricii Codex Pseudigraphus Veteris Testamenti. 2 vols. 8vo.

Forbes on Religion.

Faber on Pagan Idolatry.

Irenæi Opera, per Grabe. Oxon. 1702, folio.

Grabe’s Spicilegium. Oxon. 1698, 8vo.

Gray’s Connection.

Grotii Opera Theologica. Londini, 1679, 4 v. fol.

Hammond’s Paraphrase and other Works. 1684, 4 vols. folio.

Heylin’s Theological Tracts.

Hieronymi Opera per Victorium. Parisiis, 1609, 3 vols. folio.

Howel’s Synopsis Canonum.

Hyde’s Religio Veterum Persarum.

Lactantius cura Sparke. Oxon. 1684.

Lardner’s Credibility.

Lowth’s Isaiah.

Maltby’s Works. 1803.

Melancthonis Opera. Witebergæ, 1580, 4 vols. fol.

Norris on the Beatitudes.

Page’s Harmonia Sacra.

Pearsoni Opera Posthuma.

Petavii Dogmata Theologica.

Prideaux’s Connection.

Schleusner’s Lexicon Novi Test.

Shuckford’s Connection.

Stockii Clavis Nov. Test.

Stradæ Prolusiones.

Suiceri Thesaurus Ecclesiasticus.

Tillotson’s Sermons. 1700, 14 vols. 8vo.

Wall’s Infant Baptism.

Zanchii Opera Theologica, together with the Sermons of Andrews, Barrow, Conybeare, Fysher, Hoadly, Horsley, Sanderson, and Saurin.

As connected with the Church Service I may add to these Henry the VIII.’s Primer, 1545; the Liturgia Anglicana Octoglotta, 1821; Baskett’s edition of the Common Prayer, London, 1754; and a beautiful large paper copy of the Common Prayer, printed by Bill and Barker at London in 1662, folio, bound in green velvet and ruled with red lines; the gift of the Rev. Thomas Baker to the Cathedral Library; also “the Sealed Copy” of the Common Prayer of the same date, so called from its containing the original Letter Patent of Charles II. upon vellum, “for lodging a corrected and authentic copy of the Common Prayer Book in this Cathedral.” “N.B. The great Seal attached to these Patents is preserved in the Chapter House.” This interesting volume is unpretendingly attired in dark calf.

To these I may add the

Breviarium Romanum. Antverpiæ, 1594, and the

Missale Romanum. Antverpiæ, 1614.

The principal Works relating to Ecclesiastical History in this Collection are Allix’s Albigenses; Wharton’s Anglia Sacra; Baronii Annales & Martyrologium Romanum; Brandt’s History of the Reformation in the Low Countries; Bedæ Opera, Basileæ, 1583; Bedford’s Scripture Chronology, 1730; Bower’s Lives of the Popes; Burnet’s Reformation; Codex Theodosianus Gothofredi; Corpus Juris Civilis et Canonici, Lugd. Bat. 1624-7; Cotelerii Ecclesiæ Græcæ Monumenta; Concilia Generalia, Colon. Agr. 1567; Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ à Wilkins, Lond. folio; Strype’s Annals, Lives, and Memorials; Du Pin’s Ecclesiastical History; Cave’s Historia Literaria Scriptor. Eccles.; Echard’s Ecclesiastical History; Ecton’s Thesaurus; Eusebii Historia Ecclesiastica; Le Neve’s Fasti Anglicani; Fleury’s Ecclesiastical History, by Adams, 1727, 5 vols.; Fuller’s Holy War, and Church History of Britain; Gibson’s Codex and Synodus Anglicana; Godwin de Præsulibus Angliæ, Cantabr. 1743, 2 vols. folio; Gratiani Compendium Juris Canonici et Civilis, Venetiis, 1580, 3 vols. folio; Heylin’s History of the Reformation; Lyndewode’s Provinciale, Oxon. 1679; Inett’s Origines Anglicani; Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History; Reyneri Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Angliâ, Duaci, 1626; Ribadeneira, Vitæ Sanctorum; Rycaut’s Lives of the Popes; Sanderus de Origine et progressu Schismatis Anglicani, Parisiis, 1610; Spelman’s Concilia; Spotswode’s Church of Scotland; Polano’s History of the Council of Trent; Quick’s Synodicon in Galliâ Reformatâ; Tornielli Annales; Usseri Annales & Antiq. Eccl. Britt.; Walker’s Sufferings of the Clergy; Warner’s Ecclesiastical History; and Wordsworth’s Ecclesiastical Biography.

Of Works connected with English History and Antiquities, the shelves of this Library may supply the curious enquirer with Adams’s Index Villaris, and sixty volumes of the Acts of Parliament, the gift of Bishop Buckner to the Chichester Cathedral Library; Ashmole’s Order of the Garter, 1672; the English Baronetage, 1741, in 5 vols. 4to.; Barwick’s Life; Battely’s Antiquities of Canterbury; Crawfurd’s Memoirs of Scotch Affairs, Edinburgh, 1726; Dart’s Westminster Abbey; Echard’s History of England; Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum, 1655, 3 vols. folio; Warwickshire, Coventry, 1675; Baronage, and View of the Troubles; Kippis’s Biographia Britannica; Borlase’s Cornwall and Scilly Islands; Buck’s History of Richard III.; Buchanani Historia Scotorum, Edinburgi, 1583; Crawfurd’s Peerage of Scotland; Burnet’s History of his own Times; Carte’s History of England; Davies’s Celtic Researches; Dallaway’s Western Sussex, and Cartwright’s Rape of Bramber; Winston Churchill’s Divi Britannici, 1675; Clarendon’s Rebellion, Oxford, 1702, 3 vols. folio; Fabian’s Chronicle, 1542; Fiddes’ Life of Wolsey; Fuller’s Worthies; Holinshed’s Chronicle, 1586, with Giraldus Cambrensis’s History of Ireland, and Hector Boethius’ Historia Scotorum; Grafton’s Chronicle, wanting the Title; Harding’s Chronicle, 1543; Hacket’s Life of Archbishop Williams; Grew’s Rarities of Gresham College; Hanway’s Travels; Lord Herbert’s Life of Henry VIII.; Journals of the Lords and Commons; Johnston on the English Monarchy, 1636; Icon Basilike, 1649; Kennet’s Parochial Antiquities, with his History of England and other Works, and North’s Examination of Kennet’s History of England; Laud’s Life; Leland’s Itinerary, edited by Hearne, Oxford, 1745, 8vo.; Lyttelton’s Henry II.; Lloyd’s State Worthies; Mackenzie’s Scottish Writers, Edinburgh, 1708; Madox’s Formulare Anglicanum, Baronia Anglica, and History of the Exchequer; Maitland’s London; Maurice’s Richmond Hill; Monasticon Hibernicum, 1723; Nicolson’s Historical Library; North’s Lives of the Norths; Peck’s Memoirs of Oliver Cromwell; Higden’s Polychronicon, printed by Wynkyn de Worde at London in 1495, a perfect copy in old calf; Nalson’s Collections; Price’s Salisbury Cathedral; Parker’s History of his own Times; Rapin’s History of England; Thorpe’s Registrum and Custumale Roffense, both half-bound; Robertson’s History of Scotland; Rossi Warvicensis Historia Regum Angliæ, edente Hearne, 1745; Rushworth’s Historical Collections; Slayter’s History of Great Britain, 1619; Speed’s Chronicle, History of Great Britain, Theatre and Maps; Stow’s Chronicle, 1615; Stukeley’s Itinerarium Curiosum; Tanner’s Bibliotheca Britannica; Pitseus Catalogus Scriptorum Angliæ, Parisiis, 1619; Triveti Annales, et Adami Murithmensis Chronicon, curâ Hall, Oxonii, 1722, 8vo.; Ward’s Gresham College; Weever’s Funeral Monuments; Whitelocke’s Memorials, 1709; Willis’s Cathedrals; Wood’s Athenæ Oxonienses; A few Political Tracts; Several Laudatory Verses from both the Universities to several of the Stuarts, and the Records of the Kingdom.

To the above I have pleasure in adding a few of the foundations upon which the History of Britain is built.

Balæi Centuria Scriptorum Britanniæ, Basileæ, 1557; Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores Decem à Somner & Twysden; Du Chesne’s Historiæ Normannorum Scriptores; Eadmeri Historia sui Temporis, edente Selden, Londini, 1623; Matthæi Paris. Historia Anglicana, edente Wats, Londini, 1740, folio; Matthæi Westmonasteriensis Flores Historiarum; Rerum Anglicanum Scriptores post Bedam, edente Savile; Florentiæ Wigornensis Chronicon; Polydore Vergilii Historia Anglicana, Basileæ, 1534, folio; Camdeni Anglica, Normannica, &c. à veteribus Scripta.

Of Law, the only books which met my observation were: Ayliffe’s Canon Law, London, 1734; Reports upon the Criminal Code, 1821, &c. in 7 vols. 4to.; Barrington on Ancient Statutes; Blackstone’s Commentaries; Jacob’s Law Dictionary; Lambard de Priscis Anglorum Legibus; Wottoni Leges Wallicæ, 1730; Leges Antiquiæ Francorum, per Lindenbrogium, 1614; Wilkins’s Leges Saxonicæ, 1721; Viner’s Abridgment of Law and Equity, in 23 folios, new in calf, gilt.

Of Numismatic Works, I am happy to record a beautiful copy of the Numismata Pembrochiana, 1746, upon large paper, bound in calf, richly gilt, with the leaves gilt upon the marble, the donation of Dr. Jo. Wickins, Rector of Petworth in 1763, to the Cathedral Library. The appearance of this Work in the folio form is very far above the usual dimensions of the ordinary 4to. To this I may add, Banduri Numismata, Parisiis, 1718, in 2 vols. folio; Clarke’s Coins; Evelyn on Medals; Folkes’s Coins; Harduini Nummi Antiqui, Parisiis, 1684; Landi Numismata Selecta, Lugd. Bat. 1695; Wilde, Numismata Antiqua Selecta, 1682; Wise Nummi Bodleiani, 1750; Nummophylacium Reginæ Christinæ, per Havercampium, Hagæ, Com. 1742; Vaillant Numismata, Paris. 1695.

Of Publications relating to the History and Description of different countries, and the world in general this Library cannot boast any Collection more copious than that constituted by, Æmilii Historia Francorum; Pighii Annales Romanæ Historiæ, Antverpiæ, 1598; Stuart and Revett’s Antiquities of Athens; Anson’s Voyage, 1756; Astley’s Collection of Voyages, 1745, 4 vols.; Atlas Geographicus, London, 1711, in 5 vols. folio; Churchill’s Voyages; Robert’s Atlas; Birch’s Heads; Bezonii Historia Indiæ Repertæ, Francofurti, 1694; Maffei Historia Indica, Brixiæ, 1660; Blair’s Chronology; Collier’s Historical Dictionary; Du Halde’s China; Byzantinæ Historiæ Scriptores, Venetiis, 1729, in 23 vols. folio; Hales’s Analysis of Ancient Chronology; Chardin’s Travels; Flud Historia utriusque Cosmi, Oppenheim, 1617; Freheri Rerum Bohemicarum Scriptores, Hanov. 1602; Gualteri Tabula Chronologica; Coloniæ, 1616; Geographici Minores Græci, curâ Hudsoni, Oxonii, 1698, 4 vols.; Grævii Thesaurus Antiquitatum, 12 tom. folio; Gruteri Inscriptiones, 2 vols. folio; Heylin’s Cosmography; Hughes’s Natural History of Barbadoes, London, 1750, folio; Mariana and Molina’s Histories of Spain; Maundrell’s Journey; Montfaucon’s Antiquities, with his Palæographia Græca; Moreri Dictionnaire, 10 vols. folio, in French calf; Norden’s Egypt; Potter’s Greece; Newton’s Chronology; Puffendorf’s Law of Nations; Raleigh’s History of the World; Rerum Belgicarum Annales, Francof. 1583; Jovii Rerum Turcicarum Historia, Lugd. Bat. 1569; Keysteri Antiquitates Septentrionales, Hanoviæ, 1720; Rhenani Rerum Germanicarum Commentarii, 1551; Rycaut’s History of the Turks; Robertson’s Charles V.; Paruta’s History of Venice; Shaw’s Travels; Perrault’s Hommes Illustres; Pococke’s Description of the East; Postlethwayt’s Dictionary of Commerce; Sully’s Memoirs; Thuani Historia sui Temporis, 6 vols. folio, in calf; Watson’s Philip II. and it may be added Vossius de Historicis Græcis ac Latinis.

Several Maps of North and South America, Egypt, Portugal, and the Pyrenees are also placed within this Library.

Of Etymological Works, there are few indeed, at least I only remarked, Calderini Lexicon Latinum et Italicum, Venetiis, 1587; Calepini Dictionarium Latinum, Lugd. Bat. 1559, in 2 vols.; Cooper’s Dictionary; Du Cange’s Glossary; Facciolati Lexicon; Hederici Lexicon; Hickes’s Thesaurus Septentrionalis; Johnson’s English Dictionary; Junii Glossarium edente Lye; Spelman’s Glossary; Julii Pollucis Onomasticon, Amstelod. 1706; Suidæ Lexicon; Kusteri Cantabrigiæ, 1705, in 3 vols. folio.

Of Works relating to Natural History or Science, the number is still less. Aldrovandi Ornithologia; Franzii Historia Animalium, Wittebergæ, 1613; Gerard’s Herbal, by Johnson; Johnstoni Historia Quadrupedum, &c.; Mantell’s Geology of Sussex; Newton’s Optics and Principia; and some Tracts by Leibnitz, being the only works of this character which attracted my observation.

Of Classic Authors, I have made a copious selection, that the reader may judge for himself of the value of this department of the Library by a cursory review of its contents. It is, in fact, only by thus descending into particulars that the true character of any Collection can be obtained. Hence it is that whenever in these pages a dry catalogue of books appears to be extended to an unusual length, the candid reader should look complacently upon the attempt to enable him to form his own judgment even at the risk of exhausting his patience.

I may begin with the Anthologia Græca edited by Owen in 1612, and continue in nearly alphabetical order, as the simplest and most intelligible method of reference, the list of Classics in this Collection.

Antoninus, Gatakeri. Londini, 1697, 4to.

Appianus. Amstelodami, 1670.

Apuleius, Pricæi.

Athenæus, Casauboni. Lugd. Bat. 1657.

Aulus Gellius: Ausonius: Historia Augustæ Scriptores. Lugd. Bat. 1671.

Corpus Poetarum Latinorum à Maittaire.

Cornelius Nepos. Oxonii, 1697.

Catullus Tibullus & Propertius, per Arthurum. Cantabrigiæ, 1702.

Ciceronis Opera Variorum, in 17 vols. 8vo.—Basileæ, 1534; Parisiis, 1539, in 2 vols. and 1654.

Demosthenes. Cantabrigiæ, 1731.

Diodorus Siculus, by Wesseling. Amsterdam, 1746, folio.

Diogenes Laertius, by Menage. Amsterdam, 1692, 2 vols. folio.

Dio Cassius, Reimari. Hamburg. 1750, 2 vols. fol.

Dionysius Halicarnassensis, Hudsoni. Oxonii. 1704, in 2 vols. folio.

Euripides, by Markland.

Eustathius in Homerum. Romæ. 1542, in 4 vols. fol.

Fabulæ Æsopicæ, per Camerarium. Lugd. Bat. 1564.

Pompeius Festus, Delphini. Amstelod. 1699, 4to.

Jamblichus, Galei. Oxonii, 1678, folio.

Galeni Opera, per Linacrum. Lugd. Bat. 1559.

Herodianus. Oxonii, 1699.

Herodotus, Wesselingii. Amstelod. 1763.

Hesiodus, Græcè. 1540.

The Horace of 1511, and that by Bentley, 1713, and among other editions of lesser note,

Horatius, Lambini. Francofurti, 1596.

Homeri opera à Barnes. Cantabr. 1711, et ejusdem Ilias curâ Clarke. Londini, 1729, 4 vols. 4to.

Josephus, Hudsoni. Oxonii, 1702, 2 vols. folio.

Justini Historia apud Stephanum. Parisiis, 1543, fol.

Longinus, Hudsoni. Oxonii. 1710.

Livius. Parisiis, 1735, & Gronovii, 1679.

Lucanus, Oudendorpii. Lugd. Bat. 1728, 4to.

Lucianus. Salm. 1619.

Maximi Tyrii Dissertationes. Oxonii, 1677.

Martialis, Schrevelii. Lugd. Bat. 1670.

Ovidius, Antverpiæ, 1587; Burmanni, Amstelod. 1727, 4 vols. 4to.; and Heinsii, Amstelod. 1661.

Pausanias, Kuhnii. Lipsiæ, 1696, folio.

Petronius, Burmanni. 1709, 4to.

Photii Bibliotheca Hœschelii. Rothomagi, 1563, fol.

Platonis Opera, Serrani. 1578, in 3 vols. folio.

Plautus, Lambini. 1576.

Plinii Senioris Historia Naturalis, Dalecampii; Aureliæ Allobrogum, 1606; and Harduini, Parisiis, 1723, in 3 vols. folio.

Plinii Junioris Epistolæ. Amstelodami, 1659.

Plutarchi Vitæ, edente Bryant. Londini, 1729, in 5 vols. 4to.

Plutarchi Opera, Xylandri. Francof. 1599.

Polybius, Casauboni. 1609, folio.

Quintus Curtius, Erasmi. Parisiis, 1543.

Quintilianus, Burmanni. Lugd. Bat. 1720, 4to.

Sallustius. Parisiis, 1504, and Cantabrigiæ, 1710.

Seneca, Gothofredi.

Seneca Lipsii.

Silius Italicus, Drakenborchii. Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1717, 4to.

Strabo, Almeloveeni. Amstelodami, 1707, 2 vols. folio.

Suetonius, Grævii.

Tacitus, Variorum.

Terentius, Delphini.

Terence, by Hare. 1724.

Thucydides, Hudsoni. Oxonii. 1696, folio.

Valerius Flaccus, Heinsii. Amstelodami, 1680.

Velleius Paterculus; Vegetius. Parisiis, 1535.

Virgilii opera, per Jacobum Zachon. Venetiis, 1499, folio; in Roman Character, with a commentary.

Virgilius Delphini. 4to. and by Baskerville.

Xenophontis Opera, by Wells, with his Anabasis & Cyropædia, by Hutchinson.

It will be seen from this rapid survey of the classical department of this collection that none of the first, though several of the best editions are here to be found. I may here mention the

Schola Salernitana. Parisiis, 1553.

Erasmi Adagia. Hanoviæ, 1617.

Gesneri Bibliotheca. Tiguri, 1545; and

Joannis Sarisburiensis Polycraticus seu de Nugis Curialium. Lugd. Bat. 1495.

In English Literature, I have much pleasure in mentioning the Works of Bacon, Locke, and Temple, in 4to., uniformly bound in old calf; Tonson’s Shakespeare, London, 1725, in 6 vols. 4to. in old calf, gilt; Barclay’s Argenis, London, 1622; Bryant’s Mythology, 1775; Spence’s Polymetis; Cowley’s Works, 1684; Digges’ Compleat Ambassadour; Chamber’s Dictionary; Blair’s Lectures; Buchanan’s Poems; Chaucer’s Works, in black letter, by Robert Toye, London; Hayley’s Poems; Hutchinson’s Works, 1749, 12 vols.; the Works of James I. and Samuel Johnson; Milton’s Works, by Baskerville and by Newton; Prior’s Works; Selden’s Works, by Wilkins, London, 1726, in 3 vols. folio; Shaftesbury’s Characteristics, in 3 vols. 8vo.; Spenser’s Faery Queen; and I may add, Smith’s Catal. MSS. Cotton. et MSS. Oxon. Oxonii, 1696-7, with 3 vols. of Osborne’s Catalogues.

In conclusion, I may notice the Works of Petrarch; Voltaire’s Henriade, and Chamber’s Architecture, in 2 vols. folio; Bayle’s Dictionary, London, 1735; Macpherson’s Fingal, 1762; Thomæ Mori Opera Latina; Watson’s History of Halifax; and Nott’s Odes of Hafiz.

The only two Manuscripts which occurred to me on inspecting this Library, were the Statutes of Peterhouse College in Cambridge, and an Account of the Foundation of Christ Church at Oxford.

It is right to notice, what all chartered or collegiate bodies who possess Libraries, would do well to imitate, that all the volumes in this Collection are distinguished by a book plate, representing the sacred figure, above whose head is written “Decan. et Cap. Cicestr.” and below whose feet is inscribed “Liber Monumenti coram eo.”

Library of Durham.

The Library of this Chapter is preserved in a spacious and luminous apartment more than one hundred feet in length, and of proportional width, occupying one side of the space above the Cloisters. It was, in former times, the Refectory of the Monastery, and the walls which once resounded with the crash of monastic mastication, now echo the footsteps of the casual visiter or cloistered student. A Portrait of Dean Sudbury, the founder of the Library after the Restoration, is at the end of the room; and on the floor are several Roman Altars, discovered in the vicinity of Durham.

The Books are well arranged upon shelves of easy access, and appear remarkably free from damp; the cases projecting from the wall on either side into the room; with due intervals for study.

In the south alley of the Cloisters is a large hall, called the Frater-house, finely wainscotted on the north and south side, by Thomas Castell, Prior, A.D. 1518. Within the door on the left hand, at entering is a strong Almery in the wall, wherein the Grace Cup, the Grace Major, called the Judas’s Cup, and St. Bede’s Bowl, did stand. In that Almery lay all the best plate that served the Convent in the Frater-house on Festival Days; and there was a fine work of carved wainscot before, and a strong lock on the door, so as none could perceive there was any Almery at all, the key-hole being made under the carved work of the wainscot.

In this Frater-house the Prior, and the whole Convent of the Monks held their great feast of St. Cuthbert, in Lent, having their meat served out of the dresser-window of the great kitchen, into the Frater-house; and their drink out of the great cellar.

At the east end of the Frater-house stood a fair table with a skreen of wainscot over it, being kept all the rest of the year for the Master of the Novices, the Elects, and the Novices, to dine and sup at, having their meat served to them in the same manner.

At these times one of the Novices, appointed by the Master, read some part of the Old and New Testament in Latin, during dinner, having a convenient place at the south end of the high table, within a fair glass window, encompassed with iron, and certain stone steps with iron rails to go up to an iron desk, whereon lay the Holy Bible, which reading being ended, the Master tolled a silver bell, hanging over his head, thereby giving notice to one of the Novices to come to the high table and say grace, and that ended, they departed to their books.

This fabric retained the name of the Petty Canons’ Hall, till Dr. Sudbury, Dean of this Cathedral, generously erected a beautiful Library in its place, which he, not living to finish completely, by the following clause of his last will, binds his heir, Sir John Sudbury, to the due execution thereof.

“Item, whereas I have lately contracted with several workmen for the building of a Library in the place commonly called the Petty Canons Hall in the College of Durham, for the use of the Dean and Prebendaries of the said Cathedral Church. And if it should please God that I do not live to finish the same, my will and pleasure is that my executor, hereafter named, shall pay out of my personal estate all such sum or sums of money as shall be necessary for the finishing thereof, according to such form or modell, or in such manner as I shall leave directions for under my hand, attested by two or more good and sufficient witnesses. This will is dated Jan. 11, 1683.”[11]

The books were removed to their present situation by Dean Sudbury, in the seventeenth century, up to whose time they had been kept in the room adjoining the Chapter-house, and also over the Cloisters.

This Library contains from seven to eight thousand volumes, of which five hundred and twenty are in Manuscript. The printed books amounting to seven thousand two hundred and fifty-nine volumes, at the time of this present writing.

Three Catalogues of the printed books remain in this collection; the first compiled about the time of Charles II. in one folio volume, bears the following title:

“Catalogus Librorum Ecclesiæ Cathedralis Dunelmensis dispositus exaratus, adornatus à doctissimo ornatissimoque viro Joanne Milner, A. M. ejusdem Ecclesiæ Precentore et Bibliothecario dignissimo.”

The second is a folio on vellum, compiled in the time of Bishop Cosin, the title whereof runneth thus:

“Bibliotheca Ecclesiæ Cathedralis Dunelmensis à Decano et Capitulo ejusdem Ecclesiæ instaurata anno dni MDCXXVIII. et ab eisdem exinde per annuales eorum expensas aliaque benefactorum donaria ornata adaucta et bonis libris instructa.”

The third is the Catalogue now in use, accurately arranged in alphabetical order, by the Rev. James Raine, the present Librarian. It is to be hoped that this gentleman may be enabled to steal a few hours from his antiquarian researches, to prepare this Catalogue, with appropriate notices of the rarer articles, for the press, to which I trust it will ere long be committed by the liberality of the Dean and Chapter.

There is also a Catalogue of Glosses and Commentators in this collection, compiled by Elias Smith, during the period of the Great Rebellion.

Thomas Rud has also left behind him a very curious Catalogue of the Books bought in his time, with their prices, a work which has been very properly continued by the succeeding Curator of this Library.

A book is also kept upon the table for the entry of all volumes borrowed or taken away from the Library, with the name of the person so taking them and the date when taken.

This precaution has happily been adopted in this as in other Cathedral Libraries, but not until after much inconvenience, and in some instances serious losses had been sustained from the want of this or a similar regulation.

The latitude which so long prevailed in this respect, has of late years been exchanged for rigorous custody, and none but prebendal keys can now unlock the chamber wherein the literary treasures of the Dean and Chapter are deposited.

Of the printed books in this collection I will proceed to give such an account as the opportunities afforded me, enabled me to collect, during a cursory survey of this ancient Library.

A great part of this, as of most ancient Libraries, consists of Glosses, Decretals, and Pandects, with other early and almost forgotten Works of Divinity, and the obscurer authors of the middle ages.

Passing by these, I first directed my attention to the earliest impression of the Holy Scriptures in the English language, being that printed by Christian Egenolff, at Franckfort, in 1535, folio, and known as Coverdale’s Bible. The present copy wants the title, and two leaves of the Prefatory matter, beginning with the last leaf of the Prologue. It is also defective in all the leaves of the Revelations, which follow signature T.T. iii. The three last leaves are much torn, but the book is sound in the middle, and in very ordinary calf binding. By some unaccountable error it has been lettered on the back “Grafton’s Bible. 1541.”

I also noticed an imperfect copy of Matthew’s Bible of 1549, reprinted from the edition of 1537, in folio; the second edition of the Bishop’s Bible, printed at London, by Richard Jugge, in 1572, folio, with a double version of the Psalms; a copy of the Bible of 1641, in folio, and the Bible printed at Cambridge in 1663, 4to.; the Bible printed at Oxford, by J. Baskett, in 1717, in 2 volumes, folio, in forrel binding, with clasps; Baskerville’s elegant folio edition of the Scriptures; the Bible, with Notes by Bishop Wilson, printed by Cruttwell at Bath, in 1785, in 3 volumes, 4to.; the Manse Bible, printed at Whitehaven in 1775, 4to., in calf binding; and the Bible, with Notes by D’Oyley and Mant, printed at Oxford in 1817, in 3 vols. 4to.; and Reeves’ Bible, in nine 4to. volumes.

I also remarked fine copies of the Hebrew Bible, by Van der Hooght, Houbigant, Buxtorf, and Kennicott, in calf binding; the Biblia Græca, of Grabe; the Vetus Testamentum juxta LXX, edited by Holmes and Parsons, at Oxford, in 5 volumes, folio; the Biblia Polyglotta complectentia textus originales Hebraicum, cum pentateucho, Samaritanum, Chaldaicum, Græcum, &c. cum apparatu appendicibus tabulis, &c. ex editione Briani Waltoni, Londini, Thomas Roycroft, 1655-57, in 6 folio volumes, with the indispensable and customary adjunct of Castelli Lexicon Heptaglotton, Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, &c. cui accessit brevis grammaticæ delineatio, Londini, Th. Roycroft, 1669, in 2 folio volumes, all uniformly bound in calf; the Biblia Polyglotta curâ Bened. Ariæ Montani, Antverpiæ, Plantinus, 1569-72, wanting one volume, in folio.

I may here mention the Heptateuchus:—Liber Job, et Evangelium Nicodemi, Anglo-Saxonicè; Historia Judith, Dana-Saxonicè, edited by Edward Thwaites, at Oxford, in 8vo.; Codex Theodori Bezæ, Cantabrigiensis, Evangelia et Acta Apostolorum complectens, quadratis literis, Græco-Latinis, adumbravit, expressit, edidit, &c. Thomas Kipling, S.T.P. Cantabrigiæ, 1793, in 2 volumes, folio; Wetstein’s Edition of the Greek Testament; the Evangelia Gothica, edited by Junius; and Psalterium Davidis Latino-Saxonicum Vetus, à Johanne Spelmanno editum è vetustissimo Exemplari manuscripto, et tribus aliis collatum, Londini, 1640, 4to.

There are also Bibles in the Spanish and French languages; and many Latin Bibles, the earliest of which appeared to be that printed at Venice in 1484, by Herbert de Selgenstat, a German, in double columns of small Gothic letter, in a quarto form, bound in red morocco, with a cover, originally appertaining unto John Cade, whose illustrative propensities are displayed by a coloured representation of the Virgin, pasted on the back of the first leaf of this book. The passion of this defunct collector for illustrating books is said to have been so strong as to have led to the expansion of his copy of Dugdale’s Works to no less than one hundred volumes.

On viewing the literary remains of polemical controversy, and the dust-covered rows of obsolete divinity, one is tempted involuntarily to exclaim—

“Hi motus animorum atque hæc certamina tanta Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescant.”

Of these writers, over whose voluminous works the modern eye so coldly glances, some occupied no small share of the public attention in their time, and of a few might be said,

“He knew what’s what, and that’s as high As metaphysic wit can fly; In school Divinity as able As he that hight Irrefragable, A second Thomas, or at once To name them all, another Dunse; Profound in all the Nominal And Real ways above them all; For he a rope of sand could twist As tough as learned Sorbonist.”

_Butler’s Hudibras_, Part I. Canto I. v. 149.

It is remarkable that two-thirds of the eminent schoolmen were of British birth, a circumstance which renders the preservation of their labours in the Cathedral Libraries of England a matter of some consequence to those who love to trace the scintillations of the English mind through the Cimmerian gloom of the schools.

In these repositories we also find the marvellous legends of those great and good men whom the Church delighted to honour.

The present collection offers several editions of the once popular Legenda Aurea, the first bearing the date 1475, in 4to.; the second having been printed at Cologne in 1483, in folio; and the third by Wynkyn de Worde at London, in 1516, in folio, in double columns of Gothic character. Both the last are in excellent preservation.

Among the multitude of schoolmen and divines of the earlier ages, it is difficult to select those which may convey an adequate impression of the extent of this collection. Here the eye reposes on the Works of Sermundus, in brilliant condition, on large paper. There it meets with the Works of Pope Benedict the XIVth, and a long array of the Fathers and other pillars of the Church.

Coleridge conceived Origen, Jerome, and Augustine to be the three fathers in respect of theology, and Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and Chrysostom in respect of rhetoric.[12] Of the truth of this assertion the student may here convince himself, for this Library contains these authors, forming part of a good collection of the Fathers of the Church.

In this Library are deposited the Works of the Fathers of the Church, including those of SS. Ambrose, Athanasius, Augustine, Basil, Bernard, Chrysostom, Clemens Alexandrinus, Cyprian, Cyril, Episcopius, Epiphanius, Eusebius, Gregory, Jerome, Hilary, Ignatius, Irenæus, Isidore, Justin Martyr, Lactantius, Peter Martyr, Origen, Polycarp, Tertullian, and Theophylact; with the Bibliotheca Maxima Patrum, &c.

Among the earlier Divines I noticed the Works of Anselm, Bellarmine, Calvin, Erasmus, Grotius, Thomas à Kempis, Lanfranc, Socinus, and Zanchius.

The Divines of the English Church, whose labours are found within these walls, are Abbot, Allix, Andrews, Barrow, Beveridge, Chillingworth, Samuel Clarke, Comber, Doddridge, Hall, Hammond, Hoadley, Hopkins, Jackson, Jewel, Jortin, Kennicott, Lardner, Leighton, Lightfoot, Mede, Ogden, Paley, Patrick, Pearce, Porteus, Reynolds, Sherlock, South, Stillingfleet, Jeremy Taylor, Tenison, Tillotson, Usher, Warburton, Waterland, and Whiston; with numerous publications of other theologians of the olden time, the greater portion of which has been either presented or bequeathed to the Library by the Prebendaries of Durham.

In the Divinity class are also found the Discourses of Bossuet and Saurin; the Bampton Lectures; Elsley’s Annotations; Faber on Idolatry, Prophecy, and other Works; Hey’s Lectures; Macknight’s Harmony of the Gospels; Pearsoni Opera Posthuma; Prideaux and Shuckford’s Connection; Routh’s Reliquiæ Sacræ; Slade on the Epistles; Stackhouse’s Body of Divinity; Wake’s Genuine Epistles of the Apostolical Fathers; Wall on Infant Baptism; and Whitby’s Paraphrase.

In this place I may enumerate the large assemblage of Canons, Concordances, Councils, Synods, Glosses, and Commentators, collected within these walls. Bingham’s Antiquities of the Christian Church; Calmet’s Dictionary of the Bible; Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity; Hyde’s Religio Veterum Persarum; Howell’s Synopsis Canonum; Limborch Theologia Christiana; Nicolai de Lyra Commentaria in S. Biblia; the Bibliotheca Maxima Patrum; Spencer de legibus Hebræorum; Suiceri Thesaurus Ecclesiasticus; Suarez de Legibus; and many other Works of Divinity too numerous for particular mention in this cursory survey of this valuable and extensive collection.

In Ecclesiastical History, this Library contains many valuable Works, including Alfordi Annales Ecclesiæ Britannicæ, in 4 vols. folio; Baronii Annales Ecclesiastici; Bedæ Venerabilis Historia Anglicana Ecclesiastica, cura Smithii, Cantabrigiæ, folio; a beautiful copy upon large paper in blue morocco, a most appropriate ornament to this Collection.

Brandt’s History of the Reformation in the Low Countries.

Burnet’s History of the Reformation in England.

Davies’ Ancient Rites of the Cathedral of Durham.

Dod’s Church History.

Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum.

Ecton’s Thesaurus.

Gibson’s Codex Juris Ecclesiastici et Civilis.

Harpsfeld’s Historia Anglicana Ecclesiastica.

Inett’s Origines Anglicanæ.

Parker de Antiquitate Ecclesiæ Britannicæ. Hanoviæ, 1605, folio.

Reyner de Apostolatu Ordinis Benedictinorum in Anglia, Duaci. 1626, folio.

Soame’s History of the Reformation.

Spotiswood’s History of the Church of Scotland.

Strype’s Ecclesiastical Memorials, and Annals of the Reformation, both in folio.

Wharton’s Anglia Sacra.

Wordsworth’s Ecclesiastical Biography.

The latter Work leads me to mention Fiddes’s Life of Wolsey; McCrie’s Life of Knox; Laud’s Troubles; Southey’s Life of Wesley; Strype’s Lives of Cranmer, Grindall, Parker, and Whitgift.

I may here add the Histories of the Jews by Basnage and Josephus; and the entire series of the valuable Acta Sanctorum, compiled by the Bollandists, in 52 folio volumes.

Connected with the above, I may here notice Foxe’s Acts and Monuments of the Church, in 3 volumes, folio; the Concilia of Spelman, in folio; and Collier’s Ecclesiastical History.

The Historical department of this Library embraces the long series of the Byzantine Historians; the valuable Collections of Grævius and Gronovius, relating to the History and Antiquities of Greece and Italy, with the supplementary Lexicon of Pitiscus, and the Inscriptions of Gruter; the Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, edited by the indefatigable Muratori; the antiquarian labours of Montfaucon relating to France; and Freheri Theatrum Virorum Clarorum.

It also contains Banduri Antiquitates Constantinopolitanæ; Burgess’ Antiquities of Rome; Collier’s Historical Dictionary; Coxe’s Memoirs of the Kings of Spain, of the House of Bourbon, London, 1813, in 3 volumes 4to.; Kæmpfer’s History of Japan; Knolles’s General History of the Turks; Marsden’s History of Sumatra; Maurice’s Indian Antiquities, or Dissertations relative to the Geography, Theology, Laws, &c. of Hindostan, London, 1793-1800, in 7 octavo volumes; Mitford’s History of Greece; Niebuhr’s History of Rome; Ockley’s Conquest of Syria, Persia, and Egypt, by the Saracens; Orme’s History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan; Pococke’s Description of the East; Pontoppidan’s Natural History of Norway; Russell’s Modern Europe; Sandy’s Europæ Speculum; De Thou’s History of his own Time; Southey’s History of Brazil; Watson’s History of Philip II. of Spain; and Robertson’s Historical Works; and some old Latin Chronicles.

This Library is also adorned by the Antichita d’Ercolano; the Museum Florentinum; Hamilton’s Vases; Gell’s Pompeiana; Stuart’s Antiquities of Athens; and Young on the Hieroglyphics of Egypt.

The Travels of Clarke, Chandler, Shaw, and others; Coxe’s Account of the Russian Discoveries between Asia and America; the Conquest of Siberia, and Russian Commerce with China; Maundrell’s Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem; the Voyages of Cook, Parry, Perouse, Taverner, and other Navigators, with the Petits Voyages of De Bry, are found on these well-stored shelves, accompanied by the requisite addition of Janson’s Atlas.

The History of the Peninsular War, by Southey and the Marquis of Londonderry, are also found in this Collection.

The books relating to the History of Great Britain in this Library, include the collection of fifteen Historians, by Gale and Fell, and of ten by Twysden, Camdeni Anglica Normannica à veteribus scripta; Asser Menevensis, edited by Wise; Simeon of Worcester, edited by Nasmyth, 1778, 8vo.; Matthew Paris’ Historia Anglicana, edited by Wats, London, 1684, folio, upon large paper, in calf binding; Matthew of Westminster’s Flores Historiarum, folio; and William of Malmesbury, 1596, folio.

The Histories of England, by Brady, Carte, Daniel, Echard, Hallam, Lingard, Mac Pherson, Rapin, Tindal, and Sharon Turner.

The Chronicles of Grafton, Holinshed, and Froissart; the latter translated and printed by Mr. Johnes at Hafod; Duchesne’s Histoire d’Angleterre; Polydori Vergilii Historia Anglicana, Basileæ, 1526, folio; Forduni Scoti-Chronicon; Chaloner de Republicâ Anglorum restauranda; Sheringham de Anglorum Gentis origine; Robert de Avesbury’s Historia Edvardi III. edente Tho. Hearnio, Oxon. 1729, 8vo.; Gildas de excidio et conquestu Britanniæ; Gibson’s Chronicon Saxonicum; & Eadmeri Historia Novorum.

The Historical Collections of Rushworth and Nalson; the State Papers of Clarendon and Thurloe; the Sidney Papers; the State Trials, edited by Hargrave and others; Somers’ Collection of Tracts; the Harleian Miscellany; Lodge’s Illustrations of British History; the Journals of the House of Commons; and all the publications issued under the authority of the Record Commission.

Burton’s Diary of the Cromwellian Parliaments; Clarendon’s Diary and History of the Great Rebellion; Coxe’s Memoirs of John Duke of Marlborough; Ellis’ Letters, illustrative of English History; Evelyn’s Memoirs; Fenn’s Letters of the Paston Family; Lyttelton’s History of Henry the Second; North’s Examen of Kennet’s History; Pepys’ Memoirs; Ridpath’s Border History, and Nicolson’s Border Laws; with Temple’s History of the Rebellion in Ireland, and Thoresby’s Diary.

Illustrative of Scottish History, I remarked Abercrombie’s Martial Achievements of the Scots’ Nation; the Histories of Scotland, by Keith, Robertson, and Stuart; Sanderson’s Life of Queen Mary; Johnstone’s Antiquitates Celto-Scandicæ.

This Library is peculiarly rich in Works relating to the Topography and Antiquities of Great Britain, embracing the entire Works of Pennant, all the Antiquities of Grose; Gough’s Sepulchral Monuments; Britton’s Architectural Antiquities, and Picturesque Illustrations of the English Cathedrals; Horsley’s Britannia Romana; Lysons’ Magna Britannia; Buck’s Views of Cities, Castles, &c. in Great Britain; Camden’s Britannia, edited by Gough, in 3 vols. folio; Speed’s Theatre of Great Britain; Strutt’s Horda, and his Regal and Ecclesiastical Antiquities; and Leland’s Itinerary, edited by Hearne, Oxford, 1768; and Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary of England.

The County Histories which enrich this Collection are, a large paper copy of Aubrey’s History of Surrey, in old calf binding; Ashmole’s Berkshire; Atkyns’s Gloucestershire, London, 1712, folio; Bridge’s Northamptonshire; Burton’s Leicestershire; Borlase’s Cornwall; Chauncey’s Hertfordshire; Collinson’s Somersetshire; Dugdale’s Warwickshire, edited by Thomas; Hasted’s Kent, in 4 volumes, folio; Hutchinson’s Northumberland and Durham; Jones’ Brecknockshire; Leicester’s Cheshire; Leigh’s Natural History of Lancashire; Morton’s Natural History of Northamptonshire; Nash’s History of Worcestershire; Pole’s Collections for the History of Devonshire; Plot’s Natural History of Oxfordshire and Staffordshire; Raine’s North Durham; Surtees’ Durham; Thoroton’s Nottinghamshire; and Wright’s Rutland.

The Local Histories which I also noticed, were Bentham’s Ely; Battely’s Antiquitates Rutupinæ, apparently on large paper; Charlton’s Whitby; Dart’s History of Canterbury Cathedral, and of Westminster Abbey, both in folio; Drake’s York; Halfpenny’s Gothic Ornaments in York Cathedral; Izaacke’s Exeter; the original edition of Kennett’s Parochial Antiquities; Loggan’s Oxonia and Cantabrigia Illustrata; Lyson’s Environs of London; Newcourt’s Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Londinense, upon large paper; Maitland’s Edinburgh; Milner’s History of Winchester; Peck’s Annals of Stamford; Shaw’s Account of Hartlepool; Stow’s London; Somner’s Canterbury; Thoresby’s Leeds; Whitaker’s Loidis and Elmete; White’s Natural History of Selborne; Widmore’s Westminster Abbey; Wood’s History of the University of Oxford; and Willis’s Cathedrals.

Allan’s Collections relating to Sherburn Hospital, and other places in the County of Durham; and Raine’s Account of the Remains of St. Cuthbert are most appropriately placed upon these shelves.

In this Collection I also remarked Carter’s Specimens of Gothic Architecture; Ducarel’s Anglo-Norman Antiquities; Madox’s Formulare Anglicanum, and History of the Exchequer; and Archdall’s Monasticon Hibernicanum; the Archælogia, or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity, published by the Antiquarian Society of London, at various times, in 4to.; Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum, Origines Judiciales; Summons of the Nobility to Parliament; and his Baronage of England, in folio, are also deposited within these walls.

The Heraldic Works which adorn these shelves are, Ashmole’s Order of the Garter; Collins’s Peerage and Baronage; Gwillim’s Heraldry; Sandford’s Genealogical History of the Kings of England, &c.; and others of less note.

The Chronological Works which met my eye, were, Bedford’s Scripture Chronology; Blair’s Chronology and History of the World; Petavii Rationale Temporum; and Hale’s valuable Analysis of Chronology; “in which an attempt is made to explain the history and antiquities of the primitive nations of the world, and the prophecies relating to them, on principles tending to remove the imperfection and discordance of preceding systems.”

The Numismatic Works I noticed, were, Folkes’ Coins; Vaillant’s Numismata; and Ruding’s valuable Annals of the Coinage.

There are several Mythological Treatises, of which Spence’s Polymetis is the chief.

In Works of Natural History, this Collection is enriched by the Works of Bacon and Evelyn, and the quarto series of Buffon’s Natural History, in old French calf binding.

In Geology, Buckland’s Reliquiæ Diluvianæ; Conybeare’s Geology; and the Transactions of the Geological Society are found on these shelves.

The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London; Watson’s Chemical Essays; Albin’s Natural History of Birds and Insects; and Wood’s Index Testacealogicus, also enrich this department of the Library.

In Botany, I observed Miller’s Gardener’s Dictionary and Figures of Plants; Morison’s Historia Plantarum; Raii Historia Plantarum; and the Transactions of the Linnæan Society.

In Medicine, the Works of Hippocrates and Dioscorides may be mentioned.

Of Works relating to the Arts and Sciences, I noticed Horsley’s valuable edition of Newton’s Works; Wallis’s Mathematical Works; Burney’s History of Music; Chamber’s Dictionary; the Marmora Oxoniensia; Vitruvius de Architectura, Venetiis, 1497, folio; Walpole on Painting; and others of less note.

The Bibliographical department of this Library includes Astle on Writing; Catalogues of the Bodleian Library, of the Harleian Collections of the Manuscripts bequeathed by Archbishop Parker to Corpus Christi College at Cambridge; and the general Catalogue of Manuscripts in England, Scotland, and Ireland; Chevillier’s Origine de l’Imprimerie à Paris; Dibdin’s Bibliographical Decameron, and Introduction to the Classics; Dupin’s Ecclesiastical Authors; Fabricii Bibliotheca, &c.; Herbert’s edition of Ames’ Typographical Antiquities of Great Britain; Todd’s Catalogue of the Manuscripts at Lambeth Palace; Maittaire’s Annales Typographici, Stephanorum Historia, and Historia Typographiæ Parisiensis; Memoirs of Literature; Maderus de Bibliothecis, &c.; Nicolson’s English Historical Library; Stanley’s History of Philosophy; Thuani Bibliotheca, and the Bibliotheca MS. Stowensis, edited by Dr. O’Conor; Watt’s Bibliotheca Britannica; and Wood’s Athenæ Oxonienses.

The Etymological Works which enrich this Library are, Cotgrave’s French and English Dictionary; Davies Dictionary of the Welsh Language; the Etymologicum Magnum, Calliergi, Venetiis, 1499, folio; Facciolati Lexicon; Gebelin’s Monde Primitif, in 4to.; Hesychii Lexicon; Hickes’s Thesaurus Septentrionalis; Jamieson’s Scottish Dictionary; Johnson’s English Dictionary, edited and enlarged by Todd; Lhuyd’s Archæologia Britannica; Morel’s Dictionarium Prosodiacum; Moreri Dictionarium; Nares’s Glossary; Scapulæ Lexicon; Skinner’s Etymologicum; Somner’s Glossary and Saxon Dictionary; Spelman’s Glossary; Stephani Thesaurus Linguæ Græcæ; Suidæ Lexicon apud Frobenium, 1544, folio; Wolfii Curæ Philologicæ et Criticæ; and the Glossary of Du Fresne.

In English Literature this Collection contains so much that is valuable as to preclude minute enumeration of each separate Work.

In it the labours of Addison, Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Selden and Swift are blended with the lays of Pope, and Dryden, the latter edited by Scott; the Philosophical Works of Harris, the Historical Works of Raleigh, the Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, and of William Shakespeare, form one instructive and harmonious whole.

The Memoirs of the ancient Earls of Surrey, Boswell’s ever-amusing Life of Johnson, Evelyn’s Memoirs, Pepys’s Memoirs, Thoresby’s Diary, Spelman’s Alfred, Kippis’s Biographia Britannica, Birch’s Heads of Illustrious Personages, and Chalmers’s Biographical Dictionary, form one of the most popular branches of this ancient Library.

Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and his delightful Lay of the Last Minstrel, and Walpole’s Works, are also found on these shelves.

This Library contains the Koran or Mahommedan rule of Faith, several forms of Prayer and Liturgies of the Romish and Reformed Churches, including the Pontificale Romanum of 1664, Durandi Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, and Picart’s valuable Account of the Religious Ceremonies of all Nations.

The Statutes at large, and Viner’s Abridgment, Wilkins’s Leges Anglo-Saxonicæ, Gibson’s Codex Juris Ecclesiastici et Civilis, Nicolson’s Border Laws, and Coke’s Institutes of the Laws of England, were the only legal works that arrested my attention.

In General Literature I can only particularise Bayle’s Dictionary, and Lowth de Sacrâ Poesi Hebræorum.

The literary remains of Casaubon, Cave, Le Clerc, Dodwell, Fabricius, Gataker, Gesner, Jahn, Meursius, Orosius, Parkhurst, Petrarch, Rollin, Scaliger, and Vossius.

Of learned Bodies, the Transactions contained in this Library, in addition to the Philosophical, Linnæan, and Geological Transactions, include the Memoirs of the Manchester Society and of the Irish Academy, the Memoires de l’Academie Française, and the Academie des Inscriptions, both in 4to. the latter retaining its original binding of red morocco, mellowed by the hand of time.

The Classical department of this Library is both valuable and extensive, containing editions of the Works of Ælian, Æschylus, Anacreon, Apollodorus, Appian, Apuleius, Aristotle, Arrian, Aristides, Athenæus, Ausonius, Cæsar, Catullus, Demosthenes, Dioscorides, Diodorus Siculus, Dion Cassius, Dion Chrysostomos, Ennius, Epictetus, Euripides, Eutropius, Aulus Gellius, Herodian, and Herodotus.

Of Horace, Iamblichus, Isocrates, Justin, Juvenal, Lucan, Lucian, Lucretius, Lycophron, Manilius, Martial, Pomponius Mela, Orpheus, Ovid, Vellius Paterculus, Petronius Arbiter, Phædrus, and Plato.

Of the elder and the younger Pliny, Plutarch, Polybius, Procopius, Propertius, Prudentius, Pythagoras, Quintilian, Sedulius, Seneca, Sidonius Apollinaris, Solinus, Statius, Suetonius, Symmachus, Terence, Theocritus, Tibullus, Virgil, and Xenophon.

This brief enumeration may suffice to shew the extent of this class; while in proof of its value I may adduce many of the best editions of the Classics, including Alciphron, Bergleri, Ammianus Marcellinus, Gronovii, 1693, folio; Aristophanes Kusteri, Ciceronis Opera, Minutiani, Mediolani, 1498, folio, and Oliveti, Parisiis, 1748, 4to.; Claudianus, Barthii, Butler’s Æschylus, Beck’s Euripides, Homer by Clarke and Heyne, Plato by Serranus and Bekker, Dionysius Halicarnassensis by Hudson, Pausanias, Kühnii, Silius Italicus, Drakenborchii, Sophocles, by Brunck, and many others too numerous for particular notice.

I may here, however, notice Flaxman’s elegant Illustrations of Homer and of Æschylus, the sumptuous folio containing Maii Fragmenta Homeri, and Middleton’s Life of Cicero.

Of the earlier Impressions of the Classics it is now high time to speak, lest the impatient reader should imagine so important a branch of every collection had escaped attention in this instance. I hasten then to present to his notice three valuable specimens of the Spira Press.

First, then, in rarity as in worth, we have a perfect Copy of the First Edition of Tacitus, with the well-known Colophon of Vindelin de Spira, but without date. It is supposed, however, to have been printed in the year 1470. The present copy is sound and fair, measuring eleven and a half inches by seven and a half, and is bound in old Russia. Then follows the First Edition of Livy, with a date, it having been printed by Vindelin de Spira in 1470. This noble folio is apparently in its original binding, and having several rough leaves, we may conclude it never to have been shorn of its fair dimensions. It measures, in fact, sixteen inches by ten and a quarter, but it has been mournfully stained in the beginning, where is written “D. D. Joannes Tempest. Arm:” The interior is, however, remarkably sound and fine.

Next we have, from the same printer, a Latin version of Strabo, a very sound copy with some illuminated capitals. It bears the date of 1472, with an intimation at its close, in Latin verse, that its characters were “Impressos digitis Vindelianis.” It measures fifteen inches by ten and a half, and is bound in old calf. By the side of the foregoing is appropriately placed a Latin Version of Herodotus, having the Preface at the end: according to the Colophon it was printed Venetiis, per Jacobum Rubeum, 1474, folio. It measures eleven inches and three fifths by eight, and is bound in calf. We may next notice a very fine and sound copy of the Etymologicum Magnum, from the Press of Calliergus at Venice, of the date of 1499. This noble folio measures fifteen inches and a quarter by ten and seven eighths, and is bound in dark calf. A beautiful copy of the Aldine Plutarch of 1509, in two volumes folio, measuring eleven inches and three fifths by seven and a half, bound in light calf; and a copy of Boethius de Consolatione Philosophiæ, printed by John Koelhof of Lubeck at Cologne in 1482, folio, as fresh as if it had just issued from the press, next demand our attention. The latter Work is bound with an old Manuscript of some portion of Thomas Aquinas, but there is another edition of 1481, in 4to. from the same press, also in this Collection, though not in such “crackling” condition as that I have just mentioned. I proceed to notice a Latin translation of Aristotle’s Ethics, printed by Conrad Braen in the University of Louvain, in 1476, folio. This volume is in very fine condition, but is unfortunately imperfect at the end. Also a thick folio volume, containing the following pieces:—

1. Diodori Siculi Historiarum Libri VII. Latinè Poggio Florentino Interprete, per Bartholomæum Merula Venetiis, per Joannem de Tridino, 1496.

2. Ovidius de arte amandi, et de remedio amoris. Venetiis, per Barthol. Merula, 1516.

3. Horatius cum Commentariis Acronis, &c. Venetiis, 1494. Imperfect at the end.

4. Persius cum Commentariis, &c. Brixiæ, per Johannem Britannicum, 1486.

5. Francisci Philelphi Epistolæ. XVII. Venetiis, per Joannem de Tridino, 1498.

Having thus surveyed the earlier efforts of the Italian press, it remains to notice the productions of the first English printers, preserved in this Collection.

These rude and curious pieces are all contained in one small thick 4to. volume, bound in old calf, and lettered merely “CAXTON.” The bookbinder seems in this instance to have misled the accurate Thomas Rud, who from his manuscript notes contained in the volumes, evidently seems to consider all its contents as the work of the Father of the English Press; a mistake which the adoption of Caxton’s typographical insignia by his immediate successor, Wynkyn de Worde, would naturally induce in one unacquainted with all those mysteries of black letter which the nineteenth century has developed. The Author of the Bibliographical Decameron has not failed to remark, III. 422, the difference of the type, and has correctly recorded its contents; his only inaccuracy consisting in the assertion that the second piece from the press of Caxton is perfect.

The Volume itself contains five Treatises; three from the press of Caxton, originally published together, and two from that of Wynkyn de Worde, formerly printed separately. The Caxtonian morceaux occupy the first portion, whereof:

1. “The first treatyse is named Orologium Sapientiæ;” consisting of seven chapters, and concluding thus: “Thus endeth the Treatyse of vii poyntes of true love, and everlasting wisdom drawen of the boke that is wryten in Laten named Orologium Sapiencie.” “Emprynted at Westmynster.” “Qui legit emendet, i̅pressorem non reprehendat.” “Wyllelmum Caxton cui Deus alta tradat.” This first Treatise wants three sheets out of twelve; viz. K J (they are so misplaced, and J wants three leaves) and M. In the place of L there is put A, the first sheet of the second Treatise. This first Treatise begins upon sign. J iii, all the preceding pages having perished.

2. The second Tract commences with these words: “Here beginneth a little short treatise, &c.,” and concluding with, “Thus endeth the treatise shewing the vii Proffites of tribulacyon.” On the reverse of the last leaf is the large device of Caxton. This Treatise contains XII. Chapters, but it wants two leaves in D, and sheet A is bound up with the preceding Treatise of the Orologium Sapientiæ.

3. “The thyrde treatise sheweth the holy rule of Saynt Benet which is right necessary to be knowen to al men and wymen of religion that understonde no laten which sheweth XXXIII poyntes to be observed.” “Emprinted at Westmynstre by desiring of certeyn worshipfull persones.” The first two leaves of this third Treatise are wanting.

All these three Tracts of “divers fruitful and ghostly matters,” are in the same rude Gothic type which was frequently used by Caxton.

The two following Tracts are printed from a fount of black letter quite dissimilar to the preceding, but corresponding with that which is seen in the earliest productions of Wynkyn de Worde.

The first Treatise, reprinted verbatim from Caxton’s edition, is:

1. Of the four last things, Death, Judgment, Hell, Heaven, translated from the French by Antony, Earl Rivers, &c.

“Registrum quaterno ℞ a b c d e f g h i k l m.”

Below the subscription just quoted is the small device of Caxton as used by Wynkyn de Worde; and on the following leaf is the wood-cut subscribed “Memorare Novissima,” by which name this Tract is commonly known. The Work itself consists of eighty-eight leaves, numbered i to lxxxviii. exclusive of the two containing the table and the Prologue, and of the title and last leaf. It is printed in double columns of black letter, and the present copy is defective only in the title.

2. The second Treatise in the Gothic character of Wynkyn de Worde is “The Rote or Myrrour of Consolation and Comforte,” commencing with a Wood-cut of the elevation of the Host on sign. A i.

This Book unfortunately lacks its latter half; “for whereas the author proposes to speak of twenty fruits or Consolations of Tribulation, the last ten, with part of the eleventh, are wanting,” remarks Thomas Rud in his most neat and legible Manuscript Notes, and it is with a sigh that succeeding librarians concur in the accuracy of his observations, seeing that this Tract is one of the most uncommon productions of De Worde’s Press.

Of other early printed English Books I remarked a copy of Lydgate’s Bocace, printed by Richard Tottel, without date, bound up with Gower’s Confessio Amantis, printed by Berthelet in 1554, both in folio, and in their pristine state, albeit a little scribbled on.

Apropos of scribbling, this Library contains Tonstall’s own copy of Budæus de Asse, printed at Paris in 1508, folio, with his autographic mark of ownership, “Sum Tonstalli,” being the very book he used in composing his Treatise, De arte Supputandi, and containing the manuscript notes made by him on its perusal. This interesting copy is, however, unfortunately, imperfect at the end. There is also another edition of the Works of Budæus, with the Commentaries of Ascensius, bearing date 1529, also in folio; and Tonstall’s own Work, De Arte Supputandi, 1522, 4to.

In this Collection is a copy of the celebrated French Testament by the Theologians of Louvain, in which “The Mass” is interpolated in Acts xiii. and “Purgatory,” in 1 Cor. iii: printed at Bordeaux, 1686.

I remarked a fine old folio, Lyndewode’s Provinciale, with the date of M.CCCCXXXIII, instead of 1483, the numeral L having evidently lapsed through the carelessness of the printer, as in the famous Decor Puellarum of Nicolas Jenson. By the side of this stands another copy of the Provinciale, with the date of 1501, also in folio.

In General Literature, I can only particularise Bayle’s Dictionary, Gruter’s Inscriptions, Picart’s Religious Ceremonies, Chandler’s Marmora Oxoniensia, and Vaillant’s Numismata, recommending to those who wish for further information, ocular inspection of the books themselves.

The 520 Manuscripts in this Collection are all which remain of that ancient Library, whose foundation is coeval with that of the Cathedral itself, and whose treasures were augmented with the power and influence of the Church of Durham. The monotonous existence of the monk was enlivened by the diligence of the scribe, whose marginal drolleries and quaint devices relieve the weary eye, and remind us of the recreations of the Cloister.

The volumes thus accumulated must have been of essential service in diffusing over the wide district of Northumbria the light of knowledge and the blessings of religion. The seven Cells of Durham, at Holy Island, Wearmouth, Jarrow, and the Farn Islands, at Litham in Lancashire, and Stamford in Northamptonshire, appear to have partaken largely of these advantages.

Upon the suppression of the Monasteries whose revenues were under 200_l._ a-year, by the 27th of Henry the Eighth, many of the books which belonged to the Church of Durham were removed by royal command, and are now to be found in the British Museum. The most valuable of these spolia “opima” appears to have been St. Cuthbert’s Copy of the Gospels, now in that vast repository.

Of the Manuscripts which remain at Durham, Thomas Rud, sometime Librarian of that Cathedral, compiled a most accurate Catalogue, which has been ably edited by the Rev. James Raine, the present Librarian. This Impression was taken off for the use of the ecclesiastical body to whom the Manuscripts belong, only fifty copies being exposed for public sale. As the volume is not in everybody’s hands, although easily attainable, I have given its title, as it runneth, thus:

“Codicum Manuscriptorum Ecclesiæ Cathedralis Dunelmensis Catalogus Classicus, descriptus à Thoma Rud, ejusdem ecclesiæ bibliothecario; cum Appendice eos Codices continente qui post Catalogum confectum diversis temporibus comparati sunt. Dunelmiæ, excudebat F. Humble, prostat venalis apud G. Andrews, venit etiam Londini apud Payne and Foss, 1825.”

The Appendix of Manuscripts purchased by the Dean and Chapter of Durham at different periods since Mr. Rud compiled his Catalogue is entirely from the pen of Mr. James Raine, and renders this workmanlike folio a most useful companion to the Library.

There are two ancient Catalogues of the Manuscripts preserved in this Library; the one entitled, “Vetus Catalogus Librorum qui in Armariolo Ecclesiæ Cathedralis Dunelmensis olim habebantur.”[13] The other was compiled in 1391, continued in 1395, and concluded in 1416, with a note at the end of a few books sent in 1422 to Stamford for the use of the Cell there. This volume is written upon vellum, in folio, and is bound in calf. Its title is as follows:—

“Le Spendement.”

“Isti libri infrascripti inventi fuerunt in com̅uni Armariolo Dunelm. infra Spendimentum in recessu ffratris dn̅i Roberti de Langscheff’ ab officio librarie ad offic’ fferetrarie. Et liberati ffatri Will’mo de Appelby circa festum purific’ beate Virginis Marie Anno dn̅i Milessimo. ccc. nonagesimo primo.”[14]

Of this volume seventeen leaves appear to have been written in 1391, sixteen in 1395, and the remaining eleven in 1416. Its contents are extremely interesting, as shewing in what the literature of that period consisted, and affording abundant evidence of the interchange of information which then subsisted not only between Durham and its dependant Cells, but also between that place and Oxford, and other seats of learning.

These considerations induced the author of the present work to superintend the publication of this document by the Surtees Society, whose object is to throw light upon the literary history of Northumbria, and to facilitate the study of antiquity from the Humber to the Tweed.

In this Catalogue the first word of the second leaf are specified as certain indicia by which different transcripts of the same Codex may be distinguished from each other; and it is pleasant to find at this distance of time, a Membranaceous Evangelistarium, seu “Quatuor Evangelia de manu Bede ii fo. Baptizatus,” answering with the first word of its second leaf “Baptizatus” to the indication in this ancient Catalogue. Partly in the same handwriting also appears, “Cassiodorus super Psalterium de manu Bedæ,” whereof the best account I can give will be in the ipsissima verba of the sagacious Thomas Rud: “Pulchrè scriptus est hic Codex lineis divisis, literis mediocribus Saxonicis; et quidem ipsius Venerabilis Bedæ manu, si fides habenda est huic notæ in fronte libri positæ: ‘Cassiodorus sup. Psalterium de manu bede.’ Est quidem hæc nota libro ipso multo recentior; neque scripta, ut videtur, ante annos 400: Sed indicat saltem quodnam fuerit Monachorum Dunelmensium eo tempore de hoc Codice judicium: quidquid illis de eâ re traditum fuit. Neque sanè temerè rejicienda est hujusmodi traditio. Dunelmenses enim Monachi, qui Girvensium (e quorum numero Beda fuit) propago fuere, quique summâ veneratione illius memoriam colebant, melius quam ulli alii Vitæ ejus historiam rescire poterant.

“Et quidem ipsa Codicis Scriptura ad eam ætatem assurgere videtur.” And after giving his reasons for this opinion, adds, “Si autem a Beda descriptus sit, fecit id ille proculdubio Juvenis adhuc; priusquam accingeret se ad libros (quos plurimos scripsit) suo Marte componendos. Itaque assurgere videtur hic Codex ad initium sæculi octavi; mortuus est enim Beda, sexagenario major, A.D. 735. Habet itaque minimum mille annos.”[15]

It may be imagined that, under the impression that the handwriting of the Venerable Bede was actually before my eyes, I turned over the leaves of these ancient volumes with little less veneration than that with which I handled the Codex Bezæ in the Public Library at Cambridge.

Among the other ancient Manuscripts of this Monastic Library, are found several Latin Bibles, particularly one by St. Jerome in four large volumes, many portions of the Holy Scriptures, several Psalters, Kalendars, and a Missal, together with numerous Glosses, Concordances, Commentaries, and Homilies, by various authors.

It may be here remarked that the oldest Manuscript in the Library is a Latin Ritual, A. iv. 19,[16] written, according to Wanley,[17] by the same hand which penned St. Cuthbert’s Copy of the Gospels, now in the British Museum.[18] There is also a copy of John, Luke and Mark, A. II. 17,[19] of nearly equal antiquity, which doubtless formed a part of the original Monastic Library of Lindisfarne.

The mass of Theological Literature is necessarily great, but a few of the leading names will suffice to indicate its importance, finding as we do in this truly venerable Collection, the Works of St. Ambrose, St. Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, St. Athanasius, St. Augustine, Bede, St. Chrysostom, St. Cyprian, Eusebius, St. Jerome, Gregory, Isidore, Origen, Tertullian, and of many other Heads and Fathers of the Church.

A Copy of so much of Lyra’s Commentary as refers to the Pentateuch, and other historical books of the Old Testament, from Genesis to the beginning of Job, written by William de Stiphel in the year 1386,[20] affords decidedly the best specimen of what could be done in Durham in the way of Illumination at that period. The remaining part of Lyra’s Commentary forms a separate volume, A. I. 4, and was written by a Monk of the name of Borrowby.

Of Classical Literature the list is not so copious. It can, however, boast of the names of Aristotle and Plato, the former accompanied by the Commentaries of Averrois, also of Boethius and Prudentius, of Galen and Hippocrates, together with all the Epigrams of Martial, the Proverbs of Seneca, Suetonius de Vita Cæsarum, C. III. 18, which has been collated by Mr. Rud in the Classical Journal, Vol. ix. pp. 143 and 386; and a few pieces of Cicero.

There is of course much interesting matter relating to English History, and especially to that of the Palatinate and Church of Durham, in those Manuscripts, to say nothing of original Charters, and other valuable documents. There are also some Ecclesiastical and Scholastic Histories.

To a particular account of the Benedictine order may be added the Lives of Gildas and St. Oswald, and among other illustrations of early English History, may be mentioned Nennii Historia Britonum; Genealogiæ Regum Saxonicorum in Britanniâ; Series Chronologica cum brevi Historiâ Episcoporum Angliæ and the Cronica Britannie à Bruto ad annum 1347.

The Works of Josephus are the last of these ancient Manuscripts I now propose to notice, and proceed to consider the additions made by the Dean and Chapter to this their most ancient Library, especially as these happen to include a work of singular interest with relation to the Church of Durham. The title of this Manuscript runneth thus, “Reginaldi Monachi Dunelmensis Libellus Autograph. de admirandis Beati Cuthberti Virtutibus quæ novellis patratæ sunt temporibus, scilicet post Bedam; scriptus ad Ætheldredum Abbatum Rhievallensem.” circa annum 1170. The entire Work contains 140 Chapters, a complete abstract of which may be seen in Appendix to the Catalogue of the MSS. of the Dean and Chapter, p. 399-411. “The publication of Reginald,” observes Mr. Raine, “notwithstanding his absurdities, would throw much light upon the history of the northern counties, connected with a period, relative to which the sources of information are so few.” It has been with great propriety selected as one of the earliest publications of the Surtees Society.

The Manuscripts purchased by the Dean and Chapter consists chiefly of Transcripts by Dr. Hunter, of Records relating to the See of Durham, and of Collections relating to the Churches of Northumberland, by the same hand.

These, together with Dr. Basire’s Letters, and other original and miscellaneous documents, chiefly relating to Durham, collected and indexed by Dr. Hunter,[21] as well as the copy of Reginald already mentioned; and some other papers of lesser note were purchased of the Executors of Dr. Hunter, in 1756, for 40 guineas. To these were added in 1823, the Historical, Heraldic, and Topographical Collections relating to Durham, formed by the late Mr. Allan, of Grange, which were sold by his son to the Dean and Chapter for £150, together with the “Collectanea ad Statum Civilem et Ecclesiasticum Comitatus Dunelmensis, &c. spectantia,” formed by the Rev. Thomas Randall, and by him bequeathed to the late Mr. Allan, of Grange.[22]

If to the above be added a Collection of the Statutes of several Colleges and Cathedrals, a tolerably correct idea may be formed of all the additions made to the ancient Manuscripts belonging to the Church of Durham.

The curious reader will learn with pleasure, that in the private Library attached to the Episcopal Palace will be found a valuable Manuscript of the Poems of Chaucer.

In conclusion, I may be forgiven for mentioning another book, though not immediately connected with the Library. I mean, “Saint Cuthbert, with an account of the state in which his remains were found upon the opening of his Tomb in Durham Cathedral, in the year 1827, by the Rev. James Raine, _M.A._ Rector of Meldon, Principal Surrogate of the Consistory Courts of Durham, and Librarian of Durham Cathedral. Durham, printed by F. Humble, 1828,” 4to. Of this Work fifty copies were taken off upon large paper, some of which Mr. Thomson, an ingenious upholsterer of Durham, is now engaged in illuminating after the original Lawson MS. Life of St. Cuthbert, by Bede, and the relics of that Saint now preserved in the Library.

Much of the preliminary matter of this Work might have been spared, being already incorporated in the History of North Durham, upon which Mr. Raine has been for some time engaged, and of which the first portion is already before the public.

Undoubtedly Mr. Raine has given to the world the most rational account of Saint Cuthbert which has hitherto appeared, and has completely exploded the superstitious tale of the incorruptibility of his body.

In an age remarkable for credulity, it was not surprising that a story, however contrary to experience, should be generally believed; but the present admirable illustration of the writings of Reginald and Bede has traced the mortal remains of the Patron Saint of Durham through all their several stages, and thrown the clearest light upon all the doubtful points connected with the history of Saint Cuthbert.

It is much to be regretted that the interesting investigation Mr. Raine has so minutely detailed, was conducted with so much precipitancy, and without previous information obtained from the Manuscript of Reginald.

This most valuable document, of which Mr. Raine has subsequently made such good use, is, I think, in his narrative rather too far separated from the corroboration which the actual examination so happily affords it; for the ordinary reader, bearing in his mind the interesting passages in italics, looks forward so impatiently for the opening of the tomb as to wish the accumulation of relics at St. Cuthbert’s shrine had been somewhat less, and be tempted to skip at once from page 117 to 171. Valuable to the local antiquary as are the details furnished by these pages, I cannot help so far concurring with the ignorant impatience manifested above, as to suggest that a very considerable portion of the records relative to the shrine of St. Cuthbert might have been transferred to the Appendix, without any chance of diminishing the popularity of the Work itself.

Library of Ely.

The Library of the Dean and Chapter of Ely is contained in a commodious and well lighted apartment, formed by the enclosure of the east aisle of the Cathedral for that purpose in 1814.

The books are all placed upon open shelves, and are chiefly attired in the dusky garb of former years, with paper labels on their backs, and are protected from damp by the heat of a stove.

This Collection is placed under the care of the Rev. George Millers, one of the Minor Canons of the Cathedral, whose diligence is attested by a printed Catalogue, under the following title: “Catalogus Librorum qui in Bibliothecâ Cathedralis Eliensis adservantur. 1815.”

In this volume the books are briefly, yet correctly enumerated under the several departments of knowledge to which they relate. That of Theology is, as might naturally be expected, the most copious, occupying 69 pages, out of the 138 of which the entire volume is composed. With this important feature in the Library, I will commence my account of its contents, giving precedence to the impressions of the Sacred Volume, the most remarkable of which are

Walton’s Polyglott, with Castell’s Lexicon.

Kennicott’s Hebrew Bible.

Vetus Testamentum Gr. è Codice Alexandrino, curâ Grabe. Oxonii, 1707-19, 2 vols. folio.

Vetus Testamentum Gr. LXX, ed. Holmes, &c. Oxon. 1804, &c. 6 vols. folio.

Novum Testamentum, è Th. Beza. Cantab. 1642, folio.

Novum Testamentum, Millii. Oxonii, 1707, folio.

Novum Testamentum, Westeinii. Amst. 1751, 2 vols. folio.

Novum Testamentum, è Codice Alexandrino, curâ Woide. Lond. 1786, folio.

Biblia Latina, Castalionis. Basil. 1551, folio.

Biblia Latina, Tremellii & Junii. Hanov. 1624, fol.

with several English versions of the Bible, of little note, and none earlier than 1607.

I must not however omit to mention the Acta Apostolorum Gr. et Lat. literis majusculis è Codice Laudiano, edente Thoma Hearne, Oxonii, 1715, roy. 8vo. Of Biblical Commentators, the number is very great; but the names of Le Clerc, Erasmus, Prideaux, Kidder, Patrick, Lowth, Whitby, Pococke, Michaelis, Pearce, Stanhope, and Macknight, may be selected as fit representations of the crowd from which they have been taken. The Critici Sacri and Pole’s Synopsis are of course included in this department.

Of Concordances it may be sufficient to mention those of Buxtorf, Stephens, and Taylor; and of Liturgies there are several examples, from the Romish Ritual to the English Common Prayer.

Of the Fathers of the Church, this Library may boast of a copious and valuable selection, including the Works of SS. Ambrose, Athanasius, Augustine, Basil, Benedict, Bernard, Chrysostom, Clement, Cyprian, Cyril, Epiphanius, Eusebius, the Gregories, Jerome, Irenæus, Isidore, and Justin Martyr, together with those of Lactantius, Origen, Philo Judæus, Tertullian, and Theodoret. To which may be added,

Cotelerii, SS. Patrum Apostolicorum Opera, edente Clerico. Amst. 1724, 2 vols. folio.

Grabii Spicilegium, SS. Patrum, &c. Oxon. 1699, 8vo.

Wake’s Epistles of the Apostolical Fathers. Lond. 1710, 8vo.

Cave’s Lives of the Primitive Fathers, &c. Lond. 1683-4, in 3 vols. folio.

Of Theological Writers during the later ages, the Works contained in this Library are so numerous, and many of the names of so little note, that I will not fatigue the reader by attempting to recount them.

Among the Latin Authors, I may mention Thomas Aquinas, Bellarmine, Bochart, Bull, Calvin, Grotius, Limborch, and Pearson; and among the Works of English Divines, may give precedence to those of Barrow, Bingham, Bramhall, Chillingworth, Clarke, Fleetwood, Hall, Hammond, Jackson, Jewell, Leslie, Lightfoot, Mede, Jeremy Taylor, and Tillotson. Of the other Theological Works, I may adduce those of Addison, Allix, Balguy, Bentley, Boyle, Burnet, Butler, Conybeare, Hervey, Hoadley, Hooker, Hooper, Jewel, Kettlewell, Leland, Lowth, Patrick, Sherlock, Stillingfleet, Usher, and Warburton, as a fair specimen of the whole. In conclusion, a few French Works on Divinity, and a formidable phalanx of Sermons by various authors, bring up the rear of this section of the Library.

In this place it may be right to mention the Synopsis Canonum of Howel, and Beveregii Pandectæ Canonum, together with the Concilia Generalia of Labbe, &c. the Concilia Britannica of Spelman, and the Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ et Hiberniæ of Wilkins. These three last-mentioned Works naturally lead us to the Works connected with Ecclesiastical History, which are found in this Collection. Among these I may enumerate

Baronii Annales Ecclesiastici. Paris. 1609-59, 12 vols. folio.

Bedæ Historia Ecclesiastica Anglicana. Cantab. 1722, folio.

Eusebii Historia Ecclesiastica. Paris. 1678, folio.

Gibson’s Codex Juris Ecclesiastici. Lond. 1713, 2 vols. folio.

Godwin de Præsulibus Angliæ. Cantab. 1743, fol.

Josephi Opera Omnia. Genevæ, 1611, folio.

Le Neve, Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ. Lond. 1716, fol.

Parker de Antiquitate Ecclesiæ Britannicæ. Lond. 1729, folio.

Usserii Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates. Lond. 1687, folio.

Whartoni Anglia Sacra. Lond. 1691, 2 vols. folio.

Stillingfleet, Origines Britannicæ. Lond. 1685, fol.

Burnet’s History of the Reformation. Lond. 1679-1715, 3 vols. folio.

Strype’s Annals of the Reformation. Lond. 1709-25, 2 vols. folio. And

Fox’s Acts and Monuments of the Church. Lond. 1684, 3 vols. folio. Which with

The Church History of Britain by Cressy, Collier, Fuller, Inett, and Lloyd; the Ecclesiastical Histories of Du Pin, Echard, Milner, and Mosheim, together with Spotiswood’s History of the Church of Scotland, form the principal features of this department.

In Works of General History this Collection is not rich. It possesses, however, Heylyn’s Cosmography, the History of the World by Howell, and Raleigh, the Ancient and Modern Universal History, Mitford’s History of Greece, the Roman Histories of Hooke and Ferguson, Maurice’s Hindostan, and Indian Antiquities, Du Halde’s China, and the Turkish History by Knolles and Rycaut.

As helps to History, I may notice the Chronology of Newton, and Playfair, and the Geography of Cellarius, Cluverius, Strabo, and Wells, together with the travels of Chandler, Pennant, Ray, and Spon.

As important adjuncts to History, I may also mention several works of Antiquities, but none of sufficient importance to merit particular enumeration, and a few Numismatic Works, including Arbuthnot’s Tables of Coins, and Fleetwood’s Chronicon Preciosum; also the following Biographical Works:—Strype’s Lives; Kippis’s Biographia Britannica; Walton’s Lives; Fuller’s Worthies; Holland’s Heröologia Anglica; Wood’s Athenæ Oxoniensis; Wordsworth’s Ecclesiastical Biography; Bowers’s Lives of the Popes; and the General Biographical Dictionary.

In Works relating to the History and Antiquities of England, this Library is fortunate in possessing the Histories of England by Milton, Kennett, Rapin, Hume, Smollett, and Adolphus, Rushworth’s Historical Collections; Whitelocke’s Memorials; Clarendon’s Rebellion; Baker’s Chronicle; Lyttelton’s Henry II.; Herbert’s Henry VIII.; Carleton’s Letters; Davies’s Celtic Researches; Triveti Annales Sex, curâ Hall, Oxon. 1719, 8vo.; Matthæi Westmonasteriensis Flores Historiarum, Francof. 1601, folio.; Matthæi Paris Historia Anglicana, edente Wats, Lond. 1684; Gale and Fell, Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores XV. Oxon. 1684-91, 3 vols. folio; Sheringham de Anglorum gentis origine, Cantabr. 1670, 8vo.; Bates, Elenchus Motuum, Lond. 1663, 8vo.; and the Fructus Temporum, with the Chronycles of Englonde, Imprynted at London by Wynkyn de Worde, 1520, folio; together with the following valuable Pieces, edited by the indefatigable Thomas Hearne:—

Gulielmi Neubrigensis Chronica Rerum Anglicarum. Oxon. 1719, 3 vols. 8vo.

Hearne’s Textus Roffensis. Oxonii, 1720, 8vo.

Roberti de Avesbury, Historia Edvardi III. Oxon. 1720, 8vo.

Thomæ Sprotti Chronica. Oxonii, 1719, 8vo.

Joannis de Fordun. Scoti Chronicon. Oxonii, 1722, in 5 vols. 8vo. upon large paper.

Titi Livii Foro-Judiensis Vita Henrici V. Oxon. 1726, 8vo.

To which may be added all the works published under the authority of the Record Commission, which are presented as they appear to every Cathedral Library.

Among the Works relating to British Antiquities, those most deserving of notice are, Verstegan’s Restitution of decayed Intelligence; Hearne’s Discourses, Oxford, 1720, 8vo.; Willis’s Mitred Abbies and Cathedral Churches; Tanner’s Notitia Monastica by Nasmith, 1744; Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum, Lond. 1755-61-73, in 3 vols. folio; Camdeni Britannica by Gibson; Sammes’s Antiquities of Ancient Britain; Stukeley’s Palæographia Britannica; Battely’s Antiquitates Rutupinæ; Stow’s London; Morton’s Northamptonshire; Gunton’s Peterborough Cathedral; Dart’s Canterbury Cathedral; Bentham’s Ely, both editions: Millers’ Ely Cathedral, both editions; Masters’s Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; Lewis’s Isle of Tenet; and Borlase’s Cornwall.

In English Literature this Collection does not present anything worthy of notice. It contains, however, the Works of Pope, Swift, Addison, and Goldsmith, the series of British Essayists in 12mo. the Plays of Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, Congreve and Dryden, the Poems of Chaucer, Cowley, Milton, Prior, Spenser and Waller, and Butler’s Hudibras.

Of Classical Literature, however, the Collection is much more copious, embracing all the most esteemed authors, though it can boast none of the first, and few of the best editions, unless Hierocles, Gr. & Lat. Curterii, Plinii Historia Naturalis Harduini, Athenæus Casauboni, Demosthenes Taylori, Stanley’s Æschylus, Barnes’s Euripides, & Potter’s Lycophron, be considered as exceptions to the latter part of the above remark.

Of the principal Works in Classic Literature, the following seem to me chiefly deserving of notice.

Antoninus, Gatakeri. Cant. 1652, 4to.

Aristotelis Opera, Du Valli. Paris. 1629, 2 vols. fol.

Ciceronis Opera, Lambini. Lutet. 1572-8, 8 v. 8vo.

Ammianus Marcellinus, Gronovii. Lugd. Bat. 1693, 4to.

Homeri Opera, cum Comment. Eustathii. Basil. 1559, 3 vols. fol.

Demosthenes, Æschines et Isocrates, Wolfii. Francof. 1604, & 1593, folio.

Longinus, Toupii & Ruhnkenii. Oxonii, 1778, 4to.

Platonis Opera, Serrani. Paris. 1578, 3 vols. folio.

Thucydides, Hudsoni. Oxonii, 1696, folio.

Sallustius Historiæ à Waffe. Cantab. 1710, 4to.

Poetæ Græci Principes à Stephano. Paris. 1566, fol.

Corpus Poetarum Latinorum à Maittaire. Lond. 1713, 2 vols. folio; and a considerable number of the Delphin Classics.

Of Etymological Works, so closely connected with the preceding department, this Collection contains Buxtorf’s Hebrew Lexicon, the Greek Lexica of Scapula, Hederic, Hesychius and Suidas, Stephani Thesaurus utriusque Linguæ, Hickes’s Thesaurus Septentrionalis, the Glossary of Du Fresne, Cotgrave’s French and English Dictionary, Lluyd’s Archæologia Britannica. Oxon. 1707, folio; Spelmanni Glossarium Archæologium, Lond. 1664, folio; Skinneri, Etymologicum Anglicanum, Lond. 1671, folio; with several Grammars of various languages.

In conclusion, I may remark that a few Works on Mathematical Science, and Moral Philosophy, several Works of Jurisprudence, including the Statutes at large, with a few Works on Bibliography, including Fabricii Bibliotheca Græca et Latina, and a fair proportion of miscellaneous authors, make up the complement of the Library attached to the Cathedral of Ely.

It will be seen, therefore, from the foregoing remarks, that this Collection is chiefly of a Theological character, and that it also contains many valuable Historical Works, particularly such as relate to English History, and a fair proportion of Classics; though the fastidious Bibliomaniacs will here look in vain for any Editiones Principes, or for any other of the earlier efforts of the Press.

Library of Exeter.

This venerable Collection was formerly suffered to remain in the Lady Chapel, exposed to the inroads of idle curiosity, and subject to the chilling influence of damp and neglect. The Dean and Chapter however at length became sensible of the duty of affording due protection to the literary property committed to their care for the benefit of posterity, and with commendable discretion consigned their Manuscripts to the care of their Chapter Clerk, and deposited their printed books in the Chapter-house.

Of these Manuscripts it will be my province first to speak, both on account of their curiosity and high antiquity; and for the gratification of the curious reader have much satisfaction in presenting to him a literal copy of “A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of the Cathedral Church of Exeter. Taken from Dean Lyttelton’s and Mr. White’s Memoranda, examined with the books. September, 1811.

“RALPH BARNES.”

1. Miscellanea Leofrici, &c. Charactere Saxonico.

2. Rabanus Maurus de Computo, de variis rebus astronomicis. Charactere Saxonico. Isidorus Hispalensis de rerum natura.

3. Legenda Joan. Grandison. Ep. Exon. in usum Eccl. Cath. Exon.