Wing L590. ESTC lists copies in the USA at Folger, Harvard, Huntington, Newberry, UC-Berkeley, Union Theological Seminary (x 2), UCBerkeley (Bancroft Library), UCLA (W.A.Clark Library), Yale.
“Let these be carryed by you, into the Library of Bodley”
First printing of a letter from Archbishop Laud to the Bodleian library on the occasions of his gift of 47 manuscripts to the Bodleian Library at Oxford.. Laud gave over a thousand manuscripts to the library in his lifetime, the present gift includes: “6. Hebrew, 11. of Greeke, 34. of Arabicke, 21. of Latine, 2. of Italian, and as many of English, and of of English, and of Persian 5. one of which, (being of a large volume) containeth a Historie from the beginning of the World, to the end of ye Saracen Empire, and without doubt, is of great worth, …”
Laud’s letter occupies the first two pages after the title and is followed by the Public Orator (and poet and playwright) William Strode’s (?1601-45) effusive letter of thanks on behalf of the university on pp. 3-5.
“His great gifts of books themselves constituted a series of donations of manuscripts to the Bodleian Library; between 1635 and 1640 he gave ca.1250 manuscripts, in four installments, comprising European, Greek, central American and oriental texts. They included various celebrated highlights like a 7th-century Greek manuscript of the Acts of the Apostles (ms Laud Gr.35), and the 12th-century Peterborough Abbey copy of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ms Laud Lat.636), but also a huge variety of other material and constitute one of the most significant additions to the Library in its early decades. Many of the manuscripts were obtained for Laud by agents working overseas, who were on his instructions to obtain such material; from 1634, ships sailing on Turkey Company business were required to return with at least one Arabic or Persian manuscripts for Laud. In 1638 John Greaves, Geometry Professor at Gresham College, was sent to Alexandria and Constantinople to collect manuscripts for Laud. He also acquired large batches of manuscripts from German religious houses during the 1630s, when they were being looted during the Thirty Years’ War.” - David Pearson, Book Owners Online.
Provenance: 1. Dr Bent Einer Juel-Jensen,4 (1922-2006), Danish-born Oxford physician in infectious diseases and bibliophile, with his book label to the front pastedown. Robert S. Pirie (1934-2015), with his bookplate and pencil purchase note dated 11 Dec. 2007 (not in the December 2015 Sotheby’s sale).
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