href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@38317@[email protected]#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">[18]. This offer being accepted with great gratitude, other letters followed from him in March, in which he desired that delegates should be chosen to consider the best mode of fitting up the room, and mentioned an offer on the part of his own College, Merton, to provide timber for the purpose. Two years were spent in the carrying out of this work and in the preliminary arrangements. Amongst these preparations was the putting up the beautiful roof which to this day is such an object of deserved admiration. It is divided into square compartments, on each of which are painted the arms of

the University, being the open Bible, with seven seals[19], between three ducal crowns, on the open pages of which are the words (so truly fitting for a Christian School) 'Dominus Illuminatio mea[20];' while on bosses that intervene between each compartment are painted the arms of Bodley himself, being five martlets with a crescent for difference, quartered with the arms of Hone (his mother's family), two bars wavy between three billets; on a chief the three ducal crowns of the University shield, 'quarum merito gloriam ab Academia derivavit.' (Wake, Rex Platon. p. 12.) The striking motto 'Quarta perennis erit' was assigned to Bodley at the same time with this academic augmentation[21]. When, in 1610, the eastern wing of the Library was erected, a similar roof was added, as was also done to the Picture Gallery (built between 1613-1619); in the latter room the roof, having become decayed and out of repair, was unhappily altogether removed in the year 1831, and a plaster ceiling, divided into compartments, substituted. A few of the panels of this roof have been preserved, one bearing the figures of two cats, which used to be an object of interest to juvenile visitors, and a series bearing the letters which compose Sir Thomas Bodley's name, together with a portrait of him upon a centre panel. A high-backed arm-chair, the Librarian's seat of office in the Library, was formed out of oak from

the roof, and an engraving hangs in the Gallery which represents the room before its change for the worse.

On June 25, 1600, Bodley wrote to the Vice-Chancellor, mentioning that, as the mechanical work was now brought to a good pass, he had begun to busy himself in the gathering of books, and had provided a Register for the enrolment of the names of all benefactors, with particulars of their gifts. This Register (formerly, like all the books in folio, chained to its desk), consisting of two large folio volumes, on vellum, now lies on a table in the great room, and is an object of notice by most visitors. The volumes are ornamented exteriorly with silver-gilt bosses on their massy covers, on which are engraved the arms of Bodley and those of the University, and interiorly in many places with the donors' coats of arms painted in their proper colours, and with various devices. Vol. i. extends from 1600 to 1688, containing 428 pages in double columns; and commences with a printed record of the gifts for the first four years, on pp. 1-90. The following printed title is prefixed: 'Munificentissimis atque optimis cujusvis ordinis, dignitatis, sexus, qui Bibliothecam hanc libris, aut pecuniis numeratis ad libros coemendos, aliove quovis genere ampliarunt, Thomas Bodleius, eques auratus, honorarium hoc volumen, in quod hujuscemodi donationes, simulque nomina donantium singillatim referuntur, pietatis, memoriæ, virtutisque causa, dedit, dedicavit.' A paragraph follows, which mentions Bodley's own work of refitting and endowing, and notes that his own large gifts are not entered because he hopes throughout his life to make continually large additions. The whole of this title is printed in the preface to James' first Catalogue, issued in 1605, who was probably part-writer of it[22]. Wake (Rex Platonicus, p. 120) speaks of the Register, 'aureis umbilicis

fibulisque fulgidum,' as always lying 'eminentissimo loco,' a prominent object of notice to all who entered the Library. Vol. ii. extends from 1692 to 1795, ending in the middle of the volume, on p. 216; but there is reason to fear that there are many omissions in the later portion of its period. Each volume has an index of names. The gifts of the principal donors, as recorded in this Register up to its close, are printed in Gutch's edition of Wood's History, vol. ii. part ii. pp. 920-950. It will not be necessary, therefore, to mention here the names of many, but of such only as are 'e principibus principes.' From the year 1796 inclusive, when the gifts of donors began to be entered in the annual printed catalogues of purchases and statements of accounts, this MS. Register ceased to be used.

Among the first and largest benefactors in the year 1600 occur Lord Buckhurst (afterwards Earl of Dorset), the Earl of Essex, Lords Hunsdon, Montacute, [editions of the Fathers], Lisle (afterwards Leicester), Lumley[23], and William Gent, who gave a large collection of books, chiefly medical.

Many volumes were given about this time by Bodley, which had been collected in Italy by Bill, the London bookseller, who was employed by Sir Thomas to travel on the Continent as his agent for this purpose.

The famous copy of the French Romance of Alexander (now numbered Bodl. 264) must have been one of the MSS. given by Bodley himself at the commencement of his work, as it is found entered in the printed Catalogue of 1605, but does not occur in the Benefactors' Register. It is decorated with a large number of beautiful paintings on a chequered background of gold and colour; but its special interest lies in the illustrations at the foot of

about half the pages, which exhibit the most quaint and grotesque representations of customs, trades, amusements, dress, &c., of the time. Some of these were engraved by Strutt; and four specimens, together with one of the larger miniatures illustrating the text, are given by Dibdin in his Bibl. Decam. vol. i., where, at pp. 198-201, he discourses, in his own peculiar fashion, on the merits of the volume. A notice of the book may also be found in Warton's Hist. of Engl. Poetry, edit. 1840, vol. i. p. 142. At f. 208 is the following colophon, which is of much interest, as affording evidence that the work of the painter occupied upwards of five years:—