The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-27 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF MSS. AND
SCAI?CE BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY OF
SAINT JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
Deighton, Cambridge, 1844.

It would be unjust to the merits of a skilful and
erudite work to confound this Catalogue with the
generality of such productions ; it is no mere mecha-
nical enumeration of the manuscripts and scarce books
contained in the library of St. John's, such as any
one can draw up who can count ten on his fingers,
and has sufficient patience for the task ; but the au-
thor, the Rev. Mr. Cowie, attaches to the name of
each work such biographical particulars as it was
possible to obtain respecting its writer, together with
information concerning the period at which it was
composed, or supposed to be composed. Great labour
and extensive research were, of course, necessary in
order_to enable Mr. Cowie to amass these various
facts—more especially as many of the writers in ques-
tion have been forgotten centuries since—but he has
not been startled by the difficulties of his task, but has
executed it with a diligence, an ingenuity, and a zeal,
that we fear never will be appreciated as they deserve
to be. We would gladly see a gentlemen of his in-
dustrious habits and scholarly acquirements, engaged
on a more original work, for knowledge such as he
evidently possesses ought not to be restricted to the
compilation of catalogues. We subjoin a few of his
notes and comments. Referring to a curious old
folio vellum MSS. presented by Dr. Home to the
College, he furnishes us with the following brief par-
ticulars respecting the donor :—" This was Dr. Horne,
Bishop of Winchester, from 1560 to 1579. Wharton
mentions an instance of his zeal for learning. In 1570
he enjoined the minor canons of his cathedral to get
by memory every week one chapter of St. Paul's
Epistles in Latin ; and this formidable task was actu-
ally repeated by some of them before the Bishop,
Dean, and Prebendaries, at a public episcopal visita-
tion of the Church." Attached to a small MSS. by
Anthony Fitzherbert, " De Natura Brevium," we
find this interesting note :—" Anthony Fitzherbert,
in the reign of Henry VIII.; born at Norbury, in
Derbyshire. He was at Oxford, but it is not known
at what College, nor at what Inn of Court he re-
sided. He was a Sergeant in 1511. In 1523 he be-
came a Judge of the Common Pleas. A remarkable
thing is told of him, that, foreseeing the distribution
of Church lands among the laity, he made his chil-
dren promise that they would neither accept grants,
nor make purchases of, abbey lands. He wrote man
other works besides the present. He died in 1538. '
We subjoin one more note, which is affixed to a
" vellum MSS., beautifully written, with illumina-
tions," and which once belonged to Bishop Nykke :
—"The Bishop's name mentioned as on the fly-leaf,
is most probably Richard Nix, of Norwich, who died
in 1536. He was the Bishop that punished the poet
Skelton, for his buffooneries in the pulpit, and his
satirical ballads against the mendicants. Anthony
Hood says, Skelton was punished by the Bishop for
having been guilty of crimes, as nwst poets are.' If
Library Catalogues were drawn up in the manner in
which Mr. Cowie has drawn up the one before us,
they might be rendered very amucing and instructive
works.