Wednesday 26th. Chapel. & Livy. Dr Bliss yesterday introduced me
to a Mr Dyson, late Fellow of Corpus, who wished me to look at
the Collectn of Coins preserved in their liby. at one oC. therefore
today Mr D. called for me at the Bodln. & we proceeded
to Corpus Liby. where we remained till ½ past 4. The greater
part of the Coins are mere rubbish, & only fit to be thrown
behind the fire. They have about half a dozen only (among
the ancient series) worth preservg, the most remarkable
of which is a very fine gold coin of Panticapæum, ####
########################### on the obv. a head
of Pan, on Rev. a Griffin treadg on a ear of wheat or barley,
& holding an arrow in his mouth. ΠAN. Resembles the one
described by Rasche, in his Lexicon, of which duplicates
are in Dr Hunter’s collection, Pembroke, Do, Pellerin Do, &
another, I forget where. (One is in Brit. Mus. F. M.) After looking through the Coins,
I examined their MSS. of which they have a fine collection,
for a College, & many of them valuable. The ones I more
particularly noticed, were two MSS. of Wickliffe’s Transln.
of the Bibl., Chaucer, P. Ploughman, Rule of St. Bennet
Saxon & Latin (a fine MS. of 12 Centy), Old English Religious
poems; & a number of others. A copy of Thurstin’s letter
(Bodl. 39.) which I mentioned to Mr Petrie, is here also.
We then went into the opposite Sanctum, where the
Aldi & early printed books are kept, of which they have
a large & very fine collection. Here is also their Show
MS. for visitors: a large French Bible ^[Comestor?] of 15 Centy. ### with
handsome illuminations. I was very much pleased with
### what I had seen, altho’ there is nothing that will
be of any use to me in the way of publication. Mr Tiddiman
assistant tutor called on me in the Ev’g, & sat above two
hours with me. He is very shy but intelligent man,
## and his embarrassment, & want of manners make
many very much underrate his abilities. He brought to
shew me the first vol. of the Facsimiles of ^Papyri of Herculaneum ###
published by the University. They are of no value whatever,
except so far as they shew the character & mode of writing
then practised. Mr T. informed me he had made
a class for Herodotus, to meet every day at 3 oC. This
will do very well.
Leave a Reply