GOODYER'S LIBRARY 



At his death in 1664 Goodyer bequeathed his collection of 

 books de Plantis to Magdalen College in Oxon, 'to be kept 

 entirely in the library of the said College for the use of the said 

 College ' ; and one Compton, described in the College Accounts as 

 ' auriga de Petersfield ', was paid £1 for bringing the books to 

 Oxford. The librarian,^ who incorporated the bequest, inscribed 

 the greater number of the volumes with the words * Ex dono Joh. 

 Goodyer, generosi ', and entered a list of them in a Book of Bene- 

 factors : a few volumes were, however, left unmarked. At first 

 the books were more or less kept together, but the changing needs 

 and views of successive generations led to their being scattered 

 throughout the library, some being removed to a distant room in 

 the Founder's Tower. In about 1909 Canon Vaughan, the dis- 

 tinguished Hampshire botanist, when preparing an article on John 

 Goodyer, entitled 'A forgotten Botanist of the Seventeenth Century', 

 could get no adequate idea of his predecessor's library. Eventually! 

 however, the original list was discovered and copied. It is headed 

 thus : 



' A. D. 1664. Johannes Goodyer generosus idemque Botanicus 

 celeberrimus libros sequentes (qui fere universos de re herbaria 

 tractan'tes complectuntur) ad valorem plus minus 120^*^ amoris 

 ergo moriens Collegio Magdalenensi Legavit ', 



which may be translated as follows : ' John Goodyer, gent., and 

 a most distinguished Botanist, bequeathed at his death to Magdalen 

 College as a token of his affection the following books (which com- 

 prise almost all the authorities on botany) to the value of about 

 £^10: 



Canon Vaughan at once realized the value of the books. But let 

 him speak for himself. ' The names and descriptions of the volumes, 

 reveal a most splendid legacy of botanical treasures. I had already 

 recognized in Mr. John Goodyer a botanist of high repute, but that 

 he possessed such a library I never for a moment suspected. The 

 discovery came to me as a revelation. With the exception 

 perhaps of the British Museum, the Bodleian Library, the Cam- 

 bridge University Library, and the Library of the Linnean Society, 



^ In 1664 Trebbecke, a chaplain, was paid ^6 10^ 'pro cura Bibliothecae ', 

 and John Clitheroe received the customary salary of ;^i ' pro supervisione 

 Bibliothecae'. 



