234 RECORD OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



succinctly described by Evelyn in his * Diary ' under date August 29, 1678, and 

 in a letter to Samuel Pepys dated August 12, 1689. As presented to the 

 Royal Society it consisted of about 2,500 printed books and 570 MSS. 



The Society's records show that the Arundel collection, or Norfolk Library 

 as it was commonly called, was long kept separate from the other books. In 

 the course of the next two centuries, however, during which the Society had to 

 make four removals, and would seem always to have suffered from deficient 

 library accommodation, the Norfolk books became ultimately more or less 

 merged in the Society's general library, thus escaping special supervision ; 

 and they were never again brought together as a complete collection. The 

 second library catalogue printed by the Society (1825) made no distinction 

 between the books of the Norfolk Library and those of the Society's general 

 library, nor was any distinction made in the classified catalogues printed 

 in 1839-41. 



When making arrangements for the last removal, from the rooms in old 

 Burlington House to the Society's present quarters, the Council, on the 

 recommendation of the Library Committee, resolved (June 20, 1872) *to 

 dispose of superfluous books from the collection of works in miscellaneous 

 literature'. A large number of such books, including many of the Norfolk 

 books, were accordingly disposed of. The most valuable of the books of 

 purely literary interest retained by the Society were collected together in 1883, 

 under the superintendence of the Treasurer (Sir John Evans), and these, after 

 being in large part appropriately re-bound, are now kept under lock and key 

 in a dust-proof case. Among many valuable and interesting items which they 

 include are a Caxton Chaucer (1484 ?), a Second Folio Shakespeare, two 

 volumes from the press of Fust and Schoeffer printed on vellum and finely illu- 

 minated ('Liber Sextus Decretalium', 1465, and Cicero <De Officiis' 1466), a fine 

 copy of Euclid (Edltio Princeps, 1482), a copy of the ' Nuremberg Chronicle ' 

 (1493), Bartholomaeus de Proprietatibus (1495 ?), a fine example of Diirer's 

 ' Historia Mariae ', &c., a number of Editiones Principes of the Latin classics, 

 many Aldines, a large collection of Luther's and other scarce Reformation 

 Tracts, and many other works of literary or typographical interest. In view 

 of its great value, an exact bibliographical catalogue of this collection, as 

 now existing, has recently been prepared and printed. 1 The Manuscripts in 

 the Norfolk Library were sold to the British Museum in 1830 and 1835, 

 the proceeds (about .3,720) being devoted to the purchase of scientific 

 books. 



The Society's Library has been enriched from time to time by gifts and 



1 'Catalogue of a Collection of Early Printed Books in the Library of the Royal 

 Society/ 1910. This Catalogue was prepared by two members of the library staff of the 

 British Museum Mr. Henry M. Mayhew, who died after completing about a third of his 

 task, and Mr. R. Farquharson Sharp, who finished the work and passed it through the 

 press. 



