The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700

The Book of Benefactors (1683-1766)
Brent NelsonEditor Jesse NelsonOCR and proofing Gloria MossTranscription and translation of ms for ArcheoPress publcation Arthur MacGregorAnnotation for ArcheoPress publication
Transcription published by permission of the publisher.
Ashmolean manuscript AMS 2 transcribed, edited, and published in the book below as "The Book of Benefactors," pp. 125-151.
Arthur MacGregor, ed., with Melanie Mendonç and Julia WhiteManuscript Catalogues of the Early Museum Collections, 1683-1886BAR International Series 907OxfordArcheopress2000 Ashmolean Museum AMS 2
THE BOOK OF BENEFACTORS Transcribed and translated by Gloria Moss, annotated by Arthur MacGregor Ashmolean Museum, AMS 2, compiled 1683-1766. Folio volume with modern board covers, quarter-bound in morocco and with reinforced comers, gold-lettered on the spine "ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, BOOK OF BENEFACTORS, 1683-1766 '. 82 vellum leaves, 55 of them blank. 395 by 300 mm. As implied by its title, the Book of Benefactors is not so much a record of material acquired by the Museum in its early years as a memorial to those who enriched the collections with their benefactions. Following Ashmole's founding gift to the University, comprising natural and man-made rarities, coins and medals, books and manuscripts, our attention is attracted first by a close-knit triumvirate of natural scientists who can claim an importance for the early history of the Museum in almost equal measure. A strong place for primacy in this group is made elsewhere (p. 153) for Martin Lister, who subscribed not only shells and fossils but also Roman antiquities from his native Yorkshire. Robert Plot, the first keeper, was similarly generous with donations of natural specimens (some of which had formed the raw materials for his Natural History of Oxfordshire) and Roman antiquities from his home territory in Kent. Edward Lhwyd, Plot's under-keeper and ultimately his successor, deposited many of the fossils or 'figured stones' on which much of his own reputation, as well as that of the Museum, was built before his early death in 1709. The names of several important private collectors of the day appear in the lists, although major benefactions from any of them proved elusive. William Charleton and John Woodward both contributed modest numbers of specimens, but despite the expectations of the curators that they might look forward to 'many others of the same kind,' they waited in vain. (Other collectors who were courted for contributions ~ Sir Hans Sloane and Ralph Thoresby, for example, both received overtures ~ were to resist those advances). A number of specialist coin collectors were more forthcoming. Thomas Braithwait of Ambleside in Westmorland proved particularly generous and was encouraged in his philanthropy by Sir Daniel Fleming. John Sowter, a merchant of London, made several smaller benefactions over a decade or more, as well as sending occasional gifts of other material. The Revd James Ivie gave a useful series of Roman coins from Wiltshire while Richard Dyer contributed more recent numismatic specimens and several donors gave commemorative medals. Amongst the additions to the early collections of antiquities, special interest attaches to the gift recorded in 1696 from Charles Hopkins. Not only does the 'gold plate' from Ballyshannon--in fact a discoid ornament or 'sun-disk' of Bronze Age date (see Case 1977)--represent the earliest documented discovery of a prehistoric artefact from the British Isles, but its documentation already extended to publication, in Gibson’s edition of Camden’s Britannia, which appeared in 1695. To the Roman antiquities from Kent contributed by Plot were added others from Reculver and Canterbury, given in 1686 by William Kingsley, but the most spectacular piece recorded here is of Anglo-Saxon date: the record of Thomas [recte Nathaniel] Palmer’s gift in 1718 of ‘a picture of an old man ... in a gold and crystal frame’ is a surprisingly laconic acknowledgement of the acquisition of what remains today one of the Museum’s most prized possessions ~ the Alfred Jewel (see Hinton 1974, no. 23). Scarcely less remarkable are the two rune-stones sent from Sweden by John Robinson (chaplain to the English embassy to the Swedish court) in 1689 with the declared intention of ensuring that epigraphy of this nature was represented in Oxford (see MacGregor 1997, nos. 31.1-2). Other inscriptions, noteworthy for the history of Egyptology, include the inscribed coffin lid acquired personally in Egypt and donated to the Museum in the year of its foundation by Robert Huntington (see Malek 1983) and the mummy contained in an inscribed coffin and given in the same year by Aaron Goodyear. The record of a further mummy, given in 1766 by Isaac Hughes, forms the final entry in the volume. Ethnographic specimens, as yet classified with little more rigour than the ‘artificial rarities’ that had been received from the Tradescant collection, arrived from the furthest-flung colonies, though in small numbers. Sir William Hedges gave an ‘idol’ named Gonga or Ganga, brought back from India, where he had acquired it from an island temple at the mouth of the Ganges (see Harle 1983), while Roger Burrough gave a small marble figure of an Indian god, Edward Pococke, Regius Professor of Oriental Languages, enhanced the collections with Jewish as well as Turkish items acquired in the course of his travels, and another Oxford man, the Revd Thomas Hues, bequeathed what was evidently taken to be an inscription of some importance for the history of the ‘Turkish church’ in North Africa, where Hues had served in the Anglican ministry. A small collection of runic calendars arrived from Sweden in 1683, it seems in fulfilment of a pledge made during an earlier visit to England by their donor, John Heysig, when, evidently, he had learned of the newly founded Museum. From the Americas, Nathaniel Crynes gave a Mexican feather picture (a much sought-after commodity in Continental Kunstkammer of the period and one which was said to have been brought to England by Mary of Modena (Ovenell 1986, p. 137), Justinian Shepherd contributed a wampum belt and John Yeomans, a ship’s captain from Bristol, was the donor of a canoe--perhaps a model rather than full-sized, to judge from the fact that it came complete with a native occupant. Undoubted models followed also in the eighteenth century, contributed respectively by Dr George Clarke in 1719 (a warship) and by Dr Richard Rawlinson in 1757 (two types of Venetian boats). 1 AMS 2: THE BOOK OF BENEFACTORS More prominent, and doubtless considered of greater relevance to the new institution, were numerous gifts of natural history specimens. Edward Morgan, the celebrated plantsman, effectively founded the collection of plants with his donation in 1689 of some 2,000 specimens (almost all grown by himself) preserved in a three-volume hortus siccus. A further collection of plants as well as animals collected in India by James Pound, a physician, evidently included a number of specimens preserved in spirits, displayed for visual effect in glass jars in the windows of the Museum; a further sixteen specimens in jars, contributed by Smart Lethieullier, previously had formed part of the Woodward collection. Others came in the form of skins--a zebra from Charles Harris, an Angora goat from Timothy Lannoy and a lizard from Henry Johnson--or perhaps as stuffed specimens, as in the case of William Perrot’s bat or ‘flying fox’. Two significant donations of bird specimens ~ twenty-four of them from Edward Ent and what was evidently an interesting collection of northerly sea-birds from Nicholas Roberts, are also likely to have been stuffed specimens, while the only fish specimen recorded here, a ‘Setang’ from the Indian Ocean given by William Gibbons, may have been dried or in spirits. Thomas Shaw’s donation in 1716 of an extensive collection of insects caught in the Oxford neighbourhood forms a valuable indicator that the Ashmolean's sphere of interest encompassed entomology from at least this date. The early importance of mineral and fossil specimens in the collections is more firmly founded. The interests of Lister, Plot and Lhwyd all converged in this subject-area and combined to establish the Ashmolean’s reputation in this field by an early date. Woodward’s tentative contribution was also in material of nature and there is evidence elsewhere in the archives that others were more forthcoming. Later in the eighteenth century, interest in the earth sciences enjoyed a brief revival under the enlightened keepership of William Huddesford, when further contributions to the collections were made by William Borlase, Thomas Pennant and Joshua Platt. The experimental dimensions of the Ashmolean’s role are alluded to only belatedly in the gift from Edward Seymour in 1756 of specimens of the chemical dyes which he had developed and, perhaps, in the huge lodestone sent in the same year by the Countess of Westmorland, which survives today in the Museum of the History of Science. The Countess is one of three women recorded amongst the benefactors. Dorothy Long’s ivory crozier-head remains in the collections, still prized although now recognized as twelfth-century work and as having no possible connection with the saint posited as its owner by the donor. Anne Mary Woodford’s contribution of a paper collar ornamented in openwork by her own hand, has long since vanished. Finally, it may be noted that two of the benefactors listed here, Ashmole's father-in-law Sir William Dugdale and the writer John Aubrey, contributed to the Museum's library with generous gifts of books and manuscripts rather than enriching its collections of exhibits. Here their volumes joined not only Ashmole's own extensive library but also the equally valuable manuscript collection of Anthony Wood, bequeathed together with over 1,000 printed books in 1695. The failure of Wood's bequest to register any impact in the Book of Benefactors underscores the very partial nature of the volume, while Ovenell (1986, p. 137) notes the presence in the text of several retrospective interpolations, indicating that even its present imperfect state resulted from intermittent rather than sustained attention. While the Book of Benefactors forms an interesting complement to the manuscript catalogues of the various Visitors, as reproduced below, its significance as a record of the collections themselves remains secondary. [1r] Munificentissimis optimisque cujuscunque Conditionis Dignitatis aut Sexûs, qui Museum Ashmoleanum Cimelijs quibuscunque, sive Naturalibus sive Artificialibus, usque Locupletare satagunt; Robertus Plott LL.D. Coll: Universitatis Socio-Commensalis; istius Musæi Custos primarius ac primus; et Regiæ Societatis Lond. Secretarius; Hoc Volumen, Benefactorum tum nominibus, tum donationibus inserendis accomodum, piæ, memoriæ, virtutisque causâ, D.D.D. Anno Domini MDCLXXXIII.º Robert Plot LLD, Fellow-Commoner of University College, the first curator of this Museum and a first-rate one, and Secretary of the Royal Society in London, established this Book of Benefactors in the year of our Lord 1683 in order to keep a record of peoples' names and donations, and to bear Witness to their piety and virtue. It contains the names of the most generous and excellent of persons who, whatever their means, sex or status, took pains to enrich the Ashmolean Museum with every conceivable kind of treasure, whether natural or artificial. [3r -4r] ELIAS ASHMOLE Ar: Lichfeldiæ natus, in Collegio Ænei Nasi apud Oxõn: educatus; Medicinæ Doctoratu, a Se non quæsito, sed totius Universitatis spontaneo motu et applausu insignitus. Nee in rebus gerendis minores honores meruit. Fecialis primum Windlesoriensis, postea vero ob celebratissimam in Aspidologia peritiam, quam Volumine satis magno de Honoratissimo Periscelidis Ordine propalavit; in summam istius Collegij dignitatem, nisi ipse nimis modestè restitisset, evehendus. Quantum in rerum Antiquarum cognitione excelluerit, locupletissima accedunt Testimonia: REX ipse Serenissimus, et Universitas: Qui Ipsorum penu rei antiquariæ componendum Ipsi commiserunt: Et quid Notis præstitit, tria Volumina propria manu conscripta et in Bibliotheca Bodleyana reposita, testantur: industnre et Erudttiorus illustre Posteris monumentum. Ejus demum diligenuæ et fidelitatis REX probe consctus. Vectigahum suorum 2 AMS 2: THE BOOK OF BENEFACTORS a Parliamento Aº Reg: 12° institutorum inspectionem (quod Contra rotulatoris vel Correctoris officium nominamus) Ipsi demandavit, Laborum et Fidei suæ præmium et argumentum. Quinetiam Philosophiæ Naturalis, Chymie, ac totius politioris Literaturæ scientia celeberrimus: Is erat qui hoc Musæum, Naturæ Ærarium, Historiæ Physicæ compendium, Cæli, Aeris, Aquæ, Terræ incolis; nec non Monstrorum varietate; in usum communem (cum Ipse satis ea cognovisset) uberrime instruxit. Quicquid mare Ligusticum Coralliorum, quicquid Erythræum Margaritarum, quicquid item Indiæ Gemmarum produxere, Hue Ipsius operâ confluxerunt. Metalla insuper, Metallica, Mineralia, et quicquid Terra sinu suo interiori fovit, huic contribuit. Aromata, Medicamque materiam universam hactenus cognitam, Vir nunquam pro merito laudandus, hic reposuit. Ac Mantissæ loco, Romanorum, aliorumque fere totius Orbis Gentium, Arma, Vestes, Ornamenta, Deos, Sacrificandi Vasa, Mortuorum Urnas et Lachrymatoria, addidit. Numismata insuper, Simulacra, Imagines, Picturas, reliquis rarioris notæ Cimelijs, accumulavit. Solus inquam nobilissimus ASHMOLUS hoc Musæum non magis totius Mundi universâ suppellectile, quam suo Nomine decoravit. Quibus omnibus quoniam Volumen istud sigillatim recensendis vix suffecerit, Eorum Catalogus tempore opportuno seorsim Typis mandabitur. Idem Clarissimus Vir Elias Ashmole Armiger, Numismata Romana, Anglica, Scotica &c. quingenta quinquaginta sex, omnia argentea, Musæo suo secunda vice donavit. Idem insignissimus Vir Elias Ashmole Armiger, Effigies item Serenissimorum Principum Caroli et Jacobi fratrum Regum Angliæ, Limbis eleganter cælatis ac deauratis, adomatas contulit. Idem Omatissimus Vir D: ELIAS ASHMOLE Armiger, Numisrna archetypum aureum, tum magnitudine tum formâ prostantissimũ, a Carolo Gustavo Suecorum Rege, Gulielmo Lillo Anglo Astrologorum principi, ob prognosticationes Sibi fælices, ac eventu comprobatus, gratè missum, suo Musæo donavit. ANNO SUPRA MILLESIMUM ET SEXCENTESIMUM NONAGESIMO SECUNDO, Vir ille maximus Rem literariam promovere, et MUSÆUM istud artis et nature cimilijs adomare desijt: Ad extremum Vitæ Articulum, omnimodam Eruditionem stabiliendi tanto flagrans ardore; ut Librorum mille et septingenta volumina, quorum sexcenta ad minimũ MSS. sunt, Bibliothecæ quam idcircò suo nomini meritò inscripsimus, legaverit. Porrò quæ à maximis Principibus, Invictissimo Danorum Rege et Duce Brandenb. alijsque acceperat invicti laboris et virtutum Præmia honoraria; Catenas nempè aureas cum adjunctis numismatibus; in hoc Gazophylacio post obitum conservari voluit: ut juniores (salivam eis movendo) ad Studia acrius prosequenda, proprio exemplo hortaretur. Elias Ashmole Esq. was born in Lichfield and educated at Brasenose College, Oxford. He did not himself supplicate for a Doctorate in medicine, but was singled out for this honour by the spontaneous acclamation of the whole University. Nor in his active life did he deserve any less honour. He was first Windsor Herald and, on account of his celebrated expertise in the field of heraldry, which he displayed to the full in a large book he wrote on the most noble Order of the Garter, would subsequently have been raised to the highest honour in the College, had he not modestly declined the offer. His knowledge and excellence in the field of antiquities is abundantly confirmed by reliable sources, including His Majesty the King and the University which entrusted to him the task of arranging the antiquities [i.e., the Bodleian coin cabinet]. His more outstanding achievements are testified to by three volumes written in his own hand and kept in the Bodleian Library. They serve as a conspicuous reminder to future generations, of his hard work and erudition. Finally, the King, very much aware of his industry and fidelity, appointed him in the twelfth year of his reign, to inspect the taxes instituted by Parliament (a post we nowadays term comptroller general of excise) as a proof of, and reward for, his diligence and faith. Indeed, he was famous for his knowledge of Natural Philosophy, chemistry and the whole body of literature. It was he who most fully equipped this Museum for public use, as a treasure-house of Nature and the history of Natural Science, with its collection of whatever inhabits the sky, air, water and earth, and also of various curiosities, after he himself had learned enough about these things. Whatever corals might come from the Ligurian Sea; whatever pearls from Erythrea; whatever gemstones were found in India -these things were brought together here by him. Then he added metals, minerals and whatever the earth produces in its interior. And this man whose merit is beyond praise, collected spices and materia medica. And he gave objects, both Roman and of people from almost every part of the world -arms, clothing, jewels, statues of gods, sacrificial vessels, burial ums and lachrymatories, and furthermore, to the rarer and more notable treasures of the museum, he added coins, statues, pictures and paintings. The most noble Ashmole graced this museum as much with his own name as with artefacts from all over the world. And since this volume would scarcely be large enough to record all these objects individually, another catalogue will be ordered, at a suitable time, in which they will be listed separately by type. In his second series of gifts, the most illustrious Elias Ashmole gave 556 silver coms--Roman, English and Scottish ones among them. The same distinguished Ashmole also brought portraits of King Charles and King James of England, in elegantly carved and gilded frames. This most excellent of men, Elias Ashmole Esq., bestowed upon his Museum an original gold medal remarkable for both its size and its form, which King Karl Gustav of Sweden had gratefully sent to his chief astrologer, William Lilly, for certain favourable prognostications he had received and which, in the event, proved to be true. In the year 1692 this great man ceased to promote literary activities and to add to the Museum's collection of the treasures of nature and art. To the end of his life he was eager to establish learning of all kinds and, to that end, he bequeathed 1,700 books, at least 600 of which are in manuscript, to the library, which for this reason we have provided with an inscription of his name. In addition, he wanted his Præmia Honoraria, the golden chains and medals, which he had received from those best of princes, the King of Denmark and the Duke of Brandenburg, and others, in recognition of his indefatigable work and achievements, to be preserved in this Museum after his death, so that, by stirring their ambition, he might, by his own example, encourage young men to pursue their studies with greater enthusiasm. 3 AMS 2: THE BOOK OF BENEFACTORS [6r] A.D. MDCLXXIII. AARON GOODYEAR Civis Londinensis ad emporia Ottomanica mercaturam exercens, succedentibus benefactoribus, post ASHMOLUM, exemplar optimum: ex innato generositatis instinctu in ipsis Cimeliarchii hujus natalitiis, donavit integrum corpus humanum, quod vocant Mummi, ab Alexandria advectum; exterius characteribus, et figuris aliquot hieroglyphicis inscriptum et ornatum; interius bitumine, et aromatibus, more Aegyptiaco, conditum; cerotis, et fasciis involutum, et hoc modo à putredine vindicatum. A.D. 1683 Aaron Goodyear, citizen of London and a merchant trading with Turkey, was, after Ashmole, a most worthy model for later benefactors. From a natural impulse of nobility, and at the opening of this museum, he donated an entire human body, known as a mummy, which was brought from Alexandria. The outside is inscribed and decorated with characters and several hieroglyphic figures; the inside is preserved with bitumen and spices in the Egyptian manner; it is covered with plaster and bandages to protect it from decay. A.D. MDCLXXXIII. ROBERTUS HUNTINGTON S.T. Professor, Collegiorū Mertonensis hic Oxonii Socius, ac SS. et Individuæ Trinitatis prope Eblanam in Hibernia Præpositus: Mercatoribus Anglis in urbe Halebensi haud ita pridem a Sacris; in Aegyptum peregrè profectus, duos lapides satis magnos, characteribus, ac imaginibus hierogliphicis notatos, summo sudore ac sumptu sibi comparavit, nec minori affectu, amici sui Goodyeari æmulus, huic Musæo contribuit. A.D. 1683 Robert Huntington was Professor of Theology, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, in Ireland. Once a chaplain to the English traders in Aleppo, he left for Egypt and obtained, at great expense and effort, two moderately large stone reliefs with hieroglyphic characters and pictures, and with as much enthusiasm to rival his friend Goodyear, gave them to this Museum. [6v] A.D. MDCLXXIII. JOHANNES ELIOT, olim e Collegio Exon, utriusque Academiæ: Medicinæ Doctor, facultatem suam apud Cantuarienses Felicissime exercens Calculum eximiæ, quidem magnitudinis e vesica puellæ octennis sua manu excisum, una cum duobus lapidibus ad Ammonis cornu similitudinem naturaliter formatis, quorum alter armatura ænea obductus, huic Musæo lubens donavit. A.D. 1683 John Eliot, formerly at Exeter College and a Doctor of Medicine of both Universities, practised successfully in Canterbury and removed an exceptionally large urinary stone from the bladder of an eight-year-old girl with his own hands. He gave it to the Museum together with two naturally formed stones, one of them mounted in bronze, which resemble the horn of Ammon. Præclarissima Heroina DOROTHEA conjux generosissimi simul ac eruditissimi viri Domini Iacobi Long de Draycot Cern in Comit. Wilts Baronetti; Domus et sexus sui decus et ornamentum; primitivæ Religionis, et venerandæ antiquitatis cultrix optima: ex pietate sua, et summa in hanc Universitatem benevolentia, Pastorale pedum Sancti AUGUSTINI Hipponensis Episcopi ex ebore cælatum, inter Cimelia hujus Musæi reponendum dedit. The most noble of ladies, Dorothy wife of that most generous and learned of men, Sir James Long, Bart., of Draycot Cerne in the county of Wiltshire, was the pride and joy of her family and her sex, and showed a deep interest in primitive religions and antiquities. Her piety and great good will to this University led her to give a carved ivory crozier which had belonged to Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, to this museum to be placed with the other treasures. [7r] A.D. MDCLXXXIII. JOANNES COLVIL de Kelling in Comitatu Norwicensi Generosus ad Scientiam tum naturalem tum artificialem promovendam, huic Musæo dono dedit Calculum adeo magnum e vesica cujusdam Beatricis Shreve de Tunsted in eodem Comitatu sine ulla aut sectione, aut dilaceratione extractum, admirando sane artificio Iohannis Hubberti Civitatis Norwicensis Chirurgi peritissimi; ut Prætor, Eirenarchæ, Aldermanni, totusque ejusdem Civitatis in Curia Municipali consessus, rei veritatem instrumento ad id facto, Sigillo communi, et ipso lapide munito, ne incredibile videretur, posteris transmittere par esse duxerint. A.D. 1683 John Colvil of Kelling in Norfolk, in his concern to promote the study of science, natural as well as artificial, gave this Museum a very large stone which was removed with admirable skill by the highly experienced surgeon, John Hubbert of Norwich, from the bladder of a certain Beatrice Shreve of Tunstead in the same county, without either any incision or tearing. To dispel all disbelief, the mayor, justices of the peace, aldermen and members of the city's council, all gathered together in the town hall thought it only fitting to pass down to posterity the truth of the event by drawing up a document to this effect, sealed with the city seal, and by mounting the stone itself. A.D. MDCLXIII. GERVASIUS WILCOX Civis et Piscarius Londinensis in augmentum hujus Armarii, et perpetuum id genus hominum dedecus, et opprobrium, dono dedit Pseudo-protestantium flagellum, quo nefarii quidam ardeliones, e quibus Stephanus Colledge hic Oxonii laqueo plexus, Monarchiæ, Ecclesiæ, ac Universitatibus minus prospere (laus Deo) ruinam intentabant. A.D. 1683 Gervase Wilcox, citizen of London and fishmonger, gave the Museum a so-called protestant flail, a weapon with which certain unlawful zealots attempted unsuccessfully, thank God, to subvert the Monarchy, the Church and the Universities. From their ranks Stephen College was hanged at Oxford. Gervase Wilcox added it to the Museum's collection as a perpetual cause of shame and a reproach to men of that kind. [7v] A.D. MDCLXXXIII. JOANNES HEYSIG Sueco-Holmensis, vir sane morum candore, ac omni eruditionis genere spectatissimus, benevolentiæ suæ arrham, plura daturus, in hoc Musæo tabulam Antiquitatum 4 AMS 2: THE BOOK OF BENEFACTORS Runicarum, ac tria Kalendaria e ligno Runica, Agricolis passim in Borealioribus Sueciæ et Lapponiæ partibus etiamnum usitata; unà cum duobus Numismatibus, CAROLI sc. IX. Suecorum Regis, nec non Iohannis Schefferi Arg. Prof. Upsal. in patriam rediens, grato animo reliquit. A.D. 1683 John Heysig, of Holmen in Sweden, a man renowned for his integrity and knowledge in many fields, on his return home, left to this museum, as a pledge of his good will and with the intention of giving more, an ancient runic tablet and three wooden runic almanacs of the kind still used today by farmers in the northern parts of Sweden and Lapland, together with two medals, one of King Charles IX of Sweden, the other of Johannes Scheffer Esq. Professor of Uppsala. [8r-8v] A.D. MDCLXIII. MARTINUS LISTER Armiger, Equitis Aurati filius, Medicinæ Doctoratu, gradu à se non quæsito, sed ab Academia, ipso inscio, bene merenti tamen, sponte delato, hic Oxonii insignitus; Vir praxi et scriptis clarus: ut scientiam naturalem usque promoveret, istud Musæum omne genus Cochleis; marinis, fluviatilibus, ac terrestribus; Mytilis item fluviatilibus; lapidibus formatis; fluoribus; variisque selenitum, micarum, talcorum, omniumque metallorum, speciebus; maximam in partem Anglicanis, ditavit. Atque ut prisca posteris vindicaret, multa tum Romanorum tum Britannorum monumenta, sc. Altaria, numismata, annulos, sigilla, ac idgenus alia; in plura superstes benevolus addidit. Idem ornatissimus VIR, ut benefactionem suam magis absolutam redderet, varios Libros, varijs rerum Naturalium historijs refertos, Catalogo suo recensitos; eidem Musæo addidit. A.D. 1683 Martin Lister Esq., the son of a Knight, was awarded a Doctorate in Medicine for which he had not himself supplicated but which was spontaneously conferred on him by the University of Oxford; he had no foreknowledge of this, but amply deserved it. He was famous for his deeds and his writings; and in order to further the study of Natural History, he enriched this museum collection with shells of all kinds, from the sea, from the rivers and from the land; also freshwater mussels; formed stones and fluors, and various types of gypsum, mica, talc and metals of all kinds, most of which come from England. Furthermore, to preserve the past for posterity, he generously gave the Museum a large number of antiquities, Roman as well as British, which included altars, medals, rings and seals. This most excellent of men, to make complete his generous gift, also gave the Museum a variety of books, listed in his own catalogue, illustrating different aspects of Natural History. A.D. MDCLXXXIV. IOHANNES YEOMANS Civis et Navarchus Bristolliensis in partibus Americæ Boreazephyris Mercaturã faciens, Cymbam istis regionibus propriam vulgò Canoe dictam (unicum Remigem vehentem tunicâ hirsutâ indutum) Remis, fuscinâ, Deoque tutelari instructam, pretio conquisivit, ac in hâc fidissimâ statione anchoram ponere statuit. A.D. 1684 John Yeomans, citizen of Bristol and ship's captain, trading in north-western America, bought a boat peculiar to these parts commonly known as a canoe, which carries a single oarsman dressed up in rough clothing, is equipped with paddles and a harpoon, and is guided by a tutelary god. He decided to anchor it in this most beautiful of places. A.D. MDCLXXXIV. GULIELMUS GIBBONS Medicinæ Doctor et Collegij S.ti Johannis Baptistæ socius, Vir in facultate suâ peritissimus, ad Scientiam Naturalem promovendam, et ut piscium numerum usque adimpleret, Pisciculum cornutum, Indis Ican. Setang (plurium arrham) benevolus addidit. A.D. 1684 William Gibbons, Doctor of Medicine and Fellow of St. John’s College, a great expert in his field, generously offered the Museum a little horned fish from the Indian ocean, known as a Setang, in order to promote the study of Natural History and to add to the Museum's collection of fishes. (We hope for more). [9v] A.D. MDCLXXXIV. EDVARDUS ENT, Honoratissimi viri Dñi Georgij Ent Militis, Collegij Medicorum Londinens. Præsidis moderni filius è Collegio Baliolensi, in Jure Civili studiosus, ac Arcanorum Naturæ indagator solertissimus, ut hujus Musæi maxime hiantem Lacunam aliquo usque suppleret, illud 24 Avibus (cujusque ferè speciei nonnullis) lubens instruxit. A.D. 1684 Edward Ent, son of the most celebrated Sir George Ent, President of the Royal College of Physicians, was a student of Civil Law at Balliol College, and also took a very keen interest in the mysteries of Nature. He was happy to be able to give the Museum twenty-four birds (some of them wild) in order to fill a major gap in the Museum’s collection. A.D. MDCLXXXIV. THOMAS BRATHWAIT de Ambleside in Com. Westmorlandiæ Armiger, venerandæ Antiquitatis cultor maximus, ut istud Musæum in unoquoque genere Cimeliorum absolutissimum redderet, Ei trecenta ac amplius Numismata antiqua (quorum 6 ex auro, 66 ex argento, cætera ex ære) moriens legavit. NB. Dignissimo huic Viro D. Braithwait ut Numismata hæc Universitati legaret, primum persuasit; dein[de], ut ad nos mitterentur curavit Nobilis, et Eruditissimus Vir D.D. Daniel Fleming Eques Auratus, de Rydal-Hall in Comitatu Westmoriæ, olim è Collegio Reginæ Oxoñ. Commensalis, pro summo in Literas reconditiores Amore, et singulari in hanc Universitatem Benevolentia. A.D. 1684 Thomas Braithwait Esq., of Ambleside in Westmorland, who was a great antiquary, gave this museum at his death more than 300 ancient coins, six of which are of gold, sixty-six of silver, and the rest of bronze, in order to make the Museum unrivalled in one of the areas of its collection. N.B. The person who first persuaded the noble Mr Braithwait to leave his coins to the Museum, and who then saw to their delivery, was the great and learned Sir Daniel Fleming, from Rydal Hall in Westmorland. He was formerly a commoner of Queen's College, Oxford, and he did these things out of a deep 5 AMS 2: THE BOOK OF BENEFACTORS love for scholarship and singular generosity to this University. [10r] AD. MDCLXXXV. Reverendus admodum in Christo Pater ac Dominus D. Johañes permissione divinâ Oxoñ Epūs, ac Ædis Christi Decanus duo Numismata archetypa, unum ex auro, alterum ex argento, ad inaugurationem serenissimi IACOBI secundi, et MARIÆ BEATRICIS Regis et Regine Angliæ &c. Apr. 23.°An.1685° percussa; una cum Africæ Periplo; ac duabus Chartis Chorographicis antiquis, Universitatum tum Oxoniensis tū Cantabrigiensis; in suæ erga Musæum Ashmoleanum benevolentiæ τεκμήριον (plurium spem faciens) Eidem contulit. A.D. 1685 The very Reverend Father in Christ, John [Fell], by the Grace of God Bishop of Oxford and Dean of Christ Church, gave the collection, as a token of his good will to the Ashmolean Museum, two original medals, one of them gold and the other silver, struck to commemorate the coronation of their Royal Highnesses King James II and Queen Mary Beatrice of England on 23 April 1685; also an outline map of Africa and two ancient maps of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. (One hopes that there may be more.) [10v] AD. MDCLXXXVI GULIELMUS KINGSLEY Armiger Ecclesiæ Metropoliticæ, Cantuariensis accola, rei antiquariæ peritissimus, ex integerrimo suo in hanc Academiam affectu; Musæum istud, non tantum Libris M.S. sed multis item alijs Antiquitatum ruderibus, Regulbij ac Durarvenni repertis (in plura superstes) gratabundus ditavit. A.D. 1686 William Kingsley Esq., resident near the cathedral at Canterbury and a notable antiquary, out of regard for the University, was happy to enrich this museum not only with manuscript volumes but also with ancient remains of Reculver and Canterbury. AD. MDCLXXXVI GVLIELMVS CHARLETON è Medio Templo London: Armiger rerum naturalium, domi, forisque ubique Gentiũ, explorator sagacissimus; hujus Musæi instructissimi quasi consummationem intentaret; eidem, è penu suo cumulatissimo, Zygænam piscem integram, varias tum Coralliorum tum Conchyliorum species, Numismata item nonnulla (plurium pignora) piè sacravit. A.D. 1686 William Charleton Esq. of Middle Temple in London, was a keen observer of nature and of peoples everywhere, at home and abroad. As if to perfect this already well-equipped Museum, he supplied it, from his own abundant collection, with a complete hammer-headed shark, as well as various species of corals and shells, and a large number of coins. [11r] A.D. MDCLXXXVII GULIELMUS DUGDALE de Blithe Hall in parωcià de Shustoke in Comitatu Cornaviorum Warwicensi Miles, Garterij nomine Armorum Anglicorum Rex, Vir in re antiquariâ consultissimus, pro summo suo in Generum suum meritissimum D. Eliam Ashmole favore, ac gratitudine; ac in augmentum famæ hujus Musæi, Ashmoleano nomine insigniti; quadraginta octo Libros M.S. (quorum 43 in folio, 5 in quarto) Antiquitatum Britannicarum ineffabili varietate refertos, in adjunctâ Bibliothecâ Ashmoleanâ reponendos legavit. A.D. 1687 Sir William Dugdale, Garter King-of-Arms, of Blyth Hall in Shustoke in Warwickshire, a most learned antiquary, bequeathed forty-eight volumes in manuscript (forty-three folios and five quartos) on a wide range of British antiquities to be placed in the adjoining Ashmolean library. He gave them out of gratitude to and the deepest appreciation of his estimable son-in-law, Elias Ashmole, and to add to the reputation of this Museum which carries the distinguished name of Ashmole. [11v] AD. MDCLXXXVIII. ORNATISSIMUS Vir D. Samuel Butler generosâ apud Danmonios ortus prosapiâ, et in Civitate apud eosdem Exoniensi, Mercaturam felicissimè impræsentiarum exercens; pro summâ suâ in hanc Academiam benevolentiâ, Ramentum pretiosissimum Sacrosanctissimæ Crucis in quà olim pendebat JESUS Salvator mundi, capsulâ aureâ cruciformi inclusum, in isto Musæo, (tanquam in Hierophylacio) piè reponi curavit. A.D. 1688 The excellent Samuel Butler was born into a noble family in Devon and lived near them in the city of Exeter as a successful merchant. Out of his deep affection for this University, he devoutly deposited within this Museum (as within a shrine) a precious fragment of the Holy Cross, contained in a gold cruciform box, on which Jesus, the Saviour of the World, was crucified. AD. MDCLXXXVII. CLARISSIMUS Vir D. Theophilus Leigh de Longborough in Comitatu Dobunorum Glocestrensi Armiger, ne plæclari facinoris memoria, aut quid Rari in isto Cimeliarchio, deesset; Eidem Numisma quoddam tum magnitudine tum cælaturâ præstantissimum, ex ipsissimo Argento cusũ, quod Angli e navi Hispanorum (propè Jamaicam) naufragâ expiscati sunt, lubens contulit. A.D. 1688 The most illustrious Theophilus Leigh Esq. of Longborough in Gloucestershire, willingly brought to the Museum a medal, remarkable for its size and engraving, struck from the very same silver which the English recovered from the wreck of a Spanish ship (near Jamaica), in order to ensure that this notable feat was not forgotten, and that the museum did not lack such a rare object in its collection. [12r] AD. MDCLXXXIX. NICHOLAUS ROBERTS Menevensis, A:M é Collegia Jesu, Historiæ naturalis studiosus, rerumq; naturalium in solo Patrio indagator sagacissimus; ut Musæum istud usq; locupletaret, Aves aliquot marinas plagis Septentrionalibus peculiares, Anatem sc. Arcticam Clusij; Lomwiam et Alcam Norvegiensium Hoieri; aliasque insuper nonnullas in Dimetiam migratorias; plurium spem faciens, Eidem beneficus addidit. 6 AMS 2: THE BOOK OF BENEFACTORS A.D. 1689 Nicholas Roberts MA, from St. Davids and of Jesus College, was deeply interested in Natural History and a keen student of the natural history of his own country. In order to add to the riches of the Museum, he kindly donated several sea-birds found only in the northern regions. These included an arctic duck of Clusius, a guillemot and a Norwegian auk of Hoier and several other migratory birds, which makes one hope that there may be more. A.D. MDCLXXIX. EDVARDUS MORGANIUS Glamorganensis, Horti Botanici qui Westmonasterij olim floruit Cultor celeberrimus, Vir de re Herbariâ optimè meritus; ab Edvardo Lloydo (hujus Musæi Procustode) certior factus, Hortum siccum, seu stirpium rariorum collectionem in Eo desiderari: tria ingentia volumina, duo circiter millia Plantarum specimina continentia (quas Ipse fere omnes in præfato Horto enutrierat) Eidem moriens ex animo legavit. A.D. 1689 Edward Morgan from Glamorgan, the celebrated former keeper of the botanical gardens at Westminster, and a man extremely knowledgeable about plants. When he heard from Edward Lhwyd (under-keeper of this Museum) that the collection lacked a hortus siccus or a collection of [dried] plants, he bequeathed to the Museum three large folio volumes containing some 2,000 specimens of plants (almost all of which he had grown himself in the aforementioned garden). A.D. MDCLXXXIX. INSIGNISSIMUS Vir D. JOHANNES AUBREY de Easton-Piers in Agro Belgarum Wiltonensi, Armiger; Collegij SS. Trinitatis Oxon. olim Alumnus, præter Libellos, tum MSS. tum impressos, plus minus Octaginta; diversas illustrium virorũ Effigies; Numismata Romana, Eorumque matrices lateritias; Operis item Musivi sive Tessellati specimen (quæ omnia suis Catalogis respectivè recensentur)ex Amore suo in D. Ashmolum, Musæumq;suum propensissimo, eidem ex mero motu contribuit. A.D. 1689 The most distinguished John Aubrey Esq., from Easton Piercy in Wiltshire, formerly a scholar at Trinity College, Oxford, out of regard for Ashmole and his Museum, gave some eighty small books (some of them printed, some in manuscript), and in addition, several portraits of famous men, Roman coins and their clay matrices, and also a fragment of a mosaic or pavement (all of which are carefully listed in the catalogues). A.D. MDCLXXXIX. EGREGRIUS Vir D: JOHANNES ROBINSON AM: et Collegij Orielensis olim Socius, JACOBI Secundi apud Regem Sueciæ Minister ordinarius; ne Inscriptiones cujuscunque Gentis aut Linguæ hic Oxonij deessent, duos Lapides satis magnos Runis inscriptos, summo sudore ac sumptu ibidem comparavit, in Angliam benevolus transmisit, ac in Atrio hujus Musæi (pro honestate loci) lubens erigi voluit. A.D. 1689 The distinguished John Robinson MA, former Fellow of Oriel College and King James II's Envoy-Extraordinary to Sweden, concerned that inscriptions of any people or language should be lacking from Oxford, obtained, at great trouble and expense, two monumental runic stones, and generously sent them to England to be set up in the forecourt of the Museum (to grace their surroundings). [13r] A.D. MDCXC. Clarissimus Vir D. GULIELMUS HEDGES Miles, Civis et Mercator Londinensis, in Indiã Orientalem peregrè profectus, ldolum Gongam, e Pagodâ Insulæ Sagur in ostio Gangis, post Benharum et Jagernotum, dignitate proximâ, summâ sagacitate procuravit; ac pro impenso suo, quo Academiam hanc prosequitur affectu, in isto Musæo, tanquam in Sacrario magè congruo (plurium Arrham) reponendum transmisit. A.D.1690 The famous Sir William Hedges, citizen and merchant of London, showed great discernment in procuring, on his travels in India, an idol of (the goddess) Gonga from a pagoda on the Island of Sagur at the mouth of the Ganges, a temple second in importance only to that of Benares or Juggernaut. He sent it at his own expense to this Museum, as if to a fitting shrine, and in this way honoured the University. (There may be more to come). [14r-14v] A.D. MDCXCI ROBERTUS PLOT LL: D. Collegij Magnæ Aulræ, (Universitatis vulgò dicti) olim Sociocommensalis; Regi JACOBO II.° Historiographus; Illustrissimo Principi HENRICO Norfolciæ Duci, Summo Angliæ (Comitis titulo) Mareschallo, in Curiâ suâ Militari, Registrarius; Primus in hâc celeberrimâ Academiâ Professor Chymicus; hujusque MUSÆI Custos primus ac primarius. Vir ob ingenij præstantiam et omnimodam eruditionem quam meritò celebris: quod etiã facilè agnoscent quotquot Agri Oxoniensis et Staffordiensis (ut alia jam præteream) Historias Naturales ab ipso editas, æquo animo pensitaverint. Is postquam Gazophylaceum hocce Ashmoleanum, per septem Annos summâ fide ac diligentiâ procurasset, Londini tandem ad majora provectus, ideoque officio cedens, succedentibus Cimeliarchis industriæ juxta ac munificentiæ exemplar maximum (utinam et non impar humeris) reliquit. Omnia siquidem donavit cujuscunque generis Fossilia quæ in Agro Oxoniensi et Staffordiensi nata, ipse primus feliciter detexerat, quorumque Icones non minus elegantes quã descriptiones accuratas, earundem Provinciarũ Historijs dudum exhibuerat. Multa insuper Mineralia, et antiqua Romanæ in hanc Insulam Potestatis monumenta, cum in patrio solo Cantiano effossa, tum alibi locorum per Britanniam undique quæsita; Quin et exotica non pauca, Conchylia, Mineras, Metalla; Terras, Salia, Lapides; Alcyonia, Poros, Corallia, aliaque id genus multa, (quamvis et plura adhuc sperare jussit) quæ à naturæ operum studiosis spectentur dignissima, huic Musæo lubens contulit; communi Physiologorum commodo benevolus dicavit. A.D. 1691 Robert Plot LLD, Fellow-Commoner of University College; Historiographer-Royal to King James II; military secretary to the most illustrious Duke Henry of Norfolk, Earl Marshal of 7 AMS 2: THE BOOK OF BENEFACTORS England; first professor of Chemistry in this great University, first and best curator of this Museum. He was deservedly celebrated for his superior talents and universal erudition, which anyone who has impartially read the Natural Histories of Oxfordshire and Staffordshire which he has published will acknowledge (as well as other works which I pass over). After he had directed the Ashmolean Museum with great commitment and diligence for seven years, he finally gave up that post and moved to London, leaving to future keepers a great example of hard work and of generosity (we hope not a burdensome one). He donated to the museum the great variety of material which he was luckily the first to uncover in Oxfordshire and Staffordshire, and he published fine illustrations and careful descriptions of them a short while ago in his histories of these counties. He also gave many minerals, and ancient objects from the period of the Roman occupation of this island, which he had both excavated in his native county of Kent and acquired elsewhere from all over Britain; and also a fair number of exotic items such as shells, minerals, metals, earths, salts, stones, tufa, sponges, corals and many other things of that kind (he told us to expect more) which are considered to be of great value by students of Natural History. These he willingly donated to the museum and generously dedicated them to advance the cause of the natural sciences. [16r] A.D. MDCXCII Reverendus admodum et celeberrimus Vir, D. EDVARDUS POCOCKIUS SS. Th:D. et Lingua. Orient: Professor Regius; nonnulla ad Religionem Judaicam spectantia, huic etiam Cimeliarchio dicari voluit: Nempe 1.° Librum Estheræ quẽ in festo Purim (quod incidit in 14 et 15 Februarij) legunt Judæi in Synagogis. 2.° Tubam Judaicã ex cornu Arietis, quam a primo Augusti ad vicesimum octavum, singulis diebus manè et vesperi inflare solent; uti et ipso etiam die Expiationis. 3.° Phylacteria capitis; quæ sunt quasi memoralia præceptorum Dei. 4.° Phylacteria manus, quæ sinistro nudo brachio alligantur, ut sint quasi é regione cordis. 5.° Flagellum castigatorium quo utuntur Judi, ex triplici corio, asinino scil. ovillo et bovino contextum. Quin et post mortem ejusdem insignissimi Viri, Vestem quandam Turcicam honorariam accepimus quâ olim, Vir a moribus et eruditione, Barbaris etiam colendus; dum per Imperia Ottomannica peregrinaretur, donatus est. A.D. 1692 The Very Reverend and celebrated Edward Pococke, Doctor of Divinity and Regius Professor of Oriental Languages, decided to give the Museum various objects pertaining to the Jewish religion, namely: 1, The Book of Esther which is read by the Jews in Synagogue at the Festival of Purim (which falls on 14 and 15 of February). 2, A Jewish trumpet made of a ram's horn which is blown every day, both morning and evening, between 1 and 28 of August, and also on the day of Atonement. 3, Philacteries worn on the forehead to be a reminder of God's laws. 4, Philacteries worn on the arms which are tied to the bare left arm to be close to the heart. 5, A Jewish whip with a triple thong made from the skin of the ass, sheep and ox. In addition we received, after this very distinguished man's death, a Turkish robe of honour which he, respected even by a foreign people for his character and learning, was presented with during his travels in the Ottoman Empire. [16v] A.D. MDCXCII Reverendus Vir D. THOMAS HUES, Vicarius Ecclesiæ, Laycokiensis in Comitatu Wiltoniæ, olim Exercitui Anglicano in Mauritaniâ à Sacris. Is dum Antiquitates Tingitanas curioisus lustraret, Lapidem characteribus Arabicis luculenter exaratum nactus, qui ejusdem loci Ecclesiæ Turcicæ Fundationem et annuos Reditus doceret; in patriam redux secum abduxit et Academiæ Oxoniensi, cujus Alumnus olim fuerat, moriens legavit. A.D. 1692 The Reverend Thomas Hues, vicar of Lacock in Wiltshire, formerly served with the English military forces in Mauritania. While examining some ancient objects in Tangiers, he happened upon a stone clearly inscribed with Arabic characters, which recorded the foundation of the local Turkish church and its annual revenues. He took it back with him on his return home, and at his death, bequeathed it to the University of Oxford, where he had once been a student. A.D. MDCXCII IOANNES SOWTER Mercator Londinensis; Vir singulari ingenio et suavissimis moribus insignitus: donavit æneos aliquot SUECORUM nummos ob singularem formam et magnitudinem notatu dignissimos: quem et plura adhuc daturum aliquando speramus. A.° MDCXCIII. Idem addidit Stragula equestria Turcica in obsidione illa Viennæ urbis celeberrimâ A.° MDCLXXXIII rapta. Item. A.° MDCXCIV varia minerarum stanni et cupri specimina é Fodinis Cornubiæ et Devoniæ; in quibus unum et alteram cupri nativi, é puteis Polgouth et Trevascus. Item. A.° MDCCI. nonnullos Victorini Postumi et Tetrici utriusque nummos areos. A.D. 1692 John Sowter, London merchant, a man distinguished by his singular talent and charming manners, gave this museum several Swedish bronze coins notable for their unique shape and size: we hope that even more will be given to us in the future. In 1693, the same man gave the museum some Turkish horse-blankets which were seized in the famous siege of the city of Vienna in 1683. In the year 1694, he gave various specimens of tin and copper from the mines of Devon and Cornwall. Both contain native copper from the mines at Polgooth and Trevascus. In the year 1701, he gave some bronze coins from the reigns of Victorinus, Postumus and Tetricus. [17r] A.D. MDCXCIII ORNATISSIMUS Vir D. HARRIES de [ ] in Agro Wigorniensi Armiger, donavit elegantissimam Tabellarn Plasticam, in quâ felici manu exhibetur JOVIS Historia in Cretâ Insulâ enutriti. Amalthæa scilicet. nutrix sub elatâ quadam arbore, in eremo conspicitur; lacte repleturn Cornu Copiæ ad os Infantuli admovens: tum Capræ adstantes cum Satyro, et Canem in altâ rupe eviscerans Aquila. Quin et in summâ arbore pulli Aquilini in nido delitescunt, quibus Serpens arborem ascendens, exitium denunciat. A.D. 1693 The very distinguished Mr Harries, from Worcestershire, gave a small, very beautiful relief, skilfully executed, showing the story of the early childhood of Jove on the island of Crete. In the 8 AMS 2: THE BOOK OF BENEFACTORS wilderness his nurse, Amalthea, is shown under a tall tree holding a cornucopia, filled with milk, to the child's lips; there are goats around together with a satyr, and at the top of a cliff, an eagle disembowels a dog. Hiding in a nest on top of a tree are eaglets, threatened with death by a serpent which climbs it. A.D. MDCXCIIII PRÆCLARISSIMUS DOMINUS, D. JOHANNES AUBREY, de Lhan-Trydhyd in Glamorganiâ, Baronettus; Vir nequicquam minus generosus, quàm Illustri Familia natus: Bibliothecæ Ashmoleanæ donavit Viri Celeberrimi D. Joannis Vaillant, Galliarum Regis Antiquarij, Historiam veterum Numismatum, duobus Tomis Parisijs nuper editâ. A.D. 1694 The celebrated Sir John Aubrey, Bart. from Lhantrithyd in Glamorgan, a noble man born to an illustrious family, gave the Ashmolean library the History of Ancient Coins by the celebrated Jean Vaillant, antiquary to the French king, which was recently published in two volumes in Paris. [17v] A.D. MDCXCIII. Dnũs MATTHIAS BIRD, Navarchus Kaer- Leonensis in Agro Monemuthensi; donavit Loricatam quandam Statuam, ex Lapide Alabastrite efformatam atque Auro foliato olim obductam, Gladium adhuc integra, gestabat dextrâ: et in sinistrâ bilancem: in dextrâ lance quæ gravior erat, Puellæ facies eminebat; in sinistrâ verò Globus terrestris. Effossa est prope Urbem Kaer-Lheion sive Iscam Legionum (ubi Legio secunda Augusta aliquandiu egit) ad locum Porth Sini Krân dictum, circa Annum MDCLX. A.D. 1693 Matthew Bird, a ship's master from Caerleon in Monmouth-shire, gave the Museum a figure in a coat of mail, sculpted from alabaster, which was once covered in gold leaf, holding a sword, still fully preserved, in its right hand and, in its left, a pair of scales. The right pan of the scales, which is the heavier, shows a girl's face, the left one shows the globe of the Earth. It was dug up in about 1660 near the town of Caerleon or, in Latin, Isca Legionum (where the Second Augustan legion used to be stationed) near the spot known as Porth Siny Kran. A.D. MDCXCIII REVERENDUS Vir D. JACOBUS JVIE Wiltoniensis A.M. triginta circiter Romanorum nummos donavit ex ære minore. Ii autem omnes Sorbioduni inventi; titulos Crispi, Constantis, Constantij et Magnentij præferentes; adeoque integri ut nullam fere primariæ formæ jacturã fecisse videantur. A.D. 1693 The Reverend James Ivie MA, from Wiltshire, gave about thirty bronze Roman coins. All of them were found in Sorviodunum [Salisbury] and bear the names of Crispus, Constans, Constantius and Magnentius. There seems to be no damage to their original appearnce. [18r] A.D. MDCXCIV. BENIAMIN BROWN S. T. B. collegij Ænei nasi socius, dedit ANNVLVM ARGENTEUM ANTIQVVM; a fossore quodam inter rudera ejusdem collegij casu repertum; ex parte alterâ antiquo opere tortuosum; alterâ verò sigillo et symbolo nescio quibus insculptum. vide cat.D. Æd.ch.n.5j2.b. A.D. 1694 Benjamin Brown, Bachelor of Theology and Fellow of Brasenose College, gave an ancient silver ring, found by chance by someone digging in excavations in the College. It is both a ring, in an antique twisted style, and is engraved with an unknown seal and symbol. See the Catalogue of the Dean of Christ Church, no. 512(b). A.D. MDCXCV. CAROLUS KING A.M. Ædis christi Alumnus, donavit IASPEDES ORIENTALES duas, formâ octogonâ, in quibus Imago cujusdam aquam haurientis &c et CHALCEDONIVM in quo quatuor figuræ; Martis scilicet, Mercurij, Cereris, et Cupidinis, faberrimè sculptæ. Ibid j54. 5j9. A.D. 1695 Charles King MA, once a Student of Christ Church, gave the Museum three gems, two oriental jaspers, octagonal in shape, with the image of a water carrier; and one chalcedony with four skillfully carved figures of Mars, Mercury, Ceres and Cupid. Ibid, nos. 154, 519. [18v] A.D. MDCXCVI. Dnũs. CAROLVS HOPKINS dedit orbiculatam quandam LAMENAM AVREAM prope Bali-Shani apud Hibernos nuper effossam; ad monitum vetustæ cujusdam Citharædi Hibernici, cantilenæ, in quâ virum aliquem fortem prædicabat locum sepulturæ designans, de duabus laminis totidemque annulis, aureis, cum ipso terræ mandatis, verba faciens. Narrationem fusius exaratam, vide apud Camdenum edit. Gibs.p.j022. cat.VC.954. A.D. 1696 Charles Hopkins gave the Museum a circular gold plate which was recently dug up near Ballyshannon in Ireland. He found it with the help of an ancient dirge chanted by an old Irish harpist, in which he sang of a strong man and his place of burial, and told of two gold plates and as many gold rings, commited to the earth with him. For the narrative in full, see Camden, [Britannia], ed. Gibson, p. 1022. Vice-Chancellor's Catalogue, no. 959. A.D. MDCXCVII. ANNVLVS ARGENTEVS, in quo lapis Corneolus Arabice insenptus. Donavit GEORGIVS WALKER. [C.D. Æd.Ch.512a] A.D. 1697 A silver ring with an Arabic inscription on a carnelian was given by George Walker (Catalogue of the Dean of Christ Church, no. 512a). A.D. MDCXCVIII. Dnũs. IVSTINIAN SHEPHERD, a Barfordia majore, in agro Oxoniensi; dedit Cingulum quoddam Americanum ex monetâ testaceâ apud Novæ Angliæ Indigenas receptâ (tubulorum nicotianæ as fragmina referente) confectum. cat. V.C.955. A.D. 1698 Justinian Shepherd, from Great Barford in Oxfordshire, gave the Museum an American belt made from the shell money used by the native people of New England (resembling fragments of tobacco pipes). See the Vice-Chancellor's Catalogue, no. 955. A.D. MDCXCIX. Dnũs. THOMAS CREECH S.T.B. et collegij 9 AMS 2: THE BOOK OF BENEFACTORS omnium Anim. socius, dedit NVMISMA HISPANICVM ARGENTEVM, PSEVDO- CORALLIO QVODAM ADNATO COOPERATVM; ex thesauro isto quem e navi Hispanicâ, regnante Elizabethâ alto oceano submersâ, expiscati sunt Angli A.° 1687. C. V.C. 956. A.D. 1699 Thomas Creech, Bachelor of Theology and Fellow of All Souls, gave a silver Spanish medal, encrusted with pseudo-coral, found in the treasure of a Spanish ship sunk on the high seas in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and fished up from it by Englishmen in 1687. See the Vice-Chancellor's Catalogue, no. 956. [19r] A.D. MDCC. Dnũs RICARDVS DYER A.M. et collegij Orielensis socius, dedit QVATVOR NVMMOS AVREOS, & DECEM ARGENTEOS; additis insuper in perpetuam rei memoriam SEMICORONÂ ƘREÂ argento obductâ, aliâque (uti & solido & semisolido) circumquaque accisâ; quæ legalis Angliæ monetæ locum usurparunt, anno j695.C.V.C.252.a.&c.et 5.ad finem. A.D. 1700 Richard Dyer MA, Fellow of Oriel College, gave the Museum four gold coins and ten silver ones and also added, as a perpetual memorial a silver-plated brass half crown, and other clipped coins (both shillings and sixpences) which took the place of the legal English currency. Given in 1695. See the Vice-Chancellor's Catalogue, no. 252a et seq. and 5 at the end. A.D. MDCCI. Dnũs IOANNES GOSCH apud Chalybonenses ripublicæ Batavorum consul, dedit SIGILLVM ÆNEVM MACARII Patriarchæ Antiocheni; a rustico quodam juxta Antiochiā ad Taurum montem, nuper repertum. Epigraphe sic se habet. +ΜΑΚΑΡΙΟΣελεω Θεον ΠΑΤΡΙΑΡΧΗΣ ΤΗΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΗΣ ΘΥ ΠΟΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΕΙΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΣΗΣ ΑΝΑΤΟΛΗΣ. C.V.C. 894.b. A.D. 1701 John Gosch, the Dutch consul in Turkey, gave a brass seal belonging to Makanios, the Patriarch of Antioch, recently discovered by a peasant in the Taurus mountains near Antioch. It's inscription runs: 'Makarios by the mercy of God patriarch of the great city Antioch and of all Anatolia'. See the Vice-Chancellor's Catalogue, no. 894b. [19v] A.D. MDCCII. Dnũs. ROGERVS BVRROVGH civis Londinensis dedit ICVNCVLAM MARMOREAM BRACHMANNI INDICI, faberrime sculptam. C.D.Æ.CH.646.b. A.D. 1702 Roger Burrough, citizen of London, gave a skilfully sculpted, small marble image of an Indian Brahmin. Catalogue of the Dean of Christ Church, no. 646(b). A.D. MDCCII GVILELMVS BROMLEY Arm. in comitijs regni, Academiæ Oxoniensis Advocatus; dedit Numisma archetypum aureum, ad inaugurationem serenissimæ Annæ Reginæ Angliæ &c Apr.23.° An. 1702. percussum. C. V-C.341. A.D. 1702 William Bromley, Esquire of the Royal Court and one of the Burgesses of the University of Oxford, gave an original gold medal struck to commemorate the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Anne on 23 April 1702. See the Vice-Chancellor's Catalogue, no. 341. A.D. MDCCVI IACOBUS POUND M.B. pro singulari suo in Musæum Ashmoleanum studio et benevolentia, omnia ea Vegetabilia et Animalia ex India Orientali advecta, quæ cylindraceis vitris inclusa in fenestrarum capsulis reponuntur, munificè contulit. A.D. 1706. James Pound, Bachelor of Medicine, out of his singular devotion and generosity to the Ashmolean Museum, donated to it all the vegetable and animal specimens he had brought home from the East Indies, which can be seen in cylindrical glass jars in the windows of the museum. A.D. MDCCVII. CAROLUS HARRIS Armiger, Oxoniensis, dedit corium cujusdam asini Africani ZEBRA dicti, coloris eleganter variegati. A.D. 1707 Charles Harris Esq., of Oxford, made a gift of the skin of an African ass called a zebra, which is of beautifully variegated colours. [20r] A.D. MDCCVIII. TIMOTHEUS LANNOY Armiger, ad Emporia Ottomannica mercaturam exercens, dedit capræ Turcicæ ex Angora juxta Constantinopolim, alutariam pellem sericeis pilis cincinnatis eleganter vestitam. A.D. 1708 Timothy Lannoy Esq., a merchant trading to the Ottoman Empire, gave the museum the soft skin of a Turkish goat, with curly silken hair, from Angora, near Constantinople. [MDCCXIV] EDVARDUS LHUYD è Cambro-britannis oriundus: Coll: JESU apud Oxon: A.M. in eadem Academiâ S: Theologiæ Bedellus Superior; Plotioque ut in hoc Museo Successor, ita benevolentiâ et eruditione non impar. Vir enim hic pereruditus, postquam per plures annos Cimeliarchæ provinciam summâ curâ et fidelitate procurasset, et in rebus Naturalibus colligendis et ordinandis operam feliciter navasset, tandem Lithophylacium Suum Britannicum rarioribus omne genus figuratis lapidibus uberrime instructum inter κειμήλα Asmoleana conservari voluit. Quantum autem Scientia, et Naturali, et antiquaria excelluerit LHUYDIUS, Scripta, quibus de posteris omnibus optime meritus est, abunde testantur, viz. Lithophylacij Britannici Ichnographia cum Epistolis una annexis; et Archæologia Britannica. Quam diu meditatus fuerat Gentis suæ Naturalem Historiam perficere vetuit Mors immatura Anno 1709. In locum cl: LHUYDII suffectus fuit DAVID PARRY e Coll. JESU A.M. cui datum erat ad exitum 10 AMS 2: THE BOOK OF BENEFACTORS penè Anni 1714 Museum hocce custodire. A.D. 1714 Edward Lhwyd, a Welshman by origin, of Jesus College, Oxford, was the Senior Bedel of Divinity at Oxford. He succeed Plot in this Museum and was entirely his equal in generosity and learning, for he was a very erudite man. After administering the Museum for many years with the greatest care and diligence, and after completing his work on building and arranging the Natural History collection, he wanted his collection of British stones, full of all types of figured stones, to be preserved among the treasures of the Ashmolean. The extent of his learning as both a naturalist and an antiquary can be clearly gauged from his writings. He left many good works to posterity including the Lithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia, together with his letters, and his Archaeologia Britannica. An untimely death in 1709 prevented him from completing his long meditated project of writing the natural history of his people. David Parry MA, of Jesus College, was appointed in his place and was designated Keeper of the Museum to the end of the year 1714. [20v] A.D. MDCCXV IOHANNES WILKES Birminghamensis, Artium ferrariarum peritissimus, Securitati hujusce Musei prospiciens, Valvas Scholæ Historiæ Naturalis boreales, Serâ varijs obicibus et ferramentis elaborata firmiter Satis munivit. A.D. 1715 John Wilkes, of Birmingham, a very expert locksmith, attending to the security of this Museum, satisfactorily strengthened the northern doors of the Natural History school with an elaborate bolt, bars and other ironwork. A.D. MDCCXVI IOHANNES WOODWARD celeberrimus in Collegio Greshamensi Medicinæ Professor, è copiosâ Suâ reliquiarum Diluvianarum Supellectile varias rariorum Fossilium Species huic Muséo benevolus contribuit: Quem et plura aliquando daturum Speramus. A.D. 1716 John Woodward, celebrated Professor of Medicine at Gresham College, generously offered this museum various specimens of rare fossils from his abundant collection of remains from the period of the Flood. We hope that one day he will give more. [21r] A.D. MDCCXV1 THOMAS SHAW é Coll. Reginensi A:B: Historiæ Naturalis Studiosissimus, quam plurima Insecta circa Oxonium capta, et in suas Classes et Familias elegantissime disposita huic Museo D.D. A.D. 1716 Thomas Shaw BA, from Queen's College, who was much devoted to Natural History, gave this Museum a large collection of insects caught around Oxford, elegantly arranged into their various classes and families. A.D. MDCCXVII Ornatissimus Juvenis HENRICUS JOHNSON ex Æde Christi Superioris Ordinis Commensalis cutem ingentis Lacerti Squamosi, Asraw vulgo dicti, huic Museo donavit. A.D. 1717 The excellent young Henry Johnson, Gentleman-Commoner of Christ Church, gave this Museum the skin of a giant scaly lizard commonly known as an Asraw. A.D. MDCCXVIL JOSEPHUS DISNEY ex Æde Christi Commensalis, venerandæ Antiquitatis amantissimus, Typum Arcis, Pontefractensis Anno 1648, quo eam obsidione premebant Perduelles, delineatum, in hoc Museo conservandum D. A.D. 1717 Joseph Disney, Commoner of Christ Church and a devoted antiquary, gave the museum a drawing of Pontefract Castle from the time when it was under enemy siege in 1648. A.D. MDCCXVIII. THOMAS PALMER de Fairfield in Agro Somerset Arm: Vir doctrinâ et Virtutum Comitatu Spectatissimus, Picturam Senis cujusdam (Sancti forsan Cuthberti) auro crystalloque munitam, inter Cimelia hujusce Musei reponendam transmisit. Perantiquum hoc Opus, magni quondam Ælfredi peculium Academiæ Oxon: legavit Thomas Palmer in eodem pago Militum Tribunus A.D. 1718 Thomas Palmer The Alfred Jewel, to which this entry refers, was presented to the Museum by Colonel Nathaniel Palmer; his son, Thomas Palmer, merely transmitted it to the Museum (although it had been intended for the Bodleian Library). of Fairfield in Somerset, a learned man and renowned throughout the county for his virtue, sent to this Museum a picture of an old man (possibly St. Cuthbert) set in a gold and crystal frame. Palmer, military commander in the same district, bequeathed this most ancient object, once a possession of King Alfred, to the University of Oxford. [21v] A.D. MDCCXIX. GEORGIUS CLARKE L.L.D. Coll. Omn: Anim: Socius, hujus Academiæ sæpius Burgensis et regnante Anna e Dominis Comissionarijs pro Officio D.ni magni Admiralli Unus; cum sit omnium bonarum Artium amantissimus, Bellicæ Navis effigiem omni suo malorum, Antennarum, Funiumque apparatu eleganter instructam conquisivit et in hac tutissimâ Statione Ancoram ponere decrevit. Jure optime hic memorandus est Gulielmus Lee Armiger, qui Naviculam tantâ pulchritudinis fabricavit. A.D. 1719 George Clarke LLD, Fellow of All Souls College and several times Member of Parliament for this University had, in Queen Anne's reign, the post of Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty. Being deeply appreciative of beautifully made objects, he commissioned a model of a warship with all its masts, sails and rigging, and resolved that it should be anchored in this safe harbour. Here it is only right to remember William Lee Esq. who made the little ship so beautifully. SMARTIUS LETHIULLIER, Armiger, de Aldersbrook in Com: Essex varias Animalium Species quas è Supellectili Woodwardiano redemerat vitris Cylindraceis 16 repositas in Museum contulit. An: 1756. Smart Lethiullier Esq., of Aldersbrook in Essex, in 1756, gave this Museum various species of animals which he had purchased from the Woodward collection. They are enclosed in sixteen cylindrical glass jars. 11 AMS 2: THE BOOK OF BENEFACTORS [22r] A.D. MDCCLVII. RICARDUS RAWLINSON, Arm: L.L.D. Soc: Antiq: Soc: Exemplaria duarum Venetorum Navicularum unum Pæota, alterum Gondola dict: unaque Vulpem albi Colons Moscoviæ Incolam Museo Moriens legavit. Queis insuper addidit Lecticæ gestatoriæ Indicæ, Palanquin, dict: Exemplar. A.D. 1757 Richard Rawlinson Esq. LLD, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, left the Museum models of two kinds of small Venetian boat, one known as a Paeota, the other a Gondola. He also gave a white Moscovy fox. To these he added an Indian litter called a palanquin. A.D. MDCCXLV. THOMAS NELSON, A M. Coll: Univ. Soc: Num̃ulum aureum Reg: Annæ, Legalem Monetam valoris quinque Minarum totidemque Solidorum D.D. A.D. 1745 Thomas Nelson MA, Fellow of University College, gave a gold coin from the reign of Queen Anne which is worth five guineas. NATHAN: CRYNES A.M. in Facultate Artium Superior Bedellus Tabulam Mexicanam ex Avium Plumis miro Artificio confictam Museo D.D. A.D. 1745 Nathaniel Crynes MA, Senior Bedel in the Faculty of Arts, gave the Museum a small Mexican picture which is ingeniously composed of birds' feathers. A.D. MDCCLVI EDVARDUS SEYMOUR de Wanating̃a in Com: Bercheriensi Pharmacopola, Artis ChymicoTinctoria à se inventæ quâ cujuscunque generis Ligno Juglandis Pectines impressit Museo Ashmoleano Primitias consecravit. A.D. 1756 Edward Seymour, from Wantage in Berkshire, was a pharmacist and dedicated to the museum the first fruits of his work on chemical dyes. He discovered this art, and struck permanent tints through a plank of wood from a type of walnut tree. [23r] A.D. MDCCLVI. Illustrissima Dom: Dom: MARIA Comitissa de WESTMORLAND Magnetem rarissimæ magnitudinis cui vix ullam Regionem parem jactare credimus, Academiæ OXON, nequid ibidem Arte vel Natura pretiosum deesset, contulit, et in Museo Ashmoleano reponendum esse voluit. Quadraginta et Octo Uncias ambitu complectitur Lapis, centum et quinquaginta Librarum Pondus attollit, plus indies (ut Usu compertum est) attracturus. Honoratissimus Dom: Dom: JOANNES Comes de WESTMORLAND Almæ Universitatis OXON Seneschallus Egregium hoc Uxoris suæ Munus elegantissimo instrui Apparatu, Domicilioque suis Impensis affabre jacto, conservari jussit. A.D. 1756 That most noble Lady Mary, Countess of Westmorland, gave the University of Oxford a lodestone which she wanted placed in the Ashmolean Museum, so that it should not be lacking in any precious work of art or nature. It is of an unusually large size and we can hardly believe that anywhere else can boast of having one like it. The stone is 48 inches in circumference and is able to raise a weight of 150lbs or more (as we know from experience). The most celebrated Lord John, Earl of Westmorland, Steward of the fair University of Oxford, arranged for this exceptional gift of his wife's to be provided with a very elegant case made, with great craftsmanship, at his own expense. [22v] A.D. MDCCXLIII. ANNA MARIA WOODFORD, Filia Ricardi Woodford M.D. Med: Reg̃: Prof.: in hâc Academiâ, Collare chartaceum propriis Manibus Acûs puncturis elaboratum D.D. A.D. 1743 Anne Mary Woodford, daughter of Richard Woodford MD, Regius Professor of Medicine in this University, The Regius Professor was, in fact, William Woodford. gave the Museum a paper collar, elaborately worked, by her own hand, with the point of a needle. [23v] A.D. MDCCLVIII GULIELMUS BORLASE de LUDGVAN in Com̃: CORNUBIENSIUM Rector. A.M.R.S.S. omnibus quæ dum Soli natalis Historiam molitus est collegerat Corporibus Crystallinis Mineralibus et Metallicis Repositorium hoc Rerum Naturalium, Plurium Arrham auxit et ornavit; Addidit insuper Speciminum aliorumque in Libro impresso descriptorum Figuras calamo suo eleganter delineatas, Codicemque MSS. una reconditum Posterorumque Usui dicatum fecit. A.D. 1758 William Borlase, Rector of Ludgvan in Cornwall, MA and FRS, furnished this treasure-house of natural objects with all the crystalline, mineral and metallic specimens which he had collected while working on the History of his native land, and may give more. He also added some pictures of other specimens, elegantly drawn with his own pen, which have been reproduced in the book. To all of this he added a manuscript catalogue to be stored away for the use of future generations. [24r] A.D. MDCCLVII. JARED LEIGH Junr. de (DOCTORS COMMONS) in Civitate LONDON. Effigiem Salvatoris nostri JESU CHRISTI defuncti, Hannibalis Carrache arte graphica feliciter Expressam, insigne celeberrimi Pictoris Ingenii, suæque erga nos Benevolentiæ Monumentum, inter rarioris Notae Cimelia reponi voluit. A.D. 1757 Jared Leigh the younger, of Doctors Commons in the City of London, wanted to have a painting of the dead Jesus Christ, our Saviour, masterfully and beautifully depicted by Annibale Caracci, that outstanding painter of genius, placed among the treasures of rare note as a token of his goodwill towards us. A.D. MDCCLVIII. THOS: PENNANT de Bychton in Com: FLINT Arm: variis Rerum Naturalium Speciminibus, Metallorum 12 AMS 2: THE BOOK OF BENEFACTORS sc. Mineralium Chrystallorum &c hoc Museum benigne locupletavit. A.D. 1758 Thomas Pennant Esq., from Bychton in Flintshire, kindly enriched the Museum with various natural, metallic, mineral and crystalline specimens. [24v] A.D. MDCCLXI. Gul: Perrot de North-Leigh in Com Oxon Arm: Vespertilionem ingentem Asiæ Incolam, Canem volantem dictum, huic Museo lautè favens contulit. Cujus Animalis Naturam ex Edvardi Historia Avium Tab. 180. plenius investiget Lector. A.D. 1761 William Perrot Esq., of North Leigh in Oxfordshire, generously gave a giant Asian bat, known as a flying dog [fox], to this Museum. The reader may study this animal more fully in Edwards's History of Birds, pl. 180. [25v] A.D. MDCCLXVI ISAACUS Hughes de Crutched Fryers in Civitate London Cadaver Infantis Balsamo conditum, Variisque, Ægyptiaco More, notis characteribusque insignitum. D.D. A.D. 1766 Isaac Hughes, from Crutched Friars in the City of London, gave the body of a child preserved in balsam and marked, in the Egyptian manner, with letters and characters.