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De bibliotheek van Isaac Casaubon
Bron: Festschrift/feestbundel/mélanges ... presented to Prof. Dr. Wytze Hellinga ... Amsterdam 1980, p. 59-68
Internetuitgave: M.H.H. Engels, mei 2021
T. A. BIRRELL
The reconstruction of the library
of Isaac Casaubon
Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614) is not only one of the heroes of Renaissance classical scholarship, but also a major theologian at the centre of the religious controversies at the courts of Henry IV of France and James I of England. Books were the essence of Casaubon's life: the extent of his library, how he acquired it, and what eventually became of it, is part of his biography. Mark Pattison, in his magisterial and irreplaceable life of Casaubon1, draws from Casaubon's correspondence a vivid picture of the scholar's day-to-day traffic in books. But the drudgery involved in a systematic attempt to reconstruct Casaubon's library was clearly outside Pattison's brief. The present essay is intended as a progress report, and as a preliminary to the publication of a full catalogue of all the extant printed books in Casaubon's library.2♠ When Casaubon moved from Geneva to Montpellier in 1996, he made a rough in-
ventory of approximately 500 books.3 When he moved from Paris to London in Oc-
tober 1610, his letters and his diary are filled with laments at the separation from his
library. Eventually, by October 16, a third of his library at Paris was transferred to
London4, but the complaints of lack of essential books continue. Then, in July 1612,
his nephew Isaac Chabanes arranged for the transfer of more books from Paris
through the good offices of John Bill, King James's printer and library agent.5 After
that the constant complaints of lack of books cease altogether.
♠ At Casaubon's death in 1614 a numerical inventory of his printed books and MSS.
in London was made.6 He had just over 1200 printed books and 64 MSS. (of which
47 were Greek, 6 Arabic, 6 Hebrew and 5 Latin). In Paris, his two friends Desier
Heraut and Josias Mercer drew up, for valuation purposes, an itemized list of the re-
maining printed books, which amounted to 8507; unfortunately however, though
they give the author and title of each item, they do not give date and place of publica-
tion, which frequently makes precise identification uncertain. Only 6 of Casaubon's
Greek MSS. remained in France, in charge of his son Paul (though they included the
important edition of the Agamemnon of Aeschylus which had been prepared for the
press in 1610)8, and these eventually found their way into the Collection Dupuy9, now
in the Bibliothèque Nationale. So in fact, at the time of his death in London, Casau-
bon had 60% of his printed books and the majority of his MSS. at his disposal. Alto-
gether, then, Casaubon's library must have consisted of about 2000 printed books.
The library of his friend Joseph Scaliger, also a voluntary exile, was of similar size.
When Scaliger died at Leiden in 1609 his auction sale catalogue included 1382
items.10 Allowing for books given to friends under the terms of his will, and for
books left in France in the three châteaux of his patron, Scaliger's complete library
must also have consisted of about 2000 volumes - but, unlike Casaubon, Scaliger
did not have seventeen children to support.
♠ It is generally assumed that on Casaubon's death in 1614 the majority of his MSS.
and printed books went, via King James's librarian Patrick Young, into the Old
Royal Library at St. James's Palace and thence, by the gift of King George II in 1757,
into the British Museum11; that Casaubon's widow retained only his manuscript
woles and papers and a few printed books and that these passed via the will of her son
Meric into Bodley's Library in 1671. A consideration of what has survived, however,
indicates that the process of dispersal of Casaubon's library was more complicated
than that.
♠ The dispersal of Casaubon's Greek MSS. (many of them transcripts by Andreas
Darmarios) has been admirably dealt with by H.H.E. Craster.12 The British Library
has 29, which came with the Old Royal Library; Trinity College has 7, which catre
from Patrick Young's personal library via the Library of Thomas Gale (1648-1702);
and Bodley's Library has 5 which came via the Library of John Selden (1585-1654),
to whom they had been sold by Meric Casaubon in 1650, when he was in financial
difficulties under the Commonwealth.13
♠ Most of Isaac Casaubon's printed books in the British Museum can be identified
from the catalogue of the Old Royal Library, compiled between 1761 and 1769.14
This records 366 books, of which 19 are not physically present in the British Library
today, having been disposed of as duplicates between 1769 and 1832. But there are
also 8 books now in the British Library which are not in the Old Royal Library Cata-
logue and which were acquired by the British Museum after 1757, in the latter half of
the eighteenth century and during the nineteenth century. Furthermore, 47 of the
books in the Old Royal Library are in Charles II bindings by Samuel Mearne15,
which would seem to indicate that they were not acquired in 1614, directly after Ca-
saubon's death.
♠ There is yet another complicating factor. Among the Casaubon papers in Bodley's
Library there is an itemized list of 229 printed books endorsed 'Books refused by Mr.
P. Young'.16 One would have supposed that these had not gone into the Old Royal
library, yet 39 of them can be identified with absolute certainty as being among the
Old Royal Library books in the British Museum, and three of these are in Charles II
bindings
♠ Furthermore, there are three substantial groups of Casaubon's books outside the
British Library. (A) In Bodley's Library there are 13 books: 3 from Meric Casaubon's
bequest; one via Thomas Rawlinson (1681-1725) and Thomas Hearne (1723); 4 via
Richard Rawlinson (1690-1758), of which one came from the sale of the library of
Charles Bernard on 22 March 1711; and the remainder from the library of Ingram By-
water (1840-1914). (B) In Cambridge University Library there are 20 books, of
which all but two came certainly from the library of John Moore, Bishop of Ely
(1646-1714). 17 Among Moore's books at Cambridge there is also one annotated by
Meric Casaubon18, and one of Isaac Casaubon's books is inscribed by Meric in 1615
and by Robert Nelson in 1672.19 (Nelson died in 1715, so whether this belonged to
Moore is doubtful.) One of Casaubon's books came to Moore Bishop John Pear-
son (1613-86).20 In the library of Bishop Edward Stillingfleet (1635-99), which
forms part of Archbishop Marsh's Library, Dublin21, there are 26 books owned by
Isaac Casaubon and, which is most striking, 77 owned by Meric Casaubon.22 One
final factor to be considered is that of the total of more than 400 extant printed
books from Casaubon's library, a considerable number can be identified, with reason-
able certainty, with the titles in the list of 850 books in Paris.
♠ All this statistical evidence points clearly to one conclusion. Casaubon's widow,
and later her son Meric, retained far more of Casaubon's library at London than has
hitherto be assumed; and Meric brought back to England at least some considerable
portion of his father's library at Paris. Within a year of Meric's death in 1671 the bulk
of his library was sold private, his own books and those of his father together: two
of the major collectors of the day, Bishops Stillingfleet23 and Moore, seem to have ac-
quired substantial portions, and Thomas Ross, Charles II's librarian, must have
bought some for the Royal Library as well. The residue of Meric Casaubon's library
was disposed of by auction at Canterbury on 29 July 1689 by his unscholarly son,
John (1636-99)24. Meric Casaubon complained several times that he had had to sell
much of his library during the Commonwealth25, but such complaints must have
been, like the death of Mark Twain, considerably exaggerated. He sold a few mss to
Selden to be sure, but no printed books.26 Meric's protestations about the lack of
suitable library facilities were due to his bad conscience at not having continued his
father's work against Baronius; his half-hearted annotations to his father's copy of
Baronius are a confession of defeat.27
♠ Of Isaac Casaubon's library of 2000 books, therefore, just over 20% actually exists
today, and over 50% is known by titles. What can be said about it on this basis?
♠ Growth. Although Casaubon does not date the acquisition of his books, those in-
scribed 'Hortusbonus' rather than 'Casaubonus' were acquired early; after he left Ge-
neva in 1596 he abandoned the affectation. While at Geneva, Casaubon acquired al-
most every publication, in all fields, and some now of considerable rarity, of the
members of the staff of the University. Charles Borgeaud, in his magnificent history
of the University of Geneva28, frequently had to go to the British Museum for books
by Genevan professors that could not be found in Geneva or in the Bibliothèque
Nationale - and the British Museum copies were Casaubon's copies.
♠ Only three times does Casaubon note from whom he bought a book, and these are
books acquired from Genevan professors in his very impecunious student days: from
the library of Franciscus Portus, professor of Greek, whom he succeeded, he bought a
Pindar29; from Denys Godefroy he bought a Lazius30 (ironically, in 1611, when Ca-
saubon could well afford books, Godefroy sent him a copy of his latest publications31;
and from Julius Pacius he bought Pacius's four-volume folio edition of the Corpus Ju-
ris Civilis (Geneva 1580)32. There is a mixture of pride and bitterness behind the in-
scription "emi a V.Cl. Julio Pacio cum illo publice et privatim docente juri operam
dabam." In order to pay for Pacius's private law lectures, Casaubon worked as Pa-
cius's amanuensis; the hard-headed Italian evidently made poor Casaubon, then aged
twenty-one, pay for the textbook out of his wages. On the other hand, the gifts of a
Juvenal and Persius33, a Polybius34, and an Onomasticon of Julius Pollux35, from
his brother-in-law Pierre Perillau, were most welcome to Casaubon for his early lectures
at Geneva; the Juvenal is heavily annotated line by line, and the Polybius was clearly
used as the basis for his own edition of 1609. Another most grateful gift, of a later
date, was the six folio volumes of the Annales of Baronius, from his friend and patron
Meric de Vic.
♠ If the dates of publication can be taken as a reasonable guide, the growth of Casau-
bon's library more or less reflects what is known of the development of his interests
during his life. He begins with law and the classics, goes on to patristics and orienta-
lia, and only in the Paris period, 1600-10, is there a marked increase in the acquisi-
tion of theological controversy, which accelerates predictably during his last four
years in London, 1610-14. Casaubon's years in England illustrate very strikingly the
work of John Norton and John Bill as international library agents; Casaubon looked
on Norton as a friend and felt his death as a personal loss; and several books still have
Bill's inscription on the flyleaf 'pour Monsieur Casaubon'.36
♠ Casaubon does not seem to have had many bibliographical reference books, but he
did have a Gesner and that much used bibliographical tool, Thomas James's first cata-
logue of Bodley's Library (1605), though he did not bring them to England. From his
correspondence it is clear that he used the catalogues of the Frankfurt Book Fair. In
the field of his special interests, especially classical texts, Casaubon often bought
several editions of the same book, and in several cases multiple copies of the same edi-
tion; when he had filled one copy with notes, he bought another copy and started
again.
♠ Rarity. The absence of incunables is a striking feature of Casaubon's library: he evi-
dently had no special interest in early editions for their own sakes. H.M. Adam's
catalogue of sixteenth century books in Cambridge37 is a rough guide to the books
available in one centre of learning, and Casaubon's collection has few surprises; com-
parison also with the Lumley Library38 conveys a similar impression. As has been said
above, Casaubon is rich in the books of his friends and colleagues at Geneva, but in
terms of value to future generations of scholars, what deserves attention is the small
collection of orientalia, most of which seems to have been preserved within the Old
Royal Library and is now in the British Library.39 In his introduction to Zedner's
Catalogue of Hebrew Books in the Library of the British Museum40, J. Winter Jones ob-
served that 'in 1759, when the Museum was first opened to the public, the editio
princeps of the Talmud was the only Hebrew work it contained, and this was in-
cluded in the royal library presented to the Museum by King George II.' The twelve
volume folio edition of the Talmud (Venice 1520-2) was Casaubon's copy.41 In fact,
Winter Jones overstates the case. Apart from a number of polyglott Bibles, Casaubon
also had Elijah Ben Asher's Grammatica Hebraica (8° Bas. 1525) and Lexicon Chaldai-
cum (f° Col. Agr. 1560); the Canticum Eruditionis (8° Par. 1561) of Ben Sherira Hai and
the De Metris Hebraeorum (8° Par. 1562) of David Ben Solomon; the Liber Viarum of
Moses Ben Joseph Kimchi (4° Par. 1520); an interesting group of Fagius's tracts
printed at Isny (1541-2)42; a Mishnah (4° Ven. 1579); Sebastian Muenster's Praecepta
Mosaica (8° Bas. 1533) and Dictionarium Chaldaicum (4° Bas. 1527), copiously annotat-
ed; David de' Pomi's Hebrew Lexicon (fº Ven. 1587); three Hebrew textbooks of
Buxtorfius; two Hebrew grammars presented by Petrus Cevallerius, his own Rudi-
menta (4° Gen. 1591), and the Isagoge Rabbinica of Genebrardus (4° Par. 1587); and the
De Judaicis Disciplinis (4° Ven. 1539), of the remarkable hebrew scholar and diplomat,
Gerard Veltuyck of Ravenstein, near Nijmegen.43
♠ Of Arabic books he had Christmannus's Arabic Alphabet (4° Naples 1582), bound
up with two other books of Arabic characters (4° Rome 1592) and (4° Leiden 1595).
From his Leiden friend, Thomas Erpenius44, he had presentation copies of the Gram-
matica Arabica and Proverbia Arabica (4° Leiden 1613 and 1614); he had the Arabic
Gospels (f° Rome 1591), and the Professio Fidei published in Arabic by the Vatican in
1595; the Avicenna of Kirstenius (fº Breslau 1609-10); the Paradigmata (4° Par. 1596)
of Palma Cayet and the Gymnasium Syriacum (4° Witeb. 1611) of Crinesius; his notes
to J. Stoeffler's Declaratio Astrolabi (8° Par. 1585) clearly indicate his interest in Arabic
vocabulary; and a copy of the Maronite Office of the Dead (4° Rom. 1585), indicates
his interest in Eastern Liturgies. Until Panizzi's acquisitions policy began to bear
fruit in the late 19th century, Casaubon's little nucleus of orientalia was virtually all
that was available to scholars working in the British Museum.
♠ Adversaria. Mark Pattison's description of Casaubon's use of printed texts can hard-
ly be improved upon:
The printed books which belong to him were ... scored under and marked anyhow,
to catch the eye in turning over the leaves. The blank pages, the title page, or any-
page, serve to hold a reference. Hence, while the scholar reckons among his choicest
treasures a greek volume with marginal corrections in Scaliger's hand, a volume
which has belonged to Casaubon is merely defaced by the owner's marks and memo-
randa. He valued his books more than anything else that belonged to him. But he
valued them only as the tools he was to work with.45
♠ Casaubon's system is to cover the title-pages with page references and key-words,
with fuller notes on the margins of the pages themselves, so that he later can see at a
glance what he wants to refer to; he sometimes uses the flyleaves, but prefers to use
the title-page as his key to the contents, since it was less likely to be lost. The books
he used for his university lectures, or as bases for his own text editions, were annotat-
ed line by line. In his use of other classical texts it is clear to see that his predomi-
nating interest was in realia; as a classical scholar his forte was in Altertumswissenschaft
rather than in the science of textual editing as an end in itself. The follies of scholars
in the profane sciences rarely aroused Casaubon to vent his anger in the margin; the
only exception is an early attempt at comparative linguistics, E. Guichard's L'harmo-
nie etymologique des langues (8° Par. 1606)46: the margins are peppered with 'O stulti-
tiam', 'Asine', 'O ineptias ineptissimas.' However, when it comes to theology, the
personal comments are more frequent. Some are favorable: Jewell's Apologia Ecclesiae
Anglicanae (12mo Hamburg 1606)47 is 'Liber elegantissimus et lectu dignissimus', and
Desiderius Heraldus's book on the quarrels between the Jesuits and the Sorbonne48 is
'Opus divinum et politicis serio legendum'. To show his impartiality, Casaubon says
of Bellarmine's commentary on the Psalms (4° Lugd. 1611)49, 'Liber est scholasticus
et ad explicationem huius divini operis Davidici ex mente Patrum item ad concilian-
das versiones cum origine maxime utilis'. But when it comes to Bellarmine against
William Barclay on the power of the Pope (8° Col. Ag. 1611)50, there are vehement
marginal comments: 'mentiris', 'O stuporem satanicum'. The book of the English
Benedictine, Thomas Preston alias Roger Widdrington, written against Bellarmine51,
gets Casaubon's full endorsement; Preston's points are emphasized with 'Fraus Bel-
larmini', 'Falsitas Bellarmini' and 'Fraus Papae'. But when he read W. Whitaker's
De Romano Pontifice (8° Hanov. 1608)52, he was pretty tired of the whole controver-
sy: 'plane in tota hac quaestione multa frivola, inepta, ridicula.' At a more factual
level, Casaubon's notes to P. du Moulin's book against Coeffetau (8° Paris 1610)53,
throw an interesting light on his own part in the controversies between Cardinal Per-
ron and King James I.
♠ Provenance. Among Casaubon's surviving books is one given to him by his father,
and no less than nine school textbooks belonging to his son John, whose conversion
to Catholicism and entry into the Capuchins had caused him so much sorrow. John
kept one of his father's books, a Horace (Antwerp 1578), in the Capuchin convent at
Paris; it is now in the John Rylands Library, Manchester.54
♠ Apart from the books acquired from his Genevan friends and colleagues, D. Gode-
froy, Petrus Cevallerius, G. Magnaeus, Caspar Laurentius and Desiderius Heraldus,
Casaubon's largest collection of presentation copies is, predictably, from Joseph Scali-
ger, and he gave copies of his own works to Scaliger in return. Next in quantity
comes, also predictably, Daniel Heinsius. Among his other Dutch correspondents,
Casaubon has books from Dominicus Baudius, Johannes Drusius and Thomas Erpe-
nius. From France he had books from Pierre Pithou and Meric de Vic, both members
of the circle of de Thou, from Charles Labbé the pupil of Scaliger, from Féderic Mo-
rel, Regius Professor of Greek, and from Antoine Loisel. Casaubon was no lover of
Jesuits but he has presentation copies from Andreas Schottus S.J., who lived uncom-
fortably in the Jesuit house at Antwerp under the rule of Casaubon's enemy Carolus
Scribanius S.J.; and Fronto Ducaeus SJ., who had tried vainly in Paris to convert
him to Romanism, presented his edition of Chrysostom, Casaubon's favourite of all
the Greek Fathers.
♠ Apart from the three books that he bought from his professors in his student days,
none of Casaubon's books shows any sign of being bought second-hand. What he
did not acquire as presentation copies through the commonwealth of learning, he
must have acquired principally through the catalogues of the Frankfurt Book Fair;
from the correspondence of both Scaliger and Casaubon it is clear how much the
learned world depended on the Frankfurt catalogues for their bibliography.
♠ Dispersal. Autograph copies of Casaubon's books have always had great prestige
among both scholars and bibliophiles. As has been previously pointed out, when the
combined libraries of Isaac and Meric Casaubon came up for sale in 1671, two of the
chief collectors of the day, Bishops Moore and Stillingfleet, acquired substantial por-
tions. The residue must have been available on the open market at the end of the 17th
and beginning of the 18th century. Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) who started collect-
ing in his early twenties, picked up a volume55 which came into the British Museum
in 1757 with his library, was sold as a B.M. duplicate in 1788, was bought by the
antiquary John Brand, was acquired at the sale of his library in 1806 by Charles Bur-
ney, and came back into the British Museum when the Burney Library was bought in
1818.56 The Rawlinsons, Thomas and Richard, picked up a few of Casaubon's books
which came eventually into Bodley's Library. There are four Casaubon books at
Eton, contributed to their college library by old Etonians; Thomas Evans
(1668-1735)57, Bishop Edward Waddington (1670-1731)58 and R. Topham (d.
1730).59
♠ Richard Porson (1759-1808), the classicist, acquired one of Casaubon's theological
books, presumably as a souvenir, which was bought at Porson's sale in 1809 for five
shillings by Martin Routh (1755-1854) and is now in Durham University Library
with the Routh Collection.60 The French bookseller and bibliophile A.A. Renouard
was an extensive buyer at Porson's sale and paid a guinea for lot 138, Casaubon's copy
of Apollonius Alexandrinus, De syntaxi ... Orationis (Francf. 1590). Renouard also
acquired elsewhere a Strabo, Geographia (fº Geneva 1589), with notes by Cluverius
addressed to Isaac Casaubon. Renouard lent it to the Oxford University Press for
help in preparation of a new edition of Strabo; the O.U.P. promptly lost it, and it
came into the possession of J. W. Moss of Magdalene College, Oxford, who returned
it to Renouard in 1829. It was purchased by Mark Pattison at the Renouard sale in
1854 and acquired by the British Museum at the Pattison sale in 1885. Another in-
stance of the centripetal habits of some of Casaubon's books is a Petronius (8° Paris
1585), in a Charles II binding, which was bought for four shillings at the B.M. Dupli-
cate Sale of 1805 (lot 524) by James Bindley, acquired by Richard Heber at Bindley's
sale in 1818, and bought back by the British Museum at the Heber sale of 1 May 1834
(lot 5116).
♠ Among Casaubon's books that have crossed the Atlantic, two are of special inter-
est. At Harvard there is an edition of Plautus, (f° Lugd. 1578), given by Isaac to his
son Meric, and further inscribed with the autograph of Samuel Johnson; it would be
nice to think that it was from the Casaubon Plautus that Dr. Johnson acquired the
authority for his observation that "he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind
anything else" (Plautus, Trinummus 478). At Yale there is copy of Dionysius Halicar-
nassus (8° Paris 1554), which can be identified as part of Casaubon's original library
that travelled from Geneva to Montpellier. It is a very common little book, and Ca-
saubon's copy was sold off, with two other copies, at the B.M. Duplicate Sale of
1788.61 Casaubon's copy was bought in 1826 by a fourteen year old Eton schoolboy,
who wrote home proudly to his parents:
'I have bought a treasure for half a crown, Dionysius Halicarnassensis with the auto-
graphs of Isaac Casaubon and Isaac Hortusbonus two of the most celebrated com-
mentators of 1600. It was once in the British Museum, as appears from the name
'British Museum' being written in it.'62
♠ Hortusbonus and Casaubonus are, of course, one and the same, but even a young
Etonian cannot know everything. The young man was Alexander William, Lord
Lindsay, later Earl of Crawford and 8th Earl of Balcarres (1812-80). So the Yale Dio-
nysius was not only part of the foundation of Isaac Casaubon's library at Geneva in
the 16th century; it was part of the Old Royal Library at London in the 17th cen-
tury, and hence part of the foundation collections of the British Museum in the 18th
century; and it was also, literally and metaphorically, the very foundation of one of
the greatest private libraries of the 19th century, the Bibliotheca Lindesiana at Haigh
Hall, Wigan. From Geneva to Yale by way of Wigan even in such a tedious busi-
ness as the reconstruction of old libraries, there are moments of romance.
1 M. Pattison, Isaac Casaubon, 2nd edn. (Oxford 1892).
2 It is hoped to include the catalogue of Casaubon's library in a full study of the Old Royal Library
under James I.
3 Bodley MS. Casaubon 22, fo. 60.
4 I. Casaubon, Epistolae (Rotterdam 1709), pp.56, 439, 454; and I. Casaubon, Ephemerides (Oxford
1850), p.894: 'Hodie libros et suppellectilem recepi ... Tibi, Domine Jesu, tibi ago gratias quantas possum
maximas. O serva hanc domum ad nominis tui gloriam. Amen.'
5 British Library, Burney MS. 363, fo.146; and Ephemerides, p.938: 'Hodie partem aliquam librorum,
quos habeo in Gallia, accepi, tuo, Deus eterne, beneficio. Tibi honos et gloria.'
6 Bodley MS. Casaubon 21, fo.19. See illustration p.61.
7 Bodley MS. Casaubon 22, ff.94-103.
8 E. Fraenkel (ed.), Aeschylus's Agamemnon (Oxford 1950), vol.i. pp. 62-78.
9 Leon Dorez, Catalogue de la Collection Dupuy (Paris 1899); and H. Omont, Inventaire Sommaire des
MSS. Grècs de la Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris 1898).
10 Baron de Reiffenberg, 'La bibliothèque de J. Scaliger', Le Bibliophile Belge, 4 (1847) pp.229-33.
The subject divisions may be contrasted with those of Casaubon's library (see illustration p.61): Theolo-
gy 169; Law 40; Medicine and Natural Sciences 133; Mathematics 71; History 252; Philology and Oratory
278; Poetry and Poetics 264; Books in vulgar tongues (French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch and
English) 175. Scaliger's range of interest is much wider than Casaubon's.
11 A. Esdaile, The British Museum Library (London 1946) p.179; J. Kemke, Patricius Junius (Berlin 1898);
G.F. Warner & J.P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the old Royal Library (London 1921),
vol.i. The appellation British Museum (BM) is used when referring to the history of the collection;
British Library' (BL) is used when referring to the situation at the present day.
12 'Casaubon's Greek Manuscripts', Bodleian Library Record, 5 (1926), pp.97-100. Craster's article
should be compared with the list of Greek manuscripts by Andreas Darmarios given in M. Vogel & V.
Gardthausen, Die Griechischen Schreiber des Mittelalters und der Renaissance (Leipzig 1909), pp.16 ff.
13 Letter of Meric Casaubon to Ussher, 21 Oct. 1650 in The Whole Works of the most rev. James Ussher
(Dublin 1846-64), vol.xvi.
14 The Old Royal Library Catalogue is fully described in Sears Jayne, The Lumley Library (London
1956), pp.295-6.
15 See H.M. Nixon, English Restoration Bookbindings: Samuel Mearne and his contemporaries (London
1974) and literature there cited.
16 Bodley MS. Casaubon 22 ff.106-10. It is also endorsed in another hand: 'an qui Billio Bibliopolo
restituti, quod iam in Regia Bibliotheca extarent.'
17 [H.R. Luard), A Catalogue of Adversaria and Books Containing MS Notes preserved in the Library of the
University of Cambridge (Cambridge 1864).
18 Isaac Casaubon's edition of Polybius (Paris 1609), ULC Adv. a.3.5 (formerly Nn. v.12).
19 Homer, Iliad and Odyssey (Basle 1541), ULC Adv. 1.3.1 (formerly Nn. vi.4).
20 Aeschylus ed. H. Stephanus 1557, ULC Adv. b.3.3 (formerly Nn. vi5). This book is supposed to
contain some notes of Henry Jacob (1608-52).
21 N.B. White, An Account of Archbishop Marsh's Library (Dublin 1926).
22 Meric's books can usually be identified by the initials 'M.C.' at the bottom of the title-page, often
coupled with a pressmark on the rear flyleaves or rear pastedown. White, op.cit., notes most of Isaac Ca-
saubon's books, but none of Meric's.
23 Stillingfleet was in contact with Meric Casaubon two years before the latter's death (Dr.
Williams's Library, MS. 201/38, fo.2).
24 The unique copy of this auction sale catalogue is in the Yale Medical library, by the courtesy of
whose librarian I have obtained a photocopy. For John Casaubon, son of Meric, see R. Hunter and I.
Macalpine, 'The Diary of John Casaubon'. Huguenot Society Proceedings, 21 (1966), pp.31-55.
25 In a letter of 1641 (quoted in Pattison, op.cit., p.470) he says that very few of his father's printed
books have survived; this is just a flat lie to get rid of a troublesome enquirer. In 'A treatise on learning'
(1667) he says that in the Civil Wars 'I sold (besides what were lost and plundered before) the greatest
part of my books' (Bodley MS. Rawl. D.361). He told Selden and Wood the same (Bodley MS Selden
Sup.109 fo.274 and Bodley MS. Wood F40 fo.350).
26 None have been noted in J. Sparrow, 'Early owners of books in John Selden's library', in: Bodleian
Quarterly Record, 6 (1929-31).
27 Isaac Casaubon's copy of Baronius's Annales, (fol. Mog.1601), is in Marsh's Library, D.I.1.25-9. In
the Civic Record Office, Southampton, there is a curious catalogue of some 500 books in the hand of
Meric Casaubon. It is inscribed 'Libri emendi' and seems to be a 'wants' list (against some items Meric
notes, inexplicably in Old English script, the names of the booksellers from whom he has eventually ac-
quired them). The list includes no title that is known to have existed in Isaac Casaubon's library. (Mr.
Paul Quarrie, Librarian of Eton College, kindly drew my attention to this catalogue and also afforded me
access to Casaubon's books at Eton).
28 Histoire de l'Université de Genève: I. L'Académie de Calvin 1559-1798 (Genève 1900).
29 (4° Rome 1515) BL C.77.c.13.
30 (8° Paris 1560) BL 1020.f.2.
31 De Tutelis Electoralilus Testamentariis (4° Heidelberg 1611), BL 495.h.19.
32 In the Queen's College Library, Oxford, where it came as part of the library of Sir Joseph William-
son (1633-1701). (I am grateful to Miss Helen Powell, Assistant Librarian, for her answers to my que-
ries.)
33 (Bas. 1552) BL 1068.1.15.
34 (Bas. 1549) Bodley MS. Casaubon 19.
35 (Bas. 1536) ULC Adv.c.3.1., formerly Nn.vi.17.
36 R.B. McKerrow, Dictionary of Printers ... 1557-1640 (London 1910), pp.31-3, 203-5; I.G. Philip,
Dragon's Teeth (Claremont 1970).
37 H.M. Adams, Catalogue of books Printed on the Continent of Europe 1501-1600 in Cambridge University
Libraries (Cambridge 1967).
38 ed. Sears Jayne (London 1956).
39 There is an Abarbanel (Venice 1592) at Eton and a Hebrew version of Calvin's Catechism at Har-
vard.
40 (London 1857).
41 The volumes were rebound in the 19th century as Henry VIII books, but the Old Royal Library
Catalogue assigns them to Casaubon, and there is no Talmud in the separate catalogue of Henry VIII's li-
brary in the Public Record Office (transcribed in BL MS. Add.4729).
42 G.E. Weil, Elie Levita (Leiden 1963) and R. Raubenheimer, Paul Fagis (Grünstadt 1957).
43 M. Rosenberg, Gerhard Veltryck, Orientalist, Theolog und Staatsmann (Wiesbaden 1935).
44 For Casaubon's relations with Leiden in general, and Erpenius in particular, see Th.H. Lunsingh
Scheurleer and G.H.M. Posthumus Meyjes (eds.) Leiden University in the Seventeenth Century (Leiden
1975), and literature there cited.
45 M. Pattison, Isaac Casaubon, op.cit., p.429.
46 Marsh's Library, Dublin, K.I.7.44.
47 BL 698.a.22.
48 BL 860.b.19/1.
49 BL 3089.g.20.
50 BL 1115.a.3.
51 BL 522.c.11.
52 BL 860.f.4.
53 BL 852.h.3.
54 Rylands Library 48.a.10; it was acquired by R.C. Christie in the 19th century.
55 Aelianus, Variae Historiae Graecae (4° Rome 1545), BL 586.h.15.
56 The House of Commons Committee (which included officials from the British Museum, well-
known bookcollectors and members of the book trade) set up to inquire into the possible purchase of the
Burney Library, stressed the importance of Burney's collection of autograph copies of Casaubon's books.
But though Burney possessed many manuscript letters relating to Isaac and Meric Casaubon, so far as can
be established this is the only book of Casaubon that he possessed (House of Commons Sessional Papers 1818,
Reports of Committees, vol.iii, pp.355-8).
57 Evans had acquired the presentation copy of Scaliger's De Emendatione Temporum (Leiden 1590).
with copious manuscript notes by Casaubon.
58 A hebrew book, I. Abarbanel, Sefir Miphaloth Elohim (Venice 1592).
59 Ausonius ed. Scaliger 1588; and Verrius Flaccus & Sextus Pompeius, ed. Scaliger 1575.
60 R. Stephanus, Ad censuras theologorum Parisiensium ... Responsio (8° Paris 1552), now Durham Univ.
Lib. Routh xvi.G.2. (I am grateful to Dr. I.A. Doyle for this reference.)
61 Lots 512, 513 and 514; they went for 6d. each.
62 Nicolas Barker, Bibliotheca Lindesiana (London 1978), p.36.
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