A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667/Bee (Cornelius)

by Henry Robert Plomer

BEE (CORNELIUS), bookseller in London; Little Britain, 1636-71/2. Was the son of Thomas Bee, citizen and haberdasher, of London, whose will was proved May 28th, 1621. [P.C.C. 33 Dale.] He appears to have been a man of some capital, and joined Laurence Sadler, q.v., in 1637 in the publication of the Atlas Major. [Domestic State Papers, Charles I, vol. 371, 95.] He is frequently mentioned in the domestic correspondence of the Commonwealth period, and Doctor Worthington in his diary notes [vol. i., p. 185] that the library of John Hales was purchased by Cornelius Bee for £700. His great publication was the Critici Sacri in 9 vols, folio, 1660. He had thought of issuing a tenth volume, and he greatly resented the publication of Matthew Poole's Synopsis of the critical labours of biblical commentators. Lawsuits resulted, the result being given in favour of Poole. Bee thereupon abandoned his projected tenth volume. [Domestic State Papers, Charles II, vol. 244, 27; Case betwixt Mr. Poole and Mr, C. Bee (1677?). Vindication of Mr. Poole's design (1677?)]. Cornelius Bee lost between £6,000 and £10,000 by the great fire. He married a sister of Lancelot Toppyn, bookseller, q.v., and his wife died in 1654. One of his daughters married James Fletcher or Flesher, son of Miles Fletcher or Flesher, and another married Nathaniel Hooke, bookseller, q.v. Cornelius Bee died on January 2nd, 1671/2, and was buried at Great St. Bartholomew. [Smyth, Obituary, p. 93.]