foundation of the scholarly study of pre-Norman-English history, and his Hebrew and Greek manuscripts greatly advanced biblical criticism. Original authorities for every period of English history were in his possession. His reputation was European. De Thou was one of his warmest admirers, and Gruterus, in his edition of Cicero, describes him as one of the most learned men of the age. Duchesne, Bourdelet, Puteanus all acknowledged obligations to him. Bishop Montague calls him ‘the magazine of history,’ and among his own countrymen, besides Camden, Speed, Selden, and Raleigh, whom we have already mentioned, Spelman, Dugdale, Sir Henry Savile, Knolles, Gale, Burnet, Strype, and Rymer, the compiler of the ‘Fœdera,’ all drew largely on his collections.
Cotton wrote nothing that adequately represented his learning, and it is to be regretted that he did not concentrate his attention on some great historical work. His English style is readable, although not distinctive, and his power of research was inexhaustible. Only two works, both very short, were printed in his lifetime, ‘The Raigne of Henry III,’ 1627, and ‘The Dangers wherein the Kingdom now standeth,’ 1628. But numerous other pamphlets were widely circulated in manuscript.
Many of his tracts were issued as parliamentary pamphlets at the beginning of the civil wars, among them the following: 1. ‘Serious Considerations for repressing the Increase of Jesuits,’ 1641; ‘An Abstract out of the Records of the Tower touching the King's Revenue,’ 1642; ‘The Troublesome Life … of Henry III,’ 1641, and twice in 1642, once separately and once with Hayward's ‘Henry IV;’ ‘The Form of the Government of the Kingdom of England,’ 1642; and ‘The Dangers wherein the Kingdom now standeth,’ 1643. In 1657 James Howell collected fourteen of Cotton's tracts, under the title of ‘Cottoni Posthuma,’ dedicated to Sir Robert Pye. This included the ‘History of Henry III,’ the arguments on the revenue and diplomatic precedents, and the notes for Eliot's speech of 1625. In editions of 1672 and 1679 the ‘History of Henry III’ was omitted. The tract on peace written for Prince Henry was reissued separately in 1655, and together with the reign of Henry III, by Sir John Cotton, third baronet, in 1675. The tract on the king's duty to consult parliament, written in 1621, was reissued (from the ‘Cottoni Posthuma’) separately in 1680, under the title of ‘The Antiquity and Dignity of Parliaments,’ and appeared in the Harleian Miscellany (1744 and 1808). ‘A Discourse of Foreign War’ was twice printed alone, in 1657 and 1690. Eight papers read by Cotton before the Antiquarian Society are printed in Hearne's ‘Curious Discourses’ (1771). Manuscripts of all these works abound in public and private libraries—in the Cottonian, Lansdowne, and Harleian collections, at the British Museum, and in very many of the libraries whose manuscript contents are calendared in the reports of the Historical MSS. Commission. In 1657 William Prynne printed a catalogue of the records in the Tower from 12 Edward II to 1 Richard III, ‘collected (as is generally voiced and believed) by that most industrious collector … Sir Robert Cotton’ (pref.) A better claimant to the authorship of the volume is, however, William Bowyer, and Robert Bowyer also helped in its compilation.
A new edition of Scott's ‘Vox Populi,’ issued in 1659 under the title of ‘A choice Narrative of Count Gondomar's Transactions … in England, by that renowned antiquary, Sir Robert Cotton,’ is not to be reckoned among Cotton's authentic works. It is reprinted in Smeeton's ‘Tracts’ (1820), vol. i.
It is impossible to describe very definitely Cotton's personal character. While numerous letters addressed to him by his friends are extant in his library, few of his own letters are known to be in existence. Two, dated 1624, in the Public Record Office, addressed to his brother Thomas, in which he calls himself David and his correspondent Jonathan, give an attractive picture of his domestic virtues. A little of his correspondence with Sir John Eliot is still at St. Germans, and proves him to have been an admirable friend. A few other of his letters are in the British Museum.
Engraved portraits of Cotton are prefixed to Smith's Catalogue (from a painting by C. Johnson, dated 1629) and to the 1655 edition of his treatise on peace (by T. Cross). The best portrait is that engraved by George Vertue from a picture by Paul Van Somer, in the Society of Antiquaries' ‘Vetusta Monumenta,’ i. plate lxvi. A painting by an unknown artist, presented to the British Museum in 1792, is now in the National Portrait Gallery. A bust by Roubiliac was placed in Trinity College Library, Cambridge, in 1750.
Sir Thomas Cotton, the second baronet (1594–1662), Sir Robert's only surviving child, made great efforts for the restitution of his father's library. D'Ewes states that he showed no sorrow for his father's death. On 23 July 1631 the council ordered the catalogue to be continued; but in September Sir Thomas announced that it had been again interrupted, and begged to be allowed to retain possession of the books. This request was ultimately granted, although the date
