Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/461

1922 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 453 Bloomsbury, where in more modern buildings they form the nucleus of the manuscript collections of the British Museum. It was fortunate that so early as 1734 Daniel Casley, the deputy- librarian, published a catalogue of the royal manuscripts. ' Whether he began it ', we are told, ' before the fire is uncertain.' l He undoubtedly describes manuscripts which were badly injured in it, but he may have taken his notices from an earlier list. It is more important to observe that he occasionally recorded the existence of ancient fragments used as fly-leaves which have disappeared in the course of re-binding. Thus in Casley's time 2 E. xiii, xiv, now a single volume, were bound in two, and the first part contained as fly-leaves at the beginning two leaves of Sedulius' poem on Luke i, of the eighth century, and at the end two leaves of a commentary on Judges vii, of the sixth century. These have now disappeared, having no doubt been removed when the two parts were bound together. 2 In like manner, according to Casley, ' two leaves from a 9th cent. Bible, containing parts of Numbers xi, were formerly attached to the cover of 3 A. viii ' ; but these have disappeared in re-binding. 3 As this manuscript is traced to Worcester Cathedral, the inserted leaves may have formed part of ' Offa's Bible ', for Casley did not always accurately distinguish the dates of early writing. Other leaves which seem to belong to this book have been described by Mr. W. H. Stevenson and Mr. C. H. Turner. 4 Moreover, in the discursive manner of his time, Casley often printed long extracts from his manuscripts after a fashion not permitted by the rigorous rules of modern librarians. But the great merit of Casley's work is that for nearly two centuries it has served as a guide to the collection sufficiently correct to enable the most valuable of its contents to be brought to light and a large proportion of them published. But it was high time that a more adequate guide should be produced, and this has been accomplished in the four stately volumes in large quarto now before us. No catalogue of any great library has ever been attempted on such a scale, and certainly none can rival it in the completeness of its scholarship or the perfection of its work in detail. It is the result of the combined labour of many members of the staff of the department of manuscripts in the British Museum, and unity of treatment has been secured by the revision of Sir George Warner and of his successor as keeper of the manuscripts, Mr. J. P. Gilson, to the latter of whom about half the entire work of description is attributed. The technical finish of the book is incomparable, and the printers have co-operated in making it a splendid production. It is printed with wonderful accuracy in a noble type ; the paper is excellent and the volumes are uncommonly easy to use. The catalogue of the Koyal manuscripts occupies the first two volumes. The third contains a description of the King's manuscripts ; this collection, inconveniently named, forms part of the fine library of George III, which was presented to the nation by George IV. That library is famous for its printed books, but the 446 manuscripts in it comprise few of remark- able interest. Most of the volume is taken up by two indexes which call for special admiration. The general index is drawn up with extraordinary 1 Catalogue, i, p. xxxi. 2 Ibid. p. 65. 3 Ibid. p. 69. 4 See the latter's Early Worcester Manuscripts, pp. xli, xlii (1916).