A Finding List: Part 3.

Elizabethan Facts and Historical References

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W-X-Y-Z

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De Mirabil. Potest. Artis et Naturæ Author Roger Bacon; the published translation into English was arranged in 1618 and became a possession of the occult philosopher, Dr. John Dee. [Also see Dee’s library; Part II: Dee John. Dr.]

Dead faith in Aristotle Among Bacon’s belief on the dead faith of Aristotle, can be named Pierre De La Ramée (1515–1572). [Also see Part II: Ramus Petrus; Campanella Thomas.]

Dee’s library Dr. John Dee’s own account of the pillage of his library, and of its value, is to be found in the Brief Note and Abstract of his career (drawn up in 1592) which is printed by Hearne in Joh. Glastoniensis (II. 500). On page 529, we read: “The divers books of my late library, printed & anciently written, bound & unbound, were in all near 4.000: the fourth part of which were the written books.” He values them at £2.000. “And, to make this valuation probable unto your Honour, behold yet here these four written books, one in Greek, this great volume; two in French; and this in High Dutch. They cost me and my friends for me 533lib. What is then to be thought of the value of some one hundred of the best of all the other written books, of which some were the autographa of excellent & seldom heard-of Authors? The furniture of the said library was of my getting together in above fourty years time from divers places beyond the seas, & some by my great search and labour gotten here in England.” Dee then gives some account of his mathematical instruments, and of two collections of Irish and Welsh deeds (the latter, apparently rescued from a half-ruined church). On page 534 he values his lost books (above 500) “I mean such as may be gotten for money” at above 150. 1 [See Appendices Dee’s library.]

Disappearing manuscripts Historical documents of all sorts, of the very highest curiosity and interest, are inaccessible and practically useless for want of the means and the staff necessary to arrange, catalogue and calendar them properly. The archives of the Lord Chamberlain’s Office, of no inconsiderable value as material for the history of the Court, the drama and social life, though transferred to the Record Office in 1866 and 1874, were still in the early 1900’s uncatalogued. Many historical records themselves altogether, are being sold for some temptingly large price, say, to the Public Library of Berlin; or to some Museum or University in the United States, which would cherish such a possession, and speedily open the treasures they enshrine to the world at large. We have so often to seek in the books of Germans and Frenchmen, of Dutchmen and Danes not to mention those, of course, of our kinsmen beyond the seas for some of the most illuminating studies on the various branches of these subjects. Feuillerat’s book can be found in the great public libraries in Germany, France, Belgium, and Holland. Ask for it in the Library of the University of London, in the Library of the Guildhall, in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries it is not there, nobody knows it, nobody wants it, but you can have the latest tract by a Baconian. Nearly ninety per cent, of those who hold permits for historical research are foreigners or colonials from beyond the sea. It may confidently be asserted that had the Record Office Department in 1859, when it took over the custody of the Audit Office archives, or even at any reasonable time after, been provided by the Treasury with the necessary resources for arranging and calendaring them, and rendering them easily and quickly accessible to all students, it would never have been possible for the preposterous fiction about the Books of Revels, to have deluded for forty-two years all the scholars and readers of Shakespeare in four continents. We have to deplore the disappearance of large numbers of priceless manuscripts, the value of which was not recognized by their custodians. Owing to the ignorance and carelessness of these keepers of historic documents vast stores have been hopelessly lost or destroyed, and have vanished with much else of the England that vanished:

• We know of a Corporation that of Abingdon, in Berkshire, the oldest town in the royal county and anciently its most important which possessed an immense store of municipal archives. These manuscript books would throw light upon the history of the borough; but in their wisdom the members of the Corporation decided that they should be sold for waste paper! A few gentlemen were deputed to examine the papers in order to see if anything was worth preserving. They spent a few hours on the task, which would have required months for even a cursory inspection, and much expert knowledge, which these gentlemen did not possess, and reported that there was nothing in the documents of interest or importance, and the books and papers were sold to a dealer. Happily a private gentleman purchased the “waste paper,” which remains in his hands, and was not destroyed: but this example only shows the insecurity of much of the material upon which local and municipal history depends.
• In the late 1800’s, a leading family solicitor became bankrupt. His office was full of old family deeds and municipal archives. A fire was kindled in the garden, and for a whole fortnight it was fed with parchment deeds and rolls, many of them of immense value to the genealogist and the antiquary. It was all done very speedily, and no one had a chance to interfere. This is only one instance of what has taken place in many offices, the speedy disappearance of documents which can never be replaced.
• The Parliamentary soldiers amused themselves by tearing out the leaves in the registers for the years 1604 to the end of 1616 in the parish of Wimpole, Cambridgeshire.
• Wanton destruction has caused the disappearance of many parish books. There was a parish clerk at Plungar in Leicestershire who combined his ecclesiastical duties with those of a grocer. He found the pages of the parish register very useful for wrapping up his groceries.
• The early registers at Christ Church, Hampshire, were destroyed by a curate’s wife who had made kettle-holders of them, and would perhaps have consumed the whole parish archives in this homely fashion, had not the parish clerk, by a timely interference, rescued the remainder.
• One clergyman, being unable to transcribe certain entries which were required from his registers, cut them out and sent them by post; and an Essex clerk, not having ink and paper at hand for copying out an extract, calmly took out his pocket-knife and cut out two leaves, handing them to the applicant. Sixteen leaves of another old register were cut out by the clerk, who happened to be a tailor, in order to supply himself with measures. Tradesmen seem to have found these books very useful.
• The marriage register of Hanney, Berkshire, from 1754 to 1760 was lost, but later on discovered in a grocer’s shop. (Ditchfield). 2

Disappointment I do confess, since I was of any understanding, my mind hath in effect been absent from that I have done; knowing myself by inward calling to be fitter to hold a book than to play a part. I have led my life in civil causes for which I was not very fit by nature, and more unfit by the preoccupation of my mind. (Bacon, Prayer).

Discoveries An action not likely to have been thought of beforehand pre Bacon’s times: gunpowder, silk, and the mariner’s compass are notably remarked by him. “That the discovery of new works or active directions not known before is the only trial to be accepted of; and yet not that neither in case where one particular giveth light to another, but where particulars induce an axiom or observation, which axiom found out discovereth and designeth new particulars. That the nature of this trial is not only on the point whether the knowledge be profitable or no, but even upon the point whether the knowledge be true or no. Not because you may always conclude that the axiom, which discovereth new instances is true; but contrariwise you may safely conclude that, if you discover not any new instance, it is vain and untrue. That by new instances are not always to be understood new recipes, but new assignations; and of the diversity between these two.” (Bacon, Val. Term).

Disputed Shakespearean plays Sir John Oldcastle, bearing the full name, William Shakespeare, on the title page, was never disowned by the actor, nor disputed by critics until in 1790, Malone, who then almost monopolized the field of speculative criticism, passed upon it an unfavourable opinion; he goes so far as to say that he cannot “perceive the least trace of our great poet in any part of the play.” No less a critic, however, than Schlegel declares that this play, Thomas Lord Cromwell and Locrine are “not only unquestionably Shakespeare’s, but, in my opinion, they deserve to be classed among his best and maturest works.” [For a full analysis on this topic see Appendices Disputed Shakespearean plays.]

Doubtful recommendation Whoever buys this Book will say, there’s so much money thrown away: The Author thinks you are to blame to buy a Book without a Name; and to say truth, it is so bad, a worse is no where to be had. (From the title-page of an anonymous book, 1667).