The Cotton or Cottonian library was collected privately by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton M.P. (1571–1631), an antiquarian and bibliophile, and is now the basis of the British Library. The leading scholars of the era, including Francis Bacon, Walter Raleigh, and James Ussher, came to use Sir Robert's library. Richard James acted as his librarian.[1]
At the time, official state records and important papers were poorly kept, and often retained privately, neglected or destroyed by public officers. Sir Robert collected and bound over a hundred volumes of official papers, which practically established the role of precedent in English law. By 1622 Sir Robert's house and library stood immediately north of the Houses of Parliament, [2] and was a valuable resource and meeting-place not only for antiquarians and scholars but also politicians, including leading members of the puritan Opposition such as Pym, Selden, Eliot, Wentworth and Sir Edward Coke.
Such important evidence was dangerously valuable at a time when the politics of the Realm were historically disputed between the King and Parliament. Sir Robert knew his library was of vital public interest and although he made it freely available to consult, it directly exposed him to personal danger: he was framed on charges of high treason, and at the Duke of Buckingham's instigation the library was seized by King Charles I for an examination in committee, which was never completed before Sir Robert's death. Everyone understood that the library had been seized for political reasons and it was returned to his heirs after the Restoration.
Sir Robert's library included his collection of books, manuscripts, coins and medallions. To this collection were later added many books and artefacts obtained on the dissolution of the monasteries, and known as the King's (or Regius) Library. Consequently, this collection is the single greatest known resource of literature in Old English and Middle English. Several well known works such as Beowulf, the poem Pearl, and the Lindisfarne Gospels survive today only because of Sir Robert's library.
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Sir Robert's grandson, Sir John Cotton, gave the library to the nation of Great Britain, and its early history is conveniently set out in the introductory recitals to the Act of Parliament 12 & 13 Gul. III c.7 of 1700/1, to establish statutory trusts of the Cottonian Library:[3]
"Sir Robert Cotton late of Connington in the County of Huntingdon Baronett did at his own great Charge and Expence and by the Assistance of the most learned Antiquaries of his Time collect and purchase the most usefull Manuscripts Written Books Papers Parchments [Records] and other Memorialls in most Languages of great Use and Service for the Knowledge and Preservation of our Constitution both in Church and State
which Manuscripts and other Writings were procured as well from Parts beyond the Seas as from severall Private Collectors of such Antiquities within this Realm [and] are generally esteemed the best Collection of its Kind now any where extant
And whereas the said Library has been preserved with the utmost Care and Diligence by the late Sir Thomas Cotton Son of the said Sir Robert and by Sir John Cotton of Westminster now living Grandson of the said Sir Robert and has been very much augmented and enlarged by them and lodged in a very proper Place in the said Sir Johns ancient Mansion House at Westminster which is very convenient for that Purpose
And whereas the said Sir John Cotton in pursuance of the Desire and Intentions of his said Father and Grandfather is content and willing that the said Mansion House and Library should continue in his Family and Name and not be sold or otherwise disposed or imbezled and that the said Library should be kept and preserved by the Name of the Cottonian Library for Publick Use & Advantage...."
Statutory trustees were appointed for the library, who removed it from the ruinous Cotton House. It went first to Essex House, The Strand which was regarded as a fire risk, and so was removed to Ashburnham House, a little West of the Palace of Westminster.
On 23 October 1731, there was a fire in Ashburnam House, and many manuscripts were lost, while others were badly singed or water-damaged - up to a quarter of the collection was either destroyed or damaged. The librarian, Dr. Bentley, escaped the inferno clutching the priceless Codex Alexandrinus under one arm, a scene witnessed and later described in a letter to Charlotte, Lady Sundon, by Robert Friend, headmaster of Westminster School. Mr Speaker Onslow, as one of the statutory trustees of the library, directed and personally supervised a remarkable programme of restoration within the resouces of his time, the published report of which is of major importance in bibliography.[4] Fortunately, copies had been made of some, but by no means all, of those works that were lost, and many of those damaged could be restored in the nineteenth century.
Sir Robert Cotton had organised his library according to the case, shelf and position of a book. Each bookcase in his library was surmounted by a bust of various Caesars, and his scheme worked by Caesar-Shelf letter-Volume number from end. Thus, the two most famous of the manuscripts from the Cotton library are "Cotton Vitellius A.xv" and "Cotton Nero A.x." In Cotton's own day, that meant "Under the bust of Vitellius, top shelf (A), and count fifteen over," for the Liber Monstrorum of the Beowulf manuscript, or "Go to the bust of Nero, top shelf, tenth book" for the manuscript containing all the works of the Pearl Poet. In the British Library, these priceless books are still catalogued by these call numbers.
For a full list of manuscripts see List of manuscripts in the Cotton library.
Notable manuscripts:
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