Thomas James
Encyclopedia
Thomas James was an English
librarian
, first librarian of the Bodleian Library
, Oxford
.
James became a fellow of New College, Oxford
in 1593. In 1602, his wide knowledge of books, together with his skill in deciphering manuscript
s and detecting literary forgeries
, secured him the post of librarian to the library newly-founded by Sir Thomas Bodley
at Oxford
.
At the same time, he was made rector of St Aldate's Church
, Oxford. In 1605, he compiled a classified catalogue
of the books in the Bodleian Library, but in 1620 substituted for it an alphabetical catalogue. The arrangement in 1610, whereby the Stationers' Company
undertook to supply the Bodleian with every book published, was James's suggestion. Ill health compelled him to resign his post in 1620, and he died at Oxford
in August 1629.
. In 1586 he was admitted a scholar of Winchester College
, matriculated at New College, Oxford on 28 January 1592, and was fellow of his college from 1593 to 1602. He graduated B.A. on 3 May 1595, M.A. on 5 February 1599, B.D. and D.D. on 16 May 1614.
He assisted in framing a complete body of the ancient statutes and customs of the university. He was also skilled in deciphering manuscripts and in detecting forged readings. He obtained leave to examine the manuscripts in the college libraries at Oxford, and was allowed by easy-going heads of houses (particularly those of Balliol and Merton) to take away several, chiefly patristic, which he gave in 1601 to the Bodleian Library, together with sixty printed volumes.
Bodley had fixed upon James as his library keeper, and the appointment was confirmed by the university in 1602. On 14 September of that year he also became rector of St. Aldate, Oxford. His salary as librarian was initially £5 13s. 4d. quarterly, but he threatened forthwith to resign unless it was raised to £30 or £40 a year. At the same time he demanded permission to marry. Bodley, who had made celibacy a condition in his statutes, expostulated with James, but eventually allowed him to take a wife.
In December 1610 the library began to receive copies of all works published by the members of the Stationers' Company, under an agreement made with them by Bodley at the suggestion of James. In 1614 James, through Bodley's interest, was preferred to the sub-deanery of Wells, and in 1617 he became rector of Mongeham, Kent
. At the beginning of May 1620 he was obliged through ill-health to resign the librarianship.
At the convocation held with the parliament at Oxford in 1625 he moved that certain scholars be commissioned to peruse the patristic manuscripts in all public and private English libraries in order to detect forgeries introduced by Roman Catholic editors. His proposal not meeting with much encouragement, he set about the task himself. James died at Oxford in August 1629, and was buried in New College Chapel.
's ‘Commentary upon the Canticle of Canticles,’ which was licensed for the press in November 1597, and from the French of Guillaume du Vair
The Moral Philosophy of the Stoicks, London, 1598. He next edited Richard de Bury's Philobiblon, Oxford, 1599, which he dedicated to Sir Thomas Bodley. As the result of his researches in college libraries he published ‘Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis, tributa in libros duos,’ London, 1600, a work commended by Joseph Scaliger. It gives a list of the manuscripts in the college libraries at Oxford and Cambridge, and in the university library at Cambridge, besides critical notes on the text of Cyprian
's ‘De Unitate Ecclesiæ’ and of Augustine of Hippo
's De fide.
In 1605 appeared the first catalogue of the library compiled by James, and dedicated to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales
, at the suggestion of Bodley (who thought that ‘more reward was to be gained from the prince than from the king’). It includes both printed books and manuscripts, arranged alphabetically under the four classes of theology, medicine, law, and arts. A continuation of this classified index, embracing writers on arts and sciences, geography and history, is to be found in Rawlinson MS. Miscell. 730, drawn up by James after quitting the library. An alphabetical catalogue prepared by him in 1613 was not printed, but remained in the library. A second edition of the catalogue appeared in 1620. It abandoned the classified arrangement of the former catalogue, and adopts only one alphabet of names. There was also issued in 1635 ‘Catalogus Interpretum S. Scripturæ juxta numerorum ordinem qui extant in Bibliotheca Bodleiana olim a D. Jamesio … concinnatus, nunc vero altera fere parte auctior redditus. … Editio correcta,’ Oxford.
James's other works are:
James is said to have been the ‘Catholike Divine’ who edited, with preface and notes in English, the tract entitled ‘Fiscus Papalis; sive, Catalogus Indulgentiarum & Reliquiarum septem principalium Ecclesiarum urbis Romæ ex vetusto Manuscripto Codice descriptus,’ London, 1617; another edition, 1621, was accompanied by the English version of William Crashaw. In 1608 James edited John Wycliffe
's ‘Two short Treatises against the Orders of the Begging Friars.’ Four of his manuscripts are in the Lambeth Library: 1. ‘Brevis Admonitio ad Theologos Protestantes de Libris Pontificorum caute, pie, ac sobrie habendis, legendis, emendis,’ &c. 2. ‘Enchiridion Theologicum, seu Chronologia Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum, ordine alphabetico,’ &c. 3. ‘Suspicionum et Conjecturarum liber primus, in quo ducenta ad minus loca SS. Patrum in dubium vocata, dubitandi Rationes, Rationum Summæ perspicue continentur.’ 4. ‘Breviarium Episcoporum totius Angliæ, seu nomina, successio, et chronologia eorundem ad sua usque tempora.’ In the Bodleian Library (Bodl. MS. 662) is his ‘Tomus primus Animadversionum in Patres, Latinæque Ecclesiæ Doctores primarios.’ Two letters from James to Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, dated 1625 and 1628, are preserved in Cotton. MS. Julius C. iii., ff. 159, 183. Bodley's letters to James are in ‘Reliquiæ Bodleianæ,’ published by Thomas Hearne
, from Bodleian MS. 699, in 1703.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
librarian
Librarian
A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...
, first librarian of the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
.
James became a fellow of New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
in 1593. In 1602, his wide knowledge of books, together with his skill in deciphering manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
s and detecting literary forgeries
Forgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...
, secured him the post of librarian to the library newly-founded by Sir Thomas Bodley
Thomas Bodley
Sir Thomas Bodley was an English diplomat and scholar, founder of the Bodleian Library, Oxford.-Biography:...
at Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
.
At the same time, he was made rector of St Aldate's Church
St Aldate's Church
St Aldate's is a Church of England parish church in the centre of Oxford, in the Deanery and Diocese of Oxford. The church is on the street named St Aldate's, opposite Christ Church and next door to Pembroke College. The church has a large congregation and has a staff team of about 35 which...
, Oxford. In 1605, he compiled a classified catalogue
Library catalog
A library catalog is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations...
of the books in the Bodleian Library, but in 1620 substituted for it an alphabetical catalogue. The arrangement in 1610, whereby the Stationers' Company
Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was founded in 1403; it received a Royal Charter in 1557...
undertook to supply the Bodleian with every book published, was James's suggestion. Ill health compelled him to resign his post in 1620, and he died at Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
in August 1629.
Life
He was born about 1573 at Newport, Isle of WightNewport, Isle of Wight
Newport is a civil parish and a county town of the Isle of Wight, an island off the south coast of England. Newport has a population of 23,957 according to the 2001 census...
. In 1586 he was admitted a scholar of Winchester College
Winchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
, matriculated at New College, Oxford on 28 January 1592, and was fellow of his college from 1593 to 1602. He graduated B.A. on 3 May 1595, M.A. on 5 February 1599, B.D. and D.D. on 16 May 1614.
He assisted in framing a complete body of the ancient statutes and customs of the university. He was also skilled in deciphering manuscripts and in detecting forged readings. He obtained leave to examine the manuscripts in the college libraries at Oxford, and was allowed by easy-going heads of houses (particularly those of Balliol and Merton) to take away several, chiefly patristic, which he gave in 1601 to the Bodleian Library, together with sixty printed volumes.
Bodley had fixed upon James as his library keeper, and the appointment was confirmed by the university in 1602. On 14 September of that year he also became rector of St. Aldate, Oxford. His salary as librarian was initially £5 13s. 4d. quarterly, but he threatened forthwith to resign unless it was raised to £30 or £40 a year. At the same time he demanded permission to marry. Bodley, who had made celibacy a condition in his statutes, expostulated with James, but eventually allowed him to take a wife.
In December 1610 the library began to receive copies of all works published by the members of the Stationers' Company, under an agreement made with them by Bodley at the suggestion of James. In 1614 James, through Bodley's interest, was preferred to the sub-deanery of Wells, and in 1617 he became rector of Mongeham, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. At the beginning of May 1620 he was obliged through ill-health to resign the librarianship.
At the convocation held with the parliament at Oxford in 1625 he moved that certain scholars be commissioned to peruse the patristic manuscripts in all public and private English libraries in order to detect forgeries introduced by Roman Catholic editors. His proposal not meeting with much encouragement, he set about the task himself. James died at Oxford in August 1629, and was buried in New College Chapel.
Works
His first attempts at authorship were translations from the Italian of Antonio BrucioliAntonio Brucioli
Antonio Brucioli was an Italian humanist, religious thinker, publisher, and writer best known for his translation of the bible into Italian.-Life:...
's ‘Commentary upon the Canticle of Canticles,’ which was licensed for the press in November 1597, and from the French of Guillaume du Vair
Guillaume du Vair
Guillaume du Vair was a French author and lawyer.He was born in Paris. After taking holy orders, he exercised only legal functions for most of his career. However, from 1617 till his death he was Bishop of Lisieux. His reputation is that of a lawyer, a statesman and a man of letters...
The Moral Philosophy of the Stoicks, London, 1598. He next edited Richard de Bury's Philobiblon, Oxford, 1599, which he dedicated to Sir Thomas Bodley. As the result of his researches in college libraries he published ‘Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis, tributa in libros duos,’ London, 1600, a work commended by Joseph Scaliger. It gives a list of the manuscripts in the college libraries at Oxford and Cambridge, and in the university library at Cambridge, besides critical notes on the text of Cyprian
Cyprian
Cyprian was bishop of Carthage and an important Early Christian writer, many of whose Latin works are extant. He was born around the beginning of the 3rd century in North Africa, perhaps at Carthage, where he received a classical education...
's ‘De Unitate Ecclesiæ’ and of Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
's De fide.
In 1605 appeared the first catalogue of the library compiled by James, and dedicated to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales
Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales
Henry Frederick Stuart, Prince of Wales was the elder son of King James I & VI and Anne of Denmark. His name derives from his grandfathers: Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and Frederick II of Denmark. Prince Henry was widely seen as a bright and promising heir to his father's throne...
, at the suggestion of Bodley (who thought that ‘more reward was to be gained from the prince than from the king’). It includes both printed books and manuscripts, arranged alphabetically under the four classes of theology, medicine, law, and arts. A continuation of this classified index, embracing writers on arts and sciences, geography and history, is to be found in Rawlinson MS. Miscell. 730, drawn up by James after quitting the library. An alphabetical catalogue prepared by him in 1613 was not printed, but remained in the library. A second edition of the catalogue appeared in 1620. It abandoned the classified arrangement of the former catalogue, and adopts only one alphabet of names. There was also issued in 1635 ‘Catalogus Interpretum S. Scripturæ juxta numerorum ordinem qui extant in Bibliotheca Bodleiana olim a D. Jamesio … concinnatus, nunc vero altera fere parte auctior redditus. … Editio correcta,’ Oxford.
James's other works are:
- ‘Bellum Papale, sive Concordia discors Sixti Quinti & Clementis Octavi circa Hieronymianam Editionem,’ London, 1600; 1678.
- ‘Concordantiæ sanctorum Patrum, i.e. vera & pia Libri Canticorum per Patres universos, tam Græcos quam Latinos, Expositio,’ Oxford, 1607.
- ‘An Apologie for John Wickliffe, shewing his Conformitie with the now Church of England,’ Oxford, 1608; in answer to Robert Parsons and others.
- ‘Bellum Gregorianum, sive Corruptionis Romanæ in Operibus D. Gregorii M. jussu Pontificum Rom. recognitis atque editis ex Typographica Vaticana loca insigniora, observata, Theologis ad hoc officium deputatis,’ Oxford, 1610.
- ‘A Treatise of the Corruption of Scripture, Counsels, and Fathers, by … the Church of Rome. … Together with a sufficient Answere unto J. Gretser and A. Possevine, Jesuites, and the unknowne Author of the Grounds of the Old Religion and the New,’ 5 pts. London, 1611; other editions in 1612, 1688, and 1843. Against Jakob Gretser and Antonio PossevinoAntonio PossevinoAntonio Possevino was a Jesuit protagonist of Counter Reformation as a papal diplomat and a Jesuit controversialist, encyclopedist and bibliographer...
. - ‘The Jesuits Downefall threatened against them by the Secular Priests for their wicked lives, accursed manners, heretical doctrine, etc. Together with the Life of Father Parsons,’ Oxford, 1612.
- ‘Index generalis sanctorum Patrum, ad singulos versus cap. 5. secundum Matthæum,’ London, 1624.
- ‘G. Wicelii Methodus Concordiæ Ecclesiasticæ … Adjectæ sunt notæ … et vita ipsius … una cum enumeratione auctorum qui scripserunt contra squalores … Curiæ Romanæ,’ London, 1625. On Georg WitzelGeorg WitzelGeorg Witzel was a German theologian.-Life:He received his primary and academic education in the schools of Schmalkalden, Eisenach, and Halle; spent two years in the University of Erfurt, and seven months in the University of Wittenberg...
. - ‘Vindiciæ Gregorianæ, seu restitutus innumeris pæne locis Gregorius M., ex variis manuscriptis … collatis,’ Geneva, 1625, with a preface by B. Turrettinus.
- ‘A Manuduction or Introduction unto Divinitie: containing a confutation of Papists by Papists throughout the important Articles of our Religion,’ Oxford, 1625.
- ‘The humble … Request of T. James to the Church of England, for, and in the behalfe of, Bookes touching Religion,’ Oxford? 1625?
- ‘An Explanation or Enlarging of the Ten Articles in the Supplication of Doctor James, lately exhibited to the Clergy of England’ [in reference to a projected new edition of the ‘Fathers’], Oxford, 1625.
- ‘Specimen Corruptelarum Pontificiorum in Cypriano, Ambrosio, Gregorio M. & Authore operis imperfecti, & in jure canonico,’ London, 1626.
- ‘Index generalis librorum prohibitorum a Pontificiis,’ Oxford, 1627.
James is said to have been the ‘Catholike Divine’ who edited, with preface and notes in English, the tract entitled ‘Fiscus Papalis; sive, Catalogus Indulgentiarum & Reliquiarum septem principalium Ecclesiarum urbis Romæ ex vetusto Manuscripto Codice descriptus,’ London, 1617; another edition, 1621, was accompanied by the English version of William Crashaw. In 1608 James edited John Wycliffe
John Wycliffe
John Wycliffe was an English Scholastic philosopher, theologian, lay preacher, translator, reformer and university teacher who was known as an early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century. His followers were known as Lollards, a somewhat rebellious movement, which preached...
's ‘Two short Treatises against the Orders of the Begging Friars.’ Four of his manuscripts are in the Lambeth Library: 1. ‘Brevis Admonitio ad Theologos Protestantes de Libris Pontificorum caute, pie, ac sobrie habendis, legendis, emendis,’ &c. 2. ‘Enchiridion Theologicum, seu Chronologia Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum, ordine alphabetico,’ &c. 3. ‘Suspicionum et Conjecturarum liber primus, in quo ducenta ad minus loca SS. Patrum in dubium vocata, dubitandi Rationes, Rationum Summæ perspicue continentur.’ 4. ‘Breviarium Episcoporum totius Angliæ, seu nomina, successio, et chronologia eorundem ad sua usque tempora.’ In the Bodleian Library (Bodl. MS. 662) is his ‘Tomus primus Animadversionum in Patres, Latinæque Ecclesiæ Doctores primarios.’ Two letters from James to Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, dated 1625 and 1628, are preserved in Cotton. MS. Julius C. iii., ff. 159, 183. Bodley's letters to James are in ‘Reliquiæ Bodleianæ,’ published by Thomas Hearne
Thomas Hearne
Thomas Hearne or Hearn , English antiquary, was born at Littlefield Green in the parish of White Waltham, Berkshire.-Life:...
, from Bodleian MS. 699, in 1703.