ar, have been an unamiable man--certainly a very queer
Christian. But his controversial works, on which he doubtless prided
himself most, are dead and very rotten, while those devoted to the more
peaceful science of bibliography are of abiding value. In his larger
one, _Scriptorum Britannicorum Centuriae_, he inserts a list of the MSS.
he had once owned; they were no longer in his hands, but, it is to be
supposed, in Ireland, left there when he fled from his bishopric of
Ossory on Mary's accession. It is not a very scientific list, not one
that gives the contents of each volume, but merely names of treatises,
groups of which no doubt went to make up volumes, and this makes it
difficult to determine how much of his library is in existence now.
After his death it was in England, and a syndicate of Germans,
including, as was said above, Flacius Illyricus, were negotiating for
the purchase of it. Archbishop Parker also had an eye upon it; he had
received books as gifts or loans from Bale in former years. I have not
been able to make sure whether any of the books did actually go to the
Continent; I doubt it, in fact. Many distinguished by Bale's curious
small, "flat" handwriting are traceable among Cotton's and Parker's
books, at Lambeth, at Cambridge, and doubtless also at Oxford (where
there is at least the MS. of his _Index Scriptorum_, admirably edited by
Mr. R. L. Poole and Miss Bateson). Bale was a Carmelite in his youth and
interested in the history of his Order, and there is an _a priori_
probability that any book dealing with Carmelite affairs will contain
marks of his ownership.

Dr. John Dee's history has often been written, and the catalogue of the
MSS. he owned has long been in print in a Camden society volume (_Diary
of Dr. John Dee_) edited by Halliwell. The main facts of his life that
concern us are that he lived at Mortlake, and in 1584 went on a wild
journey to Poland. In his absence his house and collections were
plundered by a mob, who, not without excuse, thought him a warlock. When
he returned in 1589 he set himself to recover his scattered property,
and to a great extent succeeded. He moved from Mortlake to Manchester,
being made Warden of the college there in 1595; later on he returned,
and died at Mortlake, much in debt, I think, in 1608. I find from
Archbishop Ussher's printed correspondence that his books were still
unsold in 1624; litigation may have prevented their being dealt with
earlier. The l