Jump to content

Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/27

From Wikisource
This page has been validated.
INTRODUCTION
xix

one would dare to answer him, still less that any one would refute him, and Wotton's book made him exceedingly angry. He was sufficiently mortified. Swift said later, at being called the adversary of Wotton.[1] But worse things were to come.

Boyle's 'Phalaris' (1695)

In the course of his work upon Phalaris (which does not appear to have been very arduous) Boyle (or his tutors) wished to obtain the readings of a manuscript copy of the Epistles of Phalaris which was in the Royal Library at St. James's Palace. Accordingly in July or August 1693 he instructed his book-seller Thomas Bennet, who lived at the sign of the Half-Moon, in St. Paul's Churchyard, to obtain the manuscript for him. The Librarian (or Library-keeper as he was called) at St. James's was at this moment Henri Justel,[2] but Bennet does not seem to have made any application to him.[3]

  1. See p. lii.
  2. The date of Justel's death is uncertain; it is usually given as Sept. 1693
  3. See the letter printed at p. 294 of this vol.