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Show HISTORY OF THE CODEX Codex Laud is preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It is named from its last private owner William Laud, (b. 1573 d. 1645) Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of the University of Oxford. The original outer cover of the Codex is dated 1636, but the ink of the final 6 is a paler shade than a number which appears to have been 4. One is left in some doubt, whether 1634 was first written, and then the 4 changed to 6, or whether it was merely a minor error correct when the inscription was first made. It is just possible that it was part of an earlier date, and that is was corrected to 1636 when Laud presented the major part of his collection of Manuscripts to the University of Oxford of which he had been Chancellor since 1630. Before Archbishop Laud we have no history of the Codex. Its binding case is inscribed Liber Hieroglyphicorum Aegyptorum MS. The hand is different from that on the skin cover of the manuscript itself, but it may well be that it came to Laud with the description of "Egyptian" and that he was particularly interested in it because of his involvement in Arabic studies. This is shown well by his magnificent gift of Arabic manuscripts to Bodley's Library. There is more than one probability that the codex came to England from Europe. The most likely is that the manuscript was given to either Charles Prince of Wales, or to George Villiers Duke of Buckingham when a mission was sent to Spain in 1623 in an unsuccessful negotiation for the hand of a Spanish Princess in marriage to the heir to the English throne. But one also notes that Laud had another interesting collection of works by the famous occultist Dr. John Dee (1527 to 1608) who was very much interested in ancient manuscripts. One is not certain how Dee's collection came to Laud, whether through some contact with Manchester college, or through his |
