James I., aptly styled by Henry iv. of France “the wisest fool in Christendom,” dabbled in books as in most other things, but does not appear to have succeeded in doing much harm to his library beyond the suicidal carte blanche to Sir Thomas Bodley.  He appointed Patrick Young to be custodian of the different sections of it distributed throughout the various royal palaces, and this really great scholar retained the post till the Revolution.

That part of the collection which was lodged at Richmond went by the name of Henry VIIth’s library, and was shown to Johann Zingerling, a German scholar who came to England while Patrick Young was librarian.  The only Ms. which he singled out for mention was the Genealogia Regum Anglia, ab Adamo, a roll of the fifteenth century (t4 B 8).  The Richmond collection was removed to Whitehall by Charles I., and the Genealogia appears in a catalogue made after the Restoration.

The reign of Charles I. is almost barren of events in the Royal library, save at the very, beginning, for the acquisition of one Ms., which may, however, be regarded as the piece de resistance of the whole collection.  This was the famous Codex Alexandrinus, one of the three oldest MSS. of the whole Bible in Greek.  Before describing this venerable codex, it will be well to relate what little is known of its history.  In 1624, Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, formally presented it to James I., through his ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe.  Writing to Lord Arundel, in December of that year, Roe says:  “One book he (the Patriarch) hath given me to present his Majestie, but not yet delivered, being the Bible intire, written by the hand of Tecla, the protomartyr of the Greeks, that lived with St. Paul, which he doth aver it to be authentical, and the greatest relique of the Greek Church.”  In 1626, he wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury:  “The Patriarch also, this New Year’s tide, sent me the old Bible formerly presented to his late Majesty, which he now dedicates to the king, and will send it with an epistle.  What estimation it may be of is above my skill, but he values it as the greatest antiquity of the Greek Church.  The letter is very fair, a character I have never seen.  It is entire, except the beginning of St. Matthew.  He doth testify under his hand that it was written by the virgin Tecla, daughter of a famous Greek, called Stella Hatutina, who founded the monastery in Egypt, upon Pharaoh’s Tower, a devout and learned maid, who was persecuted in Asia, and to whom Gregory Nazianzen hath written many epistles.  At the end whereof, under the same hand, are the epistles of Clement.  She died not long after the Council of Nice.  The book is very great, and hath antiquity enough at sight; I doubt not his Majesty will esteem it for the hand by whom it is presented."*

* Negotiations of Sir Thomas Roe, London, 1740.

Sir Thomas Roe certainly did not overestimate the value of the manuscript, and it would be extremely interesting could we trace the evidence by which it came to be believed that it was written by the hand of St. Tecla.  A note in Arabic at the foot of the first page of Genesis says that it was “made an inalienable gift to the patriarchal cell of Alexandria.  Whoever shall remove it thence shall be accursed and cut off.  Written by Athanasius the humble.”