Bibliotheca Higgsiana : A Catalogue of the Books of Dr. Griffin Higgs (1589-1659)

Oxford Bibliographical Society, Oxford, first edition, 1990. Printed wrappers, 8vo,. viii, 69 pp. 678 entries. From the introduction: "This Catalogue principally lists those printed books now in Merton Oxford, which are the bequest of Dr. Griffin Higgs (1589-1659), founder of the College librarianship. 1988...Higgs was born in the riverside parish of South Stoke in Oxfordshire where his parents were farmers. He was educated at Reading and St. John's College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1610. Subsequently he translated to Merton College where under the watchful eye of Sir Henry Savile he proceeded to a master's degree and took his turn in various College offices besides being a university proctor in 1622. Between 1626 and 1630 he was incumbent of the College living at Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire which he vacated for Cliffe-at-Hoo in Kent. By this time he was already non-resident because in 1627 he had been appointed chaplain to Elizabeth, 'Winter' Queen of Bohemia, daughter of James I, then a refugee with her family in the Netherlands. Whilst there Higgs graduated as a doctor of divinity at Leiden and made the acquaintance of such Dutch scholars as Daniel Heinsius, Andreas Rivetus and G. J. Vossius and his family. Higgs remained chaplain to the Queen until 1638 when he was appointed dean of Lichfield. His movements during the two sieges of Lichfield in the Civil War and immediately afterwards are obscure but apparently he was in Oxford when it surrendered to Fairfax in June 1646. Having been fined by the Parliamentary authorities he settled at South Stoke, deprived of his preferments but not reduced to poverty, and there he died in December 1659. He had been an avid book-collector and some evidence survives of his actual purchasing. His library was dispersed during the Civil War, part being placed with a friend at Stafford for safe-keeping, but it was never reassembled in his remaining years. By his will Higgs gave his books to Merton College and endowed its librarianship; he also gave £100 to the Bodleian Library and £50 each to Merton and St.John's colleges for the purchase of select books in divinity. Very Good.