Closing the Sea - Map of China: Decoding the Secrets of a Vanished Cartographer - page 18

'Mapp of China'. It is the only reference he ever made to the map. It stands out
additionally as being the only item in his collection that he names. The rest of
his topics and manuscripts he refers to simply by category. He draws notice to his
topics 'that are in hebrew, Syriack, Arabick, persian, turkish or any other Tongue
usually understood by the name of orientall' - these are his manuscripts in Asi-
an languages - but doesn't name any of them. He also mentions his manuscripts
in Greek, and 'all such talmudicall and Rabinicall topics (if any such I shall have
among mine) as are not already in the Library' - that is, his extensive Hebrew
manuscripts. The codicil declares that these materials should go to Oxford, al-
though without actually saying so. His 'Mapp of China' he deals with some lines
further on. It is to go, he states, to 'the said Chancelor Masters and Schollars'
(the 'Chancelor' being the head of the university, the 'Masters' being the profess-
ors and the 'Schollars' being the undergraduates). The word 'said' implies that he
has already named the university constituted by this body of academics. In fact he
hasn't. Something is missing.
After you get used to the crabbed handwriting of the clerk in the Prerogative
Court who copied the will - the only copy that survives - the mistake is easy
enough to spot. It comes in the fourth line of the paragraph, which reads from the
left-hand margin to the right:
… understood by the name of orientall or in greek to as also with them …
After much palaeographic head-scratching, I decided that something is missing
after the word 'to'. The line should read:
… understood by the name of orientall or in greek to the Chancelor, Masters and
Schollars of Oxford University , as also with them …
Inotherwords,therecipientsofthedonationfelloutofthetext.Thisomissionwas
neither Selden's intention nor his error. The clerk appears simply to have skipped
a line when copying the original document, probably when the will was filed and
attested in court in February 1655.
The missing line did not puzzle his executors, presumably because they pos-
sessed their own, correct copy. Later that same year they released the first batch
of manuscripts to Oxford. These were precisely those in the categories named in
the codicil: the manuscripts in Greek, Hebrew and the various Asian languages.
How the rest of his collection should be disposed of appears from the will to be a
decision that John Selden left to his executors. They could 'part the topics among