Closing the Sea - Map of China: Decoding the Secrets of a Vanished Cartographer - page 19

themselves, or otherwise dispose of them, or the choicest of them, for some public
use', although they should not put the topics up for 'any common sale'. He further
suggests they might give them to 'some convenient library publique or of some
college in one of the universities'. Not until September 1659 did the bulk of his
library arrive in Oxford.
The four-year delay excited malicious gossip. It was widely assumed that, as
Selden had died without heirs, or at least any whom he chose to acknowledge,
his library was destined for Oxford. And yet for four years the topics languished
in Whitefriars. Some speculated that Selden was thumbing his nose at Oxford,
allegedly because Thomas Barlow had turned down his request to borrow some
manuscripts fromtheBodleian inhislastyearoflife.ItistruethatBarlowwasun-
happyaboutlettingmanuscriptsleavethelibrary,asmanywereneverreturned,and
he wrote a report to the university saying so. But the university, which to some ex-
tent owed its survival to Selden's deft interventions during the worst of the Crom-
well years, overrode his objections: Selden could borrow what he wanted as long
as he took nomore than three items at a time, left a bondof£100(a huge sum) and
returned them within a year. Barlow went up to London nine days after Selden's
death to see about the legacy. When the topics did not immediately arrive in Ox-
ford, however, tongues started to wag. In the end, the delay was due to complic-
ations arising from arranging separate donations of his law and medical topics to
otherinstitutions.Oncethosehadbeensortedout,therestofthelibrarywasfreeto
go to Oxford, and so it did.
TherewasneverreallyanyquestionofwherethebulkofSelden'slibraryshould
go,andnoneatallastothedispositionoftheSeldenmap.Whateludesusiswheth-
er the map went in the first batch of manuscripts, in 1655, or the second, in 1659.
Itdoesn'tparticularly matter tothe story.Imention it onlytohighlight the fact that
this object is not going to yield up easy answers to our questions.
____________________
In December 1618 John Selden was ordered to appear before James I. Selden
turned thirty-four on the 16th of that month - a Thursday, as it happens. The royal
audience took place within the week either side of his birthday. Selden was buried
two days short of his seventieth birthday, so in December 1618 he stood one year
short of the mid-point of his life. The portrait of him early in his career shows a
man who spends much of his time in thought, somewhat apart from the world in
which he finds himself (Fig. 3). Ahead of him glimmered a tumultuous career as a