HENRY OCTAVIUS

See also:

• HENRY OCTAVIUS COXE (1811–1881)
• COXE, WILLIAM (1747-1828)

COXE (1811–1881)  , English librarian and scholar, was born at Bucklebury, in Berkshire, on the loth of September 1811 . He was educated at Westminster school and Worcester College, Oxford . Immediately on taking his degree in 1833, he began work in the manuscript department of the British Museum, became in 1838 sub-librarian of the Bodleian, at Oxford, and in 186o succeeded Dr Bandinel as head librarian, an office he held until his death in 1881 . Having proved himself an able palaeographer, he was sent out by the British government in 1857 to inspect the libraries in the monasteries of the Levant . He discovered some valuable manuscripts, but the monks were too wise to part with their treasures . One valuable result of his travels was the detection of the forgery attempted by Constantine Simonides . He was the author of various catalogues, and under his direction that of the Bodleian, in more than 720 volumes, was completed . He published Rogtri de Wendover Chronica, 5 vols . (1841–1844); the Black Prince, an historical poem written in French by Chandos Herald (1842); and Report on the Greek Manuscripts yet remaining in the Libraries of the Levant (1858) . He was not only an accurate librarian but an active and hard-working clergyman, and was for the last twenty-five years of his life in charge of the parish of Wytham, near Oxford . He was likewise honorary fellow of Worcester and Corpus Christi Colleges . He died on the 8th of July 1881 .