Charity shop gets a £100 ‘thank you’ after returning rare book
Charity shop gets a £100 ‘thank you’ after returning rare book – by MARCUS STEAD
A charity shop volunteer at the ReStore Furniture Bank in Barry has discovered a rare Latin dictionary from 1866 which she has now returned to its former home in the Meyricke Library at Jesus College, Oxford.
The dictionary, Lexicon Manuale, was found by Dr Diane Brook, a retired Doctor of Philosophy and PhD Archaeology graduate who discovered it during a recent sort through donations at the shop in Thompson Street, which provides furniture and other household items to local people.
Dr Brook said: “My colleague Emma and I spend part of Wednesday afternoons sorting through the books.
“Books that aren’t worth very much are sold in the shop, and anything that’s worth more than £5 we set aside and put on eBay, along with a write-up, but when Emma handed me this particular book, I couldn’t believe it.
“I quickly realised by looking inside the front cover that this seemed like a book that had been borrowed from a library and was never given back.
“I’m an archaeology graduate and I did a PhD in early Christian archaeology of Wales many years ago – I’m a keen family historian as well, so this is the sort of thing I enjoy.
“I looked up Meyricke Library and found it was the main library for Jesus College, Oxford, which has very strong links with Wales going back centuries,” she said.
Dr Brook tried to establish a value for the book, and found two copies on eBay, costing £65 and £90 respectively. She then wrote a letter to the college with a view to returning the dictionary to its former home.
In her letter, Dr Brook explained how she came across the book, and she also provided information about the ReStore Furniture Bank, which was founded by the Coastlands Family Church in 2015: “I found the details of the Meyricke Library online and I thought that maybe they ought to have it back, because there aren’t many copies of them. There are copies in other Oxford libraries, but not in the Meyricke.
“There was no sign of it in their collection, so if it was borrowed, that happened a very long time ago,” she said.
The dictionary has now been returned to the college, who made a donation of £100 to ReStore by way of thanks.
College librarian Owen McKnight, who once undertook a research project on the incompleteness of library catalogues said: “I searched the college’s old records, including a card catalogue, and unfortunately there is no evidence of when this book was last in the collection.
“Books which are withdrawn from stock are usually, stamped to make this clear, but occasionally this step was skipped. It could also be the case that the book was borrowed, never returned, and the loan eventually written off.”
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