Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/383

 Greek writers preserved, it was believed, only in Syriac of Arabic versions. Beyond the printing of a few specimen sheets of Euclid no art of this comprehensive plan was realized.

Om the recommendation of the Earl of Arlington, Charles II appointed Bernard, in 676, tutor to his sons the Dukes of Grafton and Northumberland, then living in Paris with their mother, the Duchess of Cleveland. The post proved an uncongenial one. His retiring disposition and erudite pursuits rendered him an object of ridicule in gay society and he resumed his antiquarian studies at Oxford after about a year's absence, saddened by his novel experiences, though consoled by the acquisition of many rare books, as well as the friendship of such men as Mabillon, Dacier, and Bouillard.

In the pursuance of a plan earlier concerted with Dr. Fell, bishop of Oxford, he now undertook an edition of Josephus, to be issued at the expense of the university; but divergences of opinion as to the mode of editing occasioned its suspension. Resumed a few years later at the instance of three Oxford booksellers, the design was again interrupted owing to the insufficient of their means to cover the required outlay. Hence the couplet in Clement Barkdale's [q.v.] doggerel verses on 'authors and Books' (Oxford, 1684): Savilian Bernard's a right learned man; Josephus he will finish when he can. Wearied with controversy, he got no further than the first four books and part of the fifth book of the second of the Destruction of Jerusalem, which were printed at the Sheldonian Theatre in 1686-7, and published in folio in 1700. His erudite notes were incorporated, with ample acknowledgment of their value, in Havercamp's complete edition of Josephus (Leyden, 1726).

During the sale of Nicholas Heinsius's library at Leyden in 1683 Bernard competed successfully for some of its choicesd rarities, and on the same occasion applied in vain for a professorship of oriental languages in the university of Leyden. The duties of his post at Oxford had now become positively distasteful to him through the increasing predominance of the critical and linguistic faculties, and he would have gladly have resigned in favour of Halley or Flamstead had any other suitable provision been available. This however, was not found until 1691, when, on his presentation to the rich living of Brightwell in Berkshire, he vacated the Savilian chair after an occupancy of eighteen years, and was succeeded by David Gregory of Edinburgh.

Bernard retained his residence at Oxford, from which his new rectory was not nine miles distant. He married, 6 aug. 1683, Eleanor Howell, a young and beautiful lady descended from a ???? ?????? family in Cardiganshire, with whom he lived happily during the remainder of his life. In 1692 and subsequent years (see Phil. Trans. xviii 160) he was engaged in supervising the preparation of a catalogue of th manuscripts in the United Kingdom, and himself drew up a comprehensive index to is contents. It was published at Oxford in 1697 in two folio volumes entitled 'Catalogi libeorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ in unum collecti cum indice alphabetica,' and is still consulted.

Although suffering form a painful infirmity, Bernard attended, in September 1696, the sale of the Golian manuscripts, purchasing many on behalf of Dr. Barvissus Marsh, archbishop of Dublin. On this, his third visit to Leyden, he was accompanied by his wife. On his return to Oxford in the end of November he fell into a consumption, and closed a blameless life of fifty-eight years, 12 Jan. 1697. He was interred with much state in the chapel of the college, where a monument was erected to his memory bearing the inscription, dictated himself, 'Habmus cor Bernardi.' Wood wrote of him (Ath. Oxon. iv. 702): 'He is a person admirably well read in all hinds of ancient learning, in astronomy and mathematics, a curious critic, an excellent Grecian, Latinist, chronologer, and orientalian.' And Huet, bishop of Avranches, declard in 1718 that 'few of his time equalled him in learning, almost none in modesty' (Commentarius de rebus ad com pertinentibus, p. 315).

Amongst his wiriting are: 1. 'De mensuris et ponderibus antiquis libri tres' (Oxford, 1688), an enlarged and amended version of a letter prefixed to Dr. Pocock's 'Commentary of Hosea' (1685). 2. 'Epistola ad Jac. Gronovium de Fragmento Stephani Byzantini de Dodone' (Lugd. Batay. 1681, 4to). 3. 'Private Devotions' (Oxford, 1689). 4. 'Orbis eruditi literatura à charactere Samaritico deducta.' exhibiting the alphabets of divers ancient peopples, printed on one broad sheet in 1680. 5. 'Etymologicon Britannicum,' appended to Hickes's 'Institutiones Grammaticæ' (Oxford, 1689). 6. 'Chronologiæ Samaritanæ Synopsis,' published by Ludolphus in 'Acta Eruditorum Lipsiensia,' April 1691. 7. 'Veterun testimonia do Versione Interpretum,' printed with Dr. Aldrich's edition of 'Aristoæ Historia' (Oxford, 1692). 8. 'Inscriptiones Græcæ Palmyrenorum,' a translation and