Early English and other manuscripts collected by Francis Junius (1589-1677).

Franciscus Junius the Younger (1591-1677) was born in Heidelberg. Brought up among the Calvinist scholars of the University of Leiden, he began his career as a theologian. As a consequence of the religious quarrels between the Arminians and the Gomarists, he resigned from his office, and in 1621 came to England as tutor and librarian to the household of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, the donor of the Arundel marbles to Oxford University. His work for Arundel resulted in the publication of De pictura veterum, a study of the classical arts.

From 1651 to 1674 Junius again lived in the Netherlands, where he devoted himself to the study of the Old Germanic languages, culminating in the publication in 1665 of the first edition of the Gothic Bible, together with a Gothic dictionary.

He finally returned to England and spent his last years in Oxford. Shortly before his death, Junius donated his Anglo-Saxon manuscripts to the Bodleian, where he had often worked; subsequently he bequeathed his other books, writings (principally notes and transcripts on the northern languages), and printing utensils. The Bodleian also possesses the portrait of Junius by Van Dyck.