David Dolben was born in Denbighshire, came to St John's in 1602 and gained his MA in 1609. He was initially appointed vicar of Hackney, but later also gained a living in Denbighshire. Through this latter appointment he became successively prebendary of St Asaph, capital burgess of the town of Denbigh, and finally Bishop of Bangor in 1631. He published little and played no significant part in the religious controversies of the time.

Dolben's bequest to the Library

Dolben left £20 to the College Library in his will. This money was used to purchase 31 sought after volumes of Hebrew religious texts, virtually all Venetian editions, the earliest being an edition of Elijah Mizrahi's Perush Rashi of 1527, and including an unidentified edition of the Bomberg Rabbinic Bible.

Provenance markings

All the volumes bought with Dolben's money bear a book label detailing his bequest. Translated it reads:

In the year of Our Lord 1635. The Reverend Father in Christ David Dolben, late Bishop of Bangor, bequeathed to this College, of which he was once an alumnus, because of his grateful heart, twenty pounds, with which this and 30 other Hebrew volumes were bought: in truth, 22 in folio and 9 in quarto.