In mediaeval times the making, collecting, and preserving of books, as
well as the maintenance of learning, were almost exclusively confined to
monastic institutions, some of which lent books to laymen, and thus
became the public libraries of the surrounding district. As to the
literary life of Norwich in the fifteenth century, the late Dr. Jessopp
wrote: "Whatever may have been the case in other dioceses, it is certain
that the bishops of Norwich during the fifteenth century were resident in
their see, and that they were prominent personages as scholars and men of
culture and learning. . . . It is clear that . . . their influence was
not inconsiderable in encouraging literary tastes and studious habits
among their clergy. Pitts, in his list of distinguished Englishmen of
letters who flourished during the latter half of the fifteenth century,
mentions no less than twenty-four Norfolk men who were recognised as
prominent scholars, controversialists, historians, or students of
science." {1} Coincident with the decline of monastic learning in Europe
were the revival of secular learning and the invention of printing, which
gave a great impetus to the collection of books, especially on the
continent. The sixteenth century was a dark age in the history of
British libraries, the iconoclasts of the Reformation ruthlessly
destroying innumerable priceless treasures both of books and bindings.
John Bale, Bishop of Ossory, who was educated at a Carmelite Convent in
Norwich, and became vicar of Swaffham, Norfolk, in 1551, wrote scathingly
of the literary condition of England in the middle of the sixteenth
century, and referred specifically to Norwich: "O cyties of Englande,
whose glory standeth more in bellye chere, than in the serch of wysdome
godlye. How cometh it, that neyther you, nor yet your ydell masmongers,
haue regarded thys most worthy commodyte of your contrey? I meane the
conseruacyon of your Antiquytees, and of the worthy labours of your
lerned men. . . . I have bene also at Norwyche, oure seconde cytie of
name, and there all the library monumentes are turned to the vse of their
grossers, candelmakers, sope sellers, and other worldly occupyers." {2a}
In the early years of the seventeenth century many famous collegiate and
town libraries--i.e., libraries under the guardianship of
municipalities--were founded throughout the country, and in the history
of the latter Norwich has a unique place. So far as can be ascertained
from the published historical accounts of libraries, Norwich has the
distinction of having established in 1608 (six years after the foundation
of the Bodleian Library, and 145 years before the foundation of the
British Museum) the first provincial town library under municipal
control. {2b} The other earliest popular town libraries are those of
Ipswich (1612), Bristol (founded in 1613 and opened in 1615), and
Leicester (1632). Mr. Norris Mathews, the City Librarian of Bristol,
contends that "The claim to the earliest [public library] in England
still belongs to Bristol. This library was that of the Kalendars or
Kalendaries, a brotherhood of clergy and laity who were attached to the
Church of All-Hallowen or All Saints, still existing in Corn Street"
("Library Association Record," vol. 2, 1900, p. 642). In some notes
regarding this Gild of Kalendars in Miss Lucy Toulmin Smith's
Introduction to "Ricart's Calendar" {3} it is stated that "In 1464
provision was made as to a library, lately erected in the house of the
Kalendars," and reference is made to a deed of that date by which it was
"appointed that all who wish to enter for the sake of instruction shall
have 'free access and recess' at certain times, and that, lest the books
should be lost, three inventories shall be made, to be yearly collated
with the books, which books shall be chained in a room, and for the loss
of which heavy penalties are imposed on the prior. The prior to be
appointed by the Mayor." Mr. John Taylor in his article on "The earliest
English free libraries" ("Library Chronicle," vol. 3, 1886, p. 156),
stated that these regulations were made by an ordinance of John, Bishop
of Worcester, A.D. 1464. From the foregoing quotations it is obvious
that the Library was under the control of the Gild, and not of the
municipality, and therefore while, as a semi-monastic library, it may be
regarded as a prototype of the modern public library, it cannot be justly
claimed as the first public town library.
The following account of the first provincial town library and its
successor is in two parts: part I. deals with the Library established in
1608 and now known as the City Library, and part II. deals with the
Public Library, established under the Public Library Act of 1850.