OXFORD--DUKE HUMPHREY'S BOOKS--THE LIBRARY OF THE VALOIS.
The University Library at Oxford was a development of Richard de Bury's
foundation. The monks of Durham had founded a hall, now represented by
Trinity College, in which Richard had always taken a fatherly interest.
He provided the ordinary texts and commentaries for the students, and was
extremely anxious that they should be instructed in Greek and in the
languages of the East. A knowledge of Arabic, he thought, was as
necessary for the study of astronomy as a familiarity with Hebrew was
requisite for the understanding of the Scriptures. The Friars had bought
a good supply of Hebrew books when the Jews were expelled from England;
Richard not only increased the available store, but supplied the means of
using it. 'We have provided,' he said, 'a grammar in Greek and Hebrew for
the scholars, with all the proper aids to instruct them in reading and
writing those languages.' He formed the ambitious design of providing
assistance to the whole University out of the books presented to the
hall. The rules which he drew up were not unlike those already in use at
the Sorbonne. Five students were chosen as wardens, of whom any three
might be a quorum for lending the manuscripts. Any book, of which they
possessed a duplicate, might be lent out on proper security: but copying
was not allowed, and no volume was on any account to be carried beyond
the suburbs. A yearly account was to be taken of the books in store, and
of the current securities; and if any profit should come to the wardens'
hands it was to be applied to the maintenance of the library.
When the Bishop died some of his books went back to Durham; but the monks
were generous towards the hall, and on several occasions sent fresh
supplies to Oxford. It may also be observed that some of his best MSS.
were returned to the Abbey of St. Alban's. He had bought about thirty
volumes from a former abbot for fifty pounds weight of silver; but the
monks had continually protested against a transaction which they believed
to be illegal, and on Richard's death some of the books were given back,
and others were purchased by Abbot Wentmore from his executors.
De Bury's generous care for learning was imitated in several quarters. A
few years after his death the Lady Elizabeth de Burgh made a bequest of a
small but very costly library to her College of Clare Hall at Cambridge.
Guy Earl of Warwick about the same time gave a collection of illuminated
romances to the monks of Bordesley. John de Newton in the next generation
divided his collection of classics, histories, and service-books, between
St. Peter's College at Cambridge and the Minster at York, where he had
acted for some years as treasurer. The lending-library at Durham Hall
was the only provision for the public, with the exception of a few
volumes kept in the 'chest with four keys' at St. Mary's. Thomas Cobham,
Bishop of Worcester, had long been anxious to show his filial love for
the University: as early as the year 1320 he had begun to prepare a room
for a library 'over the old congregation-house in the north churchyard of
St. Mary's'; and, though the work was left incomplete, he gave all his
books by will to be placed at the disposal of the whole body of scholars.
Owing to disputes that arose between the University and the College to
which Cobham had belonged, the gift did not take effect until 1367. The
University Library was established in the upper room, which was used as a
Convocation House in later times; it is said not to have been completely
furnished until the year 1409, more than eighty years after the date of
the Bishop's benefaction. According to the first statute for the
regulation of Cobham's Library, the best of the books were to be sold so
as to raise a sum of £40, which according to the current rate of interest
would produce a yearly income of £3 for the librarian; the other books,
together with those from the University Chest, were to be chained to the
desks for the general use of the students. It was soon found necessary to
exclude the 'noisy rabble': and permission to work in the library was
restricted to graduates of eight years' standing. Richard de Bury had
warned the world in his chapter upon the handling of books, how hardly
could a raw youth be made to take care of a manuscript; the student,
according to the great bibliophile, would treat a book as roughly as if
it were a pair of shoes, would stick in straws to keep his place, or
stuff it with violets and rose-leaves, and would very likely eat fruit or
cheese over one page and set a cup of ale on the other. An impudent boy
would scribble across the text, the copyist would try his pen on a blank
space, a scullion would turn the pages with unwashed hands, or a thief
might cut out the fly-leaves and margins to use in writing his letters;
'and all these various negligences,' he adds, 'are wonderfully injurious
to books.'
A generous benefactor gave a copy of De Lyra's 'Commentaries,' which was
set upon a desk in St. Mary's Chancel for reference. A large gift of
books came from Richard Courteney, the Chancellor of the University; and
as a mark of gratitude he was allowed free access to the library during
the rest of his life. Among the other benefactors whose good deeds are
still commemorated we find King Henry IV., who helped to complete the
library, his successor Henry V., who contributed to its endowment as
Prince of Wales, and his brothers John Duke of Bedford and Humphrey Duke
of Gloucester; and the roll of a later date includes the names of Edmund
Earl of March, Philip Repington Bishop of Lincoln, and the munificent
Archbishop Arundel.
The good Duke Humphrey has been called 'the first founder of the
University Library.' We know from the records of that time that his
gifts were acknowledged to be 'an almost unspeakable blessing.' He sent
in all about three hundred volumes during his life, which were placed in
the chests of Cobham's Library as they arrived, to be transferred to the
new Divinity Schools as soon as room could be made for the whole
collection. He had intended to bequeath as many more by way of an
additional endowment, but died intestate: and there was a considerable
delay before the University could procure the fulfilment of his
charitable design. When the books at last arrived 'the general joy knew
no bounds'; and the title of 'Duke Humphrey's Library' was gratefully
given to the whole assemblage of books which from several different
quarters had come into the University's possession.
The catalogue shows that the Duke's store had consisted mainly of the
writings of the Fathers and Arabian works on science: there were a few
classics, including a Quintilian, and Aristotle and Plato in Latin: the
works of Capgrave and Higden were the only English chronicles; but the
Duke was a devotee of the Italian learning, and his gifts to Oxford
included more than one copy of the _Divina Commedia_, three separate
copies of _Boccaccio_, and no less than seven of _Petrarch_.
The fate of the libraries founded by De Bury and Duke Humphrey of
Gloucester was to perish at the hands of the mob. Bishop Bale has told
the sad story of the destruction of the monastic libraries. The books
were used for tailors' measures, for scouring candlesticks and cleaning
boots; 'some they sold to the grocers and soap-sellers'; some they sent
across the seas to the book-binders, 'whole ships-full, to the wondering
of foreign nations': he knew a merchant who bought 'two noble libraries'
for 40_s._, and got thereby a store of grey paper for his parcels which
lasted him for twenty years. The same thing happened at Oxford. The
quadrangle of one College was entirely covered 'with a thick bed of torn
books and manuscripts.' The rioters in the Protector Somerset's time
broke into the 'Aungerville Library,' as De Bury's collection was called,
and burnt all the books. Some of De Bury's books had been removed into
Duke Humphrey's Library, and met the same fate at the Schools, with
almost every other volume that the University possessed. So complete was
the destruction that in 1555 an order was made to sell the desks and
book-shelves, as if it were finally admitted that Oxford would never have
a library again.
Some few of the Duke's books escaped the general destruction. Of the
half-dozen specimens in the British Museum three are known by the ancient
catalogues to have been comprised in his gifts to the University. Two
more remain at Oxford in the libraries of Oriel and Corpus Christi. We
learn from Mr. Macray that only three out of the whole number of his MSS.
are now to be found in the Bodleian. One of them contains the Duke's
signature: another is of high interest as being a translation out of
_Aristotle_ by Leonardo Aretino, with an original dedication to the
Duke. The third is a magnificent volume of _Valerius Maximus_ prepared,
as we know from the monastic annals, under the personal supervision of
Abbot Whethamstede, the 'passionate bibliomaniac' of St. Alban's. It
contains inscriptions, says Mr. Macray, recording its gift for the use of
the scholars, with anathemas upon all who should injure it. 'If any one
steals this book,' says the Abbot, 'may he come to the gallows or the
rope of Judas.'
[Illustration: THE DUKE OF BEDFORD PRAYING BEFORE ST. GEORGE. (_From the
"Bedford Missal."_)]
Many of the Duke of Gloucester's books had come to him from the library
of the French Kings at the Louvre, which had been purchased and dispersed
by John, Duke of Bedford. The Duke himself was in the habit of ordering
magnificently illuminated books of devotion, which he gave as presents to
his friends. The famous 'Bedford Missal' (really a Book of Hours) was
offered by the Duchess in his name to Henry VI.; and Mr. Quaritch
possesses another Book of Hours, which the Duke presented to Talbot, Earl
of Shrewsbury, as a wedding gift. The House of Valois was always friendly
to literature. King John, who fought at Creçy, began a small collection:
he had the story of the Crusades, a tract on the game of chess, and a
book containing a French version of _Livy_, which seems to have belonged
afterwards to Duke Humphrey, and to have found its way later into the
Abbey of St. Geneviève. His son Charles le Sage was the owner of about
900 volumes, which he kept in his castle at the Louvre. The first
librarian was Gilles Malet, who prepared a catalogue in 1373, which is
still in existence. Another was compiled a few years afterwards by
Antoine des Essars, and a third was made for Bedford when he purchased
about 850 volumes out of the collection in the year 1423. These lists
were so carefully executed that we can form a very clear idea of the
library itself and the books in their gay bindings on the shelves. We are
told that the King was so devoted to his '_Belle Assemblée_,' as
Christina of Pisa calls it, that not only authors and booksellers, but
the princes and nobles at the court, all vied in making offerings of
finely illuminated manuscripts.
They were arranged in the three rooms of the Library Tower. The wainscots
were of Irish yew, and the ceilings of cypress. The windows were filled
with painted glass, and the rooms were lit at night with thirty
chandeliers and a great silver lamp. On entering the lowest room the
visitor saw a row of book-cases low enough to be used as desks or tables.
A few musical instruments lay about; one of the old lists tells us of a
lute, and guitars inlaid with ivory and enamel, and 'an old rebec' much
out of repair. There were 269 volumes in the book-cases. We will only
mention a few of the most remarkable. There was Queen Blanche's Bible in
red morocco, and another in white boards, Thomas Waley's rhymes from Ovid
with splendid miniatures, and Richard de Furnival's _Bestiaire d'Amour_.
One life of St. Louis stood in a '_chemise blanche_,' and another in
cloth of gold. St. Gregory and Sir John Mandeville were clothed in indigo
velvet. John of Salisbury had a silk coat and long girdle, and most of
the Arabians were in tawny silk ornamented with white roses and wreaths
of foliage. Some bindings are noticed as being in fine condition, and
others as being shabby or faded. The clasps are minutely described. They
would catch a visitor's eye as the books lay flat on the shelves: and we
suppose that the librarian intended to show the best way of knowing the
books apart rather than to dwell on their external attractions. The
Oxford fashion was to catalogue according to the last word on the first
leaf, or the first word over the page; but it was also a common custom to
distinguish important volumes by such names as _The Red Book of the
Exchequer_, or _The Black Book of Carnarvon_.
We need not proceed to describe the other rooms. On the first floor there
were 260 books, consisting for the most part of romances with miniature
illuminations. One of these was the _Destruction de Thèbes_, which at one
time belonged to the Duc de la Vallière, and is now in the National
Library at Paris. The upper floor contained nearly six hundred volumes
mostly concerned with astronomy and natural science.
It appears from the memoranda in the lists that there had been a habit of
lending books to public institutions and to members of the royal family
from the time when the library was first established; and it is
estimated that about two hundred of the books must have been saved in
this way to form the beginning of a new library in the Louvre, which,
after the expulsion of the English, began to attain some importance in
the reign of Louis XI.