THE CHARACTER OF THE MEDIEVAL LIBRARY, AND THE EXTENT OF CIRCULATION OF
BOOKS
“Some ther be that do defye
All that is newe, and ever do crye
The olde is better, away with the new
Because it is false, and the olde is true.
Let them this booke reade and beholde,
For it preferreth the learning most olde.”
_A Comparison betwene the old learnynge and the newe_ (1537).[508]
§ I
After a storm a fringe of weed and driftwood stretches a serried line
along the sands, and now and then--too often on the flat shores of one
of our northern estuaries, whence can be seen the white teeth of the sea
biting at the shoals flanking the fairway--are mingled with the flotsam
sodden relics of life aboard ship and driftwood of tell-tale shape,
which silently point to a tragedy of the sea. Usually the daily paper
completes the tale; but on some rare occasion these poor bits of drift
remain the only evidence of the vain struggle, and from them we must
piece together the narrative as best we can. And as the sea does not
give up everything, nor all at once, some wreckage sinking, or
perishing, or floating upon the water a long time before finding a
well-concealed hiding-place upon some unfrequented shore, so the past
yields but a fraction of its records, and that fraction slowly and
grudgingly. So far this book has been a gathering of the flotsam of a
past age: odd relics and scattered records, a sign here and a hint
there; often unrelated, sometimes contradictory. In more skilful hands
possibly a coherent story might be wrought out of these _pièces
justificatives_; but the author is too well aware of the difficulty of
arranging and selecting from the mass of material, remembers too well
the tale of mistakes thankfully avoided, and is too apprehensive that
other errors lurk undiscovered, to be confident that he has succeeded in
his aim. Whether the story is worth telling is another matter. Surely it
is. To be able to follow the history of the Middle Ages, to become
acquainted with the people, their mode of life and customs and manners,
is of profound interest and great utility; and it is by no means the
least important part of such study to discover what books they had, how
extensively the books were read, and what section of the people read
them.
Let us here sum up the information given in detail in the foregoing
pages; adding thereto some other facts of interest. And first, what of
the character of the medieval library?
During the earlier centuries monastic libraries contained books which
were deemed necessary for grammatical study in the claustral schools,
and other books, chiefly the Fathers, as we have seen, which were
regarded as proper literature for the monk. The books used in the
cathedral schools were similar. Such schools and such libraries were for
the glory of God and the increase of clergy and religious. At first,
especially, the ideal of the monks was high, if narrow. It is epitomised
in the untranslatable epigram--_Claustrum sine armario (est) quasi
castrum sine armamentario_.[509] “The library is the monastery’s true
treasure,” writes Thomas à Kempis;[510] “without which the monastery is
like ... a well without water ... an unwatched tower.” Again: “Let not
the toil and fatigue pain you. They who read the books formerly written
beautifully by you will pray for you when you are dead. And if he who
gives a cup of cold water shall not lack his guerdon, still less shall
he who gives the living water of wisdom lose his reward in heaven.”[511]
St. Bernard wrote in like terms. Books were their tools, “the silent
preachers of the divine word,” or the weapons of their armoury. “Thence
it is,” writes a sub-prior to his friend, “that we bring forth the
sentences of the divine law, like sharp arrows, to attack the enemy.
Thence we take the armour of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the
shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of
God.”[512] With such an end in view Reculfus of Soissons required his
clergy to have a missal, a lectionary, the Gospels, a martyrology, an
antiphonary, a psalter, a book of forty homilies of Gregory, and as many
Christian books as they could get (879). With this end in view were
chosen for reading in the Refectory at Durham (1395) such books as the
Bible, homilies, Legends of the Saints, lives of Gregory, Martin,
Nicholas, Dunstan, Augustine, Cuthbert, King Oswald, Aidan, Thomas of
Canterbury, and other saints.[513] With this end in view the monastic
libraries contained a very large proportion of Bibles, books of the
Bible, and commentaries--a proportion suggesting the Scriptures were
studied with a closeness and assiduity for which the monks have not
always received due credit.[514] A great deal of room was given up to
the works of the Fathers--their confessions, retractations, and letters,
their polemics against heresies, their dogmatic and doctrinal treatises,
and their sermons and ethical discourses. Of all these writings those of
Hilary, Basil, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Jerome, and the great Augustine were
most popular. John Cassian, Leo, Prosper, Cassiodorus, Gregory the
Great, Aldhelm, Bede, Anselm, and Bernard, and the two encyclopædists,
Martianus Capella and Isidore of Seville, were the church’s great
teachers, and their works and the sacred poetry and hymns of Juvencus
the Spanish priest, of Prudentius, of Sedulius, the author of a
widely-read and influential poem on the life of Christ, and of
Fortunatus, were nearly always well represented in the monastic
catalogues, as may be seen on a cursory examination of those of Christ
Church and St. Augustine’s, Canterbury, of Durham, of Glastonbury in
1248, of Peterborough in 1400, and of Syon in the sixteenth century. In
the earlier libraries the greater part of the books were Scriptural and
theological; to these were added later a mass of books on canon and
civil law; so that the monastic collection may be characterised as
almost entirely special and fit for Christian service, as this service
was conceived by the religious.
And classical literature was received into the fold for a like purpose.
From the earliest days of Christendom prejudice against the classics was
widespread among Christians. Such books, it was urged, had no connexion
with the Church or the Gospel; Ciceronianism was not the road to God;
Plato and Aristotle could not show the way to happiness; Ovid, above
all, was to be avoided.[515] In dreams the poets took the form of
demons; they must be exorcised, for the soul did not profit by them. The
precepts--and for these the Christian sought--in the poems were like
serpents, born of the evil one; the characters, devils. Some Christians
sighed as they thrust the tempting books away. Jerome frankly confesses
he cared little for the homely Latin of the Psalms, and much for Plautus
and Cicero. For a time he renounced them with other vanities of the
world; yet when going through the catacombs at Rome, where the Apostles
and Martyrs had their graves, a fine line of Virgil thrills him; and
later he instructed boys at Bethlehem in Plautus, Terence, and Virgil,
much to the horror of Rufinus. Even in the eleventh century this feeling
existed. Lanfranc wrote to Dumnoaldus to say it was unbefitting he
should study such books, but he confessed that although he now renounced
them, he had read them a good deal in his youth. Somewhat later Herbert
“Losinga,” abbot of Ramsey, had a dream which led him to cease reading
and imitating Virgil and Ovid; but elsewhere he recommends his pupils to
accept Ovid as a model in Latin verse, while he quotes the
_Tristia_.[516] The rules of some orders, as those of Isidore, St.
Francis, and St. Dominic, forbade the reading of the classics, save by
permission. For their value in teaching grammar and as models of
literary style, however, certain classic authors--especially Virgil,
Ovid, Cicero, Horace, Juvenal, and Statius--were regarded as
supplementary to the grammatical works of Donatus, Victorinus,
Macrobius, and Priscian, and were studied by the religious throughout
the Middle Ages. They were grammatical text-books, as indeed they are
still; but then they were very little else. A man would call himself
Virgil, not from inordinate vanity, but from a naive pride in his
profession of grammarian: to his way of thinking the great poet was no
more.[517] “As decade followed decade,” writes Mr. H. O. Taylor, “and
century followed century, there was no falling off in the study of the
_Æneid_. Virgil’s fame towered, his authority became absolute. But how?
In what respect? As a supreme master of grammatical correctness and
rhetorical excellence and of all learning. With increasing emptiness of
soul, the grammarians--the ‘Virgils’--of the succeeding centuries put
the great poet to ever baser uses.”[518]
From time to time the use of the classics even for grammatical purposes
was condemned, though unavailingly. They were necessary in the schools;
evils, doubtless, but unavoidable. Then, again, some of the classics
were looked upon as allegorical: from the sixth century to the
Renascence the _Æneid_ was often interpreted in this way; and Virgil’s
Fourth Eclogue was thought to be a prophecy of Christ’s coming. Ovid
allegorised contained profound truths; his _Art of Love_, so treated,
was not unfit for nuns.[519] Other writers, as Lucan, were appreciated
for their didacticism; Juvenal, Cato and Seneca the younger as
moralists. And some of the religious fell a prey to these evils,
inasmuch as they assessed them at their true value as literature.
The classics therefore were accepted. Anselm recommended Virgil. Horace,
in his most amorous moods, was sung by the monks. Ovid, either adapted
or in his natural state, was a great favourite. In an appendix we have
scheduled the chief classics found in English monastic catalogues to
indicate roughly the extent to which they were collected and used. A
glance at Becker’s sheaf of catalogues will show us that Aristotle,
Horace, Juvenal, Lucan, Persius, Plato, Pliny the elder, Porphyry,
Sallust, Statius, Terence, and especially Cicero, Ovid, Seneca, and
Virgil are well represented. But it must not be supposed that they were
in monastic libraries in excessive numbers. On the contrary. An
inspection of almost any catalogue of
[Illustration: _PLATE XXXIII_
ENGLISH ILLUMINATED WORK UNDER FRENCH INFLUENCE
THIRTEENTH CENTURY
FROM “TENISON PSALTER,” BRIT. MUS. ADD. MS. 24686, F. 12]
such a library will prove that only a small proportion of it consisted
of classical writings, especially in those catalogues compiled prior to
the time when Aristotle’s works dominated the whole of medieval
scholarship. The monastic library was throughout the Middle Ages the
armoury of the religious against evil, and the few slight changes of
character which it underwent at one time and another do not alter the
fact that on the whole it was a fit and proper collection for its
purpose.[520]
§ II
After the twelfth century broadening influences were at work. The
education given in the cathedral and monastic schools was found to be
too restricted; the monasteries, moreover, now began to refuse
assistance to secular students.[521] To some extent the catechetic
method of the theologians was forced to give place to the dialectic
method, equally dogmatic, but more exciting and stimulating. Hence was
compiled such a book as Peter Lombard’s _Sentences_ (1145-50), a
cyclopædia of disputation, wherein theological questions were collected
under heads, together with Scriptural passages and statements of the
Fathers bearing on these questions. By the thirteenth century Lombard
was the standard text-book of the schools: a work of such reputation
that it was studied in preference to the Scriptures, as Bacon
complained.
A demand also arose for instruction in civil and canon law, which the
existing schools did not supply. This broader learning was provided in
the early universities, at first to the dislike of the Church, and
sometimes to the annoyance of royal heads. Particular objection was
taken to the study of law. An Italian named Vicario (Vacarius) lectured
on Justinian at Oxford in 1149. Then he abridged the _Code_ and _Digest_
for his students there. King Stephen forbade him to proceed with his
lectures, and prohibited the use of treatises on foreign law, many
manuscripts of which were consequently destroyed. But these measures
were not very effectual. Within a short time civil law became recognised
in the University as a proper subject of study. By 1275, when another
Italian jurist named Francesco d’Accorso, a distinguished teacher at
Bologna, came to Oxford to lecture, the study of civil law was pursued
with the royal favour.[522]
The searcher among old wills cannot fail to be struck with the number of
law books in the small private libraries. Sometimes the whole of one of
these little collections consists of law books; often there are more
books of this kind than of any other. For example, of eighty books
bequeathed by Prior Eastry to Christ Church, Canterbury, forty-three
were on canon and civil law: of eighty-four books given to Trinity Hall,
Cambridge, by the founder, exactly one-half were juridical. A wealthy
canon of York left but half a dozen books, all on law. The books
bequeathed to Peterborough Abbey by successive abbots were chiefly on
law. Many other examples could be recited. There was a reason for this.
Friar Bacon, writing in 1271, complained that jurists got all rewards
and benefices, while students of theology and philosophy lacked the
means of livelihood, could not obtain books, and were unable to pursue
their scientific studies. Canonists, even, were only rewarded because of
their previous knowledge of civil law: at Oxford three years had to be
devoted to the study of civil law before a student could be admitted as
bachelor of canon law. Consequently a man of parts, with a leaning
towards theological and philosophical learning, took up the study of
civil law, with the hope of more easily winning preferment.[523]
“Compared with such [legal] lore,” writes Mr. Mullinger, “theological
learning became but a sorry recommendation to ecclesiastical preferment;
most of the Popes at Avignon had been distinguished by their attainments
in a subject which so nearly concerned the temporal interests of the
Church; and the civilian and the canonist alike looked down with
contempt on the theologian, even as Hagar, to use the comparison of
Holcot, despised her barren mistress.”[524] The most casual glance
through some pages of monastic records will show how frequent and
endless was the litigation in which the Church was engaged, and
consequently how useful a knowledge of civil law would be.
But these changes were trifling compared with the stimulus given to
medieval learning by the influx of Greek books and of Arabic versions of
them. In the second half of the eleventh century the works of Galen and
Hippocrates were re-introduced into Italy from the Arabian empire by a
North African named Constantine, who translated them at the famous
monastery of Monte Cassino. These translations, with the numerous
Arabian commentaries, and the conflict of the physicians of the new
school with those of the old and famous school of Salerno, constitute
the revival of medical studies which occurred at that time.[525] It
would seem that this revival was felt quickly in England, as in the
twelfth century four books by Galen and two by Hippocrates, with some
Arabian works, were to be found in the monastic library of Durham; a
number significant of the liberal feeling of the monks of this house,
inasmuch as in all the catalogues transcribed by Becker appear only ten
books by Galen and nine by Hippocrates.[526] Before 1150 the whole of
the _Organon_ of Aristotle was known to scholars;[527] but not till
about that time did the other works begin to be exported from Arabic
Spain. Then Latin versions of Arabic translations of the _Physics_ and
_Metaphysics_ were first made.
Daniel of Morley (_fl._ 1170-90) brought into this country manuscripts
of Aristotle, and commentaries upon him got in the Arab schools of
Toledo, then the centre of Mohammedan learning. Michael the Scot (_c._
1175-1234), “wondrous wizard, of dreaded fame,” was another agent of the
Arab influence. He received his education perhaps at Oxford, certainly
at Paris and Toledo. From manuscripts obtained at the last place he
translated two abstracts of the _Historia animalium_, and some
commentaries of Averroës on Aristotle (1215-30).[528] A third pilgrim
from these islands, Alfred the Englishman, also made use of Arabic
versions; and most likely both he and Michael brought home with them
manuscripts from Toledo and Paris. Of the renderings made by these men
and by some foreign workers in the same field, Friar Bacon speaks with
the utmost contempt. Their writings were utterly false. They did not
know the sciences they dealt with. The Jews, the Arabs, and the Greeks,
who had good manuscripts, destroyed and corrupted them, rather than let
them fall into the hands of unlettered and ignorant Christians.[529]
Aristotle should be read in the original, he also says; it would be
better if all translations were burnt. The criticism is acrid; but the
men he contemns served scholarship well by quickening the interest in
Greek books, and they succeeded so well because they gave to the
schoolmen not only versions of Aristotle’s text, but commentaries and
elucidations written by Arabs and Jews who had carefully studied the
text, and could explain the meaning of obscure passages in it.[530]
When these translations were coming to England, travellers were bringing
Greek books directly from the East. A doctor of medicine named William
returned to Paris from Constantinople in 1167, carrying with him “many
precious Greek codices.”[531] About 1209 a Latin translation of
Aristotle’s _Physics_ or _Metaphysics_ was made from a Greek manuscript
brought straight from Constantinople. Some of these few importations
were certainly destroyed at once, probably all were, for Aristotle was
proscribed in Paris in the following year, and again in 1215, at the
very time when Michael the Scot was procuring versions in another
direction, at Toledo.[532] Not until mid-thirteenth century was the ban
wholly removed.
For a time, owing to the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders,
intercourse between East and West had become far freer than it had been
for centuries (1203-61). Certain Greek philosophers of learned mien came
to England about 1202, but did not stay; and some Armenians, among them
a bishop, visited St. Albans. Whether they or Nicholas the Greek, clerk
to the abbot of that monastery, brought books with them we do not know;
Nicholas, at any rate, seems to have assisted Grosseteste in his Greek
studies.[533] John of Basingstoke, Grosseteste’s archdeacon, carried
Greek manuscripts--many valuable manuscripts, we are told--from Athens,
whither Grosseteste had sent him. The bishop himself imported books to
this country, probably from Sicily and South Italy.[534] He had a copy
of Suidas’ _Lexicon_, possibly the earliest copy brought to the West.
The _Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs_ was also in Grosseteste’s
possession: the manuscript was brought home by John of Basingstoke, and
still exists in the Cambridge University Library.[535] These forged
_Testaments_ were translated by Nicholas the Greek, and as no fewer than
thirty-one copies of the Latin version still remain they must have had a
good circulation.[536] Possibly the Greek Octateuch (Genesis to Ruth),
now in the Bodleian Library, was imported into this country by
Grosseteste or by somebody for him; at one time the manuscript was in
the library of Christ Church, Canterbury.[537] Among other Greek books
which Grosseteste used and translated, or had translated under his
direction, were the Epistles of St. Ignatius, a Greek romance of
Asenath, the Egyptian wife of the patriarch Joseph, and some writings of
Dionysius the Areopagite. At Ramsey, where the bishop’s influence may be
suspected, Prior Gregory (_fl._ 1290) owned a Græco-Latin psalter, still
extant.[538] Possibly all the importations were of similar character,
and the number of them cannot have been great or we should have heard
more of them.
Friar Bacon, writing about 1270, complains that he could not get all the
books he wanted, nor were the versions of the books he had satisfactory.
Parts of the Scriptures were untranslated, as, for example, two books of
Maccabees, which he knew existed in Greek, and books of the Prophets
referred to in the books of Kings and Chronicles; the chronology of the
_Antiquities_ of Josephus was incorrectly rendered, and biblical history
could not be usefully studied without a true version of this book. Books
of the Hebrew and Greek expositors were almost wanting to the Latins:
Origen, Basil, Gregory, Nazianzene, John of Damascus, Dionysius,
Chrysostom, and others, both in Hebrew and Greek.[539] The scientific
books of Aristotle, of Avicenna, of Seneca, and other ancients could
only be had at great cost. Their principal works had not been translated
into Latin. “The admirable books of Cicero _De Republica_ are not to be
found anywhere, as far as I can hear, although I have made anxious
inquiry for them in different parts of the world and by various
messengers.”[540]
The period during which the intellectual life of the Middle Ages was
broadened by the introduction of new knowledge and ideas originally from
Greek sources, began, as we have said, with the influx of translations
from the Arabic. The movement culminated with the work of William of
Moerbeke, Greek Secretary at the Council of Lyons (1274), who, between
1270 and 1281, translated several of Aristotle’s works from the Greek,
including the _Rhetorica_ and the _Politica_. Fortunately we have a
record belonging to this time of a collection of books which shows
admirably the character of the change. A certain John of London (_c._
1270-1330), believed to have been Bacon’s pupil, probably became a monk
of St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury, and in due course bequeathed a
library of books to his house. This collection amounted to nearly eighty
books, of which twenty-three were on mathematics and astronomy, a like
number on medicine, ten on philosophy, six on logic, four historical,
three on grammar, one poetry, and the rest collections.[541] Such a
collection is remarkable not only for its character, but on account of
its size, which was very large for anybody to own privately in that age.
§ III
On one occasion, after spending much time in searching wills and in
examining catalogues without finding a reference to an interesting
book--to either an ancient or a medieval classic--the writer well
remembers the little shock of pleasure he felt when, in a single
half-hour, he noted _Piers Plowman_ in one brief unpromising will, and
six English books among the relics of a mason. Nearly all the libraries
of private persons and of academies are depressing in character. Rarely
can be found a bright human book gleaming like a diamond in the dust.
Score after score of decreta, decretales, Sextuses, and Clementines, and
chestsful of the dreariest theological disquisition impress upon the
weary searcher the fact that academic libraries were usually even more
dryasdust than monastic collections, and he begins to understand how
prosperous law may be as a calling, and to have an inkling of what is
known, in classic phrase, as a good plain Scotch education.
Between an academic library and a monastic collection there were
differences of character and in the beauty and value of the manuscripts.
As a general rule a large proportion of the monks’ books were more or
less richly ornamented: they were the treasures as well as the tools of
the community. The books of the colleges were usually for practical
purposes: they were tools, treasured, doubtless, for their contents, not
for the beauty of the writing or because they were decorated. The
difference in character of the collections as a whole was one of
proportion in the
[Illustration: _PLATE XXXIV_
FRESCO OF THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
BY T. GADDI
CHURCH OF S. M. NOVELLA, FLORENCE]
representation of the various classes of books. Generally speaking, the
monastic collection comprised proportionately more theology and less
canon and civil law than the academic library. In the subjects of the
_trivium_ and the _quadrivium_, and in philosophy, a college was more
strongly equipped than a monastery; on the other hand, a monastery
frequently had a larger proportion of classical literature, and always
more “light” or romance literature.
Early university studies were in two parts, the _trivium_--grammar,
rhetoric, and logic, and the _quadrivium_--music, astronomy, geometry,
and arithmetic. These were the seven liberal arts. A fresco in a chapel
in the Church of S. Maria Novella at Florence illustrates these arts. On
the right of the cartoon is the figure of grammar; beneath is Priscian.
For the study of this subject John Garland recommended Priscian and
Donatus. Priscian was a leading text-book on the subject, and it was
supported by a short manual compiled from Donatus. At Oxford extracts
from these authors were thrown into the form of logical _quaestiones_ to
afford subjects of argument at the disputations held once a week before
the masters of grammar.[542] To these books should be added a
dictionary, with some peculiar and quaint etymologies, by Papias the
Lombard; grammatical works by John Garland; Bishop Hugutio’s
etymological dictionary (_c._ 1192); a dreary hexameter poem by
Alexander Gallus, the Breton Friar (_d._ 1240)--“the olde _Doctrinall_,
with his diffuse and unperfite brevitie”; Eberhard’s similar poem (_c._
1212), called _Graecismus_, because it includes a chapter on derivations
from the Greek; and a very large book, the _Catholicon_ (_c._ 1286),
partly a grammar and partly a dictionary, with copious quotations from
Latin classics, which had been compiled with some skill and care by John
Balbi, a Genoese Black Friar. Papias and Hugutio were sharply condemned
by Friar Bacon, but they remained in use long after his time, and Balbi
owed much to both of them. Many copies of the _Catholicon_ seem to have
been made, although the transcription of so large a book was costly:
even before it was printed (1460), copies for reference were sometimes
chained up in English churches, and after it was printed this practice
became more general, at any rate in France. By the fourteenth century
Priscian was almost superseded by Alexander and Eberhard, whose
versified grammars came into common use; a jingle, whether it be--
“‘_Ne facias_’ dicas ‘_oroque ne facias_.’
_Humane_, _dure_, _large_, _firme_que, _benigne_,
_Ignave_que, _probe_, vel _avare_ sive _severe_,
Inde _nove_, _plene_, vel _abunde_ sive _proterve_,
Dicis in _er_ vel in _e_, quamvis sint illa secundae,”
in the fourteenth century, or
“Feminine is Linter, boat
Learn these neuters nine by rote,”
in the twentieth century, seems to help the harassed student along the
linguistic path. The reading of Virgil and Statius and some other
writers put flesh upon these grammatical dry bones. But as the masters
of grammar at Oxford were expected to be guardians of morals as well,
they were expressly forbidden to read and expound to their pupils Ovid’s
_Ars amandi_, the _Elegies_ of Pamphilus, and other indecent books.[543]
Next to the figure of Grammar is Rhetoric, with Cicero seated beneath.
Cicero, with Aristotle, Quintilian and Boëthius were the chief exponents
of rhetoric; with Virgil, Ovid, Statius, and sometimes such a book as
Guido delle Colonne’s epic of Troy, as examples of literary style. John
Garland (_fl._ 1230) recommended Cicero’s _De Inventione_ (_Rhetorica_),
_De Oratore_, the _Ad Herennium_ ascribed to Cicero, Quintilian’s
_Institutes_ and the _Declamationes_ ascribed to him. The third figure
is Logic, coupled with the figure of Aristotle. The _Categories_ and
Porphyry’s _Isagoge_ were the books of greatest service in the study of
this subject; with Boëthius’ translations and expositions of Aristotle
and Porphyry. All the foregoing and Cicero’s _Topica_ are selected by
John Garland. Later the _Summulae logicales_ of Peter the Spaniard
(_fl._ 1276), William of Heytesbury’s _Sophismata_ (_c._ 1340), the
_Summa logices_ of the great English schoolman, William of Ockham (_d.
c._ 1349), and the _Quaestiones_ of William Brito (_d._ 1356) were the
chief manuals of dialectic.
The first figure in the representation of the _quadrivium_ is Music,
with Tubal Cain beneath. In this subject, for which few books were
necessary, Boëthius was the guide. With Astronomy is associated Ptolemy.
The _Cosmographia_ and _Almagest_ of Ptolemy, and the works of some
Arabian authors, with books of tables, were the student’s manuals. In
our cartoon Geometry has Euclid for companion. Arithmetic is associated
with Pythagoras in the picture: for this subject Boëthius was the
text-book.[544]
Besides the seven liberal arts, natural, metaphysical, and moral
philosophy, or the three philosophies, were added in the thirteenth
century. For these studies Aristotle and his commentators were the
chief guides. The medical authorities of the middle ages have been
catalogued for us by Chaucer in his description of a doctor of
“phisyk”--
“Wel knew he the olde Esculapius
And Deiscorides, and eek Rufus,
Old Ypocras, Haly and Galien;
Serapion, Razis and Avicen;
Averrois, Damascien and Constantyn;
Bernard, and Gatesden, and Gilbertyn.”
Of these names eight are included in Duke Humfrey’s gifts to Oxford in
1439 and 1443; and ten of them are represented in the catalogue of
Peterhouse Library in 1418. Besides the writers mentioned by Chaucer,
works on fevers by Isaac the Arab, the _Antidotarium_ of Nicholas, and
the _Isagoge_ of Johannicius were in general use.
Next to theology--in which class the chief books were the same as in the
claustral library, although liturgical books are more rarely found--the
largest section of an academic collection was that of civil and canon
law. It comprised the various digests, the works of Cinus of Pistoia and
Azo; texts of decrees, decretals, _Liber Sextus Decretalium_, _Liber
Clementinae_, with many commentaries, the _Constitutions_ of Ottobon and
Otho, the book compiled by Henry of Susa, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia,
called _Summa Ostiensis_, the _Rosarium_ of Archdeacon Guido de Baysio,
and Durand’s _Speculum Judiciale_. The last three books are frequently
met with, and were highly esteemed by medieval jurists.[545]
In a previous chapter we have noted the somewhat fresher character of
the library given to Oxford University by the Duke of Gloucester. We
have two later records which may be referred to now to indicate the
change wrought by the Renascence. A catalogue of William Grocyn’s books
was drawn up soon after his death in 1519. This collection proves its
owner to have been conservative in his tastes, as the medieval
favourites are well represented. Of Greek books there are only
Aristotle, Plutarch in a Latin translation, and a Greek and Latin
Testament--a curiously small collection in view of his interest in
Greek, and in view of the fact that many of the chief Greek authors had
been printed before his death. It seems likely that his Greek books had
been dispersed. But the change is apparent in the excellent series of
Latin classics, which included Tacitus and Lucretius, and in the number
of books by Italian writers, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Ficino, Filelfo,
Lorenzo della Valle, Æneas Sylvius, and Perotti.
Still more significant of the change are the references to the course of
study in the statutes of Corpus Christi College, Oxford (1517). The
approved prose writers are Cicero--an apology is offered for the use of
barbarous words not known to Cicero--Sallust, Valerius Maximus,
Suetonius, Pliny, Livy, and Quintilian. Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, Juvenal,
Terence and Plautus are approved as poets. Suitable books to study
during the vacations are the works of Lorenzo della Valle, Aulus
Gellius, and Poliziano. In Greek the writings--most of them quite new to
the age--of Isocrates, Lucian, Philostratus, Aristophanes, Theocritus,
Euripides, Sophocles, Pindar, Hesiod, Demosthenes, Thucydides,
Aristotle, and Plutarch are recommended. Such a list bears few
resemblances to the academic library we have attempted to describe.[546]
§ IV
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries romances began to creep into
all libraries, save the academic, in which they are rarely found. As
soon as romance literature took a firm hold upon public favour the monks
added some of it to their collections. Probably romances were first
bought to be copied and sold to augment the monastic income; and more
perhaps were sold than preserved. Ascham avers that “in our fathers tyme
nothing was red, but bookes of fayned cheualrie, wherein a man by
redinge, shuld be led to none other ende, but onely to manslaughter and
baudrye.... These bokes (as I haue heard say) were made the moste parte
in Abbayes and Monasteries, a very lickely and fit fruite of suche an
ydle and blynde kinde of lyuyne.”[547] Thomas Nashe, in his story of
_The Unfortunate Traveller_, describes romances as “the fantasticall
dreams of those exiled Abbie lubbers,” that is, the monks.[548] These
writers were but echoing such charges as that in _Piers Plowman_, which
declares that a friar was much better acquainted with the _Rimes of
Robin Hood_ and _Randal Erle of Chester_ than with his Paternoster. A
number of romances are indeed found in monastic catalogues. The library
at Glastonbury included four romances (1248); that at Christ Church,
Canterbury, contained a few in late thirteenth century. Guy de Beauchamp
bequeathed romances to Bordesley Abbey (1315). In the first year of the
fifteenth century Peterborough had some romances. At the end of the same
century St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury, had in its library of over
eighteen hundred books only a few romances; while in Leicester Abbey,
among a library of about three hundred and fifty books, we find only the
Troy book, _Drian and Madok_, _Beves of Hamtoun_, all in French, _Gesta
Alexandri Magni_, and one or two others. Edward III bought a book of
romance from a nun of Amesbury in 1331--a work of such interest that he
kept it in his room. There are plenty of other instances. But in no
case have we found an excessive number of romances in monastic
libraries, and the charges--if they can worthily be called charges--so
often made against monks on this score fall to the ground.[549]
The romances oftenest appearing in monastic catalogues and other records
are the following: The Story of Troy, especially Joseph of Exeter’s
Latin version, the great Arthurian cycle, the beautiful story of _Amis
and Amiloun_, renowned all over Europe, _Joseph of Arimathea_,
Charlemagne, Alexander, which was of the best of romances, _Guy of
Warwick_, which was very popular, and the semi-historical _Richard Cœur
de Lion_. But many others were in circulation. In _Cursor mundi_ a
number of the popular stories of the day are mentioned--
“Men lykyn jestis for to here,
And romans rede in divers maneree,
Of _Alexandre_ the conquerour,
Of _Julius Cæsar_[550] the emperour,
Of Greece and _Troy_ the strong stryf,
Ther many a man lost his lyfe;
Of _Brut_,[551] that baron bold of hond,
The first conquerour of Englond,
Of _King Artour_ that was so ryche;
Was non in hys tyme so ilyche [alike, equal]:
Of wonders that among his knyghts felle,
And auntyrs [adventures] dedyn as men her telle
As _Gaweyn_, and othir full abylle,
Which that kept the round tabyll,
How _King Charles_ and Rowland fawght,
With Sarazins, nold thei be cawght;
Of _Tristram_ and Ysoude the swete,
How thei with love first gan mete,
Of _Kyng John_, and of _Isenbras_,
Of Ydoine and _Amadas_.”[552]
Again, many “speak of men who read romances--
Of _Bevys_,[553] _Gy_, and _Gwayane_,
Of _Kyng Rychard_, and _Owayne_,
Of _Tristram_ and _Percyvayle_,
Of _Rowland Ris_,[554] and _Aglavaule_,
Of _Archeroun_, and of _Octavian_,
Of _Charles_, and of _Cassibelan_.
Of _Keveloke_,[555] _Horne_, and of _Wade_
In romances that ben of hem bimade,
That gestours dos of hem gestes,
At maungeres, and at great festes,
Her dedis ben in remembrance,
In many fair romance.”
Popular romances of this kind had a great influence upon the lives of
the people. The long lists of medieval theology and sophistry usually
laid before us, and the great majority of the writings which have
survived, sometimes lead us to believe the culture of the Middle Ages to
have been of a more serious cast than it really was. The oral
circulation of romance literature must have been enormous. The spun-out,
dreary poems which now make such difficult reading are infinitely more
entertaining when read aloud: the voice gives life and character to a
humdrum narrative, and the gestour would know how to make the best of
incidents which he knew from experience to be specially interesting to
an audience. Such yarns would be most attractive to “lewd” or illiterate
men--
“For lewdë men y undyrtoke
On Englyssh tunge to make thys boke:
For many ben of swyche manere
That talys and rymys wyl blethly[556] here,
Ye gamys and festys, and at the ale.”[557]
[Illustration: _PLATE XXXV_
ANCIENT VELLUM BOOK-MARKER WITH REVOLVING DISC
FROM A DOUBLE-COLUMN CANTERBURY BIBLE; THE DISC CAN BE USED TO MARK
COLUMN AND LINE. MS. 49 C.C. COLL. CAMB.]
The need of multiplying manuscripts of these poems would not be greatly
felt. The reciter would be obliged to learn them off by heart; he need
not, and often did not, possess written versions of the poems he
recited. And even literate men, as Bishop Grosseteste, preferred to
listen to these gestours, rather than to read the narrative themselves.
Therefore, any estimate we may form of the number of manuscripts of
romances in existence at any time in the fourteenth century, for
example, would give not the smallest idea of the extent to which these
tales were known.
§ V
The medieval collector of books sometimes, and the monastic librarian
nearly always, took care that his library was strong in hagiology and
history. He felt the need of books which would tell him of the past
history of his church and of the lives of her greatest teachers. When
collected these books were an incentive to the more cultivated of the
monks to begin the history of his country or his house, or to write or
re-write the lives of saints. The fruit is preserved for us in a long
line of monkish historians and hagiographers. As a rule the histories
they wrote were of little value; but when they had brought the tale down
to their own times they continued it with the help of records to their
hand, narrated events within their own memory, and maintained the
narrative in the form of annals. The method of annalising was simple. At
the end of the incomplete manuscript a loose or easily detachable sheet
was kept, whereon events of importance to the nation and the monastery
and locality of the annalist were written in pencil from time to time
during the year. At the end of the year the historian welded these
jottings into a narrative. When this was done another leaf for notes was
placed after the manuscript. The value of the work so accomplished is
incalculable. Without these records it would now be impossible for us to
realise what the Middle Ages were like. This service, added to the
enormously greater service which monachism did for us in preserving
ancient literature, will always breed kind thoughts of a system so
repugnant to our modern view of human endeavour.
§ VI
What was the extent of circulation of books during the manuscript age?
For the period before the Conquest we can only offer the merest
conjecture, which does not help us materially. The rarity of the extant
manuscripts of this age is no guide to the extent of their production.
During the raids of the northmen the destruction and loss must have been
very great indeed. After the Conquest the indifference and contempt with
which the conquerors regarded everything Saxon must have been
responsible for the destruction of nearly every manuscript written in
the vernacular. But, on the other hand, we find suggestions of a greater
production than is commonly credited to this period. Religious fervour
to make books was not wanting, as some of our most beautiful
relics--works exhibiting much painstaking and skilful and even loving
labour, calligraphy, and decoration aflame with high endeavour--belong
to the Hiberno-Saxon period and the days of Ethelwold. Nor after
Alfred’s day was regard lacking for vernacular literature itself rather
than for the glory of a faith: how else are we to explain the precious
fragments of Anglo-Saxon manuscript which have been preserved for us,
especially the Exeter book and the Vercelli book? That the production
was considerable is suggested by the records we have. Think of the Irish
manuscripts now scattered on the continent; of the library of York; of
Bede’s workshop and the northern libraries; and of those in the south,
at Canterbury, Malmesbury, and elsewhere. But the use of such
manuscripts as were in existence was restricted to monks, wealthy
ecclesiastics, and a few of the wealthy laity.
After the Conquest the state of affairs was the same. The period of the
greatest literary activity in the monasteries now began, and large
claustral libraries were soon formed. The monks then had plenty of
books; wealthy clergy also had small collections. An ecclesiastic or a
layman who had done a monastery some service, or whose favour it was
politic to cultivate, could borrow books from the monastic library,
under certain strict conditions. Some people availed themselves of this
privilege; but not at any time during the manuscript period to a great
extent.[558]
Outside this small circle the people were almost bookless: nearly the
whole of the literary wealth of the Middle Ages belonged to the monks
and the church. Books were extremely costly. The medieval book-buyer
paid more for his book on an average than does the modern collector of
first editions and editions _de luxe_, who pays in addition several
guineas a volume for handsome bindings. The prices we have tabulated
will fully bear out this statement. But even more striking evidence of
the high value set upon books is the care taken in selling or
bequeathing them. To-day a line or two in a wealthy man’s will disposes
of all his books. He commonly throws them in with the “residue,”
unmentioned. In the manuscript age a testator distributed his little
hoard book by book. Often he not only bequeaths a volume to a friend,
but determines its fate after his friend’s death. For example, a
daughter is to have a copy of the _Golden Legend_, “and to occupye to
hir
[Illustration: RECORD OF SALE OF BOOK CAPTURED AT POITIERS (see p. 247)]
owne use and at hir owne liberte durynge hir lyfe, and after hir decesse
to remayne to the prioress and the convent of Halywelle for evermore,
they to pray for the said John Burton and Johne his wife and alle
crystene soyles (1460).”[559] A manuscript now in Worcester Cathedral
Library bears an inscription telling us that, likewise, one Thomas
Jolyffe left it to Dr. Isack, a monk of Worcester, for his lifetime, and
after his death to Worcester Priory. A manuscript now in the British
Museum was bought in 1473 at Oxford by Clement of Canterbury, monk and
scholar, from a bookseller named Hunt for twenty shillings, _in the
presence of Will. Westgate, monk_.[560] In a manuscript of the
_Sentences_ is a note telling us that it was the property of Roger,
archdeacon of Lincoln: he bought it from Geoffrey the chaplain, the
brother of Henry, vicar of North Elkington, the witnesses being master
Robert de Luda, clerk, Richard the almoner, the said Henry the vicar,
his clerk, and others.[561] An instance of a different kind will
suffice. When, after a good deal of rioting at Oxford, many of the more
studious masters and scholars went to Stamford, the king threatened that
if they did not return to Oxford they would lose their goods, and
especially their books. The warning was disregarded, but the threatened
forfeiture of their books was evidently thought to be a strong
measure.[562]
In his poems Chaucer endows two poor clerks with small libraries. His
first portrait of an Oxford clerk is delightful--
“For him was lever have at his beddes heed [rather]
Twenty bokes, clad in blak or reed,
Of Aristotle and his philosophye,
Than robes riche, or fithele, or gay sautrye [fiddle, psaltery].
But al be that he was a philosophre,
Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre;
But al that he mighte of his freendes hente [get],
On bokes and on lerninge he it spente,
And bisily gan for the soules preye
Of hem that yaf him wher-with to scoleye [gave, study].
Of studie took he most cure and most hede.
Noght o word spak he more than was nede,
And that was seyd in forme and reverence,
And short and quik, and ful of hy sentence [high].
Souninge in moral vertu was his speche [conducing to],
And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.”
Almost equally pleasing is his picture of another who lived with a rich
churl--
“A chambre hadde he in that hostelrye
Allone, with-outen any companye,
* * * * *
His Almageste and bokes grete and smale,
His astrelabie, longinge for his art,
His augrim-stones layen faire a-part
On shelves couched at his beddes heed.”
Both descriptions have been used as evidence that books were not so
scarce as supposed; that poor people could get books if they specially
needed them. But are these pictures quite true? Has not the poet taken
advantage of the licence allowed to his kind? The records preserved at
Oxford do not corroborate him. Some of the students were very poor. It
seems likely that a would-be clerk attached himself to a master or
scholar as a servant in return for teaching in the “kunnyng of writyng”
and perhaps other knowledge--
“This endenture bereth witnesse that I, John Swanne, þ^{e} sone of
John Swanne of Bridlington, in þ^{e} counte of Yorke, have putte me
servante unto William Osbarne, forto serve him undir þ^{e} foorme
of a servante for þ^{e} terme of iiii. yere, and þ^{e} seide
William Osbarne forto enfoorme þ^{e} seide John Swann in þ^{e}
kunnyng of writyng, and þ^{e} seide John Swann forto have þ^{e}
first yere of þ^{e} seide William Osbarne iijs. iiijd. in money,
and ij. peier [pairs] of hosen, and ij. scherts [shirts] and iiij.
peire schoon [pairs of shoes], and a gowne, and in þ^{e} secunde
yeere xiijs. iiijd., and in þ^{e} iij. yere xxs. and a gowne, and
in þ^{e} iiij. yeere xls. And in þ^{e} witnesse hereof, etc.”
(1456).[563]
Mr. Anstey points out that a very large number, probably the majority of
scholars, were not well provided for. They eked out their precarious
allowances by begging, by learning handicrafts, and by “picking up the
various doles at funerals and commemoration masses, where such needy
miserables were always to be found.”[564] Such students would not be
likely to have many or perhaps any books. “The stock of books possessed
by the _younger_ scholars seems to have been almost _nil_. The
inventories of goods, which we possess, in the case of non-graduates
contain hardly any books. The fact is that they mostly could not afford
to buy them.... The chief source of supplying books was by purchase from
the University sworn stationers, who had to a great extent a monopoly,
the object of which was to prevent the sale and removal from Oxford of
valuable books. Of such books there were plainly very large numbers
constantly changing hands; they were the pledges so continually
deposited on borrowing from chests, and seem, from scattered hints, to
have been a very fruitful source of litigation and dispute.”[565] Most
of these books were in the hands of seniors. Truly enough many a poor
clerk would as lief have twenty “bokes” to his name as anything else
treble the value. But he would undergo much sharp self-denial and
receive much “wher-with to scoleye” ere he got together so considerable
a collection of “bokes grete and smale,” to say nothing of instruments.
As such a large proportion of the scholars were poor, and unable to
acquire books, nearly all the instruction given was oral. Well-to-do
scholars would not find, therefore, books of very great service; and
indeed they were as ill-equipped in this respect as their poorer
brethren. The accounts of the La Fytes, two scholars whose expenses were
paid by Edward I himself, contain records of the purchase of two copies
of only the _Institutions_ of Quintilian (_c._ 1290).[566] Is not
Chaucer describing his own room in both passages--the room he loved to
seek after his day’s work at the desk? Here at the bedhead are his
books, including the astronomical treatise of Ptolemy called _Almagest_.
Beside them is the astrolabe, an instrument about which he wrote; and
trimly arranged apart his augrim-stones, or counters for making
calculations. Such an outfit we might expect him to have: just such a
library, neither smaller nor larger.
This supposition calls to mind another argument sometimes used to prove
how easy it was to make a small collection of books. Chaucer’s poems
display his acquaintance, more or less thoroughly, with many authors.
Surely, it is urged, his library was a good one for the time: then how
was it possible for a man of his means to own such? He was not wealthy.
As a courtier and a public officer the calls upon his purse must have
been heavy: little indeed could be left for books. The explanation is
probably simple. Books were freely lent, more freely than nowadays; and
Chaucer would be able to eke out his library in this way. Another point
is important. Professor Lounsbury, who has spent years in an exhaustive
study of Chaucer, points out a curious circumstance. “It must be
confessed,” he says--a shade of disparagement lurks in the phrase--“it
must be confessed that Chaucer’s quotations from writers exhibit a
familiarity with prologues and first books and early chapters which
contrasts ominously with the comparative infrequency with which he makes
citations from the middle and latter parts of most of the works he
mentions.”[567] Surely the implication is unjust. Stationers used to let
out on hire parts of books or quires. Manuscript volumes were also often
made up of parts of works by several authors. Books being scarce, it was
preferable to make some volumes select miscellanies, little libraries in
themselves. Hear Chaucer himself--
“And eek ther was som-tyme a clerk at Rome,
A cardinal, that highte Seinte Jerome,
That made a book agayn Jovinian;
In whiche book eek ther was Tertulan,
Crisippus, Trotula, and Helowys,
That was abbesse nat fer fro Parys;
And eek the Parables of Salomon,
Ovydes Art, and bokes many on,
And alle thise were bounden in o volume.”[568]
In composite volumes often only the earlier parts of authors’ works were
included. If Chaucer owned a few books of this kind, his familiarity
with parts of authors--and oftenest with the earlier parts--is accounted
for satisfactorily; so also is the range and variety of his reading.
Examine the Christ Church Canterbury catalogue in Henry Eastry’s time,
and note what a remarkable variety of subjects is comprised in what we
nowadays consider rather a paltry number of books. There is another
point worth bearing in mind. Speaking of Bishop Shirwood’s books, a
writer in the _English Historical Review_ says: “Many of the books bear
his mark, _Nota_, scattered over the margins, or a hand with a long
pointing finger. These notes occur usually at the beginnings. In the
days when chapters and sections were unknown and division into books
rare, when headlines were not and pages sometimes had no signatures
even, not to speak of numbers, a reader had to go solidly through a
book, and could not lightly turn up a passage he wished for, by the aid
of a reference. But except in Cicero and in Plutarch--which is read
almost from beginning to end--the marks do not often go far. Shirwood
was doubtless too busy to find much time for reading, and before he had
made much way with a book a new purchase had come to arouse his
interest.”[569]
But to the general rule of scarcity of books some exceptions are known.
When a book won a reputation, the cost of producing copies was not
wholly restrictive of circulation. Copies of some works of the Fathers
were produced in great numbers. The Bible, whole or in part, was copied
with such industry that it became the commonest of manuscripts, as it
now is the commonest of printed books. Peter Lombard’s _Sentences_
became a famous book: the standard of the schools; everywhere to be
found side by side with the Bible, everywhere discussed and commented
upon. A twelfth century author of quite different character had a good
hold upon the people; the number of copies of Geoffrey of Monmouth must
have been considerable, for the British Museum now has thirty-five
copies and Bodley’s Library sixteen. “Possibly, no work before the age
of printed books attained such immediate and astonishing popularity ...
translations, adaptations, and continuations of it formed one of the
staple exercises of a host of medieval scribes.”[570] A glance at the
monastic and academic library catalogues of later date than
mid-thirteenth century will prove more clearly than a shelf full of
books how enormous was the influence of Aristotle. If such a collocation
as the Bible and Shakspere sums up the present-day Englishman’s ideals
of spiritual sustenance and literary power, a similar collocation of the
Bible and Aristotle would sum up, with a greater approach to truth, the
ideals of the medieval schoolman. Popularity fell to _Piers Plowman_.
Apart from the large currency given to it by ballad singers, many
manuscripts were in existence, for even now forty-five of them, more or
less complete, remain. As M. Jusserand aptly remarks: “This figure is
the more remarkable when we consider that, contrary to works written in
Latin or in French, Langland’s book was not copied and preserved outside
his own country.”[571] Again, but a few years after the writing of the
_Canterbury Tales_, a copy of it was bequeathed, among other books, by a
clerk named Richard Sotheworth of East Hendred, Berks (1417).[572] The
impression is left upon one’s mind that this work had found its way
quickly and in many copies into country places.
But as only a few books had a comparatively large circulation, these few
had a disproportionately powerful influence. The Bible was paramount.
Aristotle dominated the whole mental horizon of the schoolmen. Alfred of
Beverley tells us that Geoffrey of Monmouth’s book “was so universally
talked of that to confess ignorance of its stories was the mark of a
clown.”[573] So great was the influence of _Piers Plowman_, that from it
were taken watchwords at the great rising of the peasants.[574] The
power of such works could not be wholly hemmed in by the barrier of
manuscript: like a spring torrent it would burst forth and carry all
before it. In the manuscript period a book of great originality and
power, or a work which reproduced the thought of the time accurately and
with spirit, ran no great risk of being passed over and forgotten; too
little was produced for much that was good to be lost. It was copied
once and again; became very slowly but very surely known to a few, then
to many; and all the time waxed more and more influential in its
teaching. The growth was slow, but then the lifetime was long. Now the
chance of a good book going astray is much greater. What watcher of the
great procession of modern books does not fear that something supremely
fine and great has passed unobserved in the huge, motley crowd?
APPENDIX A
PRICES OF BOOKS AND MATERIALS FOR BOOKMAKING
_Note._--Following is a selection from a large number of prices recorded
in various places. In making the selection I have included books of
various prices. An asterisk (*) before the reference signifies that
additional prices will be found in the same place.
_These prices must be multiplied at least ten times before the value set
upon books in the Middle Ages can be compared with the value set upon
them to-day._
----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------
DATE | DESCRIPTION | PRICE
----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------
| BIBLES |
1344 | Bible for Merton College | £3
| Rogers, i. 646 |
1354-74 | For redeeming a Bible which lay in Langeton |
| chest (1354) | £3
| For a Bible pledged in Chichester chest (1357) | £3
| For a Bible redeemed from Chichester chest (1358) | £3
| For Bible pledged in Winton chest (1358) | £3
| To our barber for a Bible pledged to him in time |
| of John Dagenet | 4 marks.
| _O. H. S._, 27, Boase, xlviii. |
1376 | Bible, small | 12 fr.
| Robinson, 5 |
_c._ 1387 | Bible for New College | £2, 13s. 4d.
| Another | £1, 6s. 8d.
| Another | £1, 0s. 0d.
| _O. H. S._, 32, _Collect._, 220 |
15 c. | Bible, 13 cent., 358 ff., double cols. of 53 |
| lines, in good small hand | 5 marks.
| James^{4}, 1 9 |
1423 | Pro j Biblia, cum ij signaculis deauratis | £6, 13s. 4d.
| _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 76 |
1439 | Bible | £3, 6s. 8d.
| James^{10}, xxiv. |
1444 | Bible | £2, 13s. 0d.
| James^{10}, xxiv. |
1449 | Bible covered with red leather, and having |
| gilded clasps | £6, 13s. 4d.
| _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 110 |
1452 | Bible | £6, 13s. 4d.
| _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 132 |
1471 | Bible, in 5 vols. | £2
| James^{10}, xxiv. |
1473 | Bible bought at Oxford. Now Brit. Mus. MS. |
| Burney 11 | 20s.
| James, 515 |
| MISSALS |
1358 | Missal pledged in Burnel chest | 8s. 4d.
| _O. H. S._, 27, Boase, xlviii. |
1383-4 | Abbot Litlington’s missal |£34, 14s. 7d.
| Robinson, 7-8 |
1449 | Old Missal, de usu Ebor. | 26s. 8d.
| _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 110 |
1452 | Missal, de usu Ebor. | £4, 13s. 4d.
| Old Missal | 10s.
| _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 132-33 |
1459 | A fair mass book | £10
| Rogers, iv. 600 |
1468 | Missal | £4
| _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 163 |
1491 | Missal | 40s.
| _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 161 n. |
1509 | A new masboke couered with white lether and ij |
| longe claspes of latyn | £4
| A little massebooke after the ffrenche use | 3s. 4d.
| _C. A. S._ (N.S.) 8vo ser., iii. 361 |
| BREVIARIES |
1370 | Portiforium | 10s.
| _Cam. Soc._, Bury Wills, 1 |
1395 | Portiforium notatum | 20s.
| Parvum portiforium | 33s. 4d.
| _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 6 |
1400 | Portiforium de usu Sarum | 66s. 8d.
| _Ibid._, 13 |
1449 | Great portiforium de usu Ebor. |£11, 3s. 6d.
| Great portiforium de usu Sarum | 53s. 4d.
| _Ibid._, 110 |
1451 | Portiforium | 6s. 8d.
| _Mun. Acad._, 609 |
1452 | Portiforium de usu Sarum | 53s. 4d.
| Portiforium de usu Ebor. | 53s. 4d.
| Portiforium | 13s. 4d.
| _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 132-33 |
1491 | Portiforium de Ebor. | 43s. 4d.
| _Ibid._, 161n. |
1518 |A little portuos lyinge to plegge in teamce street | 53s. 4d.
| _Reliquary_, vii. 18 |
| PSALTERS |
Before | |
1300 | Psalter, with glosses | 10s.
| Warton, i. 188n. |
1376 | Psalter, glossed | 12 fr.
| Robinson, 6 |
_c._ 1380 | Psalter, glossed | 26s. 8d.
| _O. H. S._, 32, _Collect._, 226 |
1395 | Psalter, in large letters; price 6_s._ 8_d._ |
| sold for | 13s. 4d.
| _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 6 |
1447 | Psalter | 3s. 8d.
| Rogers, iv. 600 |
1449 | Psalter, glossed | 11s.
| _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 110 |
1451 | Psalter, glossed | 6s. 8d.
| _Mun. Acad._, 609 |
1452 | Psalter, glossed | 13s. 4d.
| Illuminated Psalter | 13s. 4d.
| Small Psalter | 6s. 8d.
| _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 132-33 |
1468 | Psalter | 8s. 4d.
| _Ibid._, 163 |
_c._ 1470 | Psalter | 6s. 8d.
| _Paston Letters_, ed. Gairdner, vi. 175-77 |
| ANTIPHONARIES |
_c._ 1420-40| Antiphonary for S. Albans | £6s, 13s. 4d.
| Another | £6
| _Ann. mon. S. Alb. a J. Amund._, ii. 256-71 |
1459 | 2 new great antiphons | £13, 6s. 8d.
| Rogers, iv. 600 |
1491 | Antiphonary [with musical notation] | 33s. 4d.
| _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 161 n. |
1509 | A grete antyphoner in parchement with legent |
| couered with white lether with ij long claspes of |
| latyn | £8
| An olde litle antyphoner withoute couer and |
| claspes | 3s. 4d.
| _C. A. S._ (N.S.), 8vo ser., iii. 361 |
| PROCESSIONALS |
1449 | 20 new Processionals for All Souls College | £5, 13s. 4d.
| Rogers, iv. 600 |
1509 | A Processionall noted [with musical notation] |
| couered with Tawny lether and ij long claspes | 26s. 8d.
| A processionall couered with Tawny lether with |
| oon claspe | 5s.
| _C. A. S._ (N.S.), iii. 361 |
| MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS |
_c._ 690 | Land sufficient for 8 families exchanged for a book |
| on cosmography, of admirable workmanship. |
| _Vitæ Abb._ § 15 |
1174 | Bede’s _Homilies_ and S. Austin’s Psalter exchanged |
| for 12 measures of barley and a pall, on which |
| was embroidered in silver the history of |
| S. Birinus converting a Saxon king. |
| Warton, i. 186 |
Before | |
1300 | Historia Scholastica [Peter Comestor], [Cf. 1452.] | £1
| Concordance | 10s.
| Four greater prophets, with glosses | 5s.
| *Warton, i. 188n. |
1300 | Book of Decretals | 3s.
| *Stevenson, _Hist. of Ely_ |
1306 | A school book | 2d.
| Rogers, i. 645-56 |
1322 | Liber gardanarum | £3, 6s. 8d.
| Rogers, i. 646 |
1357 | For book on Prophets and the third part of |
| Thomas Aquinas (tertia pars Summae), pledged |
| in Tykeford chest | 13s. 4d.
| _O. H. S._, 27, Boase, xlviii. |
_c._ 1360 | La Bible Hystoriaus, ou Les Histories escolastres. |
| B.M. Reg. 19 D ii. Taken from King of |
| France at Poitiers; bought by Wm. Montagu, |
| for | 100 marks.
| Ordered to be sold by the Last will of his |
| Countess Elizabeth for | 40 livres.
| Warton, i. 187 |
1376 | Dictionary in 3 volumes | 200 francs.
| Gospels glossed in 1 volume | 15 francs.
| N. de Lyra on the Gospels and the Epistles of Paul | 37½ francs.
| Quodlibeta of Herveus Natalis Brito | 3 francs.
| Milleloquium Augustini [anthology of S. Augustine |
| by Bartholomew of Urbino] | 80 francs.
| Augustine, super psalterium abbreviatus cum |
| septem quaternis non ligatis | 1 franc.
| N. de Lyra, third part | 37½ francs.
| Small concordance | 1 franc.
| Speculum Historiale, first part, by Vincent of |
| Beauvais | 50 francs.
| Augustine, de Civitate Dei | 12 francs.
| Lombard’s Sentences. [Cf. 1423, 1452.] | 6 francs.
| Boëthius, de Consolatione philosophiae, cum aliis. | 10 francs.
| Summa Hostiensis [one of the chief books on |
| canon law]. [Cf. 1380.] | 20 francs.
1376 | Cronica Martiniana, by Martinus Polonus; Bede, |
| de Gestis Anglorum; Life of S. Thomas, in |
| 1 volume | 10 francs.
| Anselm, de Similitudinibus | 2 francs.
| *Robinson, 5-7 |
1378 | Wylliott’s book on natural philosophy | £3, 6s. 8d.
| Rogers, i. 646 |
1379 | 11 quires of Bacon’s Mathematics | 5s. 6d.
| Rogers, i. 646 |
_c._ 1380 | Lectura T. Alquini super 410 sententiarum | 10s.
| Evangelium Johannis et Apocalypsis glosatum | 20s.
| Concordantiae Bibliae | 8s.
| Sermones veteres | 3s. 4d.
| Sermones N. Gorham de communi sanctorum | 5s.
| Liber Genesis glosatus | 20s.
| Legenda Aurea | 20s.
| Augustine, de Civitate Dei | 53s. 4d.
| Haymo super epistolas Pauli | 100s.
| Evangelium Mathaei | 2s.
| “ Johannis glos. | 3s. 4d.
| Biblia versificata | 5s.
| Quaternus sermonum | 2s. 6d.
| Epistolae Sidonii, in quaterno | 12d.
| Albertus Magnus, de vegetabilibus et plantis cum |
| multis aliis | 53s. 4d.
| Textus Metha[physi]cae | 10s.
| Commentator super libros caeli et mundi | 5s.
| Liber de Anima, continens 3 libros cum aliis | 3d.
| Textus naturalis philosophiae | 16s.
| “ | 13s. 4d.
| “ | 13s. 4d.
| Tractatus de Animalibus | 4s.
| Liber Decretalium non glosatus | 3s. 4d.
| Liber Decretalium | 16s. 8d.
| Summa Hostiensis. [Cf. 1376.] |£4, 13s. 4d.
| Liber Sextus decretalium. [Cf. 1423, 1445, |
| 1451.] | 75s.
| Codex. [Cf. 1423.] | 31s. 4d.
| Liber inforciatus. [Cf. 1423, 1445.] | 20s.
| Digestum vetus. [Cf. 1423.] | 5s.
| _O. H. S._, 32, _Collect._, 224-41 |
1389 | Problems of Aristotle for Exeter College | £4
| Boëthius, De Disciplina Scholarum, and De |
| Consolatione philosophiæ | 5 marks.
| _O. H. S._, 27, Boase, xxxvi. |
1394 | Parchment for 4 choir books, and writing them |£11, 13s. 3d.
| _Surtees Soc._, xxxv. 130 |
_c._ 1394 | Writing, illuminating and other expenses of a |
| primer, given to the Lady Queen of Castile, |
| _i.e._ Constance, 2nd wife of John of Gaunt | 63s. 6d.
| _C. A. S._ (N.S.), iii. 401 |
1395 | Cronica Martiniana, cum aliis. |
| Priced 3_s._ 4_d._, sold for [Cf. price in 1376] | 3s. 4d.
| Libellus cum causa T. Cantuariensis, et aliis. |
| Priced 2_s._, sold for | 3s. 4d.
| Repertorium Willelmi Durand. |
| Priced 6_s._ 8_d._, not sold | 6s. 8d.
| William de Mandagoto de Electionibus. Priced |
| 5_s._, sold for | 6s. 8d.
| Constitutions of Ottobonus, cum aliis. Priced |
| 18_d._, not sold | 18d.
| Petrus de Formâ dictandi, quire. Priced 2_s._, |
| not sold [Cf. 1443] | 2s.
| Bernard, Meditationes, cum aliis 5_s._, |
| sold for | 6s.
| Mandeville on paper, in French. 2_s._, not sold | 2s.
| Quire, de Arte dictandi, with letters of Peter of |
| Blois. 2_s._, not sold | 2s.
| Textus Clementinarum [Decretals of Clement] |
| 12_d._, not sold | 12d.
| Brut in French. 2_s._, not sold | 2s.
| _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 6 |
1397 | Vellum for 6 Processionals, and writing, noting |
| (notatio, musical notation), illuminating and |
| binding them | 73s. 4d.
| _Surtees Soc._, vii. xxvi.-vii. n. |
15 c. | Liber Scintillarum | 2s.
| Augustine on John | 10 marks.
| _C. A. S._ (N.S.), iii. 403 |
15 c. | For 39 quires parchment at vi_d._=xx_s._ |
| vi_d._ (_sic_) | 19s. 6d.
| For writing same at xx_d._ quire | 65s.
| For illuminating | 12d.
| For binding | 2s. 6d.
| Summa | £4, 8s. 0d.
| James^{3}, 105 |
15 c. | 27 quires parchment at iii_d._ | 6s. 9d.
| For writing same at 16_d._ | 36s.
| Illumination | 8d.
| Binding | 2s.
| Summa | 45s. 5d.
| _Ibid._, 128 |
15 c. |27 quires and 6 fo. parchment at iii_d._ | 6s. 9d.
|For writing same at 16_d._ | 36s.
|Illumination | 6d.
|Binding | 2s.
|Total | 45s. 3d.
| _Ibid._, 133|
15 c. |33 quires parchment | 8s. 3d.
|For writing same at 16_d._ | 44s.
|Illumination | 12d.
|Binding | 2s.
|Total | 55s. 3d.
| _Ibid._, 169|
15 c. |29 quires parchment at iii_d._ | 7s. 3d.
|For writing same at 16_d._ | 38s. 8d.
|Illumination | 12d.
|Binding | 2s.
|Total | 48s. 11d.
| _Ibid._, 226|
15 c. | Antonius Andreas, super Metaphysica, etc., 153ff., |
| on paper | 13s. 4d.
| James^{3}, 290|
1400 |John of Meun’s Roman de la Rose, sold before |
| the palace gate at Paris | £33, 6s. 6d.
| Warton, i. 187|
1400 |Tabula Martiniana | 3s. 4d.
|Gradual, de usu Ebor. | 40s.
|Catholicon. [Cf. 1452.] | £4, 10s. 0d.
| *_Surtees Soc._, xlv. 13|
1414 |For mending one old mass book almost worn out; |
| for parchment and new writing in divers parts |
| and for the binding and new clasps, and a skin |
| to cover the book | 11s. 2d.
| _Archæologia_, lvii. 208-9|
1420-40 |Three books given to the Duke of Gloucester, |
| Cato glossed, and two books of Abbot Whethamstede’s|
| own composition | £10
|Book of astronomy, given to the Duke of Bedford | £3, 6s. 8d.
|Boëthius, de Consolatione philosophiae, glossed | £5
|Holkot, super Sapiéntiam Salomonis | 13s. 4d.
|Holkot, Sermons | £3, 6s. 8d.
|Thos. Netter of Walden and Wm. Wodeford |
| against Wyclif. 2 vols. | £6, 13s. 4d.
|*_Ann. mon S. Alb. a J. Amund._ ii. 256, 259, 268-71.|
1420-40 |Alan de Lisle’s Anticlaudianus, cum quaestionibus |
| in eodem | 13s. 4d.
| Unus parvus libellulus, cum metris et tabulis |
| diversis | 13s. 4d.
| * _Ann. mon S. Alb. a J. Amund._ ii. 256, |
| 259, 268-71. |
1423 | Magister Sententiarum. [Cf. 1376, 1452.] | 16s.
| Concordance | 20s.
| Gregory’s Pastoral care | 4s.
| Anselm, Cur Deus homo. [Cf. 1451.] | 10s.
| Archdeacon Guido de Baysio’s Rosarium | 40s.
| Liber Sextus Decretalium. [Cf. 1380, 1445, 1451.] | 40s.
| Digestum Inforciatum. [Cf. 1380, 1445.] | 13s. 4d.
| Digestum vetus. [Cf. 1380.] | 13_s._ 4_d._
| Codex. [Cf. 1380.] |£1, 6_s._ 8_d._
| _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 76 |
1432 | Dr. Thomas Gascoigne gave 6 books to Lincoln |
| College, value | £17, 10s.
| Clark, _Linc. Coll._ (Coll. Hist.) |
1438 | Thomas Aquinas super primum Sententiarum | £1
| Thomas Aquinas in secundum Sententiarum | £1, 6s. 8d.
| James^{10}, xxiv. |
1441 | Tabula super Senecam et Boetium de Consolat. et |
| de disciplina scholarium | 1s. 8d.
| James^{10}, xxiv. |
1442 | One part of Lyra | £3, 6s. 8d.
| James^{10}, xxiv. |
1443 | 27 volumes bought from John Paston’s Exors. for |
| King’s Hall, Cambridge. | £8, 17s. 4d.
1443 | For an old book, Postillae super Lucam | 2s.
| James^{10}, xxiv. |
1443 | Petrus de formâ dictandi. [Cf. 1395.] | 1s. 8d.
| _Mun. Acad._, 532 |
1445 | Book of philosophy, cum tractatibus Alberti | 13s. 4d.
| James^{10}, xxiv. |
1445 | Liber Sextus Decretalium, pledged for. [Cf. 1380, | £1, et ob.
| 1423, 1451.] |
| Digestum Inforciatum, pledged for. [Cf. 1380, | 3s. 4d.
| 1423.] |
| * _Mun. Acad._, 543 |
1449 | Cicero, Rhetoric | 3s. 4d.
| James^{10}, xxiv. |
1451 | Petrus de Palude [? in Sententiis] | 2s.
| Epistles of Seneca ad Lucilium | 2s.
| Gregory’s Sermons | 6s. 8d.
| Plato, Timaeus | 6d.
| Digestum vetus. [Cf. 1380, 1423] | 4s.
| Liber Sextus Decretalium, cum glossa cardinali. |
| [Cf. 1380, 1445, 1423.] | 5s.
| Codex. [Cf. 1423.] | 4s.
| Bernardus Parmensis de Botone, Casus longus | 5s.
| Martial | 1s.
| Anselm, Cur Deus homo. [Cf. 1423.] | 2s. 4d.
| Decretals of Clement | 3s. 4d.
| Vetus liber Decretalium | 1s. 4d.
| * _Mun. Acad._, 609 |
1452 | Isidore, Etymologies; Bede, Historia |
| Ecclesiastica | 30s.
| Augustine, de spiritu et anima, with |
| the Meditations of S. Bernard, and many |
| other contents | 40s.
| Guillelmus Parisiensis de virtutibus | 20s.
| Bartholomeus Anglicus [Bartholomew de Glanville] |
| de proprietatibus rerum | 6s. 8d.
| Pupilla oculi. [There were several books of this |
| title.] | 20s.
| Catholicon. [Cf. 1400.] | £4
| Polichronica | 20s.
| Historia Scholastica. [Cf. bef. 1300.] | 5s.
| Lombard’s Sentences. [Cf. 1376, 1423.] | 16s.
| * _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 132-3 |
1453 | Book by Wyclif | 7s. 6d.
| Book against Wyclif | 3s. 6d.
| More’s book on Wyclif and other books | £2, 2s. 0d.
| Rogers, iv. 600 |
1455 | Nicolaus de Gorham super Psalterium, pledged |
| for | £1, 6s. 8d.
| James^{10}, xxiv. |
1455 | Gregory the Great’s Works, 157 leaves | £3, 6s. 8d.
| _Library_ (N. S.), viii. 172 |
1456 | Avicenna, redeemed for | £1, 6s. 4d.
| James^{10}, xxiv. |
1457 | Aegidius super Physica | 16s. 8d.
| James^{10}, xxiv. |
1457 | Aristotle de animalibus | 5s. 6d.
| James^{10}, xxiv. |
1459 | A Holy Legend | £10
| Rogers, iv. 600 |
1462 | Aristotle, Rhetor. Polit., etc. | 8s. 5d.
| James^{10}, xxiv. |
1462 | Map of the world, bought for New College | £5
| Rogers, iv. 600 |
1467 | Cicero, de Officiis and Ambrosius super eodem | 6s.
| James^{10}, xxiv. |
_c._ 1468 | S. Augustine’s Epistles | £1, 13s. 4d.
| _Library_ (N.S.), viii. 172 |
1468 | Richard Rolle’s Meditatio de passione domini | 4d.
| *_Surtees Soc._, xlv. 163 |
1469 | Jerome’s Epistles | £1
| James^{10}, xxiv. |
1469 | Vellum, writing, correcting, illuminating, and |
| binding a Lectionary in redskin, and cleaning |
| the book | 64s. 3d.
| _Library_, ii. (1890), 243 |
_c._ 1470 | iij bokes of soffistre | 1s. 8d.
| A red boke with Hugucio and Papie | £1
| A boke of Seynt Thomas de Veritatibus | 10s.
| 1 boke of xij chapetyrs of Lyncoln, |
| and a boke of Safistre | 10s.
| 1 premere (primer?) | 2s.
| * Gairdner, _Paston Letters_, vi. 175, 177 |
1472 | Thomas Aquinas, Tabula on works | 5s. 4d.
| James^{10}, xxv. |
1481 | Alexander Aphrodisaeus, super libros de Anima | £1, 13s. 4d.
| Rogers, iv. 600-1 |
1502 | Hugo de Vienna’s works in 7 volumes [printed] | £2, 6s. 4d.
| Rogers, iv. 600-1 |
1509 | A printed legende in paper de usu Saris coueryd |
| with white lether with ij short claspes of latyn | 3s. 4d.
| _C. A. S._ (N.S.), 8vo ser., iii. 361 |
1509 | A graile couered with white lether with ij long |
| claspes | £4, 6s. 8d.
| A graile couered with white lether having ij |
| longe claspes | 53s. 4d.
| A prikesong boke in parchement | 13s. 4d.
| _C. A. S._ (N.S.), 8vo ser., iii. 361 |
_c._ 1525 | Cicero, de Officiis, bought by Thos. Linacre; |
| now B. M. Reg. 15 A vi. | 8d.
| James, 519 |
1531 | 4 hymnaria for the quire at ⅓ | 5s.
| Rogers, i. 600-1 |
1538 | 1 Statutes of the Kingdom | 14s.
| Polydore Vergil’s history | 6s. 8d.
| Rogers, i. 600-1 |
1539 | Giorgio della Valle [? Aristotle’s Poetics] | 10s.
| Rogers, iv. 600-1 |
1540 | Map of the World | 4s. 0d.
| Suidas in Greek [? printed ed. 1499] | £1, 12s. 0d.
| Erasmus on New Testament | 9s.
| Rogers, iv. 600-1 |
1542 | Theophylact and Eustathius [? printed ed. 1542] | £2, 2s. 0d.
| Epiphanius | 8s.
| Rogers, iv. 600-1 |
| Parchment for, writing, rubrishing and binding a |
| book called “Domyltone,” also rubrishing |
| Heytesbury’s Sophismata. [“Domyltone” was |
| perhaps one of John of Dumbleton’s books] | 15s. 4½d.
| _Hist. MSS._, 2nd Rept., App. 129; |
| _Bibliographica_, iii. 148 |
| _Note._--Many prices of books at Winchester |
| College, temp. Henry VI will be found in |
| _Archæol. Jour._ xv. (1858) 62-74. |
| WRITING |
1346 | For writing a Psalter with Kalendar | 5s. 6d.
| And a “placebo et dirige cum ympnario et |
| collectario” | 4s. 3d.
| _Surtees Soc._, xxxv. 165 |
1383-4 | For writing Abbot Litlington’s Missal during |
| two years | £4
| Robinson, 7-8 |
1383-4 | Livery for the scribe | 20s.
| For writing notes (musical notation) in Abbot |
| Litlington’s Missal | 3s. 4d.
| Robinson, 7-8 |
1393 | Writing 2 Graduals | £4, 6s. 8d.
| _Surtees Soc._, xxxv. 130 |
1397 | For writing a Legenda of 34 “quires” | 72s.
| _Surtees Soc._, vii. xxvi-xxvii n. |
15c. | Writing 25 quires at 16d. | 33s. 4d.
| James^{3}, 234 |
? 15 c. | Writing per quire. | 16d.
| _C. A. S._ (N.S.), iii. 398 |
1430 | N. de Lyra transcribed | 100 marks
| Warton, i. 187 n. |
1467 | Item, for wrytynge of a quare and demi ... prise |
| the quayr, xx_d._ | 2s. 6d.
| Item, for wrytenge of a calendar | 12d.
| Item, for notynge (musical notation) of v. |
| quayres and ij leves, prise of the |
| quayr, viij[_d._] | 3s. 7d.
| Gairdner, _Paston Letters_, v. 4 |
1469 | For writing a “litill booke of Pheesyk” | 2d.
| For writing “the tretys of Werre in iiij books, |
| which conteyneth lx levis aftir ij_d._ a leaff” | 10s.
| For writing “De Regimine Principum, which |
| conteyneth xlv^{ti} leves, aftir a peny a leef, |
| which is right wele worth” | 3s. 9d.
| *Gairdner, _Paston Letters_, v. 2-4 |
1469 | For writing a Lectionary of 18 quires and 9 skins | 28s. 4d.
| _Library_, ii. (1890) 243 |
| ILLUMINATING |
1374 | Church of Norwich paid for illuminating a |
| Graduale and Consuetudinary | £22, 9s.
| Merryweather, 36n. |
1383-4 | For illumination of the large letters in Abbot |
| Litlington’s Missal | £22, 0s. 3d.
| Robinson, 7-8 |
1393 | Illuminating 2 graduals | £2
| _Surtees Soc._, xxxv. 130 |
1395 | Illuminating 3 graduals | £2
| _Surtees Soc._, xxxv. 130 |
1397 | Illuminating and binding Legenda of 34 “quires” | 30s.
| _Surtees Soc._, vii. xxvi-xxvii n. |
1445 | Yearly wages of an illuminator at Oxford, four |
| marks, ten shillings |
| _Mun. Acad._, 551 |
1467 | Sir John Howard paid Thomas Lympnour of |
| Bury St. Edmunds for illuminating, and other |
| work |
| For viij. hole vynets [or small miniatures] |
| prise the vynett, xij_d_ | 8s.
| Item, for xxj. demi-vynets ... prise the |
| demi-vynett, iiij_d._ | 7s.
| Item, for Psalmes lettres xv^{c} and di’ ... the |
| prise of C. iiij_d._ [_I.e._, 1550 at 4_d._ |
| a hundred] | 5s. 2d.
| Item, for p’ms letters lxiij^{c} ... prise of a |
| C., j_d._ | 5s. 3d.
| Item, for floryshynge of capytalls, v^{c} | 5d.
| Gairdner, _Paston Letters_, v. 4 |
1469 | For rubrishing a book | 3s. 4d.
| Gairdner, _Paston Letters_, v. 4 |
1469 | Illuminating a Lectionary | 13s. 6d.
| _Library_, ii. (1890) 243 |
| BINDING |
1383-4 | Binding Abbot Litlington’s Missal | 21s.
| Robinson, 7-8 |
1384-5 | Covering a great Portiforium | 3s. 2d.
| Covering a book and making three silver clasps | 5s. 8d.
| Robinson, 8 |
1392 | Binding seven books | 4s. 0d.
| _O. H. S_., 27, Boase, xlviii. |
1395 | Binding large gradual (York Cathedral) | 10s.
| _Surtees Soc._, xxxv. 130 |
? 15c. | Binding (in white skin over wooden boards) | 2s.
| _C. A. S._ (N.S.), iii. 398 |
1412-13 | Stitching 67 books at 1½_d._ a book, with |
| 13_d._ in addition | 9s. 5½d.
| Stitching covers of 52 books at 1_d._ | 4s. 4d.
| _C. A. S._ (N.S.), iv. 300-3 |
1428 | Binding Bible in 2 vols. | 5s. 3d.
| Rogers, iv. 600 |
1467 | Item, for byndynge of the boke [a Psalter or |
| other liturgical book] | 12s.
| Gairdner, _Paston Letters_, v. 4 |
1469 | Binding a Lectionary in redskin, and correcting |
| the book | 5s. 5d.
| _Library_, ii. (1890) 243 |
| _Note._--For many prices for binding, |
| repairing, and chaining books, see |
| Bibliographical Society’s Monograph 13, |
| p. 18-19. |
----------+-----------------------------------------------------+-----------
MATERIALS
A very large number of prices of vellum and parchment might be quoted.
These will suffice: (1301) vellum per skin, 1¼d.; (1312-13) 6 doz.
parchment, 8s. 8d.; (1358-59) 2 doz. parchment, 6s.; (1359-60) 2½
doz. parchment, 7s. 6d.; (1383-84) 13 doz. vellum, £4, 6s. 8d.; (1395)
12 parchment skins, 5s. 0d.; (1397) vellum per dozen skins, 4s. 6d.;
(1412-13) vellum cost a dozen skins 2s. 10d.; (1412-13) 9 skins of
parchment 13½d., and 6 skins of parchment, 16d.; (1467) 3 quires of
vellum, 5s.; 17 quires for a Lectionary, 10s. 6d.
Skins for binding were sold in (1395) 1 deerskin, 3s. 2d.; (1397) 6
deerskins for processionals, 13s. 4d; (1412-13) 97 calfskins @ 4d. a
skin, 82 sheepskins @ 3d., 3 sheepskins for 5d., 12 redskins @ 6d.;
(1469) 1 redskin, 5d.
APPENDIX B
LIST OF CERTAIN CLASSIC AUTHORS FOUND IN MEDIEVAL CATALOGUES
This list is brief, but it should be long enough to show clearly what
Greek and Latin authors were read in the Middle Ages, and to indicate
roughly their comparative popularity. A note has been made of only one
copy of a work found at a particular place at a certain time; often
there were duplicates, sometimes many copies: for example, consult
Appendix C, under date _c._ 1170.
The following abbreviations are used: August. Fr. York = Augustinian
Friary, York; C. U. L. = Cambridge University Library; Cant. Coll. =
Canterbury College, Oxford; Ch. Ch. C. = Christ Church, Canterbury;
Durh. = Durham Priory; Lanthony = Lanthony Priory, nr. Gloucester; Ox.
U. L. = Oxford University Library; S. Cath. H. = S. Catharine’s College;
Rochester = S. Andrew’s Priory, Rochester; S. Aug. C. = S. Augustine’s
Monastery, Canterbury; S. Mart. Dov. = S. Martin’s Priory, Dover. Other
abbreviations are self-explanatory.
AESCHINES.--_Orations_ (1443, Ox. U. L.).
ARISTOTLE.--(8 cent., York; 1248, Glastonbury; 1315, Durh.; _c._
1387, New Coll.; 1418, Peterhouse). _Organon_ (_c._ 1170, Ch. Ch.
C.; 1202, Rochester; _c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.; 1372, August. Fr. York;
_c._ 1385, Pembr. Coll.; 1389, S. Mart. Dov.; 1391 and 1395, Durh.;
1435 and 1473, C. U. L.; 1452, King’s Coll. Camb.; _c._ 1497, S.
Aug. C.; 1524, Cant. Coll.; _c._ 1526, Syon). _Topica_ (bef. 13
cent., Reading; 1372, August. Fr. York; 1387, Exeter Coll.; 1448,
Hospital of S. Mary within Cripplegate, London). _De Sophisticis
elenchis_ (bef. 13 cent., Reading). _Natural sciences_ (1274,
Peterborough; _c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.; 14 cent., Ramsey; 1435 and
1473, C. U. L.; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C., _de nova translacione_;
1524, Cant. Coll.; _c._ 1526, Syon). _Physica_ (_c._ 1300, Ch. Ch.
C.; 14 cent., Ramsey; 1372, August. Fr. York; 1391 and 1395, Durh.;
1435, C. U. L.; 1452, King’s Coll. Camb.; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.;
1508, Ch. Ch. C.; 1524, Cant. Coll.). _Meteorologica_ (1435 and
1473, C. U. L.). _Historia animalium_ (_c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C., _de
animalibus_; 1372, August. Fr. York, _de animalibus_; 1389, S.
Mart. Dov., _de natura animalium_; 1473, C. U. L.; 1520, Wm.
Grocyn, _de animalibus_). _De generatione animalium_ (_c._ 1300,
Ch. Ch. C.; 1443, Ox. U. L.). _De anima_ (_c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.;
1372, August. Fr. York; 1439, Ox. U. L.; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.;
1524, Cant. Coll.; _c._ 1526, Syon). _Metaphysica_ (_c._ 1300, Ch.
Ch. C.; 1372, August. Fr. York; 1452, King’s Coll. Camb.; 1473, C.
U. L.; 1487, Pembr. Coll.; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.; 1524, Cant.
Coll.; _c._ 1526, Syon). _Ethica_ (_c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.; 1372,
August. Fr. York; 1387, Exeter Coll.; 1391, Durh.; 1428, Pembr.
Coll.; 1439, Ox. U. L.; 1452, King’s Coll. Camb.; 1473, C. U. L.;
1475, S. Cath. H.; 1487, Pembr. Coll.; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.; 1508,
Ch. Ch. C.; 1524, Cant. Coll., _noviter translatus_; _c._ 1526,
Syon). _Magna Moralia_ (1487, Pembr. Coll.; _c._ 1526, Syon).
_Politica_ (_c._ 1428, Pembr. Coll.; 1439, Ox. U. L.; 1452, King’s
Coll. Camb.; 1487, Pembr. Coll.; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.; 1508, Ch.
Ch. C.; 1524, Cant. Coll.; _c._ 1526, Syon). _Rhetorica_ (_c._
1300, Ch. Ch. C.; 1372, August. Fr. York; 1475, S. Cath. H.; 1487,
Pembr. Coll.; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.; 1508, Ch. Ch. C.; 1524, Cant.
Coll.; _c._ 1526, Syon). _Problemata_ (1435 and 1473, C. U. L.;
1520, Wm. Grocyn; _c._ 1526, Syon). _Oeconomica_ (1372, August. Fr.
York).
CAESAR.--_Commentaries_ (1443, Ox. U. L.; 1452, King’s Coll. Camb.;
1520, Wm. Grocyn).
CICERO.--(8 cent., York; 1439, Ox. U. L., _Opera viginti duo in
magno volumine_; 1520, Wm. Grocyn, _Opera omnia_). _Epistolae_
(1480, Bp. Shirwood; 1498, Coll. of Bishop Auckland; 1524, Cant.
Coll.; 1439, Ox. U. L., 1520, Wm. Grocyn, and _c._ 1526, Syon, _ad
familiares_; 1439, Ox. U. L., _ad Quintum_). _Orationes_ (beg. 14
cent., Lanthony, _in Catilinam_; 1439, Ox. U. L.; 1474, Bp.
Shirwood; 1478, Balliol Coll.; 1500, Jesus Coll., Rotherham; 1520,
Wm. Grocyn; 1372, August. Fr. York, _Tullii invectivarum_; 1391,
Durh.; 1439, Ox. U. L.; and 1520, Wm. Grocyn, _Philippics_; 1439,
Ox. U. L., _in Verrem_). _De Senectute_ (_c._ 1170, Ch. Ch. C.;
1180, Whitby; 12 cent., Durh.; 1217-18, Evesham; 1248, Glastonbury;
_c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.; _c._ 1400, Meaux; 1418, Peterhouse; _c._
1497, S. Aug. C.; _c._ 1526, Syon. Frequently found). _De Legibus_
(12 cent., Durh.). _De Officiis_ (1202, Rochester; beg. 14 cent.,
Lanthony; _c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.; 1372, August. Fr. York; 1418,
Peterhouse; 1439, Ox. U. L.; 1475, S. Cath. H.; _c._ 1497, S. Aug.
C.; _c._ 1526, Syon). _De Republica_ (_Somnium Scipionis_ (_c._
1300, Ch. Ch. C.; 14 cent., Ramsey; 1418, Peterhouse;? 1482,
Leicester; _c._ 1526, Syon). _De Amicitia_ (_c._ 1170, Ch. Ch. C.;
1180, Whitby; 1195, Durh.; 1217-18, Evesham; 1248, Glastonbury;
beg. 14 cent., Lanthony; _c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.; 1372, August. Fr.
York; 1391, Durh.; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.; _c._ 1526, Syon--one of
the commonest of classic works in the M.A.). _Paradoxa_ (1217-18,
Evesham; _c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.; 1391, Durh.; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.;
_c._ 1526, Syon). _Tusculanae disputationes_ (beg. 14 cent.,
Lanthony; 1418, Peterhouse; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.; 1524, Cant.
Coll.; 1526, Syon). _De Inventione_ (_Rhetorica_) (_c._ 1170, Ch.
Ch. C.; 12 or 13 cent., Bury; 1372, August. Fr. York; 1391, Durh.;
1439, Ox. U. L.; 1452, King’s Coll. Camb.; 1458, S. Paul’s; 1473,
C. U. L.;? 1482, Leicester; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.; 1524, Cant.
Coll.; _c._ 1526, Syon, _nova rhetorica_). _De Oratore_ (1477, Bp.
Shirwood). _Topica_ (_c._ 1170, Ch. Ch. C.; _c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.).
_De Natura Deorum_ (_c._ 1526, Syon). _De Finibus_ (1472, Bp.
Shirwood).
GELLIUS.--_Noctes Atticae_ (_c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.; 1391, Durh.;
1439, Ox. U. L.; 1476, Bp. Shirwood; 1520, Wm. Grocyn; _c._ 1526,
Syon).
“HOMER.”--(12 cent., Durh.; 1180, Whitby). _Iliad_ (_c._ 1526,
Syon).
HORACE.--(_c._ 1170, Ch. Ch. C.; 12 or 13 cent., Bury; bef. 13
cent., Reading; 1202, Rochester; 1248, Glastonbury; beg. 14 cent.,
Lanthony; 14 cent., Ramsey; 1372, August. Fr. York; 1452, King’s
Coll. Camb.; _c._ 1480, Bp. Shirwood;? 1482, Leicester; _c._ 1497,
S. Aug. C.; 1500, Jesus Coll., Rotherham; _c._ 1526, Syon).
_Epistles_ (bef. 13 cent., Reading; 1372, August. Fr. York; 1389,
S. Mart. Dov.).
JUVENAL.--_c._ 1170, Ch. Ch. C.; 1180, Whitby; 12 cent., Durh.; 12
or 13 cent., Bury; bef. 13 cent., Reading; 1217-18, Evesham; 1248,
Glastonbury; 1372, August. Fr. York; 1389, S. Mart. Dov.; 1391,
Durh.; 1487, Bp. Shirwood; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.; 1520, Wm. Grocyn;
_c._ 1526, Syon.
LIVY.--(1248, Glastonbury; _c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.; 1443, Ox. U. L.;
1475, Bp. Shirwood; 1508, Ch. Ch. C.; 1520, Wm. Grocyn; _c._ 1526,
Syon, epitome by Florus).
LUCAN.--(8 cent., York; _c._ 1170, Ch. Ch. C.; 12 cent., Durh.;
1202, Rochester; 1217-18, Evesham; _c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.; beg. 14
cent., Lanthony; 14 cent., Ramsey; 1389, S. Mart. Dov.; 1418,
Peterhouse; 1473, C. U. L.;? 1482, Leicester; _c._ 1497, S. Aug.
C.; 1524, Cant. Coll.; _c._ 1526, Syon).
LUCRETIUS.--_De Rerum natura_ (1520, Wm. Grocyn).
MARTIAL.--(12 cent., Peterboro’; 14 cent., Ramsey; _c._ 1300, Ch.
Ch. C.; 1372, August. Fr. York, _Epigrammata marcii valerii, libri
15_; _c._ 1400, Meaux; 1418, Peterhouse; 1451, Henry Calder, vicar
of Cookfield; 1476, Bp. Shirwood).
OVID.--(_c._ 1170, Ch. Ch. C.; 12 cent., Durh.; beg. 14 cent.,
Lanthony; 1202, Rochester, _Ovidius magnus_; 14 cent., Ramsey; _c._
1300, Ch. Ch. C.;? 1482, Leicester). _Ars amatoria_ (12 cent.,
Durh.; 1372, August. Fr. York; 1500, Jesus Coll., Rotherham).
_Remedia Amoris_ (12 cent., Durh.; 1372, August. Fr. York; 1438, T.
Cooper, a scholar of Oxford; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.; 1500, Jesus
Coll., Rotherham). _Mendicamina faciei_ (_c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.).
_Metamorphoses_ (1372, August. Fr. York; 1389, S. Mart. Dov.; 1443,
Ox. U. L.; 1452, King’s Coll. Camb.; 1470, Pembr. Coll.; 1473, C.
U. L.;? 1482, Leicester, _de mirabilibus mundi_; _c._ 1497, S.
Aug. C.; 1500, Jesus Coll., Rotherham; _c._ 1526, Syon). _Fasti_
(12 cent., Durh.; 1202, Rochester; 1372, August. Fr. York; 1389, S.
Mart. Durh.; 1418, Peterhouse; 1443, Ox. U. L.). _Tristia_ (_c._
1170, Ch. Ch. C.; 12 cent., Durh.; 1372, August. Fr. York; 1389, S.
Mart. Dov.; 1418, Peterhouse; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.). _Ibis_ (_c._
1170, Ch. Ch. C.; 12 cent., Durh.; 1372, August. Fr. York; _c._
1400, Meaux; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.). _Heroides_ (1372, August. Fr.
York). _Ex Ponto_ (_c._ 1170, Ch. Ch. C.; 12 cent., Durh.; 1372,
August. Fr. York; 1391, Durh.; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.).
PERSIUS--(_c._ 1170, Ch. Ch. C.; 1180, Whitby; 12 cent., Durh.;
1202, Rochester; 1248, Glastonbury; beg. 14 cent., Lanthony; 1520,
Wm. Grocyn).
PLATO--(1180, Whitby; bef. 13 cent., Reading; _c._ 1300, Ch. Ch.
C.; 1389, S. Mart. Dov.; 1439, Ox. U. L.;? 1482, Leicester; _c._
1526, Syon). _Timaeus_ (_c._ 1170, Ch. Ch. C.; 12 cent., Durh.;
1248, Glastonbury; beg. 14 cent., Lanthony; _c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.;
1372, August Fr. York; 1418, Peterhouse; 1451, Hy. Caldey, vicar of
Cookfield; 1478, Balliol Coll., new translation; _c._ 1497, S. Aug.
C.). _Republic_ (1443, Ox. U. L., new translation; 1452, King’s
Coll., Camb.; 1475, S. Cath. H.). _Euthyphro_ (1478, Balliol Coll.,
new translation).
PLAUTUS--12 or 13 cent., Bury [_James_^{1}, 27]; beg. 14 cent.,
Lanthony, _Aulularia_; 1481, Bp. Shirwood; 1520, Wm. Grocyn.
PLINY THE ELDER--(8 cent., York; 1126-71, Glastonbury, _de naturali
historia_; 12 or 13 cent., Bury; _c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C., _Prima pars
Plinii, et secunda pars_; 1418, Peterhouse, _Hist. nat._; 1439, Ox.
U. L., _Plinius de naturis rerum_; 1443, Ox. U. L., _Physica_;
1464, Bp. Shirwood; 1520, Wm. Grocyn; _c._ 1526, Syon). Extracts,
_Medicina Plinii_ (_c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C., _Liber Plinii junioris
[sic] de diversis medicinis_).
PLINY THE YOUNGER.--_Letters_ (1443, Ox. U. L.).
PLUTARCH.--_Vitae_ (1480, Bp. Shirwood, printed, Latin; 1520, Wm.
Grocyn).
QUINTILIAN.--_Institutio oratoria_ (12 cent., Durh.; _c._ 1290, the
La Fytes, scholars at Oxford; _c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.; 1326-35, S.
Albans; 1389, S. Mart. Dov.; 1391, Durh.; 1418, Peterhouse; 1439,
Ox. U. L.; 1475, S. Cath. H.; 1478, Balliol Coll.; _c._ 1497, S.
Aug. C.)
SALLUST--(_c._ 1170, Ch. Ch. C.; 12 cent. Durh.; 1202, Rochester;
1248, Glastonbury; beg. 14 cent., Lanthony; _c._ 1400, Meaux; 1418,
Peterhouse). _Bella_ (12 cent., Bury; 1452, King’s Coll. Camb., _de
bello Cat._; 1500, Jesus Coll., Rotherham; _c._ 1526, Syon).
SENECA THE YOUNGER--_c._ 1170, Peterboro’; 1260-9, S. Albans; 12
cent., Durh.; 14 cent., Ramsey; 1478, Balliol Coll.; 1520, Wm.
Grocyn). _Opera_ (_c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.). _De Beneficiis_ (_c._
1300, Ch. Ch. C.; 1395, Durh.; _c._ 1400, Meaux; 1418, Peterhouse).
_De Clementia_ (_c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.; 1395, Durh.; 1418,
Peterhouse; 1458, S. Paul’s). _Epistolae morales_ (12 cent.,
Peterboro’; 12 or 13 cent., Bury; bef. 13 cent., Reading; 13 cent.,
Rievaulx; _c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.; 1372, August. Fr. York; 1395,
Durh.; _c._ 1400, Meaux; 1418, Peterhouse; 1451, Hy. Caldey, vicar
of Cookfield; 1452, King’s Coll., Camb.; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.).
_Naturales quaestiones_ (1418, Peterhouse; 1458, S. Paul’s).
_Tragædiae_ (1372, August. Fr. York; 1439, Ox. U. L.; 1452, King’s
Coll., Camb.; _c._ 1480, Bp. Shirwood). Innumerable.
STATIUS--(8 cent., York; 1180, Whitby; 12 or 13 cent., Bury; 1389,
S. Mart. Dov.; _c._ 1526, Syon). _Thebais_ (_c._ 1170, Ch. Ch. C.;
12 cent., Durh.; 1418, Peterhouse; 1479, Bp. Shirwood). _Achilleis_
(_c._ 1170, Ch. Ch. C.; 12 cent., Durh.; 1372, August Fr. York;
1452, King’s Coll. Camb.; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.). _Silvae_ (1478
Bp. Shirwood).
SUETONIUS.--_De Vita Caesarum_ (12 or 13 cent., Bury; 1126-71,
Glastonbury; _c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.; 1372, August. Fr. York; _c._
1400, Meaux; 1443, Ox. U. L.; 1458, S. Paul’s; 1476, Bp. Shirwood;
1508, New Coll.; 1520, Wm. Grocyn; _c._ 1526, Syon).
TACITUS.--_De Oratoribus_ (1520, Wm. Grocyn; 1526, Syon).
TERENCE--(12 cent., Durh.; 12 cent., Peterboro’; 12 or 13 cent.,
Bury; _c._ 1170, Ch. Ch. C.; 1202, Rochester; _c._ 1300, Ch. Ch.
C.; beg. 14 cent., Lanthony; 14 cent., Ramsey; 1326-35, S. Albans;
1372, August. Fr. York; 1389, S. Mart. Dov.; 1391, Durh.; 1443, Ox.
U. L.; 1471, Bp. Shirwood; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.; 1500, Jesus
Coll., Rotherham; _c._ 1530, Wells Cath.).
TROGUS, POMPEIUS--(8 cent., York; 1095, Durh.; 12 cent., Durh.;
1391, Durh.; 1443, Ox. U. L.; 1465, Bp. Shirwood).
VALERIUS MAXIMUS.--_Facta et dicta memorabilia_ (13 cent., Bury;
1391, Durh.; 1418, Peterhouse; 1420-40, S. Albans; 1452, King’s
Coll. Camb.; 1520, Wm. Grocyn; _c._ 1526, Syon).
VARRO.--_De Lingua Latina_ (1443, Ox. U. L.; _c._ 1526, Syon).
VIRGIL--(8 cent., York; 12 or 13 cent., Bury; 12 cent., Durh.; _c._
1150, Lincoln Cath.; _c._ 1170, Ch. Ch. C., _Virgilius totus_; 14
cent., Ramsey; 1326-35, S. Albans;? 1482, Leicester; _c._ 1526,
Syon, _Opera_). _Bucolics_ (12 cent., Durh.; 1180, Whitby; bef. 13
cent., Reading; 1202, Rochester; 1248, Glastonbury; 1372, August.
Fr. York; 1389, S. Mart. Dov.; 1391, Durh.; 1418, Peterhouse; 1452,
King’s Coll. Camb., _Virgilius in bucolicis cum ceteris_; 1458, S.
Paul’s; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.). _Georgics_ (12 cent., Durh.; bef.
13 cent., Reading; 1202, Rochester; 1248, Glastonbury; 1372,
August. Fr. York; 1391, Durh.; _c._ 1497, S. Aug. C.). _Aeneid_
(1202, Rochester; 1248, Glastonbury; _c._ 1300, Ch. Ch. C.; 1372,
August. Fr. York; 1391, Durh.; 1418, Peterhouse; _c._ 1497, S. Aug.
C.; 1524, Cant. Coll.).
_NOTE._
In compiling the above list use has been made of Bateson; Becker;
Bradshaw; _C.A.S._; _Chron. Mon. de Melsa_, iii.; Dugdale, _Hist. of S.
Paul’s_; _E.H.R._ iii.; James; James^{1}; James^{2}; James^{9};
James^{10}; _Mun. Acad._; Robinson; _Sur. Soc._ vii.; _Archaeologia
Cantiana_; _Fasciculus Ioanni Willis Clark dicatus_ (art. by Dr. M. R.
James), and other works.
APPENDIX C
LIST OF MEDIEVAL COLLECTIONS OF BOOKS
_Note._--This list aims (i) to bring together in brief form a
number of records which are better removed from the main text of
this book, and (ii) to present in chronological order facts
carefully selected to show the variety of medieval libraries, in
size and character.
----------+-------------------------------------------+--------------------
DATE | DESCRIPTION | SOURCE
----------+-------------------------------------------+--------------------
778 | Alcuin’s library at York. Aristotle, | Alcuin, _De Pont.
| Virgil, Lucan, Statius, Cicero, | Eccle. Ebor._,
| Aldhelm, Bede, etc. | 1535-61; Becker,
| | 2.
10 c. | Books given to Peterborough by | Dugdale, i. 382.
| Ethelwold. Bede _in Marcum_, _Liber |
| Miraculorum_, _Expositio Hebraeorum |
| nominum_, _De Literis Graecorum_, etc. |
| About 20. |
10 c. | King Athelstan gave some nine books to | _B. M. Cott._, A 1.
| S. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury: | viii. fo. 56^{b};
| Persius, Isidore, Bede (?), etc. | James, lxix.
_c._ 1034 | “Many” books on theology and grammar | _Chron. Abb. de E._
| given to Evesham Abbey by Bp. | (Rolls S.), 83.
| Aelfward. |
1045 | Two books bequeathed to Glastonbury | Wm. of Malm., _De
| by Bp. Brithwold. | Ant. Glaston._,
| | Wharton, _Angl.
| | Sacra_ (1691), i.
| | 578-83.
_c._ 1060 | At St. Peter’s Exeter books given by | Dugdale, ii. 527.
| Bp. Leofric; Exeter Book, Leofric |
| Missal, etc. |
1077-93 | Church books given to S. Albans by | _Gesta ... S.
| Abbot Paul. | Albani_, i. 58.
1078-99 | Bp. Osmund collected and wrote books | W. of Malm., _Gesta
| for Old Sarum Church. | Pont._, 183.
_c._ 1080 | Abbot Walter made many books for | _Chron. Abb. de E._
| Evesham. | (Rolls S.), 97.
1095 | Bp. William de Carilef gave about 52 | _Surtees Soc._, vii.
| books to Durham [not Lindisfarne, as | 117-8; Becker, 172.
| in Becker]. |
12 c. | Nearly 370 pieces at Durham Priory: | _Surtees Soc._, vii.
| Quintilian, Plato’s _Timaeus_, | 1-10.
| Sallust, Cicero (_de Legibus_, _de |
| Amic._, _de Senectute_), Terence, |
| Virgil, Ovid (_Epp._, _Tristia_, _Ars |
| amandi_, _Remedia amoris de Fastis_), |
| Lucan, Juvenal; grammar, rhetoric, |
| arithmetic, geometry, medicine; some |
| English books. |
12 c. | At Burton-on-Trent Abbey, after 1175, | B. M. Add. MS. 23944,
| there were 78 vols. Incl. Augustine, | fo. 157;
| Gregory, Bede, Anselm, etc. | _Zentralblatt_,
| | ix. 201-3.
12 c. | Catalogue of 68 pieces belonging | MS. Bodley, 163, f.
| probably to one of the great | 261; Becker, 216.
| Southern abbeys. |
1104 | Abbot Peter gave many books to | _Hist. et cart. mon.
| Gloucester Abbey. | Glouc._, i. xxiv.
1119-46 | Abbot Geoffrey gave church books to S. | _Gesta ... S. Alb._,
| Albans. | i. 94.
1126-71 | At Glastonbury Abbot Henry had 54 | Adam de Domerham,
| books transcribed, incl. Pliny’s | _Hist._, ed. Hearne
| _Nat. Hist._, Suetonius _De Vita | (1727), ii. 317-18;
| Caesarum_, _Gesta Britonum_, _Gesta_ | Hearne, _Hist. and_
| _Anglorum_. | _Ant. of G._ (1722)
| | 141-3.
1130 | Abbot Reginald acquired for church of | _Chron. Abb. de E._
| Evesham Ab. books and ornaments. | 99.
1150 | Hugh of Leicester gave books to Lincoln | _Girald. Cambrensis_
| Cath. 42 vols. and map of world in | (Rolls Ser.), vii.
| library now; 31 added soon after. | 165.
| Some parts of Bible given by Bp. |
| Alexander; 9 books given by Bp. |
| Chesney. Library included Augustine, |
| Gregory, Bede, Ambrose, Jerome, |
| Virgil, Vegetius (_de re Militari_). |
_c._ 1170 | Over 223 volumes in Christ Church, | James, 7.
| Canterbury: catalogue, which is but a |
| fragment, contains books of grammar, |
| rhetoric, music, arithmetic, poetry, |
| logic, astronomy, geometry--Donatus |
| in Greek, Donatus in English, |
| Cicero’s Rhetoric, _de Senectute_, |
| _de Amicitia_ (2), Plato’s _Timaeus_, |
| Terence (5 volumes), Sallust (8 |
| volumes), Virgil (8 volumes), Horace |
| (8), Lucan (5), Statius (6), Juvenal |
| (4) Persius (9), Cato (2), Ovid (5). |
_c._ 1177 | Nearly 80 books in Peterboro’ | _Hist. Angl.
| Abbey--Seneca, Terence, Martial. | Script. Varii_
| | [Sparke], 98-9;
| | Merryweather,
| | 96-97; Becker,
| | 238.
_c._ 1180 | 74 pieces in Whitby Abbey--42 theology, | Becker, 226.
| 15 history: Cicero (_de Amicitia_, |
| _de Senectute_), Homer, Juvenal, |
| Plato, Sedulius, Statius, Virgil? |
| (_Bucolica_), Persius, etc. |
1184 | Bp. Bartholomew left books to church at | _B.M. Cotton Roll._
| Crediton and to another church. | II., 11 (at end).
12 or 13 c.| At Bury S. Edmunds Abbey there was | James^{1}, 23.
| a fair library at this period; |
| including average number of classics. |
13 c. | Before this Reading Abbey had 228 | _E. H. R._ (1888),
| volumes--Seneca, Aristotle, Virgil, | 117-23.
| Juvenal; _Gesta R. Henrici secundi_, |
| _Ystoria Rading_, _Hist. Anglorum_. |
13 c. | At Lanthony there were 486 volumes, | _B. M. Harl. MS._
| including Plato, Plautus, Cicero, | 460, ff. 3-11;
| Sallust, Persius, Ovid, Lucan, | _Zentralblatt_,
| Horace, Terence. | ix. 207-22.
13 c. | Prior John de Marcle gave 6 treatises | _Chron. Abb. de E._
| on law to Evesham Abbey. | (Rolls Ser.), xxii
| | n.
13 c. | At Leominster church, a dependency of | _E. H. R._ (1888),
| Reading Abbey, 130 books: _Rotula | 123-5.
| cum vita sancti Guthlaci anglice |
| scripta_, _Medicinalis unus anglicis |
| litteris scriptus_, _Liber qui |
| appellatur landboc_. |
13 c. | At Rievaulx there was a large library | James^{9}, 45-56.
| of the usual medieval character: |
| incl. Seneca, Justinian. |
13 c. | Flexley or Dene Abbey owned 79 | _Zentralblatt_, ix.
| volumes: incl. three English books. | 205-07.
_c._ 1200 | About 46 writers used as authorities by | R. de Diceto, _Op._
| Ralph of Diss for his _Abbreviationes_ | _Hist._ i. 20.
| _Chronicorum_. |
1202 | At S. Andrew’s Priory, Rochester, there | _Archæologia
| were about 280 volumes, many including | Cantiana_, iii.
| several distinct treatises. Scriptures, | 47-64 (1860).
| liturgical and devotional books, |
| Fathers, schoolmen, philosophical and |
| medical treatises, grammatical works: |
| Horace, Virgil, Sallust, Terence, |
| Persius, Lucan, Ovid, Aristotle’s |
| _Organon_, Cicero. |
1208 | Eight books presented to King John by | _Sussex Archæol.
| the sacristan of Reading, all scriptural| Collections_, ii.
| and theological. | (1849), 134-5.
1222 | Peterborough receives 7 books, incl. | Dugdale, i. 354.
| 2 Psalters, from Abbot R. de |
| Lyndesheye. |
1215 | At Glastonbury, 14 or 15 books were | Adam de Domerham,
| written for Prior Thomas: books of | _Hist._ ed. Hearne
| the Bible, missals. | (1727), ii. 441.
1217-18 | Prior Thos. de Marleberge gave a “large | _Chron. Abb. de E._
| collection”--including law, medicine, | (Rolls Ser.), 267.
| philosophy, poetry, theology, grammar; |
| Cicero (_de Amicitia_, _de Senectute_, |
| _Paradoxa_), Lucan, Juvenal--to Evesham |
| Abbey. |
1226 | At Peterborough a dozen books were | Dugdale, i. 354.
| left by Abbot Alex. de Holdernesse. |
1245 | At Peterborough about 20 books, ordinary | _Ibid._, i. 355.
| in character, were left by Abbot Walter |
| de St. Edmund. |
_c._ 1240 | Bp. Ralph of Maidstone gave service |
| books and a _Legend_ to Hereford |
| Cathedral. |
1245 | 35 vols. at St. Paul’s Cathedral; ordinary| _Archæologia_, I.
| medieval character. | 496.
1247-48 | At Glastonbury there were nearly 500 | Joh. Glaston,
| books. Incl. much theology, chronicles, | _Chron._, ed.
| classics. Aristotle, Livy, Sallust, | Hearne (1726), II.
| Virgil, Cicero, Plato, Persius, Horace, | 423-44.
| Juvenal. |
1249 | Peterborough receives 5 books from | Dugdale, i. 356.
| Abbot Wm. de Hotot. |
1253 | Richard de Wyche, Bp. of Chichester, | _Sussex Archæol.
| left a number of books to the | Coll._, i. (1848)
| friars: chiefly glossed books of | 168-187.
| the Bible, a glossed psalter, the |
| _Sentences_, etc. |
_c._ 1255 | John of Basingstoke imports Greek MSS. | Gasquet^{3}, 158-59;
| from Athens. | Stevenson, 224, 227.
1258-59 | Prior Jno. of Worcester gave a number | _Chron. Abb. de E._
| of books to Evesham Abbey. Grammar, | (Rolls Ser.), xxii
| logic, physics, theology, canon and | n.
| civil law. |
1259 | Master of Sherborne Hospital left | _Surtees Soc._, ii. 6.
| church books, and a _liber phisica_ |
| to the Hospital. |
1260-90 | Many books, including Seneca, given to | _Gesta ... S. Alb._,
| S. Albans by Abbot Roger. | i. 483.
1262 | Peterborough receives 5 books from | Dugdale, i. 356.
| Abbot J. de Kaleto. Incl. . |
| _Testamentum_ xii _Patriarcharum_. |
1266 | Roger de Thoris gave books to Grey | Oliver, _Mon. D.
| Friars’ Convent, Exeter. | Exon._ (1846),
| | 322-33.
1274 | Abbot R. de Sutton left some 17 books | Dugdale, i. 357
| to Peterborough. Incl. psalters, |
| canon law, liber Naturalium |
| Aristotelis. |
1295 | Abbot R. de London leaves 10 books to | Dugdale, i. 357.
| Peterborough. Boëthius _de |
| Consolatione philosophiae_, _Nova |
| logica_, psalters, etc. |
1280-1303 | Bp. Richard of Gravesend. Over 100 | _Misc. of Philobiblon
| volumes, worth about £100. | S._ 1856; Edwards,
| | i. 373.
1285-1331 | Library of about 1850 volumes now at | James, 13-142.
| Christ Ch., Canterbury. A fine |
| collection. Many classics. English |
| books: Genesis Anglice depicta, |
| Boëthius _de Consolatione_, |
| Herbarius Anglice depictus, Chronica |
| vetustissima, Chronica Latine et |
| Anglice, etc. |
1287-1345 | Richard of Bury owned a large library. | R. de B., _passim._
1290 | John of Taunton added 40 works to | Joh. Glast. _Hist._,
| Glastonbury Library. Ordinary. | ed. Hearne (1726),
| | ii. 251-52; A. de
| | Domerham, _Hist._,
| | ii. 574-75.
1295 | 13 Gospels and other parts of the |
| Scriptures, and a commentary of |
| Aquinas at S. Paul’s Cathedral. |
1299 | Abbot W. de Wodeforde left 18 books to | Dugdale, i. 358.
| Peterborough. Liturgical, theological, |
| and law. |
1299-1300 | Edward I. owned a few books; including | Edwards, i. 391.
| book of romance. |
Late 13 c. | Galfridus de Lawað, rector of the church | James^{10}, 158.
| S. Magnus, London, had 49 books. |
| Canon law, grammar, logic, medicine, |
| theology. |
14 c. | More than 600 books and 170 service | _Chron. Abb. Ram._,
| books in Ramsey Abbey. Aristotle, | 356 (Rolls Ser.).
| Plato (_Timaeus_), Greek Psalters, |
| _Ars Loquendi Linguam Graecam_, Greek |
| and Latin Psalter; Virgil, Ovid, |
| Martial, Terence, Lucan, Prudentius, |
| Seneca; French Bible, three Hebrew |
| books, Hebrew Psalter, two parts of |
| Hebrew Bible, _Liber expositionum |
| dictionum Hebraicum_, glossary of |
| Hebrew Bible, _Expositio nominum |
| Hebraeorum_, _Interpretationes |
| Hebraicorum_, _Ars loquendi et |
| intelligendi in Lingua Hebraica_. |
14 c. | Small and unimportant collection at St. | Oliver, _Mon. D.
| Andrews Priory, Tywardreath. | Exon._, 36.
14 c. | Richard of Stowe gave to St. Peter’s, | _B. M. Harl. MS._,
| Gloucester, 7 vols., including | 627, fo. 8 a.
| Boëthius _de Consolatione P._ |
14 c. | John de Bruges wrote 33 books, ordinary | Hearne, _Hist. and
| in character, for Coventry Priory. | Ant. Glast._, App.
| Incl. Palladius, _de Agricultura_. | 291-93 (1722);
| | Dugdale, iii. 186.
14 c. | 23 books at Deeping Priory, | Dugdale, iv. 167.
| Lincolnshire: including _Gesta |
| Britonum_. |
14 c. | About 350 vols. at Peterboro’: including | Gunton, _Hist. of Ch.
| Aristotle, Cicero, Virgil, Ovid, | of Peterboro’_
| Seneca, Sallust; a good deal in French.| (1686), 173-224.
1300 | Bp. Bek had a number of books which he | _Surtees Soc._, vii.
| refused to return to the Prior of | 121-22.
| Durham; included _Historia Anglorum_, |
| and _Liber qui vocatur Liber S. |
| Cuthberti, in quo secreta Domus |
| scribuntur_. |
1313 | 15 works, chiefly theological, beq. by | _Hist. MSS._, 9th Rep.,
| Bp. Baldock to St. Paul’s Cathedral. | Pt. i. 46a.
1315 | Church books and Bibles in Christ | Dart, _Cath. of Cant._
| Church, Canterbury (list). | (1726), App. vi.,
| | xv.-xvii.
1315 | Guy de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, left | Todd, _Ill. of Lives of
| books to Bordesley Abbey: French | Gower and Chaucer_
| romances, etc. | (1810), 161, 162;
| | Merryweather, 193-4;
| | Edwards, i. 375-6.
1315 | Some 40 volumes at Durham College, | _O. H. S._, 32,
| Oxford; sent from Durham. Chiefly | _Collect._ 36.
| theology; Aristotle. |
1321 | Abbot Godfrey de Croyland left about | Dugdale, i. 358-59.
| a dozen books to Peterborough. |
| Theology, law, etc. |
1322 | Abbot Walter of Taunton gave 7 volumes | Williams, 81.
| to Glastonbury. |
1325 | A small collection of church books at | _Surtees Soc._, ii. 22.
| St. Edmund’s Hospital, Gateshead. |
1327 | Abingdon Abbey had 100 Psalters, 100 | _Ibid._, vii. xxxiii.
| Graduals, 40 Missals; 22 codices, |
| probably not church books. |
1327 | About 230 volumes at Exeter. Civil and | Oliver, _Lives of Bps. of
| canon law, theology. | E._, 301-10.
1327 | Bp. Cobham bequeathed his books and | _Mun. Acad._, i. 227.
| 350 marks to found common library at |
| Oxford. |
1331 | Prior Henry Eastry bequeathed 80 books | James, 143.
| to Christ Church, Canterbury--26 |
| theology, 29 canon law, 14 civil law, |
| 11 church books. |
1335 | Abbot Adam de Sodbury gave 7 vols. to | _Joh. Glaston. Hist._, ed.
| Glastonbury. | Hearne (1726), 265.
1335 | 4 books given and 32 sold to Richard of | _Gesta ... S. Alb._, ii.
| Bury from S. Albans Abbey. | 200.
1335-49 |Books given to S. Albans by Abbot | _Ibid._, ii. 363.
| Michael. |
1336 |Bp. Stephen Gravesend bequeathed books | Lyte, 181.
| to four colleges, Merton, University, |
| Balliol, Oriel. |
1337 |93 books missing at Christ Church, | James, 146.
| Canterbury. Many books of offices; |
| includes _Brutus_ in French. |
1338 |Abbot Adam de Botheby left about a | Dugdale, i. 360.
| dozen books on canon law, theology, |
| and liturgical books to Peterborough. |
1343 |Hinton Priory lent about 23 books to | Hunter, 17;
| another house--Gospels, homilies, lives | _Surtees Soc._,
| of saints, etc. | vii. xxxviii.
1345 (6) |Over 50 volumes in Lichfield Cathedral | _W. Salt Arch. S._
|-all church books, except 2 martyrologies,| vi., pt. 2,
| 4 quires of lives of saints, and | Sacrist’s roll,
| _De gestis Anglorum_. St. Chad’s Gospels.| 211.
1349-96 |Abbot Thomas’ study or library at St. | _Gest a ... S.
| Albans enlarged; many books added. | Alb ._, iii, 389;
| | cf. ii. 399.
1350 |Trinity Hall, Cambridge, receives 84 | _C. A . S._ (1864),
| vols. from founder, Dr. Bateman: | ii. 73-78; Clark,
| Canon law (32), civil law (10), theology| 138 .
| (28), chapel books (14). |
1353 | Abbot de Morcote left some 11 books to | Dugdale, i. 360.
| Peterborough: Canon law, a _Catholicon_.|
1355 | Elizabeth de Clare bequeathed to Clare | Edwards, i. 374.
| Hall, a few books: including Hugutio. |
1358 | John Trevaur, Bp. of St. Asaph. Chiefly | B. M. Add. MS.
| ecclesiastical books. | 25459, fo. 291.
1358 | Thomas de la Mare, wealthy canon of | _Surtees Soc._,
| York, owned some six law books. | iv. 69.
1360 | Bp. Grandisson of Exeter appears to have |
| owned a good library. He gave 4 |
| books to Exeter; Aquinas’ works to |
| Black Friars of Exeter; 1 to Windsor |
| Chapel; remainder to his Chapter, to |
| the collegiate churches of Ottery, |
| Crediton, and Boseham, and Exeter |
| College, Oxford. His copy of Anselm’s |
| _Letters_ is now in Brit. Mus. |
1361 | Peterborough received 7 books from | Dugdale, i. 361.
| Abbot Robt. Ramsey. Canon law. |
1362 | A small collection, nearly all church | _Surtees Soc._, xii.,
| books, at Coldingham Priory. | App. xl.
1368 | Simon of Bredon bequeathed books to six | _Hist. MSS._, 9th
| Oxford Colleges. | Rept., pt. i., 46.
1370 | A Chaplain (Adam de Stanton) left 4 | _Cam. Soc._, Bury
| books, including one of romance. | wills (1850), 1.
1372 | At York the Friars Eremites of S. | _Fasciculus J. W.
| Augustine owned 646 books. Bibles | Clark dicatus_,
| and glossed books of Bible, Greek | 2-96.
| Psalter, patristic and later church |
| writers (91), logic and philosophy |
| (100), astronomy and astrology (36), |
| civil law (14), canon law (35), |
| grammar and Latin poets (50), |
| medicine (22), sermons (42), |
| arithmetic, music, geometry, |
| perspective. |
1374 | Archbp. W. Whittlesey bequeathed his | Hook, _Archbps._, iv.
| library to Peterhouse. | 242-43.
1375 | Nearly 100 volumes at Oriel College, | _O. H. S._ 5,
| Oxford; half the collection theology | _Collect._, i. 66.
| and philosophy; translations of |
1376 | 116 books bequeathed to Westminster | Robinson, 5-7.
| Abbey by Simon Langham, Archbp. |
| of Canterbury. Valued at 1121 francs |
| and 14 shillings. Chiefly theology. |
| Aristotle. |
1377-1400 | In the Royal Chapel of Windsor Castle | Dugdale, vi., pt. 3,
| 34 books were chained up, incl. | 1362.
| _Catholicon_, Hugutio, Legenda Aurea, |
| French romances, one “Romaunce de |
| two la Rose, et alius difficilis |
| materiae.” Also liturgical and |
| Scriptural books. |
1378 | Sir John de Foxle left a large missal | _Archæol. Cantiana_,
| and a few service books. | iii. 267; _Archæol.
| | Jour._, xv. (1858),
| | 267.
1378 | Thos. de Farnylaw, Chancellor of York, | _Surtees Soc._, iv.
| left Bible and concordances to St. | 102-03.
| Nicholas’ Church, Newcastle; a book |
| of sermons to Embleton Church; other |
| books to Vicar of Waghen; others to |
| Merton and Balliol. |
1379 | Wm. de Feriby, canon of York, archd. | _Ibid._, iv. 103-04.
| of Cleveland. “Item lego ad novam |
| fabricam Ecclesiae Ebor. xx marcas et |
| omnes libros, qui fuerint domini mei |
| domini Willielmi de Melton.” Several |
| law books specifically mentioned. |
_c._ 1380 | Bp. Reed left many manuscripts to | _O. H. S._, 32,
| Merton College. | _Collect._ 214.
1387 | William of Wykeham furnished New | _Ibid._, 223.
| College with over 240 books--135 |
| (138) theology, 28 philosophy, 41 canon|
| law, 36 civil law. |
_c._ 1387 | 52 books added to New College by somebody| _Ibid._, 223.
| unnamed: 37 medicine. |
_c._ 1387 | 63 books given to New College by Bp. | _Ibid._, 223.
| Reed: 58 theology, 2 philosophy, 3 |
| canon law. |
1387 | Sir Simon Burley owned a few romances. | B. M. Add. MS.
| | 25459, fo. 206.
1387 | Hy. Whitefield left books and money to | _O. H. S._, 27,
| buy books for Exeter College, and | Boase, 7.
| Burley on logic and Aristotle’s _Ethica|
| and _Topica_ were bought and chained |
| up in library. |
1389 | 450 volumes at S. Martin’s Priory, | James, xc. 407.
| Dover--Bibles, theology, civil and canon|
| law, logic, philosophy, rhetoric, |
| medicine, chronicles, romances (_le |
| Romonse du roy Charles_, _le Romonse de |
| Athys_, _le Romonse de la Rose_, etc.), |
| grammar, dictionaries. Plato, Aristotle,|
| poetry, Horace, Statius, Ovid, Virgil, |
| Juvenal, Terence, Lucan. |
1389-1435 | John, Duke of Bedford, bought portion of | Delisle, _Le Cabinet
| French Royal Library. | des manuscrits_.
_c._ 1390 | 14 books given to Evesham Abbey by | _Chron. Abb. de E._
| John de Brymesgrave, sacrist. | (Rolls Ser.),
| | xxii n.; Dugdale,
| | ii. 7 n.
_c._ 1390 | 96 books given to Evesham Abbey by | _Chron. Abb. de E._
| Prior Nich. Herford; not the Lollard | (Rolls Ser.),
| of this name. | xxii n.
1391 | Peterborough received 8 books, incl. | Dugdale, i. 361.
| _Catholicon_, from Abbot Henry de |
| Overton. |
1391 | 508 volumes in common case within | _Surtees Soc._,
| spendiment and in inner room of | vii. 10-39.
| spendiment at Durham Priory--Bibles, |
| theology, logic, philosophy, medicine, |
| grammar, law. Seneca, Cicero, |
| Quintilian, Valerius Maximus, Palladius |
| (_de Agricultura_), A. Gellius, Juvenal,|
| Terence, Virgil, Ovid, Aristotle. |
1391 | The Rector of Adell Church, Thos. de | _Ibid._, iv. 156.
| Halton, left 5 books of canon law. |
1391 | John Percyhay of Swynton left small | _Ibid._, iv. 164.
| collection of books, incl. _Brut_ in |
| French. |
1392 | Robert de Roos, a soldier, left church | _Ibid._, iv. 178.
| books, and several volumes in French: |
| incl. _Roumans de Sydrach_ (a curious |
| medley of medieval mystery and science, |
| in prose). |
1394 | King’s Hall, Cambridge, had a library of | Willis, _Arch.
| 87 volumes. | Hist. of Camb._,
| | ii. 442.
1394 |John Hopton, a chaplain, left a few books,| _Surtees Soc._,
| four mentioned: incl. Gospels in | iv. 196.
| English. (? Wyclif’s). |
1394 | John de Pykering, rector of S. Mary’s, | _Ibid._, iv. 194.
| Castlegate, York, left small collection|
| of church books. |
1395 | Thomas of England, an Augustinian, | Gherardi, _Statuti
| bought MSS. in Italy. | della Univ. e
| | Studio
| | Fiorentino_,
| | 364; Einstein,
| | 15; Sandys, ii.
| | 220.
1395 | 411 volumes in common library, for | _Surtees Soc._,
| refectory, and in case of novices at | vii. 46-84.
| Durham Priory. Theology, law, history; |
| Seneca, Aristotle, Galen, Hippocrates. |
1395 | John de Scardeburgh, rector of Tichmarsh,| _Ibid._, xlv. 6.
| left over 26 books: incl. _Brut_ in |
| French, Mannedevile “in paupiro” in |
| French. |
_c._ 1395 | 79 volumes at Hulne. Theology, history, | _Ibid._, vii.
| grammar, logic, law, church books. | 131-35.
1396 | Walter de Bragge, canon of York, left | _Surtees Soc._,
| small collection of theology and | iv. 207.
| service books: incl. _Piers Plowman_ |
| and _Catholicon_. |
1396 | Abbot Nich. Elmstow left liturgical and | Dugdale, i. 361.
| law books to Peterborough. |
1397 | Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of | B. M. Add. 25459,
| Gloucester, left a collection of | fo. 212-16.
| books, theological and French. |
1399 | Eleanor of Gloucester, left about 15 | Nicolas,
| mostly in French; richly bound. | _Testamenta
| | vetusta_, i.
| | 146; Edwards, i.
| | 385.
14 and 15 c. | 158 titles given to Pembroke College, | _C. A. S._, ii.
| Cambridge, by various donors. | (8vo ser.)
| Aristotle, Seneca, Aulus Gellius, | 13-21;
| Ovid. | James^{10},
| | xiii.-xvii.
15 c. | Robert de Wycliff, rector of Hutton | _Surtees Soc._,
| Rudby in Cleveland, left 5 books: | ii. 66; iv. 405.
| incl. _Catholicon_. |
1400 | 326 volumes at Titchfield Abbey. 102 | Madan, 78-79.
| liturgical volumes. Theology, canon |
| and civil law, English law, medicine, |
| grammar, logic and philosophy. 18 |
| French books. |
_c._ 1400 | Meaux Abbey had nearly 350 books, not | _Chron. mon. de
| counting church books: incl. | Melsa_ (Rolls
| _Historia Anglorum_, Martial, Seneca, | Ser.) iii.
| Ovid, Plato, Suetonius, Cicero. | lxxxiii.
1400 | Thos. de Dalby, archdeacon of Richmond, | _Surtees Soc._,
| left a few church books; Decretals, | xlv. 13.
| _Catholicon_. |
1403 | John de Scarle, Lord Chancellor, left a | _Ibid._, xlv. 22.
| few books: Bible, missal, psalter, |
| breviary, _Speculum Sacerdotum_. |
1404 | Bp. Skirlaw of Durham gave 6 books to | _Ibid._, vii. 127;
| University College, Oxford, where he | iv. 319.
| had endowed Fellowships. Left 13 |
| church books when he died. |
1409 | Wessington sent 20 books--Bible, | _Ibid._, vii.
| commentaries, etc.--to Durham | 39-41; cp.
| College, Oxford; 19 books bought in | _O. H. S._, 32,
| their stead. | _Collect._
| | 39-40.
_c._ 1410 | Robert Rygge, Chancellor of the | _O. H. S._, 27,
| University of Oxford, left books to | Boase, 11.
| Exeter College, Oxford. |
1411 | 34 books added to Christ Church, | _Lit. Cant._ (Rolls
| Canterbury, during time of Prior | Ser.), iii. 121; James,
| Chillenden: all canon and civil law. | 150-51.
1412 | Roger de Kyrkby, vicar of Gainford, left | _Surtees Soc._, ii. 54.
| a few books: _Legenda Aurea_, _Gemma |
| Ecclesiae_, and others not named. |
1413 | N. de Lyra chained in chancel of St. | _Mun. Acad._, 270.
| Mary’s Church, Oxford. |
1414 | Archbp. Arundel left many books: | Hook, _Lives of Abps._,
| “ornamenta oratorii” and books valued | iv. 527.
| at over £352. |
1416 | Catalogue of Durham library bears this | _Surtees Soc._, vii.
| date, but it is either the foundation | 85-116.
| of the catalogue of 1391 or a copy of |
| it. This inventory has been used to |
| take stock. |
1416 | William de Waltham, canon of York, left | _Surtees Soc._, xlv.
| a collection of books, only a few of | 57-59.
| which are mentioned. Chiefly |
| law-books. |
1416 | St. Mary Redclyffe Church, Bristol, had | Cox and Harvey, _Eng.
| 2 books of canon law. | Ch. Furniture_, 331.
1418 | Stephen Scrope, Archdeacon of Richmond, | _Surtees Soc._, iv. 385.
| Chancellor of Cambridge University, |
| left a few books of canon law; also |
| _Catholicon_. |
1418 | John de Newton left books to Church of | Hunter, _Notes of Wills
| York, and to Peterhouse, Cambridge. | in Registers of York_,
| Bibles, commentaries, theology: incl. | 15; Edwards, i. 386.
| Richd. Hampole, Petrarch’s _de |
| Remediis utriusque fortunae_, Seneca, |
| Valerius Maximus. |
1418 | 380 volumes now at Peterhouse. Theology | James^{3}, 3-26; Mullinger,
| (124), natural and moral philosophy | 324; Clark, 139-41;
| and metaphysics (53), canon and civil | cf. _Camb. Lit._, ii.
| law (66), grammar and poetry (23), | 362-67.
| logic (20), medicine (18), astronomy |
| (13), alchemy, arithmetic, music, |
| geometry, rhetoric. Aristotle, Plato, |
| Cicero, Ovid, Lucan, Statius, Sallust, |
| Quintilian, Seneca, Virgil, Petrarch’s |
| _Epistles_. |
1419 | Wm. Cawod, canon of York, left 13 | _Surtees Soc._, iv.
| books, uninteresting in character. | 395-96.
1420-40 | 49 volumes added to S. Albans in Abbot | _Ann. mon. S. Alb.
| Whethamstede’s time: incl. some books | a J. Amund._, ii.
| for the choir, and other books of the | 268-71.
| Abbot’s own compilation. |
1420-60 | The library of Winchester College was a | _Archæol. Jour._, xv.
| large collection of liturgical books; | (1858), 62-74.
| philosophy, chronicles, canon and |
| civil law, grammar. |
1421 | Thos. Greenwood, canon of York, left | _Surtees Soc._, xlv.
| books valued at £31, 4s. Canon and | 64.
| civil law. |
1422 | Roger Whelpdale, Bp. of Carlisle, left | _Ibid._, xlv. 67.
| a small number of books to Balliol |
| College, Oxford. |
1422 | 9 books sent from Durham to cell of | _Ibid._, vii. 116.
| Stamford, which was in control of |
| Durham. |
1423 | Henry Bowet, Archbp. of York, left 33 | _Ibid._, xlv. 76;
| books, worth £33. Bible, theology, | _Historians of York_
| law. | (Rolls Ser.), iii.
| | 314.
_c._ 1424 | 10 volumes given to Wells Cathedral by | _Hist. MSS._, 3rd
| Bp. Stafford. Canon law, etc. | Rep., App. 363;
| | _Archæologia_, lvii.
| | 208.
1424-40 | 122 volumes in Cambridge University | _C. A. S. Comm._, ii.
| Library. Theology (69), natural and | 242-57; Bradshaw,
| moral philosophy (17), canon law | 19-34.
| (23), medicine, logic, poetry, |
| grammar, history. |
1425 | Sheriff Wm. Chichele bequeathed £10 for | _L. A. R._, x. 382.
| books to Guildhall Library. |
1430 | Robert Ragenhill, advocate of court of | _Surtees Soc._, xlv.
| York, left 5 law books and N. de Lyra | 89.
| to Church of York. |
1432 | George Darell de Seszay left 5 books: | _Ibid._, xxx. 27, 28.
| incl. Mandeville. |
1432 | John Raventhorpe, a chaplain, left | _Ibid._, xxx. 28-29.
| service books and grammatical books; |
| also _Liber Angliae de Fabulis et |
| Narracionibus_. |
1432 | Robert Wolveden, treasurer of Church of | _Ibid._, xlv. 91.
| York, left theological books to |
| Church of York. Cato glossed and |
| _Golden Legend_ also left. |
1432 | Dr. Thos. Gascoigne gave 6 books to | Clark, _Lincoln College_.
| Lincoln College, valued £17, 10_s._ |
1432 | Robert Semer, sub-treasurer of Church of | _Surtees Soc._,
| York, left 5 books, unimportant. | xlv. 91 n.
1434 | J. de Manthorp, vicar of Hayton, left a | _Ibid._, xxx. 36.
| few church books. |
1435 | Æneas Sylvius saw Latin translation of | Creighton,
| Thucydides in S. Paul’s Cathedral. | _Papacy_, iii.
| | 53 n.
1435 | T. Hebbeden, dean of Collegiate Church | _Surtees Soc._,
| of Auckland, left a few books; 6 | ii. 82.
| mentioned, incl. Guido delle Colonne, |
| _Lancelot_ in French. |
1435-36 | Robert Fitzhugh, Bp. of London, left 13 | Simpson, W.S.,
| books, incl. Textus moralis philosophiae.| _Registrum ...
| | Eccl. Cath. S.
| | Pauli_ (1873),
| | 399.
1436 | Thomas Langley, Bp. of Durham, left over | _Surtees Soc._,
| 40 books. Theology, civil and canon | vii. 119.
| law, N. de Lyra. |
1438 | Thomas Cooper of Brasenose Hall left 6 | _Mun. Acad._, 515.
| books: incl. Boëthius, book on |
| geometry, Ovid’s _Remedia Amoris_. |
1439 | Thomas Markaunt, presented to Corpus | C. C. C. MS., 232;
| Christi College, Cambridge, 76 books, | _C. A. S. Misc.
| worth about £104. | comm._, 4to
| | ser., No. 14,
| | pt. 1, 16-20.
1439 | Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, gave 129 | _Mun. Acad._,
| books to Oxford University Library. | 758-65.
| See p. 140. |
1440 | 23 books given to All Souls’ College by | B. M. Add. MS.,
| Henry VI. Civil and canon law, | 4608; Vickers,
| theology, philosophy. | _H. Duke of
| | Gloucester_,
| | 404.
1440 | Robert Alne, an officer in the | _Surtees Soc._,
| ecclesiastical court of York, left about | xxx. 78-79.
| a dozen books. Canon law, etc.; Petrarch,|
| _de Remediis utriusque fortunae_. |
1441 | Andrew Holes, political agent of Henry | Sandys, ii. 222.
| VI, bought many manuscripts in Italy. |
1443 | Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, gave 135 | _Mun. Acad._,
| volumes to Oxford University Library. | 765-72
| See p. 142. |
1443 | John Carpenter bequeathed books to | _L. A. R._, x.
| Guildhall Library, London. | 382.
1443 | John Brette, student at Oxford, owned | _Mun. Acad._, 531.
| 1 book, _de Formd dictandi_, and a |
| pamphlet, worth together 1_s._ 11_d._ |
1445 | Jas. Hedyan, Bachelor of canon and civil | _Ibid._, 544.
| law, principal of Eagle Hall, Oxford, |
| owned 8 books of law. |
1447 | Reginald Mertherderwa, a rector, owned 6 | _Ibid._, 559-61.
| books: grammar, book of civil law, etc.|
1448 | Ralph Dreff, of Broadgates Hall, Oxford, | _Ibid._, 582.
| owned 23 books. Bible, law. |
1448 | At the Hospital of S. Mary within | B. M. Cott. Roll.,
| Cripplegate, called Elsingspital, | xiii. 10;
| London, there were 63 volumes. Bible, | Malcolm,
| theology, canon law; Hippocrates, | _Londinium
| Galen. | Redivivum_
| | (1807), i. 27;
| | _Vict. Hist. of
| | London_, i. 536.
1449 | Thomas Morton, canon of York, left a | _Surtees Soc._,
| small number of church books. | xlv. 110.
1450 | 107 volumes at Lincoln Cathedral at this | Clark, III.
| time. |
1450 | Robert Hoskyn, rector, left a small | _Mun. Acad._,
| collection. Church books, canon law. | 605-06.
1451 | Henry Caldey, vicar of Cookfield, left 25| _Ibid._, 609.
| books. Theology, law. Seneca, _ad |
| Lucilium_, Martial, Plato. Value |
| £5, 0_s._ 6_d._ |
1451 | John Moreton, chaplain, left 6 physical | _Ibid._, 613.
| books. |
1452 | Richard Browne or Cordone, Archdeacon of | _Ibid._, 639-53.
| Rochester, left more than 30 books. |
| Theology and law. |
1452 | Wm. Duffield, canon of York, left 40 | _Surtees Soc._,
| volumes, worth £46, 16_s._ Theology, | xlv. 132-33.
| law; _Catholicon_. |
1453 |King’s College, Cambridge, had a | James^{2}, 72-83.
| library of 174 volumes: philosophy, |
| theology, medicine, astrology, |
| mathematics, canon law, grammar, |
| classical and general literature, |
| inclu. Aristotle, Plato, Cicero, |
| Seneca, Sallust, Cæsar, Ovid, Virgil, |
| etc. |
1454 |Richard Plane, rector, left a few church | _Surtees Soc._,
| books. | xxx. 180.
1454 |Cardinal John Kempe left books worth | Hook, _Lives of Abps._, v. 267.
| £263, 8_s._ 10_d._ Theology, canon and |
| civil law, etc. |
1454 |Wm. Brownyng, canon of Exeter, left | _O. H. S._, 27,
| books to be chained in library of | Boase, xxxvii. n.
| Exeter College. |
1455 |John Lassehowe, a scholar, left six | _Mun. Acad._, 663.
| books: grammar, sermons, breviary. |
1455 |Thomas Spray, chaplain, left 2 books: | _Ibid._, 660.
| _Liber Sermonum Magdalenae_, _Manipulus |
| curatorum_. |
1457 |Thomas Aleby, rector of Kirkby in | _Surtees Soc._,
| Cleveland, left 6 church books. | xxx. 210.
1457 |John Edlyngton, rector of Kirkby | _Ibid._, xxvi. 2, 3.
| Ravensworth, left small collection. |
| Bible, liturgical books, _Legenda |
| Aurea_, _Polichronicon_, etc. |
1457 |John Seggefyld, M.A., Fellow of Lincoln | _Mun. Acad._, 666.
| College, left two books, Boëthius _de |
| Consol. philos._ in English, one of |
| Richard Rolle’s works. |
1457 |Doctor Thos. Gascoigne, Chancellor of | _Mun. Acad._, 671;
| Oxford, left books and “quires” | Bateson, xxv.
| written on paper to Syon Monastery, |
| Isleworth. |
1457 |John Baringham, treasurer of York, left a | _Surtees Soc._,
| small number of liturgical books. | xxx. 203.
_c._ 1458 |John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, bought | _O. H. S._, 36,
| many manuscripts in Italy. | Anstey, ii. 354,
| | 390.
1458 1| 71 books at S. Paul’s Cathedral. | Dugdale, _Hist. of S.
| Grammar (6), philosophy (5), classics | Paul’s_ (1818), 392-98.
| (7), medicine (6), history (8), canon |
| law (21), remainder Bible commentaries, |
| theology. Cicero, Virgil, Seneca, |
| Suetonius, Hippocrates, Galen. |
1458 |Nicholas Holme, canon of the collegiate | _Surtees Soc._, xxx. 219.
|Church of Ripon, left 15 books. |
| Liturgical, Richard Rolle of Hampole, 1 |
| book of medicine. |
1458 |Wm. Port gave books to New College, | _O. H. S._ 32, _Collect._
| Oxford. | 232-33.
1463 | John Baret, lay officer in Bury Abbey, left| _Cam. Soc._, Bury Wills,
| 3 books, _Disce mori_, “book of ynglych | 35, 41, 246.
| and latyn with diuerse maters of good |
| exortacons, wretyn in papir,” Lydgate’s |
| _Story of Thebes_. |
1464 | Wm. Downham, chaplain of York, left a | _Surtees Soc._, xxx. 268.
| few books. |
1464 | St. Mary’s Church, Warwick, had 5 | _Notices of Churches of Warwickshire_, i. 15-16.
| books. Bible versified, _Pharetra de |
| Auctoritatibus_, etc. |
1464 | Books bequeathed by John Rowe to Exeter | _O. H. S._ 27, Boase.
| College, Oxford; also Ralph Morewell. |
1464-67 | William Selling, Benedictine monk, | James, li.; Sandys, ii.
| collected Greek and Latin books in Italy.| 225.
1466 | John Fernell, chaplain, left a few | _Surtees Soc._, xxx. 275.
| grammatical and other books. |
1466 | At Ewelme Almshouse, Oxford, were | _Hist. M.S.S._, 8th Rept.,
|delivered some liturgical books, 4 French| pt. i. 629 a.
| books, a “boke of English, in paper, of|
| ye pilgrymage, translated by dom John |
| Lydgate out of frensh,” and other |
| books. |
1468 | Elizabeth Sywardby left 8 books, several | _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 163.
| in English. |
1469 | Sir Richard Willoughby of Woollaton, | _Ibid._, xlv. 171.
| left to parish church of Woollaton |
| liturgical books and _Crede mihi_. |
1469 | Sir Edward Bethum gave books for chaining| _Ibid._, vii. 126.
| in church of Lytham Cell, Lancs. |
1471-72 | Wm. Hawk, rector of Berwick in Elmet, | _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 220 n.
| left 1 psalter. |
1472-73 | Queens’ College, Cambridge, had 224 | _C. A. S. Comm._, ii.
| volumes in the library. Theology, law. | (1864) 165-81.
| Aristotle. _Catholicon._ |
1472 | John Hamundson, master of grammar | _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 198-99.
| school attached to York Minster, left |
| book of Chronicles in English, Papias, |
| a book called _Horsehede_. |
1473 | Cambridge University Library comprised | _C. A. S. Comm._, ii.
| 330 volumes. Lucan, Ovid, Aristotle, | (1864) 258-76.
| Seneca, Cicero. Petrarch, _de Remediis_|
1473 | 68 books, mostly Scriptural commentaries,| Carr, _Univ. Coll._
| given to University College, Oxford, by| (1902), 68.
| an old Fellow, Wm. Aspylon. |
1470-75 | Thomas Rotherham gave many books to | Willis, _Camb._, iii. 25.
| the University Library, Cambridge. |
1474-75 | Robert Est, possibly chantry-priest in | _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 159.
| York Minster, left to parish church of |
| Brigsley, Lincs., a small collection: |
| incl. _Legenda Sanctorum_, _liber de |
| Gestis Romanorum cum aliis fabulis Isopi|
| et multis narrationibus_. |
1475-76 | Thos. Worthington, vicar of Sherburn in | _Ibid._, xlv. 220 n.
| Elmet, left 3 volumes to Balliol College,|
| Oxford; unimportant. |
1475-76 | Robt. Echard, rector of East Bridgeford, | _Ibid._, xlv. 219.
| left 10 books, several liturgical, the |
| rest unimportant. |
1475 | 104 volumes in library at S. Catharine’s | _C. A. S._, i. (1840) 1-11.
| College, Cambridge. Plato, Aristotle |
|(_Ethica_ and _Politica_), Cicero, Petrarch,|
|_de Remediis_ (2 copies), Boccaccio, _de |
|Casis virorum illustrium_, in English. |
1476 | John Hurte, vicar of S. Mary’s, | _Surtees Soc._, xiv.
|Nottingham, left 21 books. Liturgical books,| 220-22.
| theology, astronomy, Guido delle |
| Colonne’s Troy book. |
1478 | Bp. William Grey gave 200 books to | Coxe, _Cat. Cod. Oxon.-Balliol_;
|Balliol College, Oxford. Nearly all | Mullinger,
|were collected in Italy. Plato (_Timaeus_ | _Hist. of Univ. of Camb._, 397.
|and _Euthyphro_, new translations), the |
|Golden Verses of Pythagoras, Cicero, |
|incl. some hitherto unknown speeches, |
|Quintilian, Seneca. Petrarch’s _Letters_, |
| orations of Poggio Bracciolini, Leonardo |
| Bruni, and Guarino da Verona. |
1479 | Thomas Pynchebek of York left 4 books: | _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 199n.
| incl. Richard Rolle of Hampole. |
1479-80 | Robt. Lythe, chaplain, left 6 books, and | _Ibid._, xlv. 199 and n.
| John Burn, another chaplain, |
| 5--unimportant. |
_c._ 1480| Bishop John Shirwood of Durham owned | _E. H. R._, xxv. 455.
| a good library, including a fair |
| collection of the classics, and Theodore|
| Gaza’s Greek grammar. |
1481 | William of Waynflete gave 800 books to | Warren, _Magd. Coll._,
| Magdalen College, Oxford. | 18.
1481 | Sir Thos. Lyttleton left a _Catholicon_, | _Library_, i. 411.
| _Constitutiones Provinciales_, and |
| _Gesta Romanorum_ to Halesowen Church, |
| Worcester. |
1482 | Dr. John Warkworth gave 55 books to | James^{3}, 23-26.
| Peterhouse. Terence, Statius: Liber |
| Cronic’ in Anglicis, Liber in Gallicis;|
| much theology. |
1482 | At Leicester Abbey there were over 350 | Nichols, _Hist. of Leicester_
| books in the library. Bibles and | (1815), i. pt. 2,
|commentaries, medieval schoolmen, grammar,| App. 102-08.
|sermons, Lucan, Ovid, Horace, |
|Virgil, Cicero, Plato, French books, |
|Mandevile, Gower; logic, astronomy, |
|physics. |
1483 | Robert Flemming left books, which he | Einstein, 23.
| had collected in Italy, to Lincoln |
| College, Oxford. |
1486 | Church of S. Christopher le Stocks, | _Archæologia_, xlv. (1880)
| London, had a collection of church | 118.
| books only. |
1486 | At this time only 52 volumes were in St. | Dugdale, _Hist. of S.
| Paul’s Cathedral; chiefly liturgical. | Paul’s_, 399.
1486 |John Lese of Pontefract left 5 theological| _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 220-21 n.
| books. |
1488 | 31 books presented to Oxford University |
| Library by an old scholar. |
1489 |128 volumes presented to Oxford University| _Mun. Acad._, 357.
| Library by Dr. Litchfield, archdeacon |
| of Middlesex. |
1489-94 | John Auckland, Prior, presented to | Rudd, _Codd. MSS.
| Durham Priory, some 33 books; ordinary | Eccles. Cath. Dun.
| medieval character. | Catal._, 1825, _passim_.
1491 | Richard Lovet, vicar of Ruddington, left | _Surtees Soc._, xlv. 221 n.
| a few theological books. |
1491 | Thomas Symson of York left 7 theological | _Ibid._, xlv. 160 n.
| books. |
1491 | Over 40 books given to All Souls College,| Robertson, _All Souls_
| Oxford, by John Stokys, Warden. | (Coll. Hist.), 33.
1493 | Roger Drury left “ij Ingyshe bocks, called| _Cam. Soc._, Bury Wills,
| Bochas, of Lydgat’s makyng.” | 246.
_c._ 1497 | St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury, | James, lvii. 173.
| contained 1837 books. Scriptures, theology,|
| natural history, history, philosophy, |
| music, geometry, astronomy, medicine, |
| logic, grammar, poetry, alchemy, canon |
| law. Plato (_Timaeus_), Aristotle (a great|
| deal: _Metaphysica_, _Physica_, _Rhetorica_, |
| _Ethica_, _Politica_, new trans. of _Historia|
| naturalium_), Terence, Cicero, Horace, |
| Virgil (_Aeneid_, _Georgics_, _Bucolics_),|
| Ovid, Lucan, Seneca (incl. _Tragedies_), |
| Juvenal, Quintilian, Statius; French |
| books--_Charlemagne_, _Historia Britonum_,|
| _Guy of Warwick_, _Lancelot_, _Perceval |
| of Galles_, _Holy Graal_, _Guillaume |
| le Maréchal_, etc. |
1498 | Collegiate Church of Auckland possessed | _Surtees Soc._, ii. 101-03.
| some 40 volumes. Bible, theological |
| and liturgical books, canon law; |
| Cicero’s _Letters_. |
1498 | John Gunthorpe, Dean of Wells, bequeathed | James^{16}, 13.
| to Jesus College, Cambridge, |
| some manuscripts collected in Italy. |
1499 | William Holcombe left books to Exeter | Oliver, _Mon. D. Exon._,
| College and to friends: including | 278.
| Hugutio, _Gesta Alexandri_. |
1500 | Archbp. Rotherham left to Jesus College, | James^{13}, 5-8.
| Rotherham, some hundred volumes. |
| Chiefly theology. Terence, Cicero’s |
| _Orations_, _ad Familiares_, Horace, |
| Sallust’s _Catilina_ and _Jugurtha_, Ovid’s|
| _Metamorphoses_, _Ars amandi_, _Remedia |
|Amoris_, etc., Petrarch (_de Vita solitaria_,|
|_de Remediis utriusque fortunae_). |
1506 | 363 volumes in Exeter Cathedral. | Oliver, 366-75.
1508 | 306 books repaired at Christ Church, | James, 152.
| Canterbury. Theological, homiletic |
| and law books. Livy, _Liber grecorum_. |
1508 | Abp. Warham gave books to New College. | _O. H. S._ 32, _Collect._
| | 232-33.
1509 | Christ’s College, Cambridge, received 57 | _C. A. S._, iii. (N.S.,
| liturgical books bequeathed by the | 8vo), 361.
| Lady Margaret. |
1519-20 | William Grocyn’s Library comprised 105 | Leland, ii. 317; _O. H. S._
| printed books and 17 manuscripts. | 16, _Collect._ 319-23.
| Much theology; leading Latin classics. |
| Greek and Latin New Testament. |
| Petrarch, Boccaccio, Ficino, Filelfo, |
| Lorenzo della Valle, Aeneas Sylvius, |
| Perotti. _Adagia_ of Erasmus. |
1519 | Robert Same, chaplain, bequeathed 1 | _Cam. Soc._, Bury Wills,
| book to Wetheringsett Church. | 253.
1524 | 292 books at Canterbury College, Oxford, | James, 165.
| theology, law, philosophy. Aristotle |
| (incl. _Ethica_ newly translated); Cicero,|
| Horace, Virgil, Lucan; Boccaccio, |
| Lorenzo della Valle. |
1504-26 | At least 1421 volumes in Syon Monastery, | Bateson, _passim_.
| Isleworth. Of the rough classification |
| Miss Bateson wrote: “Generally speaking |
| A includes grammar and classics (77 |
| volumes); B, medicine, astrology, a few |
| classics (55); C, philosophy (46); D, |
| commentaries on the Sentences (128); |
| E, Bibles and concordances (75); F-I, |
| commentaries on the Old and New |
| Testament (232); K, History (65); L, |
| dictionaries (58); M, Lives of the Saints |
| (121); N, Fathers (88); O, devotional |
| tracts (98); P to S, chiefly sermons, |
| over 70 books in each class; T, canon |
| law (104); V, civil law (21),”--p. vii. |
| Of Latin Renascence literature there |
| are works by Coluccio Salutati, Leonardo |
| Bruni, Poggio, Bessarion, Platina, |
| Poliziano, Pico della Mirandola; and |
| translations from the Greek by Hermolaus |
| Barbarus, Gaza, Erasmus, and |
| others. Also Petrarch (_Psalmi poenitentiales_), |
| Boccaccio (_de geneal. deor. |
| gent._), Savonarola (_de virtute fidei_), |
| Reuchlin. This catalogue is of the |
| men’s library only: there was another |
| library for women. Many of the books |
| were printed; nearly 400 editions have |
| been identified. |
----------+----------------------------------------------+-----------------
APPENDIX D
LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS REFERRED TO FOR THIS BOOK
ADAMNAN Adamnan. Vita S. Columbae. Ed., Reeves. 1874.
ALLEN Allen, J. R. Celtic Art. 1904. Antiquary’s books.
ARCHÆOLOGIA Archæologia, various volumes; especially vol. xliii.
and vol. lvii. (Church, Rev. C. M., Library of Wells
Cathedral).
ARCHDALL Archdall, M. Monasticon Hibernicum. 2 vols. 1786.
*BATESON Bateson, Mary, ed. Catalogue of the Library of Syon
Monastery, Isleworth. 1898.
*BECKER Becker, G. Catalogi Bibliothecarum antiqui. Bonn,
1885.
*BIBLIO. SOC. Bibliographical Society’s Transactions and Monographs.
Especially Monogr. 10 and 13, Strickland
Gibson, early Oxford bindings; and G. J. Gray,
earlier Cambridge stationers.
BOTFIELD Botfield, B. Notes on the Cathedral Libraries of
England. 1849.
BRADLEY Bradley, J. W. Dictionary of Miniaturists, Calligraphers,
and Copyists. 3 vols. 1887-9.
BRADSHAW Bradshaw, H. Collected papers. 1889.
BRADSHAW SOC. Henry Bradshaw Society. Customary of the Benedictine
Monasteries, Canterbury. 2 vols. 1902.
B. M. COTT. CLAUD., E. iv.
B. M. COTT. DOMIT., A. viii.
B. M. COTT. GALBA, C. iv.
B. M. COTT. NERO, D. vii.
B. M. REG. 2, E. ix.
B. M. REG. 13, D. iv.
BRYCE Bryce, W. M. Scottish Grey Friars. 2 vols. 1909.
BURY Bury, J. B. Life of Saint Patrick. 1905.
CAMBRIDGE STAT. Documents relating to the University and Colleges.
3 vols. 1852.
C. A. S. Cambridge Antiquarian Society. Publications and
communications. Various volumes.
CAM. SOC. Camden Society Publications. Various volumes.
CAMB. LIT. Cambridge History of English Literature, vols. i.-iv.
1907-9. Especially vol. i. ch. ii., Runes and MSS.,
and ch. x., English Scholars of Paris and Franciscans
of Oxford; vol. ii. ch. xv., English and Scottish
Education; vol. iii. ch. i., Englishmen and the
Classical Renascence; vol. iv. ch. xix., Foundation
of Libraries. [And bibliographies to these chapters.]
*CLARK Clark, J. W. Care of Books: Essay on the Development
of Libraries and their Fittings. 1909. 2nd ed.
COOPER Cooper, C. H. Annals of Cambridge. 5 vols. 1842-{53}, 1908.
DAVENPORT Davenport, C. The Book: Its History and Development. 1907.
DELISLE Delisle, L. Le Cabinet des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque
Impériale. 1868-74.
D. C. B. Dictionary of Christian Biography.
D. N. B. Dictionary of National Biography.
*DUGDALE Dugdale, Sir W. Monasticon Anglicanum. Ed.,
Caley, Ellis, and Bandinel. 9 vols. 1817-30.
EDWARDS Edwards, E. Memoirs of Libraries. 2 vols. 1859.
EDWARDS^{2} Edwards, E. Free Town Libraries. 1869.
EDWARDS^{3} Edwards, E. Libraries and Founders of Libraries.
1864.
EINSTEIN Einstein, L. Italian Renaissance in England. New
York, 1892.
E. H. R. English Historical Review.
FLOYER Floyer, Rev. J. K. Catalogue of MSS. preserved in
the Chapter House of Worcester Cathedral. 1906.
FLOYER Floyer, Rev. J. K. Thousand Years of a Cathedral
Library. _Reliquary_, Jan. 1901.
GASQUET Gasquet, F. A. English Monastic Life. 1905.
Antiquary’s Books.
GASQUET^{2} Gasquet, F. A. Eve of the Reformation. 1909.
GASQUET^{3} Gasquet, F. A. Last Abbot of Glastonbury, etc. 1908.
GASQUET^{4} Gasquet, F. A. Old English Bible and other Essays.
1897.
*GOTTLIEB Gottlieb, T. Ueber Mittelalterliche Bibliotheken.
Leipzig, 1890.
GRACE B. Grace Books Δ and I. Proctor’s Accounts and Other
Records of the University of Cambridge. Ed.,
Leathes and Bateson. 1897.
HADDAN Haddan, A. W. Remains. 1876.
HARDY Hardy, Sir T. D. Descriptive Catalogue of MSS.
relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland.
4 vols. Rolls Series.
HEALY Healy, J. Ireland’s Ancient Schools and Scholars.
4th ed. 1902.
HIST. MSS. Historical MSS. Commission Reports.
HUNTER Hunter, J. English Monastic Libraries. 1831.
HYDE Hyde, D. Literary History of Ireland. 1899. Library
of Literary History.
*JAMES James, M. R. Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and
Dover. 1903.
*JAMES^{1} James, M. R. Abbey of St. Edmund at Bury. 1895.
JAMES^{2} James, M. R. Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS. in
the Library of King’s College. 1895.
*JAMES^{3} James, M. R. Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS. in
the Library of Peterhouse. 1899.
JAMES^{4} James, M. R. Descriptive Catalogue of the Western
MSS. in the Library of Emmanuel College.
JAMES^{5} James, M. R. Descriptive Catalogue of the Western
MSS. in the Library of Christ’s College. 1905.
JAMES^{6} James, M. R. Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS. in
the Library of Trinity Hall. 1907.
JAMES^{7} James, M. R. Descriptive Catalogue of the Western
MSS. in the Library of Clare College. 1905.
JAMES^{8} James, M. R. Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS. in
the Library of Gonville and Caius College. 2 vols.
1907-8.
JAMES^{9} James, M. R. Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS. in
the Library of Jesus College. 1895.
JAMES^{10} James, M. R. Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS. in
the Library of Pembroke College, Cambridge. 1905.
JAMES^{11} James, M. R. The Western MSS. in the Library of
Trinity College: Descriptive Catalogue. 4 vols.
1900-04.
JAMES^{12} James, M. R. Descriptive Catalogue of the Western
MSS. in the Library of Queens’ College, Cambridge.
1905.
JAMES^{13} James, M. R. Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS. in
the Library of Sidney Sussex College. 1895.
JAMES^{14} James, M. R. Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS. in
the Library of Eton College. 1895.
JAMES^{15} James, M. R. Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS. in
the Fitzwilliam Museum. 1895.
JAMES^{16} James, M. R. Archbishop Parker’s MSS. 1899.
JAMES^{17} James, M. R. Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS. in
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Part I. 1909.
JAMES^{18} James, M. R. Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts
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JOYCE Joyce, P. W. Social History of Ancient Ireland.
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STEVENSON Stevenson, F. S. Robert Grosseteste. 1899.
STOKES (G. T.) Stokes, G. T. Ireland and the Celtic Church. 1886.
STOKES (M.) Stokes, Margt. Early Christian Art in Ireland. 1887.
STOKES (M.)^{2} Stokes, M. Six Months in the Apennines. 1892.
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WORDSWORTH Wordsworth, C., and Littlehales, H. Old Service
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ZENTRALBLATT Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen. Various volumes.
NOTE.--_Books marked with an asterisk * are important._
INDEX
Abdy, Robert, 150-151
Abingdon Abbey, 33, 39, 41, 78, 87, 88, 97, 98, 269
Abyssinian libraries, 18
Academic libraries, 133 _seqq._;
Cambridge, 155 _seqq._;
Character of books in, 222 _seqq._;
economy, 165 _seqq._;
Oxford, 133 _seqq._
Acca, Bp., 34
Adam de Brome, 135
Aelfric, 44, 85
Aelfric, Abp., 44
Aelfward, Abbot, 44, 263
Aeneas Silvius, 120, 277
Aethelwold, 40-41, 263
Aidan, St., 30
Aileran, 8
Albinus, 25, 28
Alcuin, 9, 10, 35-36, 78, 80, 263
Aldfrith of Northumbria, 9, 31
Aldhelm, 8, 28-29, 31
Aleby, Thomas, 279
Alfred the Great, 37-39
All Souls College, 147, 149, 151, 153, 165, 166, 167, 168, 170, 186, 277, 283
Alne, Robert, 156, 277
Annalists, monastic, 231-232
Anselm, 83, 214
Antiphonaries, value of, 246
Antiphonary of Bangor, 11
Arabian works imported, 217-218
Aristotle, works introduced, 53, 217-222;
influence, 240
Armagh, Book of, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20
Armagh monastery, 4, 9, 12
_Armaria_, 91
_Armarius_, 96-97
Arnoul of Metz, Gospels of, 20
Arundel, Abp., 139, 190, 275
Asser, 38
Assicus, Bp., 20, 21
Astronomical text-books, 225
Athelney monastery, 39
Athelstan, King, 263
Audit of books in monasteries, 102-103
Augustine, St., 14, 24
Augustine, Irish Monk, 8
Aumbries, 91, 92
Austin Friars’ libraries, 55, 56, 67-68, 103, 271
Bacon, Friar, 178, 216, 218-219, 220-221
Baldock, Ralph, 119-120, 269
Bale, John, 66-67
Balliol College, 54, 146, 148, 150, 153, 186, 192, 193, 281, 282
Balsham, Hugh of, 158
Bangor monastery, 7
Baret, John, 280
Baringham, John, 279
Barking nunnery, 33
Basil the Great, 2
Basingstoke, John of, 219-220, 267
Bateman, Bp. William, 158-159, 270
Battle Abbey, 62
Beauchamp, Guy de, 177, 269
Beaufort, Card., 188, 190
Beaufort, Sir Thomas, 162
Beaulieu Abbey, 93
Becket, Thomas à, 89
Beckford Cell, 47
Bede, 26 _n._, 27, 32-33;
his library, 33 _n._;
_Ecclesiastical History_, MSS., 15, 110;
_Apocalypse_ MS., 110-111
Bedford, Duke of. _See_ John of Lancaster
Bedyll, Thomas, 68
Bek, Bp., 269
Bekynton, Bp., 123 _n._, 190
Benedict Biscop, 31-32, 33, 86
Benedictines, use of books among, 23-24, 49, 63
_Benedictional_ of Abp. Robert, 42
_Benedictional_ of Ethelwold, 42, 43
Bethum, Sir Edward, 280
Beverley Minster, 128
Bible, Latin, correcting text, 58;
circulation, 239;
prices of, 243-244
Biblical literature in monasteries, 210-212
Bicchieri, Guala, Card., 86-87
Bicester Priory, 175
Binding, 107-108;
prices, 256-257
Birkenhead Priory, 73, 74
Bishop Auckland Church, 194, 277, 283
Black Death, 138, 138 _n._, 159
Black Friars’ books, 55
Bobio, 8, 10, 87
Bodleian Library, 113
Bohun, Eleanor, of Gloucester, 177
Bolton, S. Mary’s Church, 129
Boniface, 34
Book-boxes, 113-114, 123
Bookrooms, in colleges, 149-151, 164, 186;
in churches, 112, 115, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122-123, 124, 126, 128, 130, 186;
in monasteries, 12, 63, 93-96
Books, care of, 97-98;
extent of circulation, 232-241;
destruction and dispersal, 59 _seqq._, 152-154, 157-158;
prices of, 243 _seqq._
Booksellers, 199 _seqq._
Book-trade in Oxford, 133 _seqq._, 199 _seqq._;
Cambridge, 155, 205 _seqq._;
London, 207
Bordesley Abbey, 67, 67 _n._
Boston Church, 129