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Old English Libraries, The Making, Collection, and Use of Books

E >> Ernest A. Savage >> Old English Libraries, The Making, Collection, and Use of Books




[1] Reliquary, vii. 14 (Floyer).

[2] Ibid., 17.


At the Dissolution the Priory was deprived of much of
its church plate, service books and vestments, and probably
of many of its books. But the library there suffered a good
deal less than those of other houses, and the Cathedral now
has in its possession some respectable remains of its ancient
collection of books.[1]

[1] The best account of Worcester Cathedral Library is in
Reliquary, vii. Il, by the Rev. J. K. Floyer, M.A.



Section III

The history of an old library can only be traced intermittently,
the facts playing hide and seek like a distant
lantern carried over broken ground. Little is known of the
early history of Hereford's cathedral library. An ancient
copy of the Gospels, said to have been bequeathed by the
last Saxon bishop, Athelstan (1012), is one of the earliest
gifts. In 1186 Bishop Robert Folliott gave "multa bona
in ferris et libris." Bishop Hugh Folliott also left ornaments
and books. Another bishop, R. de Maidstone, although "vir
magnae literaturae, et in theologia nominatissimus," only
seems to have given the church two antiphonaries, some
psalters, and a Legenda. Bishop Charleton (1369) left a Bible,
a concordance, a glossary, Nicholas de Lyra, and five Books
of Moses, all to be chained in the cathedral. Very shortly
afterwards we hear of fittings, for in 1395 Walter of
Ramsbury gave L 10 for making the desks. Probably a
book-room, which was over the west cloister, was then put
up. A long interval elapsed, during which little seems to
have been done for the library. But between c. 1516-35
Bishop Booth and Dean Frowcester left many fine volumes.
In 1589 the book-room was abandoned and the contents
shifted to the Lady Chapel.

A new library was built in 1897. Herein are to be
seen what are almost certainly the original bookcases, albeit
they have been taken to pieces and somewhat altered before
being fitted together again. One of the bookcases still has
all the old chains and fittings for the books, and it presents
a very curious appearance. Every chain is from three to
four feet long, with a ring at each end, and a swivel in the
middle. One ring is strung on to an iron rod, which is
secured at one end of the bookcase by metal work, with
lock and key. For convenience in using the book on the
reading slope which was attached to the case, the ring at
the other end of the chain was fixed to the fore edge of the
book-cover instead of to the back; when standing on
the shelves the books therefore present their fore edges to
the reader. The cases are roughly finished, but very solid
in make.[1]

[1] Havergal, Fasti Heref. (1869), 181-182.



Section IV

At Old Sarum Church, Bishop Osmund (1078-99)
collected, wrote, and bound books.[1] In his time, too, the
chancellor used to superintend the schools and correct
books: either books used in the school or service books.[2]
The income from a virgate of land was assigned to correct-
ing books towards the end of the twelfth century (1175-80).[3]
The new Salisbury Cathedral was erected in the thirteenth
century; but apparently a special library room was not
used until shortly after 1444, when it was put up to cover
the whole eastern cloister. This room was altered and
reduced in size in 1758. About the time the room was
completed one of the canons gave some books, on the
inside covers of two of which is a note in a fifteenth century
hand bidding they should be chained in the new library.[4]
Nearly two hundred manuscripts, of various date from the
ninth to the fourteenth century, are now in the library.
Among them several notable volumes are to be found: a
Psalter with curious illuminations; another Psalter, with the
Gallican and Hebrew of Jerome's translation in parallel
columns, also illuminated; Chaucer's translation of Boethius;
Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain of
the twelfth century; a thirteenth century Lectionary, with
golden and coloured initials; a Tonale according to Sarum
use, bound with a fourteenth century Ordinal; and a
fifteenth century Processional containing some notes on local
customs.

[1] W. of Malmesbury, Gesta Pont., 184.

[2] Register of St. Osmund, i. 8, 214.

[3] Register of St. Osmund, i. 224.

[4] Cox and Harvey, English Church Furniture, 331.



Section V

Books were given to Lincoln Cathedral about 1150 by
Hugh of Leicester; one of them bears the inscription, Ex
dono Hugonis Archidiaconi Leycestriae. They may still be
seen at Lincoln. Forty-two volumes and a map came into the
charge of Hamo when he became chancellor in 1150.[1] During
his chancellorship thirty-one volumes were added by gift, so
making the total seventy-three volumes: Bishops Alexander
and Chesney were among the benefactors. But here, as at
Salisbury, not until the fifteenth century was a separate
library room built. Two gifts "to the new library" by
Bishop Repyngton who also befriended Oxford University
Library--and Chancellor Duffield in 1419 and 1426, fix
the date. It was put up over the north half of the eastern
cloisters, relatively the same position as at Salisbury and
Wells. Originally it had five bays, but in 1789 the two
southernmost bays were pulled down: In this room the
fine fifteenth century oaken roof, with its carved ornaments,
has been preserved, but at Salisbury the roof is modern, with
a plaster ceiling. Lincoln's new library, designed by Wren
and erected in 1674, is next to this old room. According
to a 1450 catalogue now preserved at Lincoln the library
contained one hundred and seven works, more than seventy
of which now remain. Among the most important manuscripts
are a mid-fifteenth century copy of old English
romances of great literary value, collected by Robert de
Thornton, archdeacon of Bedford (c. 1430); and a contemporary
copy of Magna Carta.

[1] See list in Giraldus Cambrensis, vii. 165-166.



Section VI

In an inventory of St. Paul's Cathedral, taken in 1245,
mention is made of thirty-five volumes.[1] Before this, in
Ralph of Diceto's time, a binder of books was an officer
of the church. As at Salisbury, the chancellor's duties
included taking charge of the school books. In 1283 a
writer of books was included among the ministers. The
two offices were combined in the beginning of the next
century. When Dean Ralph Baldock made a visitation
of St. Paul's treasury in 1295, he found thirteen Gospels
adorned with precious metals and stones; some other
parts of the Scriptures; and a commentary of Thomas
Aquinas. In 1313 Baldock, who died Bishop of London,
bequeathed fifteen volumes, chiefly theological books.[2]
To Baldock's time probably belongs the reference to
twelve scribes, no doubt retained for business purposes
as well as for book-making. They were bound by an
oath to be faithful to the church and to write without
fraud or malice. Aeneas Sylvius tells us he saw a Latin
translation of Thucydides in the sacristy of the cathedral
(1435).[3]

[1] Archaeologia, I. 496.

[2] Hist. MSS., 9th Rept., App. 46a.

[3] Ep., 126; Creighton, Papacy, iii 53n.


A library room was erected in the fifteenth century. "Ouer
the East Quadrant of this Cloyster, was a fayre Librarie,
builded at the costes and charges of Waltar Sherington,
Chancellor of the Duchie of Lancaster, in the raigne of
Henrie the 6 which hath beene well furnished with faire
written books in Vellem."[1] The catalogue of 1458 bears out
Stow's description of the library as well-furnished. Some one
hundred and seventy volumes were in the Chapter's possession;
they were of the usual kind, grammatical books, Bibles
and commentaries, works of the fathers; books on medicine
by Galen, Hippocrates, Avicenna, and Egidius; Ralph de
Diceto's chronicles; and some works of Seneca, Cicero,
Suetonius, and Virgil.[2] In 1486, however, only fifty-two
volumes were found after the death of John Grimston the
sacrist.[3] Leland gives a list of only twenty-one manuscripts,
but it was not his habit to make full inventories. In Stow's
time, however, few books remained.[4] Three volumes only
can be traced now--(1) a manuscript of Avicenna, (2) the
Chronicle of Ralph de Diceto in the Lambeth Palace
Library, and (3) the Miracles of the Virgin, in the Aberdeen
University Library.[5]

[1] Stow, i. 328.

[2] Dugdale, Hist. of St. Paul's, 392-398.

[3] Ibid., 399.

[4] Stow, i. 328.

[5] Ibid., ii. 346; Simpson, Reg. S. Pauli, 13, 78, 133, 173,
227.



Section VII

Although neither a monastic nor a collegiate church,
Wells was already in the thirteenth century a place with
some equipment for educational work. Besides the
choristers' school, a schola grammaticalis of a higher
grade was in existence. After 1240 the Chancellor's
duties included lecturing on theology. Not improbably,
therefore, a collection of books was formed very early.
And indeed the Dean and Chapter in 1291 received from
the Dean of Sarum books lent by the Chapter, and some
others bequeathed to them. Hugo of St. Victor, Speculum
de Sacramentis, and Bede, De Temporibus, were the books
returned from Sarum; among those bequeathed were
Augustine's Epistles and De Civitate Dei, Gregory the
Great's Speculum, and John Damascenus. We know
nothing of the character and size of the library at this
time, although it seems to have been preserved in a special
room. In 1297, the Chapter ordered the two side doors
of the choir screen in the aisles to be shut at night. One
door near the library (versus librarium) and the Chapter
was only to be open from the first stroke of matins until
the proper choir door was opened at the third bell. At
other times during the day it was always to be closed,
so that people could not injure the books in the library,
or overhear the conferences of the Chapter (secreta capituli).
This library was most likely on the north side of the
church, with the Chapter House beside it, in the north
transept, as shown conjecturally in the plan given in
Canon Church's admirable Chapters in the Early History of
the Church of Wells.[1] That so early, in a church neither
monastic nor collegiate, a school was at work, and a
library had been formed, is a specially significant fact in
the study of our subject.

[1] Pp. 1, 325-327.


In this position the library remained until the fifteenth
century. Two notices occur of it, one in 1340 and
another in 1406, in both cases in connection with an
image of the Holy Saviour, "near the library."

But in the fifteenth century a new library was built
over the eastern cloister. Bishop Nicholas of Bubwith,
in his will of 1424, bequeathed one thousand marks to
be faithfully applied and disposed for the construction and
new building of a certain library to be newly erected upon
the eastern space of the cloister, situate between the south
door of the church next the chamber of the escheator of
the church and the gate which leads directly from the
church by the cloister into the palace of the bishop.[1] The
work was begun by his executors, but certain signs of
break in the building suggest some delay in finishing it.
This room is probably the only cathedral library built over
a cloister which remains in its original completeness. It
is 165 feet by 12 feet; now only about two-thirds of it
are devoted to the library. When this room was first
fitted up as a library no one knows; but tradition fixes
the date at 1472. The present fittings were put in during
Bishop Creighton's time (1670-72).

[1] In the fifteenth century the bishops of Wells were good
friends of learning: Skirlaw gave books to University College,
Oxford; Bowet left a large library; Stafford gave books; Bekynton
was the companion of the most cultivated men of his time. Dean
Gunthorpe is well known as a pilgrim to Italy, who returned laden
with manuscripts (see p. 192).

Shortly after the date of Bubwith's will Bishop Stafford
(1425-43) gave ten books--not an inspiriting collection--
but he desired to retain possession of them during his
lifetime.[1] In 1452 Richard Browne (alias Cordone),
Archdeacon of Rochester, left to the library of Wells,
Petrus de Crescentiis De Agricultura, and two other books,
Jerome's Epistles, and Lathbury Super librum Trenorum,
which were to be kept in the church in wooden cases.[2]
Were these cases to resemble the boxes still remaining
in Exeter Cathedral? The same will ordered the Decretales
of Clement, which had been borrowed for copying, to be restored
to this library; two other books were also given back;
and the will further notes that there are several books
belonging to the library in a certain great bag in the inner
room of the treasury at Wells.[3]

[1] Hist, MSS. Rept. 3, App. 363a.

[2] Mun. Acad., 649,

[3] Mun. Acad., 652-653.


Leland only mentions forty-six books in the library
in his time. "I went into the library, which
whilome had been magnificently furnished with a considerable
number of books by its bishops and canons,
and I found great treasures of high antiquity." Among
the books he found were sermons by Gregory and Aelfric
in Anglo-Saxon, Terence, and "Dantes translatus in
carmen Latinum." Very few books belonging to the
old library before the Dissolution have survived. Some
are in the British Museum, the Bodleian, and certain
collegiate libraries; and several manuscripts remain in the
hands of the Dean and Chapter. Among them are three
manuscripts known as Liber albus I, Liber ruber II, and
Liber albus III, which contain an extremely valuable series
of documents.[1]

[1] L. A. R., viii. 372; Canon Church's account of the library,
in Archaeologia, lvii. pt. 2, is very full and interesting.



Section VIII

In the York fabric rolls appear from time to time
expenses for writing, illuminating, and binding church
books; but we know little or nothing about the Chapter
library, if such existed. William de Feriby, a canon,
bequeathed his books in 1379. Between 1418 and 1422,
a library was built at the south-west corner of the south
transept. The building is in two floors, and the upper
appears to have been the book-room; it is still in existence.
In the rolls are several references to the building.


1419. Et de 26l. 13s. 4d. de elemosina domini Thomae Haxey ad
cooperturam novi librarii cum plumbo.

Haxey was a good friend to the cathedral; and he gave
handsomely toward the library. His arms were put up in
one of the new library windows.

1419. In sarracione iiij arborum datarum novo librario per
Abbatem de Selby, 6/8.

1419. Et Johanni Grene, joynor, pro joynacione tabularum pro
libraria et planacione et gropyng de waynscott, per annum,
17s. 8d.

In operacione cc ferri in boltes pro nova libraria per Johannem
Harpham, fabrum, 8s.[1]

[1] Surtees Soc., xxxv. 36-40.


In 1418 John de Newton, the church treasurer,
bequeathed to the Chapter a number of books, including
Bibles, commentaries, and patristical and historical works,
as well as Petrarch's De remediis utriusque fortunae.[1]
They were chained to the library desks, and were guarded
with horn and studs, to protect them from the consequences
of careless use by readers.

[1] Hunter, Notes of Wills in Registers of York, 15.


1421. Johanni Upton pro superscriptura librorum nuper magistri
Johannis Neuton thesaurarii istius ecclesiae legatorum librario,
2s. Thomae Hornar de Petergate pro hornyng et naillyng
superscriptorum librorum, 2s. 6d. Radulpho Lorymar de
Conyngstrete pro factura et emendacione xl cathenarum pro
eisdem libris annexis in librario predicto, 23s. Id.[1]

[1] Surtees Soc., xxxv., 45-46.


From time to time a few other bequests were made:
thus, Archdeacon Stephen Scrope bequeathed some books
on canon law, after a beneficiary had had them in use
during his life (1418). Robert Ragenhill, advocate of the
court of York, enriched the church with a small collection
(1430); and Robert Wolveden, treasurer of the church,
left to the library his theological books (1432).[1]

[1] Ibid., iv. 385; xiv. 89, 91.



Section IX

The Sacrist's Roll of Lichfield Cathedral, under date
1345, contains en inventory of the books then in possession
of the church. All of them were service books, excepting
only a De Gestis Anglorum.[1] Thereafter we cannot discover
a notice of the library until 1489, when Dean Thomas
Heywood gave L 40 towards building a home for the books.
Dean Yotton assisted in the good work. By 1493 the
building was finished. It stood on the north side of the
Cathedral, west of the north door, or "ex parte boreali in
cimeterio."[2] The Dean and Chapter had it pulled down
in 1758.

[1] W. Salt Arch. Soc., vi. pt. 2, 211.

[2] Capit. Acts, v. 3.


Nearly all the books of the early collection perished
during the Civil War; but the finest manuscript, known as
St. Chad's Gospels, was saved by the preceptor. Among
the other manuscripts in the possession of the Chapter are
a fine vellum copy of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, with
beautiful initials, and the Taxatio Ecclesiastica, a tithe book
showing the value of church property in Edward I's time.[1]

[1] Harwood, Hist. and Antiq. of the Ch.... of Lichfield (1806),
109.



Section X

Many other churches, some of them small and unimportant,
owned books, and received them as gifts or
bequests. In the time of Richard II the Royal collegiate
chapel of Windsor Castle had, besides service books,
thirty-four volumes on different subjects chained in the
church, among them a Bible and a Concordance, and two
books of French romance, one of which was the Liber de Rose.[1]

[1] Vict. County Hist. of Berkshire, ii. 109.


The library of St. Mary's Church, Warwick, was first
formed by the celebrated antiquary, John Rous. Before
his time we hear only of one or two books. In 1407
there was a collection of fifty service books, and a
Catholicon, the latter being perhaps the nucleus of a
library.[1] "At my lorde's auter," that is, at the Earl of
Warwick's altar, were to be found among other goods and
books, the Bible, the fourth book of the Sentenccs, Pupilla
Oculi, a work by Reymond de Pennaforte, Isidore, and
some canon law.[2] John Rous seems to have inherited the
bookish tastes of his relative, William Kous. William had
bequeathed his books to the Dean, charging him to allow
John to read them when he came of age and had received
priest's orders.

[1] Vict. Hist. Warwickshire, ii. 127 b.

[2] Ibid., ii. 128a.


Among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum is
a small volume written on parchment by Humphrey Wanley,
which includes a copy of a curious inventory of vestments,
plate, books, and other goods made in the time of John
Rous, 1464. A portion of this inventory has been printed
in Notices of the Churches of Warwickshire, i. 15--16. "It.
v bokes beynge in the handes of Maister John Rous now
priest whuche were Sir William Rous and bequath hem to
the Dean and Chapitre of the forseide Chirche Collegiall
under condicon that the seid maister John beynge priest
shulde have hem for his special edificacon duryng his fief.
And after his decees to remayne and to be for ever to the
seide Dean and Chapitre as it appereth by endentures
thereof made whereof one party leveth with the Dean and
Chapitre. That is to say i book quem composuit ffrater
Antoninus Rampologus de Janis 2 fo Chorinth 14. It.
1 book cald pars dextera et pars sinistra 2 fo non carere.
It. 1 bible versefied cald patris in Aurora 2 fo huic opifox.
It. 1 book of powles epistoles glosed 2 fo de Jhu qui dr
Xtus. It. 1 book cald pharetra 2 fo hora est jam nos de
sompno surgere. It. 1 quayer in the whuche is conteyned
the exposicon of the masse 2 fo cods offerim."

John also seems to have given books as well as a room
to house them.[1] An old view of the church, taken before
the great fire which destroyed the town in 1694, shows
the south porch surmounted with his library, as then
standing; but this room was destroyed in the fire, and it
seems certain the books were burnt. The present library
was founded in 1701, and includes no part of the original
collection.[2]

[1] Johannes Rous, capellanus Cantariae de Guy-Cliffe, qui super
porticum australem librariam construxit, et libris
ornavit.--Gentleman's Magazine (N.S), xxv. 37. The chapel of
Guy's Cliffe was erected by Richard Beauchamp for the repose of
the soul of his "ancestor," Guy of Warwick, the hero of
romance.

[2] Mr. W. T. Carter, of the Warwick Public Libtary, has kindly
given me much information about St. Mary's Church library.


Bequests to churches of service books, such as that to
the church of St. Mary, Castle-gate, York (1394), were
numerous; they may be set apart with bequests of vestments,
plate, and money. Some bequests have a different
character. A chancellor of York, Thomas de Farnylaw,
leaves books, bound and unbound, to the Vicar of Waghen;
a volume of sermons and a "quire" to the church of
Embleton; and a Bible and Concordance to be chained in
the north porch of St. Nicholas' Church, Newcastle, "for
common use, for the good of the soul of his lord William
of Middleton" (1378). A chaplain leaves service books,
Speculum Ecclesiae, and the Gospels in English to Holy
Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York (1394). A Bristol
merchant bequeaths two books on canon law to St. Mary
Redcliffe Church, there to be preserved for the use of the
vicar and chaplains (1416). In the same year a Canon of
York enriches Beverley Church with all his books of canon
and civil law. Books were also chained in the church of
St. Mary of Oxford. Bishop Lyndwood of St. David's
bequeaths a copy of his digest of the synodal constitutions
of the province of Canterbury for chaining in St. Stephen's
Chapel, "to serve as a standard for future editions" (1443).
Richard Browne, or Cordone, who has left books to Wells,
reserves for the parish church of Naas in Ireland a Catholicon
and other manuscripts (1452). To Boston Church a
rector of Kirkby Ravensworth bequeaths several books,
but one named John Bosbery was to have the use of them
for life: among the gifts was Polichronicon (1457). Canon
Nicholas Holme leaves Pupilla Oculi to the parish church
of Redmarshall (1458). A chaplain bequeaths one book
to St. Mary's Church, Bolton, another to St. Wilfrid's
Church, Brensall in Craven, and a third to All Saints'
Church, Peseholme, York (1466). Sir Richard Willoughby
orders church books and a Crede mihi to be given to
Woollaton Parish Church (1469). Robert Est, possibly
a chantry-priest in York Minster, enriches the parish
church of his native Lincoln village, Brigsley, with a copy
of Legends of the Saints, Speculum Christiani, Gesta
Romanorum cum aliis fabulis Isopi et mutis narrationibus,
and a Psalter (1474-75). To the church of St. Mary's,
Nottingham, the vicar leaves a Golden Legend, a Polichronicon,
besides Pupilla Oculi, and a portiforium to Wragby
Church, and a missal to Snenton Church (1476). Sir
Thomas Lyttleton befriends King's Norton Church by
leaving it a Latin-English dictionary, and that of Halesowen
in Worcestershire by leaving a Catholicon, the Constitutiones
Provinciales (possibly Lyndwood's digest, the Provinciale),
and the Gesta Romanorum (1481). A man of Leicester
was sued by the church wardens of the parish church of
Welford, in the county of Leicester, on a charge of having
taken away certain books belonging to the church and
sold them (1490). The vicar of Ruddington bequeaths
three books, "ad tenendum et ligandum cum cathena ferrea
in quadam sede in capella B. M. de Rodington" (1491).
Thomas Rotherham, benefactor of Cambridge University
Library, gave to the church of Rochester ten pounds for
building a library (1500). To Wetheringsett Church a
chaplain of Bury carefully reserves "a book called
Fasiculus Mors [Fasciculus morum], to lye in the chauncell,
for priests to occupye ther tyme when it shall please them,
praying them to have my soule in remembraunce as it shall
please them of their charite" (1519).[1]

[1] Arch. Inst. City of York (1846), 10-11; Surtees Soc., iv.
102-103, 196; xiv. 57-59, 159, 171, 220-222, 221n; xxvi. 2-3;
xxx. 219, 275; Cox and Harvey, English Church Furniture, 331;
Mun. Acad., 648-649; Library, i. 411; Cam. Soc., Bury Wills, 253.


A very little research would add considerably to our
list; while, apart from records of gifts and bequests, are
numberless references to books in churches. For example:
in the churchwarden's account book (c. 1525) of All Saints,
Derby, occurs an entry beginning: "These be the bokes in
our lady Chapell tyed with chenes yt were gyffen to
Alhaloes church in Derby--

In primis one Boke called summa summarum.
Item A boke called Summa Raumundi [Summa poenitentia et
matrimonio of Reymond de Pennaforte of Barcelona].
Item Anoyer called pupilla occult [Pupilla oculi, by J. de
Burgo].
Item Anoyer called the Sexte [Liber Sextus Decretalium].
Item A boke called Hugucyon [see pp. 223-4].
Item A boke called Vitas Patrum.
Item Anoyer boke called pauls pistols.
Item A boke called Januensis super evangeliis dominicalibus
[Sermons of Jacobus de Voragine, Abp. of Genoa, on the
Gospels for the Sundays throughout the year].
Item a grette portuose [a large breviary].
Item Anoyer boke called Legenda Aurea [Legenda sanctorum
aurea of Jacobus de Voragine]. [l]

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