 | CHAPTER V: CATHEDRAL AND CHURCH LIBRARIES Old English libraries; the making, collection and use of books during the middle ages |  |
9. § 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. [5.46] Thereafter we cannot discover a notice of the library until 1489, when Dean Thomas Heywood gave £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."[5.47] The Dean and Chapter had it pulled down in 1758.
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.[5.48]
| CHAPTER V: CATHEDRAL AND CHURCH LIBRARIES Old English libraries; the making, collection and use of books during the middle ages | |