University of Virginia Library

3. § III

Towards the end of the fifteenth century the beginning of the sad end of all this good work may be traced. Some part of the collections disappeared gradually. In 1458 books were chained at Exeter College, because some of them had been taken away. When volumes became damaged and worn out, they were not replaced by others. Some were pledged, and although every effort was made to redeem them, as at Exeter College in 1466, 1470, 1472 and 1473, yet it seems certain many were permanently alienated. Others were perhaps sold, or given away, as John Phylypp gave away two Exeter College manuscripts in 1468. [6.53] The University library was in similar case. When Erasmus saw the scanty remains of


152

this collection he could have wept. "Before it had continued eighty years in its flourishing state," writes Wood of the library, "[it] was rifled of its precious treasure! by unreasonable persons. That several scholars would,, upon small pledges given in, borrow books . . . that were never restored. Polydore Virgil . . . borrowed many after such a way; but at length being denied, did upon petition made to the king obtain his license for the taking out of any MS. for his use (in order, I suppose, for the collecting materials for his English History or Chronicle of England), which being imitated by others, the library thereby suffered very great loss." Matters became still worse. Owing to the threatened suppression of the religious houses, the number of students at Oxford decreased enormously. In 1535, 108 men graduated, in the next year only 44 did so; until the end of Henry VIII's reign the average number graduating was 57, and in Edward's reign the average was 33.[6.54] Naturally, therefore, some laxity crept into the administration of the University and the colleges. Active enemies of our literary treasures were not behindhand, In 1535 Dr. Layton, visitor of monasteries, descended upon Oxford. "We have sett Dunce [Duns Scotus] in Bocardo, and have utterly banisshede hym Oxforde for ever, with all his blinde glosses, and is nowe made a comon servant to evere man, faste nailede up upon posses in all comon howses of easment: id quod oculis meis vidi. And the seconde tyme we came to New Colege, affter we trade declarede your injunctions, we fownde all the gret quadrant court full of the leiffes of Dunce, the wynde blowyng them into evere corner. And ther we fownde one Mr. Grenefelde, a gentilman of Bukynghamshire, getheryng up part of the saide bowke leiffes (as he saide) therwith to make hym sewelles or blawnsherres to kepe the
illustration[Description: MERTON COLLEGE LIBRARY]

153

dere within the woode, therby to have the better cry with his howndes."[6.55] A commission assembled at Oxford in 1550, and met many times at St. Mary's Church. No documentary evidence of their treatment of libraries remains, but it was certainly most drastic. Any illuminated manuscript, or even a mathematical treatise illustrated with diagrams, was deemed unfit to survive, and was thrown out for sale or destruction. Some of the college libraries did not suffer severely. Most of Grey's books survived in Balliol, although the miniatures were cut out. Queen's, All Souls, and Merton came through the ordeal nearly unscathed. But Lincoln lost the books given by Gascoigne and the Italian importations of Flemming; Exeter College was purged. The University library itself was entirely dispersed. One of the commissioners, "by name Richard Coxe, Dean of Christ Church, shewed himself so zealous in purging this place of its rarities . . . that . . . savoured of superstition, that he left not one of those goodly MSS. given by the before mentioned benefactors. Of all which there were none restored in Q. Mary's reign, when then an inquisition was made after them, but only one of the parts of Valerius Maximus, illustrated with the Commentaries of Dionysius de Burgo, an Augustine Fryer, and with the Tables of John Whethamsteed, Abbat of St. Alban's. That some of the books so taken out by the Reformers were burnt, some sold away for Robin Hood's pennyworths,[6.56] either to Booksellers, or to Glovers, to press their gloves, or Taylors to make measures, or to bookbinders to cover books bound by them, and some also kept by the Reformers for their own use. That the said library being thus deprived of its furniture was employed, as the schools were, for infamous uses. That in laying waste in that manner, and not in a possibility (as the academians

154

thought) of restoring it to its former estate, they ordered certain persons in a Convocation (Reg. 1. fol. 157a) held Jan. 25, 1555-56 to sell the benches and desks "herein; so that being strips stark naked (as I may say) continued so till Bodley restored it."[6.57] The only cheerful reference to this period is that by Wood, who tells us some friendly people bought in a number of the manuscripts, and ultimately handed them over to the University after the library's restoration. [6.58] But of all the books given by the Duke of Gloucester only three are now in the Bodleian, and only three others in Corpus Christi, Oriel, and Magdalen. The British Museum possesses nine; Cambridge one; private collectors two. Six are in France: two Latin—both Oxford books—and three French manuscripts in the Bibliothèque Nationale, and one manuscript at the Bibliothèque Ste. Genevieve. The Ste. Genevieve book [6.59] is a magnificent Livy, once belonging to the famous Louvre Library. It bears the inscription: "Cest livre est a moy Homfrey, duc de Gloucestre, du don mon tres chier cousin le conte de Warewic."[6.60]