. Old English libraries; the making, collection and use of books during the middle ages. ouse was alltoo small. A Divinity School seems to have been firstprojected in 1423; building began about seven yearslater; ^ but the work proceeded very slowly, owing towant of money, which the authorities tried to raise invarious ways, even by granting degrees on easy Gloucesters books came to overcrowd the oldlibrary—and the books were chained so closely togetherthat a student when reading one prevented the use ofthree or four books near to it—the idea was apparentlyfirst mooted of erecting a
. Old English libraries; the making, collection and use of books during the middle ages. ouse was alltoo small. A Divinity School seems to have been firstprojected in 1423; building began about seven yearslater; ^ but the work proceeded very slowly, owing towant of money, which the authorities tried to raise invarious ways, even by granting degrees on easy Gloucesters books came to overcrowd the oldlibrary—and the books were chained so closely togetherthat a student when reading one prevented the use ofthree or four books near to it—the idea was apparentlyfirst mooted of erecting a bigger room over the new school,where scholars might study far from the hum of men {astrepitu saeculari). The University sent an appeal to theDuke for help to carry out this scheme (1445), but he hadthen lost power and was in trouble, and does not seem tohave responded favourably, albeit they suggested adroitlythe new library should bear his name.^ The building was ^ 0. H. S. 35, Anstey, 285-86, 300-1, 318. ? 0. H. S. 35, Anstey, 9, 46. ^ o. H. S. 35, Anstey, 245-46. PLATE XXVI. ?% ACADEMIC LIBRARIES: OXFORD 145 finished forty years after his death. This ultimate successwas due chiefly to the generosity of Cardinal Beaufort, theDuchess of Suffolk, and Cardinal Kempe—whose ownlibrary was magnificent.^ By 1488, then, the University was in full enjoyment ofthe chamber known ever since as Duke Humfreys Library,the noblest storehouse of books then existing in England.^In the same year an old scholar, not known by name,gave 31 books, and in 1490 Dr. Litchfield, Archdeaconof Middlesex, presented 132 volumes and a sum of ;£ gifts mark the culminating point in the history of thefirst University library—a collection over a century and ahalf old, accumulated slowly by the forethought and gener-osity of the Universitys friends, only, alas ! in a few yearstime to be almost completely dispersed and destroyed. §n Before speaking of the dispersion of the Universitycollection
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