d at St. Gall, and which
has since vanished. A glance at the _apparatus criticus_ of a few
editions of classics will show that often a fifteenth-century MS. ranks
high among the authorities for the text. Pedigree is what matters, not
beauty of hand, nor, necessarily, date.

It has been the fate of these scholars' books, as it is the fate of all
MSS., to be absorbed into great libraries, and many of them lurk there
still unexamined and their origin undetermined. Discoveries, no doubt,
yet remain to be made among them.

Whether or not a breath of influence from Italy was the cause, it is
plain that library-making was popular in countries and circles which
were not obviously affected by the Renaissance. The monasteries of
England were certainly not so affected, yet we find many of them setting
their books in order and building special rooms to contain them.
Christchurch at Canterbury and Bury St. Edmunds are leading instances.
Now, too, Universities and colleges made fresh catalogues, and received
large accessions of books.

If the Renaissance did not touch the English public as a whole in this
century, it made some proselytes. Among Englishmen who dealt with our
Florentine Vespasiano were John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, Humphrey,
Duke of Gloucester, William Gray, Bishop of Ely, Andrew Holes, of Wells.
Others who resorted to Italy were John Free, Thomas Linacre, John
Gunthorpe, Dean of Wells, William Flemming, Dean of Lincoln, William
Tilley of Sellinge, Prior of Christchurch, Canterbury. We shall see
later on what traces some of these have left on our libraries.

In places to which the Italian influence did not penetrate the humdrum
trade of copying went on. Anselm, Bernard, and Augustine; sermon-books
by the score; Burley on Aristotle, etc. Then, in another class, the
production of books for use in church was very large. There were few
Bibles, but Missals, Breviaries, large choir-books to be laid on the
lectern, Graduals and Processionals, are legion. Then, again, every
well-to-do person must have his or her Book of Hours, illuminated if
possible. Such things were common wedding-presents, it seems. Upon the
best of them really great artists were employed, like Foucquet of Tours
and Gerard David; we even find Perugino painting a page in one, but the
average are shop work made for the Italian market at Naples or Florence,
for the French at Paris, Tours, or Rouen, for the English very often at
Bruges, where also many s