er jour de may, le an du regn le Roy
Edw{d} trentime quart') is in the Lambeth Library, but it is reprinted
by Todd in his 'Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer,' pp. 161, 162. This
list is of more than ordinary interest, chiefly because the collection
formed by a layman gives us a very good insight into the class of books
which the early nobility of England read, or, at all events, collected.
Religious books, of course, formed the background of the library, but
there were many romances, such, for instance, as those of King Arthur,
of 'Josep alb Arimathie e deu Seint Grael,' of 'Troies,' etc. There was
also a book 'De Phisik et de Surgie.'

This collection contained between forty and fifty volumes, in which was
included pretty nearly the entire range of human knowledge as it then
extended. It is well to remember in connection with this bequest that,
at the same time, or, more correctly, in 1300, the academical library of
Oxford consisted of a few tracts kept in chests under St. Mary's Church.

With the greatest book-collector of this period, Richard de Bury
(1287-1345), the author of the 'Philobiblon,' unfortunately, we have
little to do, as his book expeditions appear to have been confined
almost entirely to foreign countries. He collected books from every
source open to him, and wrote of his passion with a warmth of eloquence
of which even Cicero might have been proud. His most important book
transaction, which comes within the purview of the present volume,
relates to the gift by an Abbot of St. Albans of four volumes to De
Bury, then Clerk of the Privy Seal, viz., Terence, Virgil, Quintilian,
and Hieronymus against Rufinus. In addition to these, the Abbot sold him
thirty-two other books for fifty pounds of silver. When De Bury became
Bishop this 'gift' troubled his conscience, and he restored several of
the books which had come into his possession in a perfectly honest and
legitimate manner, whilst others were secured from the Bishop's
executors. One of the volumes acquired in the latter manner is now in
the British Museum. It is a large folio MS. on the works of John of
Salisbury, and bears upon it a note to the effect that it was written by
Simon (Abbot of St. Albans, 1167-1183), and another to the following
effect: 'Hunc librum venditum Domino Ricardo de Biry Episcopo Dunelmensi
emit Michael Abbas Sancti Albani ab executoribus predicti episcopi anno
Domini millesimo ccc{o} xlv{to} circa purificationem Beate Virgini