College, in the British Museum, the Provost and Fellows of Eton and
Cambridge are stated, 25 Henry VI., to have petitioned the King that he
would be pleased to order one of his chaplains, Richard Chestre, 'to
take to him such men as shall be seen to him expedient in order to get
knowledge where such bookes [for Divine service] may be found, paying a
reasonable price for the same, and that the sayd men might have the
choice of such bookes, ornaments, and other necessaries as now late were
perteynyng to the Duke of Gloucester, and that the king would
particular[ly] cause to be employed herein John Pye--his stacioner of
London.'

Book-importation by the galleys that brought the produce of the East to
London and Southampton had assumed very considerable proportions during
the fifteenth century; but the uncertainties which attended it were not
at all favourable to its full development. Book-production was still
progressing in the immediate neighbourhood of London. At St. Albans, for
example, over eighty were transcribed under Whethamstede during this
reign, a number which is peculiarly interesting when the degeneracy of
the monasteries is remembered. Neither Edward IV. nor Richard III. seems
to have availed himself of the increasing plenty of books. The library
of the former was a very unimportant affair. From the Wardrobe Account
of this King (1480) we get a few highly interesting facts concerning
book-binding, gildings, and garnishing: 'For vj unces and iij quarters
of silk to the laces and tassels for garnysshing of diverse Bookes,
price the unce xiiij_d._--vij_s._ x_d._ ob.; for the making of xvj laces
and xvj tassels made of the said vj unces and iij of silke, price in
grete ij_s._ vii_d._' These moneys were paid to Alice Claver, a
'sylk-woman.' And again 'to Piers Bauduyn, stacioner, for bynding,
gilding and dressing of a booke called "Titus Livius," xx_s._; for
bynding, gilding and dressing of a booke of the Holy Trinitie, xvj_s._;
for bynding, gilding and dressing of a booke called "Frossard," xvj_s._;
for bynding, gilding and dressing of a booke called the Bible, xvj_s._;
for bynding, gilding and dressing of a booke called "Le Gouvernement of
Kinges and Princes," xvj_s._; for bynding and dressing of the three
smalle bookes of Franche, price in grete vj_s._ viiij_d._; for the
dressing of ij bookes whereof oon is called "La Forteresse de Foy" and
the other called the "Book of Josephus," iij_s._ iiij_d._; and for
byndi