This fine collection consists of 3287 printed books in most languages and faculties; chiefly the first editions soon after the invention of printing; and a valuable collection of manuscripts in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Turkish, amounting to 554 volumes, which, together with the former, are thought to be of such value as not to be parallelled, for the smallness of their number.
The noble benefactor, at the time of his donation, desired that the inscription of, Ex dono Henrici Howard Norfolkciensis, might be put in each book: and that in case the society should happen to fail, the library should revert to his family. This the society not only readily complied with, but some years after caused the following inscription to be set up in the library:
Bibliotheca Norfolciana.
Excellentissimus Princeps Henricus Howard,
Angliæ, Comes Arundeliæ, Suriæ,
Norfolciæ, & Norwici, &c. Heros,
propter familiæ antiquitatem, animi dotes,
corporis dignitatem, pene incomparabilis,
bibliothecam hanc instructissimam
(quæ hactenus Arundeliana appellabatur)