Ronald P. Jones, Photo.]
THE LIBRARY.
The history of the library begins with the MS. of the Gospels given by St. Wilfrid; and the ascription to him of various other gifts, which occurs in the writings of Peter of Blois (a Canon of Ripon in the twelfth century), implies at any rate that there was a library when Peter wrote. In 1466 money was bequeathed by William Rodes, a chaplain, ad fabricam cujusdam librarii in ecclesiâ construendi, words which may refer to the screening off for books of a portion of this chapel; but in Leland’s time books were apparently kept in the vestry, though it is not certain that the present vestry is meant.[119] Except a few MSS. of Chapter Acts, Fabric Rolls, etc., none of the books now here are known for certain to have belonged to the church before the Reformation;[120] indeed the present collection began with the bequest of his books by Dean Higgin in 1624. The books were in this chapel in 1817, but in 1859 they were at the Deanery. There are now over 5000 volumes, including seven MSS., of which one of the most notable is the Ripon Psalter (1418), containing the special offices for St. Wilfrid, and many printed books of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, among them two fine Caxtons. Many of the books have beautiful old bindings in stamped leather. The most interesting items in the collection are exposed in a glass case at the east end of the room.[121] Near the opposite end is another case containing the bones recently dug up under the site of the mediæval altar in the Saxon crypt.
THE OLD CHAPEL OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE’S HOSPITAL.
(From a pen-drawing by the author.)
[55] This is what was meant by saying in [Chapter II.] that in each tower one side is older than the others.