1419. Et Johanni Grene, joynor, pro joynacione tabularum pro libraria et planacione et gropyng de waynscott, per annum, 17s. 8d.
In operacione cc ferri in boltes pro nova libraria per Johannem Harpham, fabrum, 8s.[318]
In 1418 John de Newton, the church treasurer, bequeathed to the Chapter a number of books, including Bibles, commentaries, and patristical and historical works, as well as Petrarch’s De remediis utriusque fortunae.[319] They were chained to the library desks, and were guarded with horn and studs, to protect them from the consequences of careless use by readers.
1421. Johanni Upton pro superscriptura librorum nuper magistri Johannis Neuton thesaurarii istius ecclesiae legatorum librario, 2s. Thomae Hornar de Petergate pro hornyng et naillyng superscriptorum librorum, 2s. 6d. Radulpho Lorymar de Conyngstrete pro factura et emendacione xl cathenarum pro eisdem libris annexis in librario predicto, 23s. 1d.[320]
From time to time a few other bequests were made: thus, Archdeacon Stephen Scrope bequeathed some books on canon law, after a beneficiary had had them in use during his life (1418). Robert Ragenhill, advocate of the court of York, enriched the church with a small collection (1430); and Robert Wolveden, treasurer of the church, left to the library his theological books (1432).[321]
§ IX
The Sacrist’s Roll of Lichfield Cathedral, under date 1345, contains an inventory of the books then in possession of the church. All of them were service books, excepting only a De Gestis Anglorum.[322] Thereafter we cannot discover a notice of the library until 1489, when Dean Thomas Heywood gave £40 towards building a home for the books. Dean Yotton assisted in the good work. By 1493 the building was finished. It stood on the north side of the Cathedral, west of the north door, or “ex parte boreali in cimeterio.”[323] The Dean and Chapter had it pulled down in 1758.
Nearly all the books of the early collection perished during the Civil War; but the finest manuscript, known as St. Chad’s Gospels, was saved by the precentor. Among the other manuscripts in the possession of the Chapter are a fine vellum copy of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, with beautiful initials, and the Taxatio Ecclesiastica, a tithe book showing the value of church property in Edward I’s time.[324]