“...And they three
Herden a mayden reden hem the geste
Of the Sege of Thebes....”
“What are you reading?” cries Pandarus. “For Goddes love, what seith it? Tel it us. Is it of love?” Whereupon the niece returns him a saucy answer, and “with that they gonnen laughe,” and then she says—
“This romaunce is of Thebes, that we rede;
And we can herd how that King Laius deyde
Thurgh Edippus his sone, and al that dede;
And here we stenten [left off] at these lettres rede,
How the bisshop, as the book can telle,
Amphiorax, fil through the ground to helle.”[460]
This picture of a little informal reading circle is not to be found in like perfection elsewhere in English medieval literature.[461]
§ IV
By the middle of the fifteenth century book-collecting was a more fashionable pastime. Had it not been so we should have been surprised. From 1365 to 1450 was an age of library building. Oxford University now had its library: in quick succession the colleges of Merton, William of Wykeham, Exeter, University, Durham, Balliol, Peterhouse, Lincoln, All Souls, Magdalen, Queens’ (Cambridge), Pembroke (Cambridge), and St. John’s (Cambridge) followed the example. Library rooms also had been put up in the cathedrals of Hereford, Exeter, York, Lincoln, Wells, Salisbury, St. Paul’s, and Lichfield. Moreover, in London had been established the first public library. Dick Whittington, of famous memory, and William Bury founded it between 1421 and 1426. The civic records tell us that “Upon the petition of John Coventry, John Carpenter, and William Grove, the executors of Richard Whittington and William Bury, the Custody of the New House, or Library, which they had built, with the Chamber under, was placed at their disposal by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty.”[462] The foundation is described as “a certen house next unto the sam Chapel apperteynyng, called the library, all waies res’ved for students to resorte unto, wt three chambres under nithe the saide library, which library being covered wt slate is valued together wt the chambres at xiijs. iiijd. yerely.... The saied library is a house appointed by the saied Maior and cominaltie for ... resorte of all students for their education in Divine Scriptures.”[463] Stow, writing in 1598, spoke of it as “sometime a fayre and large library, furnished with books.... The armes of Whitington are placed on the one side in the stone worke, and two letters, to wit, W. and B., for William Bury, on the other side.” Wealthy citizens came forward with pecuniary aid then as they have ever done. William Chichele, sometime Sheriff, bequeathed “xli to be bestowyed on books notable to be layde in the newe librarye at the gildehall at London for to be memoriall for John Hadle, sumtyme meyre, and for me there while they mowe laste.”[464] This was in 1425. Eighteen years later one of Whittington’s executors, named John Carpenter, made this direction in his will: “If any good or rare books shall be found amongst the said residue of my goods, which, by the discretion of the aforesaid Master William Lichfield and Reginald Pecock, may seem necessary to the common library at Guildhall, for the profit of the students there, and those discoursing to the common people, then I will and bequeath that those books be placed by my executors and chained in that library that the visitors and students thereof may be the sooner admonished to pray for my soul” (1442).[465] But this library, like so many others, did not survive the disastrous years of mid-sixteenth century.
It would be singular if this progress in library making were not reflected in the habits of a considerable section of the people. The court and its entourage set the fashion. Henry VI was a lover of books and a collector. His uncle, John, Duke of Bedford, although much occupied with public affairs and mercilessly warring with France, got together a rich library, particularly noteworthy for finely illuminated books: the famous library of the Louvre was a part of his French booty. Of his brother Gloucester we have already spoken. Archbishop Kempe owned a library of theology, canon and civil law, and other books, worth more than £260. He also gave money towards the cost of Gloucester’s library at Oxford; as did also Cardinal Beaufort and the Duchess of Gloucester. Sir John Fastolf possessed a small number of books at Caistor (c. 1450). The collection was of some distinction, as the inventory will show: “In the Stewe hous; of Frenche books, the Bible, the Cronycles of France, the Cronicles of Titus Levius, a booke of Jullius Cesar, lez Propretez dez Choses [by Barth Glanville], Petrus de Crescentiis, liber Almagesti, liber Geomancie cum iiij aliis Astronomie, liber de Roy Artour, Romaunce la Rose, Cronicles d’Angleterre, Veges de larte Chevalerie, Instituts of Justien Emperer, Brute in ryme, liber Etiques, liber de Sentence Joseph, Problemate Aristotelis, Vice and Vertues, liber de Cronykes de Grant Bretagne in ryme, Meditacions Saynt Bernard.”[466] Perhaps this little hoard may be taken as a fair example of a wealthy gentleman’s library in the fifteenth century. A collection perhaps accurately representing the average prelatical library was that of Richard Browne, running to more than thirty books of the common medieval character (1452). A canon residentiary of York named William Duffield had a library of forty volumes, as fine as Archbishop Bowet’s collection, and valued at a higher figure (1452). Ralph Dreff, of Broadgates Hall, possessed no fewer than twenty-three volumes, a larger collection than Oxford students usually had. A vicar of Cookfield owned twenty-four books, some of them priced cheaply (1451).
Some collections were pathetically small. A disreputable student of Oxford, John Brette, had among his “bits of things” a book and a pamphlet. Thomas Cooper, scholar of Brasenose Hall, enjoyed the use of six volumes. Another scholar, John Lassehowe, had a like number; and another, Simon Berynton, had fifteen books, worth sixpence (c. 1448)! A rector also had six, one of them Greek; a chaplain was equipped with six medical works; and James Hedyan, bachelor of canon and civil law, could employ his leisure in reading one of his little store of eight volumes. One Elizabeth Sywardby owned eight books, three being costly (1468).