library should be regarded as a repository for man’s mortal frame.
CONTENTS OF THE LIBRARY.
The Library having been established primarily but not exclusively for the clergy, by whom it was chiefly used, its contents were designed to facilitate their studies, and pre-eminence was given to theological works, and other works of particular interest or value to them. Regarding the contents of the Library in 1706, when the first printed catalogue was published, the Rev. Joseph Brett said in the preface: “It may be more proper to observe, that upon the first Foundation of this Library many and great Benefactions, (by which alone it was first raised, and still encreases) were given by the Magistrates, Gentlemen and Tradesmen of this City, by which means, here is no inconsiderable Collection of Divinity Book, [sic] for that time especially. But considering the great Advance of Learning, in the last Century, the fine Editions of many of the Fathers, and the many learned Books that were then published, it must be owned, that this Library is now very deficient, even in Divinity itself. Besides here are very few Humanity Books, few or none of Law, Physick, Mathematicks, or indeed of any science but Divinity.” Large donations from the Rev. Thomas Nelson, John Kirkpatrick, and others greatly increased the usefulness of the Library, and accordingly Mackerell, in his preface to the 1732 Catalogue, considered that “this Library is far from being meanly provided with Books (I wish I could say in all Faculties).”
While time has caused many of the works to decrease in value and practical interest, it has greatly enhanced the value of the few manuscripts and the considerable number of early printed books in the Library. The following are the most interesting and valuable manuscripts, some of which are on loan at the Castle Museum for exhibition. Dr. Montague Rhodes James, the Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, one of the greatest authorities on early manuscripts, has kindly examined and dated four of them, and he has also supplied detailed descriptions which it is hoped will be published on another occasion.
MANUSCRIPTS.
Anon. In Apocalypsin. XIIIth century.
Vellum, 10¼ x 7½ inches, ff. 5 + 74 + 28, double columns, the number of lines varies. Bound in wooden boards. Presented to the Library in 1618 by Thomas Atkins, merchant, Norwich.
Contains: 1. Anonymous comment on the Apocalypse, with a few very rough pictures, coloured.
2. The Summa of Richard de Wethersett, Chancellor of Cambridge, called Qui bene praesunt.
Biblia Hieronymi, or Bible of St. Jerome. XIIIth Century.