Lastly I will figure ([fig. 116]) the press given in 1694 by "James Leaver citison of London," to the Grammar School at Bolton in Lancashire. It closely resembles those given by Humphry Chetham to Turton and Gorton. The system of ironwork by which the bars are kept in place is exactly the same; and it retains the desk, traces of which exist at Gorton.
In my enumeration of the libraries attached to schools and churches, I have drawn special attention to the fact that in nearly all of them the books were chained. In explanation of this it might be argued that these libraries were in remote places, to which new ideas would not easily penetrate, but I am about to shew that this method of protection, which began in a remote past, was maintained with strange persistency down to modern times. I shall collect some further instances of the chaining of books in places where it might have been expected that such things would be no longer thought of; and in conclusion I shall record some dates at which the final removal of chains took place.
Fig. 116. Bookpress in the school at Bolton, Lancashire. From Bibliographical Miscellanies by William Blades.
In the library of the Faculty of Medicine, Paris, the books were ordered to be chained in 1509, in consequence of some thefts; and these chains were still attached to certain books in 1770[476]. At Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1554, it was ordered that the books bequeathed by Peter Nobys, D.D. (Master 1516-23), should be taken better care of for the future, and, if the chains were broken, that they should be repaired at the expense of the college[477]. In 1555, Robert Chaloner, Esq., bequeathed his law books to Gray's Inn, with forty shillings in money, to be paid to his cousin, "to th' entent that he maie by cheines therwith and fasten so manye of them in the Librarye at Grauisin [Gray's Inn] as he shall think convenyente[478]."
At S. John's College, Cambridge, in 1563-4, three shillings were paid to "Phillip Stacyoner for cornering, bossing, and chayninge Anatomiam Vessalii etc.[479]" In 1573, Dr Caius directs by will twelve copies of his own works to be given to his college, "there to be kepte as the other bokes are, and to be successivelye tyed with chaynes in the Librarye of the same College[480]." Dr Perne, Master of Peterhouse, by will dated 25 February, 1588, directs that all his books therein bequeathed "be layed and chayned in the old Librarie of the Colledge[481]." At Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1601, Mr Peter Shaw gave £5 towards the "cheyning and desking of his bookes given to the newe liberarie[482]." In 1638-9, when a new library was completed for the Barber Surgeons of London, £6. 18s. were spent on binding and chaining, as for instance:
Paid for 36 yards of chaine at 4d. the yard and 36 yards at 3d. the yard cometh to xxijs. vjd.
Paid to the coppersmith for castinge 80 brasses to fasten the chaines to the bookes—xiijs. iiijd.[483]