[2] In the fine MS. Cott. Claud. E. iv. (Gesta Abatum) is a
series of portrait miniatures of the abbots, and in most cases
they are represented as reading or carrying books, or with books
about them.
[3] Fecit etiam scribi libros plurimos, quos lougum esset
enarrare.
John, worthy follower of Simon, was a man of learning,
who added many noble and useful books to St. Albans'
store. William of Trompington (1214) distinguished himself
by giving to the abbey books he had taken from his
prior. Abbot Roger was a better man, and gave many
books and pieces; but John III and IV and Hugh are
barren rocks in our fertile valley, for apparently they did
nothing for the library. Richard of Wallingford did worse
than nothing. He bribed Richard de Bury with four
volumes, and sold to him thirty-two books for fifty pounds
of silver, retaining one-half of this sum for himself, and
devoting the other moiety to Epicurus--"a deed," cries the
chronicler, "infamous to all who agreed to it, so to make
the only nourishment of the soul serve the belly, and upon
any account to apply spiritual dainties to the demands of
the flesh.
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