But the presence of eleven manuscripts
in the British Museum; two in Lambeth Palace; one at
Sion College; three at the Bodleian, and five more in
Oxford colleges; two at the Cambridge University Library,
and two more in the colleges there; one at the Chetham
Library, Manchester; and two at Trinity College, Dublin,
well illustrate how the monastic books have been scattered
since the Dissolution.[2] To these special examinations
Dr. James has gradually added vastly to our knowledge of
the provenance of manuscripts by his masterly series of
catalogues of the ancient treasures of the Cambridge
colleges, and he has proved to us that a considerable
number of monastic books still survive.[3] Much more work
of the same kind remains to be done; other labourers are
needed; but the men of parts who are able and content
to labour at a task without remuneration and with small
thanks are few and far between; while fewer still are the
publishers who can be persuaded to produce the results of
these researches.
[1] James (M. R.) 1, 42; ibid. xciv. But later Dr. James was less
certain of some of his identifications. See James (M.
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