But the interest in the
collection seems to have waned. Another chain was
bought for sixteenpence in 1430-31 for a copy of Rationale
Divinorum, which was given by one Rolder; but such gifts
were few and far between. In 1506 the Chapter owned
363 volumes, but 133 more than in 1327,[2] so that few
additions besides Grandisson's were made in nearly two
centuries, or many books were lost.[3] According to this
second inventory the books were arranged in eleven desks;
eight books were chained opposite the west door; twenty-
eight were not chained; seven were chained behind the
treasurer's stall (a Bible in three volumes, Lyra also in
three, and a Concordance); and fourteen volumes of canon
and civil law behind the succentor's stall.[4] The Dean and
Chapter were in a strangely generous mood at the end of
this century. In 1566 they gave one of Leofric's books to
Archbishop Parker: it is now in Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge. The collection was despoiled of eighty-one
of its finest books to enrich Bodley's foundation at Oxford,
1602.[5] Although the book-lover does not like to see
treasures torn from their associations, yet in this instance
the alienation was fortunate.
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