Albans; from wealthy
Archdeacon Browne or Cordone; from rich citizens of
London--Thomas Knolles the grocer and T. Grauntt; and
from Henry VI's physician, John Somersett. John Tiptoft,
Earl of Worcester, also promised books worth five hundred
marks, but after his death they did not come to hand.[2]
[1] Mun. Acad., 267.
[2] Ibid., 266; O. H. S. 35-36, Anstey, 222, 229, 279, 313, 373,
382, 397.
By far the most generous of friends was the Duke of
Gloucester, whose first gift was made before 1413,[1] and his
last when he died in 1447. His record as the helper and
protector of Oxford, his patronage of learning, and of such
exponents of it as Titus Livius of Forli, Leonardo Bruni,
Lydgate and Capgrave, the fact that, notwithstanding his
"staat and dignyte,"
"His courage never cloth appall
To study in bokes of antiquitie,"
earned for him the name of the "good" duke--an appellation
to which the shady labyrinth of his career as a politician,
as a persecutor of the Lollards, and as a licentious man, did
not entitle him. But then Oxford--and its library--was
most in need of such a friend as this English Gismondo
Malatesta; not only on account of his generosity, but
because his royal connexions enabled him to exert influence
on the University's behalf, both at home and abroad.
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