From it, by indenture, he
could lend books--apparently these books were excepted
from the general rule--to masters of arts lecturing in these
subjects, or, if there were no lecturers, to principals of halls
and masters. And, following older custom, a stationer set
upon each book a price greater than its real value, to lead
borrowers to take more care of it.[2] From a manuscript
preserved in the library of Earl Fitzwilliam at Wentworth
Woodhouse are taken the following curious lines indicating
the character and arrangement of his books:--
"At Oxenford thys lord his bookie fele [many]
Hath eu'y clerk at werk. They of hem gete
Metaphisic; phisic these rather feele;
They natural, moral they rather trete;
Theologie here ye is with to mete;
Him liketh loke in boke historial.
In deskis XII hym serve as half a strete
Hath looked their librair uniu'al."[3] [universal]
[1] O. H. S: 35, Anstey, 246.
[2] O. H. S. 35, Anstey, 187-89; Mun. Acad., 326-29.
[3] Athenaeum, Nov. 17, '88, p. 664; Hulton, Clerk of Oxford in
Fiction, 35.
A year later Gloucester sent 7 more books; then
after a while 9 more (1440-41);[1] and a little later still
his largest gift, amounting to 135 volumes.
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