[2] The building was
finished forty years after his death. This ultimate success
was due chiefly to the generosity of Cardinal Beaufort, the
Duchess of Suffolk, and Cardinal Kempe--whose own
library was magnificent.[3]
[1] O. H. S. 35, Anstey, 9, 46.
[2] O. H. S. 35, Anstey, 245-46.
[3] O. H. S. 35-36, Anstey, 326, 439.
By 1488, then, the University was in full enjoyment of
the chamber known ever since as Duke Humfrey's Library,
the noblest storehouse of books then existing in England.[1]
In the same year an old scholar, not known by name,
gave 31 books, and in 1490 Dr. Litchfield, Archdeacon
of Middlesex, presented 132 volumes and a sum of L 200.
These gifts mark the culminating point in the history of the
first University library--a collection over a century and a
half old, accumulated slowly by the forethought and generosity
of the University's friends, only, alas! in a few years'
time to be almost completely dispersed and destroyed.
[1] The plan resembled that of the old library built by Adam de
Brome. For notes on the architectural history of this library,
see Pietas O.
Section II
Before speaking of the dispersion of the University
collection it will be well to observe what had been done in
the colleges, where libraries must have formed an important
part of the collegiate economy.
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