Never at any time were
books more highly appreciated than in Oxford of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Sometimes gifts took
the form of money for a curious purpose. For example,
Robert Hesyl, a country rector, bequeathed the sum of
6s. 8d. "ad intitulandum nomina librorum in libraria collegii
Lincoln: contentorum, supra dorsa eorum cooperienda
cornu et clavis."[5] But the colleges did not depend wholly
on gifts, for records are preserved of purchases for Queen's
College in 1366-67;[6] All Souls College between 1449 and
1460; for Magdalen College between 1481 and 1539; for
Merton College between 1322 and 1379; and for New
College between 1462 and 1481.
[1] Hist. MSS. 8th Rep., i. 46; Reg. Abp. Whittlesey, fo. 122,
cited by Lyte,
[2] Rogers, Agric. and Prices, iv. 599-600.
[3] O. H. S. 32, Collect., 223, 214-15.
[4] See the gifts to Exeter College, O. H. S. 27, Boase, passim.
[5] Mun. Acad., ii. 706.
[6] Hist. MSS. 2nd Rep., 140a.
The growth of the libraries made the provision of
special bookrooms a necessity. A library on the ground
floor of University College is referred to in the Bursar's
Roll (1391).
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