And the seconde tyme we came to New Colege, affter we
trade declarede your injunctions, we fownde all the gret
quadrant court full of the leiffes of Dunce, the wynde
blowyng them into evere corner. And ther we fownde
one Mr. Grenefelde, a gentilman of Bukynghamshire,
getheryng up part of the saide bowke leiffes (as he saide)
therwith to make hym sewelles or blawnsherres to kepe the
dere within the woode, therby to have the better cry with
his howndes."[3] A commission assembled at Oxford in
1550, and met many times at St. Mary's Church. No
documentary evidence of their treatment of libraries
remains, but it was certainly most drastic. Any illuminated
manuscript, or even a mathematical treatise illustrated with
diagrams, was deemed unfit to survive, and was thrown out
for sale or destruction. Some of the college libraries did
not suffer severely. Most of Grey's books survived in
Balliol, although the miniatures were cut out. Queen's,
All Souls, and Merton came through the ordeal nearly
unscathed. But Lincoln lost the books given by Gascoigne
and the Italian importations of Flemming; Exeter College
was purged.
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