Once a year on a
fixed day the books of Oriel were to be brought out and
displayed for inspection before the Provost or his deputy
and all the Fellows (statutes, 1329). The same ceremony
took place at Trinity Hall twice a year; the books were to
be laid out one by one, so that they could be seen by
everybody (statutes, 1350); at Peterhouse the inspection
was held only once in two years (statute, 1480). At All
Souls an inspection was held (statutes, 1443); at the
Pembroke College inspection each book was exhibited in
order to the Masters and Fellows. At Magdalen, as elsewhere,
the inspection was thorough: the books were to be
shown realiter, visibiliter, et distincte.
The above rules embody the common practice of the
colleges. Certain houses had unusual provisions. Every
Fellow of Magdalen College was to close the book he had
been reading before he left, and also shut the windows
(statutes, 1459). With the beginning of the sixteenth
century comes a faint hint of discrimination in selecting
books. No book was to be brought into the library of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, or chained there, if it were
not of sufficent worth and importance (nisi sit competentis
pretii aut utilitas) (unless it had been given with specific
direction that it should be chained), but it was to go among
the books for lending (statutes, 1517).
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