[1] While in Italy, William
Grey, who sat under Guarino, and made Niccolo Perotti,
well known as a grammarian, free of his princely establishment,
was conspicuously industrious in accumulating books.
If he could not obtain them in any other way he employed
scribes to copy for him, and an artist of Florence to adorn
them in a costly manner with miniatures and initials. In
nearly six years he collected over two hundred volumes
of manuscripts, some as old as the twelfth century;
probably the finest library sent to England in that age.
No fewer than 152 of his manuscripts are now in the
Balliol College library, to which he gave his whole collection
in 1478; unfortunately most of the miniatures are
destroyed. To his patronage of learning and his book-
collecting propensities Grey owed his friendship with
Nicholas V, and his bishopric of Ely. Grey was also a
good friend to Free or Phreas, a poor student, and aided
him in Italy with money for his expenses of living and to
obtain Greek manuscripts to translate.[2] Free and John
Gunthorpe, Dean of Wells, went to Italy together: Free
did not live to return, but Gunthorp brought home
manuscripts.
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