support of Baliol college, not only in money for the building, but in adding to the library a collection of about two hundred manuscripts, many of them richly illuminated, which he purchased in England and Italy. In the latter country he employed transcribers and illuminators, as ap- pears by some of his manuscripts still in this library. The illuminations were chiefly executed by Antonius Marius, an “exquisite painter,” of Florence, during the bishop's residence in that city. On most, if not all of the manuscripts, the donor's arms were fastened, painted on vellum, and covered with pieces of thin horn, to prevent their being torn or defaced. — Chalmer.
The following catalogue of the library of John Paston, a gentleman of this period, may serve to shew what kind of books were then in use. Made the 5th day of November, in the year of the reign of Edward IV. — From Burnett's Specimens of English Prose Writers.[1]
1. A book had of my hostess at the George, of the Death of
Arthur, begianing at Cassibelan.
Guy Earl of Warwick.
Kim; Richard Cœur de Lion.
A Chronicle to Edward III, price ...
2. Item. A Black Book, with the Legend of
Lady sans Merci.
The Parliament of Birds.
The Temple of Glaaa.
Palatyie, and Sdatiu.
The MeditaUoiia of
The Green Knicht worth
4. Item. A book in prints of the play of ......
5. ileal. A book lent Middleton, and theitin is
Belle Dame aans MercL
' IlietarUanient of Birds.
Ballad of Gujr and Colbrond.
the (sooee, the
Hie JMipatiag between Hope and Despair. ..... Merchants.
The Life of Saint Cry
t. Item. A red Book, that Ferdval Robsart gave me, <tf the Heeds of the Mass. The Lamentation of ChUd Ipotis. A Prayer to the Vemicle, called the Abbey of the Holy Ghost. 7. Item. In quins, TnUy ie SeneehUt, In diverse whereof there is no more clear writing. 8. Item, In qoires. Tolly or Cypio (Cicero) dt AmteUia,
left wHh William Worcester worth
9. Item. In quires, a Book of the Policy of T
I«. ftnit. In quires, a Book dt Sapientia, wbeiein the se- cond person is likened to Sapience,
II. Item. A Book ie Othea (on Wisdom) text and gloss,
worth in quires
MeauranAtm. Mine old Book of Blazonlngs of Arms.
Item. The new book portrayed and blazoned.
Item. A Copy of Blazonlngs of Anns, and the names to be fonnd by letter (alphabetically.)
Item. A Book with Arms portrayed in paper.
Memorandum. My Book of Knighthood, and the manner ol making of Knights, of Justs, or Tournaments; fighting in lists; glaces holden by soldiers; challenges; statutes of War; and de Regimine Principum, worth ......
Item. A Book of new Statutes from Edward IV.
Having endeavoured to show the low state of knowledge during the various periods ,on which we have treated, various measures were pursued at this time which contributed to its future advancement, we shall conclude this article with a brief account of the erection of public seminaries of education, during this century.
At Oxford, Richard Fleming, bishop of London, founded Lincoln college. The particular design of it was to provide for a rector and seven scholars, who were to make controversial divinity their study, and to be capable of defending the church against the heresies of the disciples of Wiclif. Bishop Fleming died January 25, 1431, and was buried at Lincoln. Thomas Scot, of Rotherham, one of Fleming's successors in the bishopric of Lincoln, completed the building, and thus was esteemed its second founder.
To Henry Chicheley, archbishop of Canter- bury, Oxford, is indebted for All Souls' college, which was founded in 1437. It was instituted for a warden and forty fellows, who were to pray for the souls of those who had fallen in the French wars, and for the souls of all the faithful who had departed this life. Hence the college de- rived its name. Archbishop Chicheley died April 12, 1443, and was buried at Canterbury.
Magdalen college was founded by William Patten, better known as William of Waynflete, bishop of Winchester and lord chancellor, in the year 1457. This college is bound by its statutes to entertain the kings of England and their sons when at Oxford, whence its hall has often been the scene of royal and princely festivities. There is an oak at Oxford, called Waynflete's oak. He died in the year 1486.
Three similar establishments were formed, in the same age, at the university of Cambridge.
King's college was founded by Henry VI. The original plan was very magnificent, but the execution of it was prevented by the calamities in which that Prince was involved. Eton school, the parent of so many eminent scholars, was instituted by Henry as a nursery for King's college.
Margaret, the high-spinted consort of this monarch, did not, in the midst of her political engagement, forget the cause of literature. She was the foundreis of Queen's college, which, however, from the misfortunes that soon came upon her, would have been in danger of perishing in its infancy, had it not been presened by the attention and zeal of Andrew Uucket, its first president. This worthy man, who continued in his office forty years, obtained so many benefactions for the college, that he is justly considered as having rescued it from destruction.
Katharine Hall owes its institution to Robert Woodlark, third provost of King's college. During this period the new schools, as they were then called, were erected at Oxford, by Thomas Hokenorton, abbot of Osney. About the same time, the foundation was laid in that university, of the magnificent divinity schools and library.
Though the universities of Oxford and Cam- bridge had so long subsisted in England, nothing of the like kind had hitherto taken place in Scotland. The natives of that country, who devoted
themselves to the pursuit of learning, were obliged to seek for instruction in foreign parts. But,
- ↑ It is written on a scrap of paper, about seventeen inches long, and has been rolled up; by which means, one end, having been damp, is entirely decayed; so that the names at some of the books are imperfect, and the then price or value of all of them, is not now to be discovered. It gives an account of all the books he had, as it mentions those which were lent oat at the time the catalogue was made. It contained only one book In print, the rest being manuscripts. An account of most of them is to be found In Warton's History of English Poetry, and some of them, when afterwards printed, in Mr. Herbert's improved edition of Ames's History of Printing.
