Cardinal John Bessarion gave his fine collection (which included about 600 Greek MSS.) to St. Mark's in 1468, and in the letter to the Doge which accompanied his gift, he tells some interesting particulars of his early life as a collector. He writes, "From my youth I have bestowed my pains and exertion in the collection of books on various sciences. In former days I copied many with my own hands, and I have employed on the purchase of others such small means as a frugal and thrifty life permitted me to devote to the purpose."
The Rev. Joseph Hunter printed in 1831 a valuable Catalogue of the Library of the Priory of Bretton in Yorkshire, and added to it some notices of the Libraries belonging to other Religious Houses, in which he gives us a good idea of the contents of these libraries. He writes, "On comparing the Bretton Catalogue with that of other religious communities, we find the libraries of the English monasteries composed of very similar materials. They consisted of--
1. The Scriptures; and these always in an English or the Latin version. A Greek or Hebrew Manuscript of the Scriptures is not found in Leland's notes, or, I believe, in any of the catalogues. In Wetstein's Catalogue of MSS. of the New Testament, only one (Codex 59) is traced into the hands of an English community of religious.
5. Writers in the Theological Controversies of the Middle Ages.
13. The Middle Age Poets and Romance-Writers.
16. The Historical Writings of doubtful authority, commonly called Legends.
Most of the manuscripts which composed the monastic libraries were destroyed at the Reformation."
Humphry Plantagenet Duke of Gloucester, whose fame has been so lasting as the 'good Duke Humphry,' was also a book-collector of renown; but most of the old libraries we read about have left but little record of their existence: thus the Common Library at Guildhall, founded by Dick Whittington in 1420, and added to by John Carpenter, the Town Clerk of London, has been entirely destroyed, the books having, in the first instance, been carried away by Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset.
Although, as we have seen from Mr. Hunter's remarks, there was a considerable amount of variety in the subjects of these manuscript collections, we must still bear in mind that in a large number of instances the contents of the libraries consisted of little more than Breviaries and Service Books. It has been pointed out that this fact is illustrated by the union of the offices of Precentor and Armarius in one person, who had charge of the Library (Armarium) and its great feeder, the Writing-room (Scriptorium), as well as the duty of leading the singing in the church. Many lists of old libraries have been preserved, and these have been printed in various bibliographical works, thus giving us a valuable insight into the reading of our forefathers.
