646 SUNDRY ARTICLES. 



low charge of <zd. j supplying him further with an inkhorn and 

 pens for 3^. more. Such prices indicate that written literature 

 was not wholly inaccessible to the general public. 



Church-books are sometimes bought, the impropriator of the 

 rectory being, it seems, bound to supply them. In 1378 the 

 bailiff of Farley expends 6s. 8^. on a book for the church, and 

 in 1357 the college buys another book of the same character 

 for 45-. 



The Liber Albus of New College contains a register of all 

 the books presented by the founder and some of his friends to 

 the college at the commencement of its corporate existence. 

 In many cases the price is annexed to the volume. Few 

 catalogues of a medieval library are perhaps so perfect. A 

 short and perhaps imperfect list of the books in Merton 

 College library, written in the early years of Edward the 

 Third, also exists, and was copied at my suggestion by the 

 late Mr. Botfield, who was engaged in a work on medieval 

 libraries. 



The prices of some books purchased by Merton have been 

 given in the list of Sundry Articles. In 1322 a volume called 

 c Liber Gardanarum' was purchased at the cost of ^3 6s. 8<a?. 

 In 1366 a work by or belonging to Mr. William Arderne, 

 entitled c Custraced super libros Ecclesias,' is bought for j^i ; 

 a Bible in 1344 for ^3, which was no doubt handled by 

 Wyklif; and in 1369 forty-seven sextaries and four leaves of 

 Nicholas de Lyra's Commentary, which, imperfect as it seems 

 to be, cost the college j^7 115-. 4^. Wyliott's c book on 

 Natural Philosophy was purchased in 1378 for ^3 6s. 8d. 

 Eleven quires of Baron's Mathematics are bought in 1379 

 for $s. 6d. 



Books were rarely bought, but they were frequently presented 

 to these societies. I cannot account for the very high price 

 at which volumes were generally purchased. Parchment was 



This Wyliott, who had formerly been a fellow, was the founder of the " Postmasters' ' 

 endowment at Merton College. It is singular that the same corporation should have been 

 the first to possess fellows and scholars as a distinct order. 



