BOOKS. 603 



Zanchius for 43. In 1574 New College purchased 20 worth 

 of Jewel's books. In 1575 the Statute book cost the city of 

 Oxford 3^. ^d. In 1576 the Hall Bible at King's, Cambridge, 

 to be read during meals, cost i6s., and at Oxford a Concordance 

 is at the same price. In 1577 a Bible at Abingdon cost 40^., a 

 Prayer-book Js. In 1580 the Statute-book cost the city of Oxford 

 is. 8^., and in 1581 New College buys the Statutes of the 

 Realm, probably Barthollet's edition, for 21 s. I have omitted 

 in this comment a few later entries of service-books. 



The purchases of books, considering the opulence of some 

 among these corporations, were few. But it must be remem- 

 bered that both before and after the Reformation the present 

 of books to a college or monastery was a common and graceful 

 donation or bequest. Books were very dear, and were the 

 choicest treasures of the student. Nothing was more natural 

 than that he should give the companions of his study to his 

 college, except the readiness with which the college expected 

 and accepted the gift. The pious and learned Gascoigne, in the 

 first half of the fifteenth century, gave many books to Oriel, his 

 own college, besides a donation to the new library, and the 

 college in return granted him the use of his rooms, rent-free, 

 during his life. Such donations exist by hundreds in the 

 college libraries of Oxford, and are sometimes valuable to those 

 students who, coming from a distance to that famous Univer- 

 sity, study its unexplored treasures. 



In order to protect these treasures from the depredations of 

 needy students, the books were chained. The book chain 

 marks the beginning of the libraries, the change from the time 

 when manuscripts were kept in chests (Vol. I, p. 124) and lent 

 to privileged persons on their indented bond. The first book 

 chains which I have noted are in 1481, when Oriel, Oxford, 

 bought two dozen of them at $s. 4^. the dozen. In 1485 it 

 bought three dozen at 4^-. In 1499 King's College, Cambridge, 

 buys three dozen at $s. 4^., and one dozen, described as longer, 

 at 4s. 6d. In 1507 book chains cost 4^. 8^. per dozen in 

 London. In Oxford, 1509, four book chains cost Magdalen 



