DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49252#0019
INTRODUCTION
iii
or Cambridge. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries also see the
old glossa ordinaria on the scriptures being replaced by the recent
commentaries of Lyra and Hugo de Vienna. Collections of sermons
become frequent; a sprinkling of less austere literature may now
and then be found.
On the whole the salient facts are that the great classics of
Christian and secular lore are accumulated in the twelfth century,
the schoolmen in the thirteenth, and the Law Books in the
fourteenth.
Worcester does not wholly conform to the lines here laid down.
There, in the existing collection, the twelfth century books are in a
minority compared to those of the fourteenth. Yet the Worcester
books that are found in other collections shew a great activity in
the years following the conquest, and a notable interest in the study
of Anglo Saxon in particular.
Of some 220 MSS. at Hereford I rank 114 as certainly old
possessions of the Cathedral; 48 more are from other libraries
that can be named ; 60 or so have now no mark of provenance,
but many of them must also be Cathedral books.
Let us examine the composition of the collection more nearly.
First, the Cathedral Books. Rather over 50 of these are of the
twelfth century or earlier (there are but half a dozen earlier.)
They include a gift of ten from Archdeacon Radulphus, as to whom
see Canon Bannister’s note on 0.1. v. He gave twenty in all.
The name of the giver of one book of this period, Magister Aluredus
(see 0.2. iv) is found in two other MSS. at Oxford—All Souls, 82,
and Jesus College, 26. The forty other volumes of this group bear
no name of a donor. Many of them have an inscription of owner-
ship, Liber ecclesie cathedralis herford’, on the title. Where this is
absent, another indication helps to fix the provenance, namely a
pricing, commonly a double pricing or valuation, taken, I suppose,
for the purpose of a Papal or other levy. The two valuations differ
widely and consciously, for we find 10/- and 2/-, 20/- and 10/-;
Xs sed valet XXs is common form.
Almost every Cathedral Book that is later than the twelfth
.century has the name of its donor. The last of these was also the
most munificent, Owen Lloyd (on whom see O.l. ix.). He was living
in 1470 and gave at least one printed book as well as MSS. Among
the MSS., which are 25 in number, are the latest books in the
collection, and a good proportion of the Law Books.
A review of the twelfth century Cathedral books and those
given by Radulphus, from the point of view of their subject, gives
some clear results. Nearly half of the Cathedral group consists
iii
or Cambridge. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries also see the
old glossa ordinaria on the scriptures being replaced by the recent
commentaries of Lyra and Hugo de Vienna. Collections of sermons
become frequent; a sprinkling of less austere literature may now
and then be found.
On the whole the salient facts are that the great classics of
Christian and secular lore are accumulated in the twelfth century,
the schoolmen in the thirteenth, and the Law Books in the
fourteenth.
Worcester does not wholly conform to the lines here laid down.
There, in the existing collection, the twelfth century books are in a
minority compared to those of the fourteenth. Yet the Worcester
books that are found in other collections shew a great activity in
the years following the conquest, and a notable interest in the study
of Anglo Saxon in particular.
Of some 220 MSS. at Hereford I rank 114 as certainly old
possessions of the Cathedral; 48 more are from other libraries
that can be named ; 60 or so have now no mark of provenance,
but many of them must also be Cathedral books.
Let us examine the composition of the collection more nearly.
First, the Cathedral Books. Rather over 50 of these are of the
twelfth century or earlier (there are but half a dozen earlier.)
They include a gift of ten from Archdeacon Radulphus, as to whom
see Canon Bannister’s note on 0.1. v. He gave twenty in all.
The name of the giver of one book of this period, Magister Aluredus
(see 0.2. iv) is found in two other MSS. at Oxford—All Souls, 82,
and Jesus College, 26. The forty other volumes of this group bear
no name of a donor. Many of them have an inscription of owner-
ship, Liber ecclesie cathedralis herford’, on the title. Where this is
absent, another indication helps to fix the provenance, namely a
pricing, commonly a double pricing or valuation, taken, I suppose,
for the purpose of a Papal or other levy. The two valuations differ
widely and consciously, for we find 10/- and 2/-, 20/- and 10/-;
Xs sed valet XXs is common form.
Almost every Cathedral Book that is later than the twelfth
.century has the name of its donor. The last of these was also the
most munificent, Owen Lloyd (on whom see O.l. ix.). He was living
in 1470 and gave at least one printed book as well as MSS. Among
the MSS., which are 25 in number, are the latest books in the
collection, and a good proportion of the Law Books.
A review of the twelfth century Cathedral books and those
given by Radulphus, from the point of view of their subject, gives
some clear results. Nearly half of the Cathedral group consists