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XXIII.—The Mediæval Library of the Benedictine Priory of St. Mary, in Worcester Cathedral Church

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2011

J. K. Floyer
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Extract

A writer on the subject of the ancient Library of the cathedral priory of St. Mary, Worcester, is confronted by unusual difficulties, in the dearth of documents which throw light on it. No catalogue of the books is preserved of a date anterior to about 1650, and this is an incomplete and very roughly made one. The library has been moved more than once, and the architecture of some of the buildings which contain it has been altered or renewed at subsequent periods. If reliance therefore is placed on external evidence alone, the history of the library would be most meagre and uncertain. Fortunately a good portion of the library itself remains, and tells something of its own history. Moreover, from a close examination of the existing buildings, of the chisel marks and varieties of stone, the architectural history can be to some extent collected.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , 1903 , pp. 561 - 574
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1903

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References

page 561 note a Bib. Bodl. Tanner MS. 268, fol. 113.

page 562 note a From the accounts for work done in the cathedral restoration of 1661-2, the library was then i n its original place over the south aisle.

page 563 note a See on pp. 168 and 414 ofNoake's, Monastery and Cathedral of Worcester. 1866.Google Scholar

page 563 note b There are several formerly belonging to the Franciscans at Worcester, and one from the Priory of St. Dogmael, in Pembrokeshire (Fol. 150).

page 564 note a In the Cathedral Library of Hereford there is a similar group of works of canon and civil law which are much annotated and have been well used.

page 567 note a Sic. The Latin is difficult and the text probably corrupt. Liber Pensionum, f. 31, A.D. 1314-15. Hist. MSS. Comm. Rep. 1895. Transcription by Mr. R. L. Poole.

page 567 note b FromNoake's, Monastery and Cathedral of Worcester.Google Scholar

page 572 note a Magna Britannia, Berks.