The Library of Pembroke Hall

Pembroke College (originally Pembroke Hall) was founded by Marie de Saint Pol (d. 1377), in 1346, in memory of her husband Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke. What she envisaged can be glimpsed in the two sets of statutes, one a revised version of the other, both surviving in copies post-dating the Countess's death, though the earlier was probably first drawn up in 1347. It was to be a ‘theology’ college. The thirty scholars prescribed by the statutes, of whom twenty-four ‘maiores’ were fellows and six ‘minores’ grammatici uel sophiste, were meant to study arts and then theology, except that some, having studied theology for a reasonable length of time, might spend two or three years studying canon law relevant to theology, and one might study medicine.

Some details of the College's arrangement for its books, valuable though unsystematic, are given in these Statutes. First of all, in chapter 3 we are told that the books were in the charge of a fellow elected to be ‘thesaurarius’ or ‘custos librorum’ (‘treasurer’ or ‘keeper of the books’). This appears to be the earliest reference in any Oxford or Cambridge College to someone who may be termed a ‘librarian’. His main duties are laid out in chapter 7:

Pembroke possesses a remarkable collection of medieval manuscripts, 310 complete, and with many additional fragments. The first systematic attempt to catalogue them happened about a hundred years ago, thanks to the work of M. R. James; and it is fair to say that the catalogue then produced offers only a partial picture of the whole. A proper catalogue has been long overdue, and there could have been no-one better to carry out this work than Rod Thomson. Rod has approached his task with scholarly precision, devotion and energy, and this catalogue is the result of his labours. It tells the whole story for the first time.

A third of our manuscript collection came originally from the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, and was gifted to Pembroke at the end of the sixteenth century by William Smart of Ipswich. It's almost an accident that it ended up here, as it seems it had not been Smart's original intention to bequeath the collection to Pembroke. Now, however, these manuscripts – including some that date back to before the Norman Conquest – are the glory of our holdings; though the most glorious of all, the volume known as the Bury Gospels, was given separately by another donor, Edmund Boldero.

Our other manuscripts came to the College from many sources, over several centuries; and Rod Thomson has unearthed some fascinating attributes that throw light on the early life of the College. The peculiar way in which the early manuscripts were chained; the doubleheight reading desks; the survival of early bindings; the wax tablets that were used to record borrowings by fellows and scholars; and the depositing of books by scholars as pledges in return for borrowed funds from the ‘chests’ of money made available by alumni of the time. Rod has illuminated all the complexities of where the manuscripts came from, how they were numbered and recorded, how they appeared in various records through the ages, and what part they play in the collection.

Up to now, we have known too little about our wonderful manuscripts. (We know even less about our early modern period books.) Rod Thomson has brought them to life for us in this catalogue, and we will be forever in his debt for doing so. Many are very beautiful; some are exceptionally well preserved; all are fascinating.

After the launch of my catalogue of Peterhouse MSS in 2016, Emeritus Fellow and College Archivist Roger Lovatt asked me ‘What next?’ On my answering that I wasn't sure, he suggested ‘What about Pembroke? You already know some of their manuscripts. If you’re interested, I’ll write for you.’ And I was, he did, and the reaction was quick, enthusiastic and affirmative.

For the initial invitation to undertake this work, and for their interest and good fellowship since, I thank the Master of Pembroke College, Lord Christopher Smith, its Library Committee, and its Fellows, the College Librarian Pat Aske and Honorary Archivist Jayne Ringrose, both until the course of 2018, then Librarian Genny Grim and Archivist Lizzy Ennion-Smith, for innumerable tasks and support. Much of my time was spent in the Manuscript Reading Room of Cambridge University Library, where most of the manuscripts are kept. All their staff was helpful, but in particular I wish to thank James Freeman and Frank Bowles for much labour above and beyond the call of normal duty. I owe much to Michael Reeve, Emeritus Fellow of Pembroke, for discussion and information en passant but above all for reading a draft of the whole and checking it against the manuscripts; information on particular manuscripts, or groups of them, was cheerfully supplied by Sir John Baker, Margaret Bent, Gabriele Bonomelli, Martin Brett, Charles Burnett, Paul Cavill, Sean Curran, Christopher de Hamel, Ralph Hanna, Sylvia Huot, David Juste, Roger Lovatt, Constant Mews, Linne Mooney, Nigel Morgan, Anne Nichols, Samu Niskanen, Stephen Oakley, Kari Anne Rand, Michael Robson, David Rundle, Ian Short, Siegfried Wenzel and Nigel Wilson. For remaining errors and shortcomings, I alone am responsible.

In 2020, the third year of this project, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world. At the time, I had seen all of the MSS at least twice, except for 235–309 and the fragments, some of which I had not seen at all. I was unable to leave my country in 2020 and 2021, but work on the MSS continued, thanks to the willing and expert help provided in particular by Genny Grim, Michael Reeve and James Freeman. Some of this, and not the least helpful, was in the form of photographs. I am aware of the perils of describing books that one has only seen once, and acknowledge that there will be errors and omissions that would have been remedied by further examination.

S. XIV (bef. 1378), ?Oxford, Bury St Edmunds Abbey Sec. fol. at tamen

Structure: 124 leaves (i + 123), foliated by Henry Kirkestede, prior of Bury 1361–c. 1378. 325 . 225 (245 . 155–70) mm, retrimmed. Ruled with crayon in 2 cols of c. 60 lines. Collation: a singleton at each end, 1–1012, 112; catchwords framed in red. The quires are lettered in pencil at the beginning, ?[t - rent in the parchment], v–z, aa–ee. ff. i and 123 were almost certainly originally pastedowns. Binding: s. xix, half-binding of brown, polished calf with cream paper sides, over pasteboard; front joint cracked. At the head of f. iv is the mark of a brass chain-staple. The sewing appears to be original. On the front pastedown, in red, Distribuit libros Ellis Minns Bibliothecae: / Mutauit Cifras iMposuItque noVas (The capital letters form the date of 1904); four paper blanks at each end, the innermost pasted to ff. ir and 123v.