shields of arms of benefactors with which its graceful pendants terminate. His gifts of money for the School were quickly followed by still larger gifts of books for the Library. Between the years 1439 and 1446 he appears to have forwarded about 600 MSS, which were for the time deposited in chests in Cobham's Library. The first donation, consisting of 129 volumes, was forwarded in November, 1439. The letter of thanks from Convocation is dated the 25th of that month, and on the same day a letter was sent to the House of Commons, to the 'ryght worshypfull syres, the Speker, knyghtes, and burges (sic) of the worshepfull parlament,' informing them that the Duke had magnified the University 'with a thousand pounds worth and more of preciose bokes,' and therefore beseeching their 'sage discrecions to considere the gloriose gifts of the graciose prince ... for the comyn profyte and worshyp of the Reme, to thanke hym hertyly, and also prey Godde to thanke hym in tyme comyng wher goode dedys ben rewarded.' Statutes for the regulation of the gift were made on the same day, prayers appointed, and provision

made for the observance of the Duke's obit[6]. A catalogue of 364 of the MSS. is printed, from the lists preserved in the University Register, p. 758, vol. ii. of Rev. H. Anstey's Documents Illustrative of Social and Academic Life at Oxford, published in the series of Chronicles issued by the Master of the Rolls. The extent of these gifts rendered the room at St. Mary's quite insufficient for the purpose to which it was assigned, and the University therefore, in a letter to the Duke, dated July 14, 1444, informed him of their intention to erect a more suitable building, of which (as a delicate way, probably, of bespeaking his aid towards the cost, as well as of testifying their gratitude for past benefactions) they formally offered him the title of Founder. In the subjoined note is given an extract from this letter (copied from the Register of Convocation), which is interesting from its description of the inconveniences of the old room, and the advantages of the new site[7]. And this new building, first contemplated in A.D. 1444

and finished about 1480, forms now the central portion of the great Reading-Room, still retaining its old advantages of convenience and of seclusion 'a strepitu sæculari.'

The Duke's MSS. were, as became the object of his gift, very varied in character. With works in Divinity are mingled in the catalogue a large number in Medicine and Science, together with some in lighter literature, amongst which latter are found no less than seven MSS. of Petrarch and three of Boccaccio. Some additional MSS, being 'all the Latyn bokes that he had,' together with £100 towards the completion of the 'Divyne Scoles,' which the Duke had intended to bequeath, but the formal bequest of which was prevented by his dying intestate in 1447, were subsequently procured, although with considerable difficulty[8]. But only three out of the whole number of his MSS. are now known to exist in the present Library. One of these is a fine copy of books iv.-ix. of Valerius Maximus, with the commentary by D. de Burgo, and with an index by John de Whethamstede, Abbot of St. Alban's (now marked, Auctarium, F. infra, i. 1[9]); the second is a translation by L. Aretine of the Politics of Aristotle (marked, Auct. F. v. 27); and the third, the Epistles of Pliny (Auct. F. ii. 23). The first bears the Duke's arms;

the second has an original dedication to him by the translator; the last (which was restored to the University by Dr. Robert Master, Oct. 30, 1620) contains his own autograph. Six MSS. now in the British Museum, which formerly belonged to the Duke, are described in Sir H. Ellis' Letters of Eminent Literary Men, (printed by the Camden Society,) pp. 357-8. Two of these appear in the List of Humphrey's benefaction to Oxford; for Harl. 1705, which is a translation of Plato's Politics by Peter Candidus, or White, who gave it to the Duke, is doubtless the book entered at the end of the List as 'Item, novam traductionem totius Politeiæ Platonicæ;' while Cotton, Nero. D. v., the Acts of the Council of Constance, appears at fol. 67. Another of these six MSS, Harl. 988, is an anonymous commentary on the Canticles[10], which formerly belonged to Sir Robert Cotton, and which contains an inscription by him intended to commemorate his returning it to the University Library in 1602. It came into Harley's possession amongst Bishop Stillingfleet's MSS, all of which were bought by him. A letter from Wanley to Hearne, in which the book is mentioned, is preserved in the Bodleian in a Rawlinson MS. (Letters xvii.) under date of Oct. 13, 1714, Hearne's reply to which is printed by Sir H. Ellis, ubi supra; while Wanley's rejoinder is also found in the above MS, dated Oct. 27, in which he says, 'As for my Lord's MS. of the Canticles, designed for the Bodleyan Library by Sir Robert Cotton, I know not how you find it to have once belonged to Humphrey, duke of Gloucester. My Lord has indeed two of his books, which we know to have been his, for certain; because one of them (which was given to his Lordship) hath a note therein of his hand-writing, and the other hath his armes and stile on the outside, as also

his library-mark. This last (which was bought of Sir Simonds D'Ewes), together with the Cotton MS. of the Canticles, I besought his Lordship to give to the University for your Library, and I hope his Lordship will do so in a little time.' Another of the Duke's books, being Capgrave's Commentary on Genesis, which occurs in the second list of those given to the University, is now in the library of Oriel College. One volume, containing, among other philosophical treatises, Plato's Phædo, Timæus, &c., with the Duke's autograph, 'Cest livre a moy Homfrey duc de Gloucestre' (given to him by an Abbot of St. Alban's) is in Corpus Christi College, 243. And a copy of Wickliffe's Bible, in two volumes, which bears Humphrey's arms, is amongst the Egerton MSS. (617-8), Brit. Mus.

The large increase of treasures which these benefactions brought to the University probably caused the first institution of a formal Visitation. On Nov. 29, 1449, we find that Visitors were appointed by Congregation for the purpose of receiving from the Chaplain an account of the books contained in the Library[11].

Duke Humphrey was followed in the good work of the Divinity School and Library by another whose name still retains its place in the formal list of benefactors, Bishop Thomas Kempe, of London, who, besides contributing very largely in money towards the completion of the former,