eaves of a copy of Genesis (glossed) at Pembroke
College, Cambridge. Thus it contains no fourteenth or fifteenth century
books, nor, indeed, has it many entries of extant books of earlier date
which we are sure belonged to Bury; but it is not to be despised, though
we depend more upon press-marks than upon it for guidance. Bury
press-marks were an introduction of the late fourteenth or early
fifteenth century. Soon after 1400 Abbot Curteys built a library, and it
was under the care of the monk, John Boston, who, I think, is
responsible for the press-marks, as he certainly is for the copious
bibliographical notices which occurred in some of the books. The
press-marks consist of a capital letter and an _arabic_ numeral (A.
130). Here, again, one has to be familiar with the handwriting of the
marks and their position (top of first leaf and fly-leaf) in order to
distinguish them from those of Exeter (often on last fly-leaf and large)
or of the Hereford Franciscans (large, on first fly-leaf). However, in
most cases they are backed up by the older inscription _Liber S. AEdmundi
regis et martiris_. Bury library has, on the whole, fared well; an
Alderman of Ipswich, William Smart, procured over 100 of its MSS., which
he gave to Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1599, and about 150 others
are scattered up and down the country. One Bury book of extreme
interest--not a library book, but a register--was taken across the
Channel in the sixteenth century by a Bury monk to the settlement of
the Benedictine refugees at Douai. Since the Revolution it has been
(_perhaps_ still is) in the town library there. Its importance is that
it contains a list of the benefactors of the abbey, and among other
things records the burial-places of the Abbots, including the famous
Samson. In recent years it has guided excavators to the discovery of his
bones. With it is a Psalter of extraordinary beauty, one of a group of
marvellous books done in East Anglia--some say at Gorleston--soon after
1300. I grieve to hear that it has been severely damaged by damp. It has
in it the name of an Abbot, John, who, I wish to believe, was of Bury,
but doubt is thrown on this.

ENGLISH MSS. ON THE CONTINENT

A digression is allowable here as to English books that have passed to
the Continent. According to Bale and Dee, there was a great expatriation
of them at the Dissolution. In Archbishop Parker's correspondence there
is talk of the negotiations of a German scholar,