n his work _Libraries and
Founders of Libraries_, states that in addition to his stipend as
librarian, 'Lord Spencer insured his librarian's life for the advantage
of his family. Lord Spencer also gave him the vicarage of Exning, in
Suffolk, in 1823, and obtained for him, on Episcopal recommendation, the
rectory of St. Mary, Bryanstone Square, at the end of the same year.'
Dibdin was the first to suggest the establishment of the Roxburghe Club,
of which he became vice-president. He died in 1847.

The collection at Althorp, which Renouard described as 'the most
beautiful and richest private library in Europe,' amounted in 1892 to
about forty-one thousand five hundred volumes. Other private libraries
have possessed more books, but none could boast of choicer ones. It
contained the earliest dated example of wood-engraving--the figure of
St. Christopher, with the date 1423; and no less than fourteen
block-books, comprising three editions of the _Ars Moriendi_, three of
the _Speculum Humanae Salvationis_, two of the _Apocalypsis S. Johannis_,
together with copies of the _Biblia Pauperum_, _Ars Memorandi_,
_Historia Virginis ex Cantico Canticorum_, _Wie die fuenfzehen zaichen
kimen vor dem hingsten tag_, the _Enndchrist_, and _Mirabilia Romae_. It
was particularly rich in Bibles, among which were the Gutenberg and
Bamberg Bibles, the Coverdale Bible of 1535, and a magnificent copy of
the Antwerp Polyglot, once the property of De Thou. It also contained
the first and second Mentz Psalters. The Classics, too, were splendidly
represented. The editions of works by Cicero numbered upwards of
seventy, about fifty of which were printed before 1473; while fifteen of
those of Virgil were prior to the year 1476. Among these were the second
edition by Sweynheym and Pannartz, most probably printed in 1471, which
is not less rare than the first, and the famous 'Adam' edition, which
issued from the press in that year. These two volumes were obtained from
the library of the King of Wirtemberg, Dibdin making a special journey
to Stuttgart to purchase them. The library also possessed a large number
of the early editions of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and other Italian
Classics; and no less than fifty-two Caxtons, three of them unique, were
to be found on its shelves. A splendid descriptive catalogue of the
library, entitled 'Bibliotheca Spenceriana,' was compiled by Dibdin in
the years 1814-23.

Lord Spencer maintained his interest in his bo