dedication to the
Duke. The third is a magnificent volume of _Valerius Maximus_ prepared,
as we know from the monastic annals, under the personal supervision of
Abbot Whethamstede, the 'passionate bibliomaniac' of St. Alban's. It
contains inscriptions, says Mr. Macray, recording its gift for the use of
the scholars, with anathemas upon all who should injure it. 'If any one
steals this book,' says the Abbot, 'may he come to the gallows or the
rope of Judas.'

[Illustration: THE DUKE OF BEDFORD PRAYING BEFORE ST. GEORGE. (_From the
"Bedford Missal."_)]

Many of the Duke of Gloucester's books had come to him from the library
of the French Kings at the Louvre, which had been purchased and dispersed
by John, Duke of Bedford. The Duke himself was in the habit of ordering
magnificently illuminated books of devotion, which he gave as presents to
his friends. The famous 'Bedford Missal' (really a Book of Hours) was
offered by the Duchess in his name to Henry VI.; and Mr. Quaritch
possesses another Book of Hours, which the Duke presented to Talbot, Earl
of Shrewsbury, as a wedding gift. The House of Valois was always friendly
to literature. King John, who fought at Crecy, began a small collection:
he had the story of the Crusades, a tract on the game of chess, and a
book containing a French version of _Livy_, which seems to have belonged
afterwards to Duke Humphrey, and to have found its way later into the
Abbey of St. Genevieve. His son Charles le Sage was the owner of about
900 volumes, which he kept in his castle at the Louvre. The first
librarian was Gilles Malet, who prepared a catalogue in 1373, which is
still in existence. Another was compiled a few years afterwards by
Antoine des Essars, and a third was made for Bedford when he purchased
about 850 volumes out of the collection in the year 1423. These lists
were so carefully executed that we can form a very clear idea of the
library itself and the books in their gay bindings on the shelves. We are
told that the King was so devoted to his '_Belle Assemblee_,' as
Christina of Pisa calls it, that not only authors and booksellers, but
the princes and nobles at the court, all vied in making offerings of
finely illuminated manuscripts.

They were arranged in the three rooms of the Library Tower. The wainscots
were of Irish yew, and the ceilings of cypress. The windows were filled
with painted glass, and the rooms were lit at night with thirty
chandeliers and a great silver la