recentor and Armarius in one
person, who had charge of the Library (Armarium) and its great feeder, the
Writing-room (Scriptorium), as well as the duty of leading the singing in
the church. Many lists of old libraries have been preserved, and these
have been printed in various bibliographical works, thus giving us a
valuable insight into the reading of our forefathers.

When we come to consider libraries of printed books in place of
manuscripts, we naturally find a greater variety of subjects collected by
the famous men who have formed collections. Montaigne, the friend of all
literary men, could not have been the man we know him to have been if he
had not lived among his books. Like many a later book-lover, he decorated
his library with mottoes, and burnt-in his inscriptions letter by letter
with his own hands. Grotius made his love of books do him a special
service, for he escaped from prison in a box which went backwards and
forwards with an exchange of books for his entertainment and instruction.

Grolier and De Thou stand so pre-eminent among book collectors, and from
the beauty of the copies they possessed the relics of their libraries are
so frequently seen, that it seems merely necessary here to mention their
names. But as Frenchmen may well boast of these men, so Englishmen can
take pride in the possession of the living memory of Archbishop Parker,
who enriched Cambridge, and of Sir Thomas Bodley, who made the Library at
Oxford one of the chief glories of our land.

Old Lists of Books are always of interest to us as telling what our
forefathers cared to have about them, but it is seldom that a list is so
tantalising as one described by Mr. Edward Edwards in his _Libraries and
Founders of Libraries_. Anne of Denmark presented her son Charles with a
splendid series of volumes, bound in crimson and purple velvet. Abraham
van der Dort, who was keeper of Charles's cabinet, made an inventory of
this cabinet; and having no notion of how to make a catalogue of books, he
has managed to leave out all the information we wish for. The inventory is
among the Harleian MSS. (4718), and the following are specimens of the
entries:--

"Im'pris 19 books in Crimson velvet, whereof 18 are bound
4to. and y^e 19th in folio, adorn'd with some silver guilt
plate, and y^e 2 claspes wanting. Given to y^e King by Queen
Ann of famous memory.

Item, more 15 books, 13 thereof being in long 4to. and y^e 2
le