e the name, and only the
name, of a very famous book-hunter--John of Boston--of the first decade
of the fifteenth century, whose labours, however, have been completely
blotted out of existence by the dispersed monasteries. But there were
many other collectors whose memories have been handed down to us in a
more tangible form, even if their collections of books are almost as
abstract and indefinite as that of John of Boston. During the first
quarter of the fifteenth century, we have quite a considerable little
group of royal book-collectors--Henry IV., Henry V., and his brothers,
John, Duke of Bedford, and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. The last-named
was undoubtedly the most enthusiastic bibliophile of the four, but
whilst his extensive gifts of books to the University of Oxford may be
said to have formed the foundation of the library there, they were in
the following century destroyed by the mob. A few examples of his gifts
are now preserved in the British Museum and at Oxford. His books were
estimated at a very high figure, the value placed on 120 of them (out of
the total of 600) being no less than L1,000. The memory of the Duke of
Bedford's library is best perpetuated by the famous Bedford Missal, or
Book of Hours, perhaps the most splendid example of fifteenth-century
illustration. It is now in the British Museum, where it has been since
1852. The history of this missal, perhaps the most interesting in
existence, is too well known to be dealt with here (see p. 109).

Henry V. was undoubtedly fond of books. Rymer refers to two petitions to
the Council after the King's death for the return of valuable books of
history, borrowed by him of the Countess of Westmoreland, and of the
priory of Christ Church, Canterbury, and not returned, though one of
them had been directed to be delivered to its owner by the King's last
will. The elegantly illuminated copy of Lydgate's 'Hystory, Sege, and
Destruccion of Troye,' 1513, in the Bodleian, is doubtless the copy
which Lydgate gave to Henry V. At Cambridge there is the MS. of a French
translation of Cardinal Bonaventure's 'Life of Christ,' with the note
'this wasse sumtyme Kinge Henri the fifeth his booke,' etc.

Henry VI. does not appear to have cared for books, and it is not
surprising, what with wars abroad and excessive taxation, plague and
famine at home, that literary tastes received a severe check. We get
several glimpses of the dearth of books. In the MS. history of Eton