collected contemporary proclamations
and books from the early English presses, and George Thomason (d. 1666),
the bookseller who bought, stored and catalogued all the pamphlet
literature of the Civil War, were mindful of the future historians of
the days in which they lived. By the end of the 17th century
book-collecting was in full swing all over Europe, and much of its
apparatus had come into existence. In 1676 book auctions were introduced
into England from Holland, and soon we can trace in priced catalogues
the beginning of a taste for Caxtons, and the books prized by collectors
slowly fought their way up from amid the heavy volumes of theology by
which they were at first overwhelmed.

While book-collecting thus came into existence it was rather as an added
grace in the formation of a fine library than as a separate pursuit.
Almost all the large book-buyers of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries
bought with a public object, or were rewarded for their zeal by their
treasures being thought worthy of a public resting-place. Sir Thomas
Smith (d. 1577) bequeathed his books to Queens' College, Cambridge;
Archbishop Parker's were left under severe restrictions to Corpus
Christi College in the same university; Sir Thomas Bodley refounded
during his lifetime the university library at Oxford, to which also Laud
gave liberally and Selden bequeathed his books. The library of
Archbishop Williams went to St John's College, Cambridge; that of
Archbishop Usher was bought for Trinity College, Dublin. The
mathematical and scientific books of Thomas Howard, earl of Norfolk (d.
1646), were given by his grandson to the Royal Society; the heraldic
collections of Ralph Sheldon (d. 1684) to Heralds' College; the library
in which Pepys took so much pleasure to Magdalene College, Cambridge.
Bishop Moore's books, including a little volume of Caxton quartos,
almost all unique, were bought by George I. and presented to the
university library at Cambridge. Archbishop Marsh, who had previously
bought Stillingfleet's printed books (his manuscripts went to Oxford),
founded a library at Dublin. The immense accumulations of Thomas
Rawlinson (d. 1725) provided materials for a series of auctions, and
Harley's printed books were sold to Osbourne the bookseller. But the
trend was all towards public ownership. While Richard Rawlinson (d.
1755) allowed his brother's books to be sold, the best of his own were
bequeathed to Oxford, and the Harleian MSS. were o