Overview

The collection of manuscripts in the Library of Pembroke College falls into two main divisions which may be roughly described as the pre- and post-Reformation classes. The pre-Reformation books are those which were bought by the College, or given by its members, as being actually needed for study during the medieval period. They are the nucleus of the library as we see it to-day. A few other colleges in Cambridge, notably Peterhouse and Gonville and Caius, possess important relics of their medieval libraries, and in all the cases known to me the books in question are in the main undistinguished by external beauty, are written evidently with a view to cheapness, and contain only the works most commonly read in the schools. There are, to be sure, exceptions; we occasionally find books written, a couple of centuries before a college was founded, in the scriptorium of some great monastery which has sold them as duplicates, or perhaps presented them to a monk studying at the University. Thus Christ Church (Canterbury) and Buildwas have contributed books to Pembroke College. Generally speaking, however, the gifts of the medieval Fellows and the purchases made by colleges in medieval times are strictly practical and prosaic. The post-Reformation accessions are apt to be more interesting. They are usually derived from monastic libraries, and are such as appealed to the early collectors because of their contents or ornamentation.

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