THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. PAPERS CONTRIBUTED TO THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY GAZETTE 1869. BY HENRY BRADSHAW LIBRARIAN OF THE UNIVERSITY. MACMILLAN AND BOWES I, TRINITY STREET, CAMBRIDGE. 1881. A REPRINT of the slight sketch of the history of the University Library contributed to the Cambridge University Gazette* in February and March, 1869, has been so often asked for, that I have obtained leave to reproduce it. It is not what I should write now; but, seeing that it has been quoted and referred to by more than one writer, there is a certain convenience in having a verbatim reprint of what is extremely troublesome to consult, and almost impossible to procure, in its original condition. Where there are any positive errors in fact, I have made the necessary correction in a foot-note enclosed within brackets; otherwise I have made no alterations. The account of the several rooms, in which the Library was contained in the early periods of its history, is, I am aware, more or less inaccurate; but I must leave this to be set right when Mr. J. W. Clark has brought out Professor Willis's exhaustive work on our University and College buildings. It must be borne in mind that the papers here reprinted are not the result of any research made at the time or for the purpose, but merely notes embodying a few of the facts picked up in the course of twelve years work at the Library by one who loved to know something of the personal history of any volume which might come into his hands. Since that time the present Registrary, Dr. Luard, has rendered an * The papers appeared on successive Wednesdays in the Lent Term, February 3, 10, 17, 24, and March 3, 10, 17, 1869. 4 invaluable service, first, by collecting and arranging in volumes all the papers existing in the University Registry which concern the Library, and secondly, by printing a Calendar of them in a handy volume. This unpretending work of his will serve as a solid and necessary basis for any future historian of the Library. But even this only brings out into more vivid distinctness the melancholy scantiness of our materials for anything which could be dignified with the title of 'Annals of the Cambridge University Library.' HENRY BRADSHAW. CAMBRIDGE, October 7, 1881. THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. I. INTRODUCTORY. T is enough to make a Cambridge man envious, who is curious about the former history of the University, to look through Mr. Macray's recently published Annals of the Bodleian Library, where the author has extracted from the abundant materials under his hands an almost unbroken series of anecdotes of varied points of interest, all illustrating, more strongly than has ever been shewn before, the fact that the Library has been, as indeed it should be, the centre of the literary activity of the University. Since the book came out, the question has been often asked, "Why cannot we have a similar account of our own Library?" But the questioners hardly reflect that the so-called practical nature of our institutions has been sufficient to prevent the possibility of any thought being given except to the immediate wants of the hour. Books are wanted for working purposes, and the wants are supplied as far and as readily as possible; while any regard for the Library, except as a place from which we can carry off the books we want to use, is looked upon by our highest authorities as a matter of merely antiquarian curiosity, and one therefore to be steadily though quietly discouraged. In consequence of this, the history of our Library is a blank for whole centuries together; a handful of stray papers, a few mutilated old catalogues, the account books (very incomplete) for the last fifteen years, and one or two very meagre entry books (also imperfect) stretching back to about 1780-these are all that the University Library contains of the history of the |