The History of All Souls College Library

Faber and Faber, London, first edition, 1971. Cloth, gilt device on front board, 8vo,. 128 pp. From the blurb: "After he had retired from being Bodley's librarian, Sir Edmund Craster took on the Librarianship of the Codrington Library at All Souls. Here he found rich material for the history of the Library from the early days of its foundation (1438-1440), to the time when chaining came to an end and the printed book superseded all other forms. The progress of the Library, through donations made by the Fellows, purchases both at home and abroad, and alterations to the shelving system, is carefully charted, and full use is made both of the important Vellum Inventory which listed additions throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth century, and of the Benefactor's Book. The predominantly theological and canonistic character of the medieval collection was not changed, but modified and added to at the Reformation. By the end of the sixteenth century, classical and renaissance works, including English poetry and works of travel and, in the seventeenth century, books of natural science, geography, and dictionaries and lexicons had been purchased in quantity. This century saw the great benefaction of Christopher Codrington, which enabled the College to build the Library to house both the medieval and renaissance collections, and the employment of Nicholas Hawksmoor (the builder of the Great Quadrangle) who erected a working repository for the whole. The Codrington Library thus took shape in 1751-1756, and with William Blackstone as the directing mind, was to house, among its other treasures, the notable collection of drawings by Sir Christopher Wren (Fellow 1655). Sir Edmund did not live to finish his history, which has been completed by his successor, Professor E. F. Jacob. Booklabel of the bibliophile A R A Hobson on front pastedown endpaper, with two letters from the Librarian of All Souls, J.S.G. Simmons, to Hobson laid in. One apologises that having been Librarian for six years he has not found time to go througgh all the shelves; the other thanks Hobson for pointing pout an error in the book and discusses the true position. Very Good in Very Good dustwrapper.