Before beginning the description of the MSS. now in possession of the College, I print the Old Catalogue of the Library, made on Christmas Eve, 1418, together with the lists of subsequent donations, the latest and largest of which is the gift of John Warkeworth in 1481. These lists together comprise 439 volumes, of which over 200 are still identifiable. The Catalogue is contained in the oldest Register of the College, and from this I have transcribed it.

It is a very full one, and for the most part gives not only the opening words of the second leaf of each volume, but also (and this is a far rarer practice) those of the last leaf but one: so that ample means are given for ascertaining whether any particular MS. belonged to the College in early times or not. I have, as is natural, somewhat condensed the formula in which these indications are given, and have reduced the whole to a tabular form. The full form is as follows:

(1) Biblia. Incipit in 2° folio singule in penultimo ad uniuersa.

Some few marginal and interlinear notes are relegated to the foot of the page: and these are all the liberties I have taken with my original. The numbering of the volumes is my own.

As to the number of volumes which have been lost, it seems at first sight unduly large: but a little consideration will suggest the reason.

The library is divided into two classes. One set of books were cathenati in librario, “ chained in the Library,” the other diuisi inter socios, “distributed among the Fellows.”