THE manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College are kept in three locked classes, designated respectively as B, R, and O. Class B is situated near the southern end of the Library, on the east side; class R is directly opposite to it; and class O is on the east side, near the north end. In B are contained the theological MSS.; in R those of historical and miscellaneous contents, together with the oriental MSS.; in O are the MSS. given by Roger Gale in 1738, commonly known as the Gale MSS. The present Catalogue will be divided into three volumes, each of which will treat of one of these classes. The subject of this first volume is class B.

I am not at this moment in a position to write a general introduction to the whole catalogue: I propose in this Preface to give some few indications of the principal sources whence the books have come, and to say something of the methods I have employed in describing them.

In the volume called Memoriale (R. 17. 8), which is a Register of the benefactors of the College compiled by Sir Edward Stanhope, are to be found lists of the principal donations of MSS. to the library—exclusive of the Gale MSS. Three donors stand out conspicuously among these.

The first is John Whitgift, Master of the College from 1567 to 1577, and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to 1603–4. He gave some 150 MSS. In Strype's Life of him (iii. 410 sqq.) is another list of his MSS., furnished to Strype by John Knight.