where scholars might study far from the hum of men (a
strepitu succulari). The University sent an appeal to the
Duke for help to carry out this scheme (1445), but he had
then lost power and was in trouble, and does not seem to
have responded favourably, albeit they suggested adroitly
the new library should bear his name.[2] The building was
finished forty years after his death. This ultimate success
was due chiefly to the generosity of Cardinal Beaufort, the
Duchess of Suffolk, and Cardinal Kempe--whose own
library was magnificent.[3]

[1] O. H. S. 35, Anstey, 9, 46.

[2] O. H. S. 35, Anstey, 245-46.

[3] O. H. S. 35-36, Anstey, 326, 439.


By 1488, then, the University was in full enjoyment of
the chamber known ever since as Duke Humfrey's Library,
the noblest storehouse of books then existing in England.[1]
In the same year an old scholar, not known by name,
gave 31 books, and in 1490 Dr. Litchfield, Archdeacon
of Middlesex, presented 132 volumes and a sum of L 200.
These gifts mark the culminating point in the history of the
first University library--a collection over a century and a
half old, accumulated slowly by the forethought and generosity
of the University's friends, only, alas! in a few years'
time to be almost completely dispersed and destroyed.