The earliest collegiate libraries were Peterhouse,
Pembroke Hall, Clare Hall, Trinity Hall, and Gonville.
Peterhouse had the first library in Cambridge. Hugh of
Balsham, Bishop of Ely, introduced into an Augustinian
Hospital at Cambridge a number of scholars who were to
live with the brethren. Before Hugh died the brethren
and the scholars quarrelled, and the latter were removed
to two hostels on the site of the present college (1281-84).
He did not forget to provide his new foundation with
books, among other properties. In the statutes of 1344
are stringent provisions for the care of books, which prove
that the society had a library worthy of some thought.
Clare College was founded by the University as University
Hall (1326), then refounded twelve years later by Lady
Elizabeth de Clare as Clare Hall. In 1355 she bequeathed
a few books. Pembroke College, founded in 1346, received
a gift of ten books from the first Master, William
Styband. The statutes of Trinity Hall, which was
founded by Bishop William Bateman in 1350, partly to
repair the losses of scholarly clergy during the Black
Death, also contain a special section relating to the college
books. It was not drawn up in anticipation of the formation
of a library, for the founder himself gave seventy
volumes on civil and canon law and theology, besides
fourteen books for the chapel; forty-eight, including seven
chapel books, were reserved for the Bishop's own use during
his life.[1] To Gonville College, founded as the Hall of the
Annunciation in 1348, Archdeacon Stephen Scrope left a
Catholicon in 1418[2] King's Hall, later absorbed in
Trinity College, some sixty years after its foundation,