FAMOUS COLLEGE LIBRARY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21278, 3 September 1932, Page 9 (Supplement)

FAMOUS COLLEGE LIBRARY

ETON'S RICH COLLECTION Tlic library of Eton College is one of the richest in Britain in illuminated manuscripts, and these have been catalogued by the present provost, Dr. M. R. James, who is among the greatest living authorities in that sphere. Among a miscellaneous bundle of tracts, the provost and the librarian, Mr. llenry Broaclbent, recently came upon a first edition of Gray's " Elegy," a discovery the more welcome since the original manuscript of the poem is already in the school library, a separate institution primarily for the use of the boys. The library contains a splendid and famous example of that medieval liturgical book, the Book of Hours, more especially for the use of the laity, and containing eight short services for use at set periods of tho clay in honour of the Virgin. Before the introduction of printing these books were written on vellum, aid each little service was decorated with appropriate paintings in gold, silver and brilliant colours. In all of them a charming feature is tho calendar with notes and illustrations of the events of the year, most of them associated with the agricultural activities of the changing seasonssowing, reaping, harvest-time, and the like. The Eton Book of Hours, produced at Paris in the sixteenth century, belonged first to Queen Mary Tudor, and afterwards to Mary of Modena, Queen of James 11. v In tho remarkable collection ot early English plays bequeathed by Anthony Morris Storer, an eighteenth century Eton boy, is a unique copy of the first English comedy, " Ralph Ttoister Doister, a diamatio picture of London life. The book is autographed by its author, Nicholas Udall, who was headmaster, and he is thought to have written it for a school performance at Christmas, 1551. Tho magnificent Gutenberg Bible of 1455, the first book printed from movable metal types, is shown in its original oak boards covered with stamped leather.