14
by the standards of 1704. He was to have rent-free a house nearby,
which the Trustees were to own and maintain, so that he could open the
Library four hours every weekday. The Will envisaged readers
borrowing books, specifying that they must undertake to return the
books “uncorrupted,” whilst the Librarian was to give a bond of £200
“
not to embezzell my books”.
The interesting feature of these specifications is that the Librarian’s
qualifications seem to have been more important than the conservation
of the books. This also points up other features of the Library which
throw some light on Dr Plume’s intentions for it. The Trustees were
allocated only £1 a year for buying new books (compare that with the
Librarian’s salary) whilst the size of the Library Room and the
arrangement of its fittings suggest Dr Plume did not intend many
additions to be made after his death. The internal arrangements were
unlike those of collegiate libraries in this respect: the spaces between
the high peninsula cases are very narrow, with no built-in provision of
desks in these spaces, at which a reader could spread out his notepaper
and book, as he could in the cubicles of collegiate libraries. The room
was intended to be a book-stack, a store for a definitive collection, not
the nucleus of an expanding institution. It is worth referring here to the
opinion of Dr John Hacket, published in 1693:
“
Books are sown so thick in all countries of Europe that a new one,
which one adds more to the former gross, had need of an apology.
The easie dispatch of so many sheets in a day, by the readiness of
printing, hath found the World a great deal more work than needs.
Many that love knowledge, both industrious and of sound
judgement, are not nice to say that repletion of authors hath begat
loathing... ‘For the stuff already is sufficient for all the work to
make it, and too much.’ (Exodus 36.7)” [3.3(a)].
Next the books must be considered, as a unit. The major feature is
their unusually large number in comparison with other 17th-century
libraries. That given by William Petyt to Skipton, Yorkshire, in 1719
contained 2,024 volumes [21]. That of Anthony Higgin had
2,000—
perhaps as many as 2,500—when it was placed in Ripon
Minster c. 1628 [24], Archbishop Toby