[7] 'Nemo illos [libros] sine admiratione conspicit, cunctis una voce testantibus, se nunquam libros tanta claritate conspicuos, tanta gravitate refertos vidisse.... Et uc per hoc, si quid maximo addi possit, tantæ munificentiæ gloria fiat illustrior, optamus sacram et celebrem scientiarum sedem reparari, ubi honorificentius et ad utilitatem studentium multo commodius libri vestri, ab aliis segregati, collocentur. Jam enim si quis, ut fit, uni libro inhæreat, aliis studere volentibus ad tres vel quatuor pro vicinitate colligationis præcludit accessum. Itaque locus huic rei nobis maxime videtur idoneus ubi venerabilis vir, modo Cancellarius noster, semper reverendus pater amantissimus Magister Thomas Chace, spectabilem novarum Scolarum fabricam ad cætera suæ virtutis testimonia insigni mensura ab humo erexit, quam nos cito, quoad exigua suppetebat facultas, promovimus. Hic locus, propterea quod a strepitu sæculari removetur, Bibliotecæ admodum videtur conveniens, cujus fundationis titulum, si Magnanimitati vestræ acceptabilis fuerit, cum omni devotione offerrimus.' Register F. ff. 71^b, 72. We find from an entry on the latter page that on January 13, 1444 (-5), 'liber Platonis in Phedro' (_sic_) was lent by Convocation to the Duke. [8] They were not received by August, 1450, on the 28th of which month a letter was written from Convocation to Thomas Bokelonde, Esq., and John Summerset, M.D., on the subject. (Register F. ff. 88^b-9.) [9] It contains inscriptions recording its gift by Whethamstede 'ad usum scolarium studencium Oxoniæ,' with anathemas upon those who should alienate it, or destroy, were it but its title: 'Si quis rapiat, raptim titulumve retractet, vel Judæ laqueum vel furcas sensiat.' [10] Two treatises on the Canticles, by Gilbert Porret and Musca, were contained in the Duke's first gift to Oxford. (Anstey, vol. ii. p. 759.) [11] Wood MS. F. 27. (Bodl. Libr.) [12] A sale of a collection of (apparently) these forfeited pledges, or else of books deposited as securities for loans of money, took place in the year 1546. On Jan. 18, 1545-6, the following decree passed Convocation: 'Decretum est authoritate Convocationis Magnæ ut cistæ in domo inferiori sub domo Congregationis, et omnes libri pro pignoribus jacentes, aut etiam alii in eadem domo inventi, venderentur, secundum arbitrium quinque in eadem Convocatione eligendorum. Electi itaque sunt et a Vice-Cancellario admissi ibidem, Doctor Standishe, Mr. Parret, procurator, Mr. Slythers, Mr. Symonds, et Mr. Wattsone.' Reg. I. 107^b. [13] Wood MS. F. 27. [14] Ibid. [15] Ibid. fol. 94^a.