We have mentioned ALCUIN: whom Ashmole calls one of the school-mistresses to France.[232] How incomparably brilliant and beautifully polished was this great man's mind!--and, withal, what an enthusiastic bibliomaniac! Read, in particular, his celebrated letter to Charlemagne, which Dr. Henry has very ably translated; and see, how zealous he there shews himself to enrich the library of his archiepiscopal patron with good books and industrious students.[233] Well might Egbert be proud of his librarian: the first, I believe upon record, who has composed a catalogue[234] of books in Latin hexameter verse: and full reluctantly, I ween, did this librarian take leave of his _Cell_ stored with the choicest volumes--as we may judge from his pathetic address to it, on quitting England for France! If I recollect rightly, Mr. Turner's elegant translation[235] of it begins thus: "O my lov'd cell, sweet dwelling of my soul, Must I for ever say, dear spot, farewell?" [Footnote 232: _Theatrum Chemicum_, proleg. sign. A. 3. rect.] [Footnote 233: _History of Great Britain_, vol. iv., pp. 32, 86. "Literatorum virorum fautor et Maecenas habebatur aetate sua maximus ac doctissimus," says Bale: _Scrip. Brytan. Illustr._, p. 109, edit. 1559. "Prae caeteris (says Lomeier) insignem in colligendis illustrium virorum scriptis operam dedit Egbertus Eboracensis archiepiscopus, &c.: qui nobilissimam Eboraci bibliothecam instituit, cujus meminit Alcuinis," &c. _De Bibliothecis_, p. 151. We are here informed that the archbishop's library, together with the cathedral of York, were accidentally burnt by fire in the reign of Stephen.] [Footnote 234: This curious catalogue is printed by Dr. Henry, from Gale's _Rer. Anglicar. Scriptor. Vet._, tom. i., 730. The entire works of Alcuin were printed at Paris, in 1617, folio: and again, at Ratisbon, in 1777, fol., 2 vols. See Fournier's _Dict. Portat. de Bibliographie_, p. 12. Some scarce separately-printed treatises of the same great man are noticed in the first volume of the appendix to Bauer's _Bibl. Libror. Rarior._, p. 44.] [Footnote 235: _Anglo-Saxon History_, vol. ii., p. 355, edit. 1808, 4to.]