John Whethamstede, a learned abbot of St. Alban’s, and a lover of scholars, but accused by his monks of neglecting their affairs, while he was too deeply engaged in studious employments, and in procuring transcripts of useful books, notwithstanding his unwearied assiduity in beautifying and enriching their monastery, was in high favour with this munificent prince. The Duke was fond of visiting this monastery, and employed Abbot Whethamstede to collect valuable books for him. Some of Whethamstede’s tracts, manuscript copies of which often occur in our libraries, are dedicated to the Duke, who presented many of them, particularly a fine copy of Whethamstede’s _Granarium_, an immense work, which Leland calls _ingens volumen_ to the new library. The copy of Valerius Maximus, mentioned before, has a curious table or index, made by Whethamstede. Many other Abbots paid their court to the Duke, by sending him presents of books, the margins of which were adorned with the most exquisite paintings. Gilbert Kymer, physician to king Henry the sixth, and holding, among other ecclesiastical preferments, the Deanery of Salisbury and Chancellorship of the University of Oxford; the latter dignity by the recommendatory letters of the Duke, inscribed to the Duke of Gloucester his famous medical system—_Diætarium de Sanitatis Custodia_—in the year 1424. Lydgate,[12] one of the early English poets, translated Boccacio’s book, _De Casibus Virorum illustrium_, at the recommendation and command, and under the protection and superintendance, of Duke Humphrey, whose condescension in conversing with learned ecclesiastics, and diligence in study, the translator displays at large, and in the strongest expressions of panegyric. He compares the Duke to Julius Cæsar, who, amidst the weightier cares of state, was not ashamed to enter the rhetorical school of Cicero at Rome. Nor was his patronage confined only to English scholars. His favour was solicited by the most celebrated writers of France and Italy, many of whom he bountifully rewarded. Leonard Aretin,[13] one of the first restorers of the Greek tongue in Italy, (which language he learned of Emanuel Chrysoloras,[14]) and of polite literature in general, dedicates to this universal patron his elegant Latin translation of Aristotle’s _Politics_. The copy presented to the Duke by the translator, most elegantly illuminated, is now in the Bodleian library. To the same noble encourager of learning, Petrus Candidus, the friend of Laurentius Valla,[15] and secretary to the great Cosmo, Duke of Milan, inscribed by the advice of the Archbishop of Milan, a Latin version of Plato’s _Republic_. An illuminated manuscript of this translation is in the British Museum, perhaps the copy presented, with two epistles from the Duke to Petrus Candidus.