The Library had its beginning in 1601, from a subscription by the officers and soldiers of Queen Elizabeth’s army in Ireland. Prior to that, indeed, there were a few books; a list (dated 1600) of forty books, ten of which were MS., has been preserved, and was printed by Dr. J. K. Ingram in an appendix to his _Address to the Library Association_. It includes--of classical authors--Euripides, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero. In 1601, however, in order to commemorate the battle of Kinsale, in which the Spanish troops and their Irish allies were defeated, the troops subscribed £700[110] to purchase books for the newly-founded College. “Then souldiers,” says Dr. Bernard, “were for the advancement of learning.” Possibly; but it is significant that the money was subscribed “out of the arrears of their pay.” However, the example, as we shall see, proved fruitful. The money was entrusted to Luke Challoner and James Ussher (afterwards Primate), who accordingly went to London to make their purchases. It happened that Sir Thomas Bodley was at the same time buying books for his library at Oxford, and he and Ussher consulted, to their mutual advantage. It may be asked, What notable books did they buy, and what prices did they pay? As to the first, there exists a rough shelf-list of books in the Library which must have been drawn up very soon after this. It is in Challoner’s handwriting, and shows that rarities were not sought for, but books useful for study and research. The prices are not recorded, but Challoner has left a list of the prices he paid for his own books a few years earlier. A few specimens of these may be interesting. _Scapulæ Lexicon_ cost him 12s.; a Hebrew Bible in 4to, 16s.; an English Bible, 8vo, 6s.; _Stephani Concordantiæ_, 14s.; Cicero: _Opera Omnia_, 8vo, 6s. 8d.; Homer: _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_, each 2s. 6d.; an 8vo _Virgil_, 1s. 4d.; another, in 16mo, 10d. The most expensive books are--_Mercator’s Tabula_, £3, and _Vatablus_; _Biblia Sacra_ (Hebrew, Greek, Latin), £3 10s. The average price was about 5s. A few years later we find Challoner and Ussher again in London buying books for the Library. Chiefly, no doubt, in consequence of their purchases, the number of books in 1610 was about 4,000. In 1635 the Library is already mentioned as a matter of pride to the College by Sir W. Brereton. He specifies a MS. of Roger Bacon, which, he says, they highly esteem, considering it to be the only copy of that great man’s _Opus Majus_. Brereton, however, professes himself sceptical, on the ground that the MS. is so very clean and newly bound. How the latter fact could militate against the antiquity of the MS. is not very clear. Brereton also pronounces the Library to be not well furnished with books. The building, too, he reports as not large or well contrived.[111]