Libraries -- History; Library architecture -- History; Library fittings and supplies -- History
This keeper must be a graduate in theology, and a good preacher. He is to
live in the said chantry, and say mass daily in the chapel thereof. He is
to take care of all the books in the library, which he is to open on every
week-day for two hours before None, and for two hours after None, to all
who wish to enter for the purpose of study. He is to explain hard and
doubtful passages of scripture when asked to do so, and once in every week
to deliver a public lecture in the library. Moreover on Holy Thursday he
is to preach in the cathedral, or at the cross in the burial-ground.
Further, in order to prevent any book being alienated, or carried away, or
stolen from the library, a tripartite list of all the books is to be made,
wherein the true value of each is to be set down. One of these lists is
to be retained by the Bishop, another by the sacrist, and a third by the
keeper. Whenever a book is bequeathed or given to the library it is to be
at once set down in this list together with its true value.
On the Friday after the feast of Relics (27 January) in each year, the
sacrist and the keeper are carefully to compare the books with the list;
and should any book have disappeared from the library through the
carelessness of the keeper, he is to replace it or the value of it within
one month, under a penalty of forty shillings, whereof twenty shillings is
to be paid to the Bishop, and twenty shillings to the sacrist. When the
aforesaid month has fully expired, the sacrist is to set apart out of his
own salary a sum sufficient to pay the above fine, and to purchase and
chain in the library as soon as possible another book of the same value
and material.
The keeper is to receive from the sacrist an annual salary of ten pounds,
and four yards of woollen cloth to make him a gown and hood.
The sacrist is to keep the chapel, library, books, and chains, together
with the house built for the use of the keeper, in good repair; and he is,
moreover, to find and maintain the vestments and lights required for the
chapel. All these duties he is to swear on the Holy Gospels that he will
faithfully perform.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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