The first _Library_ was the room now known as No. 4 one pair right, and still retains a fine panelled ceiling with red and gold colouring. The present library is of the same date as the chapel, having been finished in 1663, and is no doubt by the same architect. The internal fittings date from 1780, and not till then were the chains removed from the books. Among the few MSS. are a tenth century Terence (once in the possession of Cardinal Bembo, and therefore periodically raising unfulfilled hopes in foreign students that it might exhibit the unique recension of the other “Bembine Terence”) and the only MS. of Bishop Pearson’s minor works. A large folio printed Missal of 1520 bears a miniature of Sir Richard Sutton, with other fine illuminations. Among the printed books are several given by the founder, Bishop Smith, and by John Longland, Bishop of Lincoln. There is a copy on vellum of Alexander de Ales’s commentary on the _De Animâ_ of Aristotle, printed at Oxford in 1481; a copy of Cranmer’s Litany (1544), and of Day’s Psalter (1563) for four-part singing. In general the library has a large number of controversial theological pieces and pamphlets, both of the latter part of Elizabeth’s reign and of the period succeeding the Restoration. For the former the College is indebted to a large and (at the time) extremely valuable donation from Dr. Henry Mason, who died in 1647. There is also a very large quantity of the theological literature of the eighteenth century, partly bequeathed by Principal Yarborough, who also presented the library of Christopher Wasse; many county histories; and many pamphlets on Oxford Reform up to and including the time of the first Commission. In all there are about 15,000 volumes, and there is an adequate endowment from the legacy of Dr. Grimbaldson. Mr. Willis Clark has remarked in his _Architectural History of Cambridge_ that College libraries before the sixteenth century usually, in both Universities, had their sides facing east and west, the early morning light being so important; that from that time to the Restoration, when more luxurious habits had come in, they face north and south, and afterwards again east and west. It is singular that of each change Brasenose Library is the earliest example. The _Hall_ has remained almost untouched from the first. The open fireplace in the centre under a louvre was retained until 1760 (when the Hon. Ashton Curzon gave the present chimney-piece), and the louvre itself is still intact but hidden above the ceiling.